We move from one 3D platformer from an indie to a 3D platformer that is decidedly NOT an indie: Nintendo! Donkey Kong Bananza swung onto the Nintendo Switch 2 last June, but of course in true SuperPhillip Central fashion, I'm not getting to reviewing this game until the following January.
Kept you waiting, huh? Regardless, no time like the present, better late than never, and any other cliche you can think of aside, we have a new review to get to, so let's banana slam it!
Ooooooooh, Bananza~!
If you're like me--and as always, God help you if you are--you might have been expecting a new 3D Mario released close to, or along with the Nintendo Switch 2. But if you're also like me, then you realize that one should always expect the unexpected when it comes to Nintendo. That doesn't just ring true for the company's games, but also its release strategies as well.
That said, what we've ended up with instead is an utter delight. Not only is Donkey Kong back in the limelight in a big way with a brand-new 3D platformer, but it's one from Nintendo's top team at EAD. Donkey Kong Bananza takes Nintendo's grand gorilla on a fantastic deep dive--literally--through magnificent worlds to explore and packs a mighty massive punch too in the process. Methinks Mario can wait!
Donkey Kong Bananza sees DK with his glorious new design as first seen in Mario Kart World, teaming up with a young, precocious Pauline. Legend says that deep in the planet's core is a root that will grant the wishes of anyone that lays claim to it. Pauline wishes to return to the surface where she can have her dream come true of becoming a singer, while Donkey Kong, of course, dreams of bananas and nothing more. Of course, it's easier said than done, as a group of villainous Kongs under the Void Company stands in their way, obstructing them at every opportunity that they get.
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| Donkey Kong is back and more expressive than ever before! |
The story is relatively light when all is said and done, but when it comes into full swing, it definitely delivers. The character development of Pauline is a highlight, as she's understandably visually and audibly timid and nervous around a massive thousand-pound gorilla through the first quarter or so of the game. As she opens up and gets more comfortable around DK, her excitement and ability to let loose and get gung-ho shines through. It's a nice touch that more importantly feels natural as opposed to feeling forced.
The world of Donkey Kong Bananza is your oyster. Well, technically, it's less of an oyster and more of an onion since it has literal layers and sub-layers that form the levels of the game. At any rate, these layers show off one of the most impressive parts of Bananza--the amount of delightful, wanton destruction that DK can inflict on the environment. Punch a bunch as you please, DK, as he can smash swaths through rock, cement, and other materials to create makeshift pathways through levels. I was utterly astonished by the tech involved here--something that truly couldn't be done on Nintendo's Switch 1 without serious concessions to the design ethos of Bananza.
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| The locales known as layers are lovely to explore for goodies and meet new friends along the way. |
It's not just mindlessly bashing and brawling your way through the environment, of course. Not all walls, floors, and ceilings are destructible. This is given an in-game story reason as Void Co. has deliberately turned specific materials as impossible to punch through. It also makes it so you can't just beat and bash your way everywhere through the game, completely disregarding the level and puzzle design within the environments. Sure, there are points where you can punch your way through soft walls to create a tunnel to a destination all by sheer force--and many times this is shrewdly highlighted by a telltale sign in the environment--but you can't simply bypass everything in a level for little reason.
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| DK gives a new definition to the term "mudding". |
Truly, Donkey Kong Bananza feels like the next, natural evolution of the foundation that Nintendo EAD's previous work, Super Mario Odyssey, laid. You have your open, playground environments to explore and multiple collectibles to obtain--with the most important of which being that of Banandium Gems, giant crystallized bananas in single and banana bunch forms. Gems are ALL over the multitude of layers and sub-layers in Bananza--hiding in alcoves, earned from completing platforming and puzzle-based trials, entering obstacle course-centric Challenge Rooms, and battling bosses. These Gems serve the Power Moon role from Super Mario Odyssey. However, whereas Moons were merely abundant in quantity, essentially being required to progress to new kingdoms, the Banandium Gems are less needed for progression purposes and more for powering DK up.
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| Donkey Kong and Banandium Gems go together like peanut butter and jelly. |
Donkey Kong Bananza contains plenty of power-ups and abilities for DK in a skill menu of sorts. For every five single Banandium Gems collected (big bunches of five are usually earned after beating bosses or after a special story progression-based sequence), DK earns a skill point. Simpler skills require less skill points to spend, while the more useful abilities demand more points spent on them. These range from adding hearts to DK's health, expanding his radar range (when DK slams his palms to the ground, the nearby area shows hidden goodies like Banandium Gems and Fossils), supplying him with a further inventory of health-restoring juice, granting him the ability to plow through stronger surfaces, and also upgrades to his Bananza abilities. More on those in just a little bit!
Apart from Banandium Gems, there are Fossils to be found all throughout the landscape, walls, floors, ceilings--you name it. These can be spent at shops to purchase new costumes and outfits for DK and Pauline. Each costume piece, whether a pair of suspenders or a tie for DK, or a full fledged outfit for Pauline, grants different bonus benefits--whether allowing DK to stumble upon more random treasure chests when smashing through surfaces, greater affinity against hazards like lava so he takes less damage upon being burned, or granting DK longer Bananzas.
No doubt if you've yet to play this Switch 2 exclusive and have no concept of the game, then you might be wondering if the "Bananza" in the game's title is more than a clever play-on-words. Well, yes, it's much more than that, indeed! Throughout the game, Donkey Kong learns new transformations that take him from Goliath gorilla to caked-up Kong gorilla, speedy zebra, flying ostrich, among others. Whereas the Kong Bananza is terrific in utility for smashing the crud out of enemies and the environment quickly, something like the Zebra Bananza has more finesse required, as that form is fantastic for running across water as well as walkways that would otherwise have DK fall through as soon as he steps foot on them.
Many challenges both platforming and puzzle task players with optimizing one's time with each transformation. Sometimes, you'll need to switch between forms on the fly (as easy as a tap of the D-Pad) to overcome trials and tribulations the game throws at you. Like with being able to pound through surfaces and the environment with ease to get where you want to go, a lot of the time with some ingenuity and a little strategy you can complete tasks and objectives by some creative use of these Bananza abilities and forms. That really speaks to how open ended the design of Donkey Kong Bananza is, really. You're seldom locked to a set in stone way of doing things. That said, you're also not able to just completely disregard the game's design, whether intended or unintended, either.
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| Each Bananza form gets its own theme song, sung by the incomparable Jenny Kidd as Pauline. |
DK is worthwhile even without his Bananza forms, as well. He's freaking Donkey Kong, after all! His repertoire of moves is more impressive than ever before, but never overwhelming either. For example, take his ability of being able to rip chunks out directly from the ground. He can swing the chunk around to beat and bash baddies into submission, but he can also chuck the chunk to hit faraway switches or enemies. Even more interestingly, he can perform a Turf Surf, riding the chunk like a snowboard, using his massive mitts to pull the turf forward along the ground to keep his momentum going. Not only is this great for picking up speed and crossing expansive areas of the environment quickly, but it's also paramount for getting across hazard-laden ground, such as that of brambles, electricity, and more.
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| No, seriously. The Kong Bananza is caked up, for real! |
These abilities are especially a big deal during the boss battles--especially the bashing, smashing, and otherwise destroying that DK does. Boss battles really show the might of Nintendo's main monkey, and instead of the typical "three hits and they're beaten" battles that Nintendo EAD generally likes to employ for their platformers, instead, bosses are bestowed with health bars. Bosses are beaten rather quickly and few truly felt overly tricky or challenging. It was mostly learning their moves, how to evade, when they're left open to attack, and bam! Punch-a-bunch party of two was ready to be seated. While most of the fights were fast and rather effortless, by no means were they anything less than fun. Of course, fights near the endgame as also post-game definitely put DK through the wringer, and certainly took me plenty of attempts to overcome.
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| Most boss battles, especially early on, won't get you sweating too much, but eventually they do escalate in difficulty. |
As for the layers--or levels--of Donkey Kong Bananza, these are extremely creative and full of secrets, challenges, and things to do. Some are larger and lengthier than others, as some do not possess sub-layers to speak of. Instead, they're merely what you see is what you get, being one area apiece. However, the more involved and decidedly more interesting layers feature lots of sub-layers, many times changing up the atmosphere and locale entirely. The Freezer Layer mostly takes place in a wintry wonderland home to the Zebra tribe, but deeper down in a sub-layer is a hot, scorching, lava-filled furnace that threatens to melt one's face off!
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| A view of winter in the Midwestern U.S. or the Freezer Layer? You be the judge. |
VoidCo causes trouble wherever they go, and each layer requires DK and Pauline to right the wrongs, help out various characters through the kindness of their hearts, and beat down those aforementioned bosses standing out as progression points to advance the story.
Really, one can opt to make a beeline for the story, and merely progress from one plot point to another without scouring the levels for their massive amounts of collectibles. It makes the game more difficult, as a player wouldn't have the skill points to invest into making DK considerably stronger, but that is a nice option to have! I found a mix of exploration and progression to be great for me, as I discovered that attempting to nab every Banandium Gem and Fossil on each layer before moving onto the next was burning me out on the game. Heck, I took multiple breaks from Donkey Kong Bananza because of it--hence the tardiness of this review! That said, once I found a cadence that worked for me, Bananza became even more addicting to me than it was previously. Even still, being able to teleport to various fast travels points and layers quickly through the clever eel teleportation service known as "T-eel-eporting" made collectible cleanup much more manageable for me.
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| Look at that goofy grin! How can you NOT love Donkey Kong? |
A helpful map, too--which in incredible fashion displays real-time damage of the environment and landscape--was a tremendous help in noting which Banandium Gems and Fossils were collected, which still needed finding, and scavenging for other goodies and points of interest. The ability to easily track your progress this way across each and every layer was super beneficial, something that Mario Kart World picked up on with a recent update, thankfully, too.
With Donkey Kong, Nintendo hasn't always pulled too much from DK's history, particularly the Rareware era. However, any fears that I or anyone else may have had with Donkey Kong Bananza are long gone. No, Nintendo made Bananza a celebration of all things Donkey Kong and his 40+ year history with odes to every era. From the opening area of the game, Ingot Isle, featuring the familiar pink girders from the original Donkey Kong arcade game, to specific 2.5D challenge rooms modeled after levels in Donkey Kong Country (especially one that perfectly captures the Bramble Blast-themed stages), DK's history is fondly encapsulated in this game.
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| DK says "gay rights"! |
And really, Donkey Kong Bananza stands tall, thumping its chest with both fists proudly, as a love letter to all aspects of this long-standing franchise. It takes the modern approach to its design while providing plenty of callbacks to not leave enthusiasts out in the cold. Everything from the colorful worlds that DK stomps around in, to the extremely expressive Donkey Kong himself and other characters like Pauline--it all looks absolutely masterful in animation, design, and presentation. Perhaps the only gripe I can find with Bananza is that of the frame-rate, offering steadiness most of the time, but slight drops do happen. That said, some minor concession with the frame-rate are a small price to pay for the amount of destruction in the environment--again, something that Switch 1 could not do without altering the design of the game considerably.
He's the leader of the bunch for a reason, and he apparently also led Nintendo's first-party platforming efforts on its Switch 2 for a reason, too. It was a bit of a risk to have DK lead the charge on Nintendo's new system, but Donkey Kong Bananza gives the grand gorilla a fair shake, time in the spotlight, and successfully moves over Mario (even if briefly) from his usual starring role as the lead 3D platforming star for a Nintendo system. While minor frame-rate issues and most of the boss battles being rather breezy might make for some modest moaning from myself, those complaints are quickly diminished by the absolute amount of fun that Bananza delivered in banana bunches to me. This 20 hour epic is one that constantly escalates the action, and keeps it going through the finale and beyond. Donkey Kong Bananza delights and delivers a 3D action-platformer that offers enough open-ended design to kick some serious potassium.
[SPC Says: A]
