There was a moment playing Donkey Kong Bananza when I realised I was truly in love. It was just shy of half-way through, and my Super Mario Odyssey-loving son had started to play it. He was catching me up due to work, life, and everything else, but I was still a few layers ahead of him. He went to play it and I bolted upright, ran to the console and made him wait so I could save and exit, so he wouldn’t see the world I was on and have it spoiled. That’s when it hit me: this is a truly special video game.
I won’t bore you with development history any more than I likely have with this anecdote, but if you’re a fan of Nintendo then it’s highly likely you have been waiting for Super Mario Odyssey to get a sequel for quite some time. Donkey Kong Bananza, then, is that sequel. To all intents and purposes, the DNA of Odyssey runs through every inch of DK’s adventure, and if that isn’t enough to make you rush out and buy it, then I don’t know what is. What I didn’t expect, however, is to be asking myself the question: is it worth having a discussion about if Bananza is actually better?
For those who were anticipating Donkey Kong’s grand return to 3D platforming less than I was, this is a game you’ll spend hours collecting things within, not least because it’s a chunky one. The shiny crystalised collectible bananas are hidden in every nook and cranny, often rewarding you, the player, for smashing the living hell out of anything that looks like it could be smashed. Honestly, if there was a granny in this game I wouldn’t be surprised if you could smash her up and find a banana inside.
Burrow down? Banana. Look behind a door? Banana. In that same way you’d see something shiny in Odyssey and go to it, to be rewarded with a moon, Bananza hits you with a dopamine rush in a manner that feels as though it’s occurring every five seconds. This is a vibrant, sugar rush of a game that plays in the back of your mind when you’re otherwise engaged. It gnaws at that little part of your brain that craves letting off steam, and to forget everything that’s happening around you.
DK is after bananas, because he likes bananas. He meets a shiny rock, things happen, then we’re on an adventure that contains singing, dancing, Zebras, Ostriches, cameos, and more. I’m not diminishing the story here, rather, I want you to experience it yourself. What I will say is that the recast Pauline does an incredible job, and is as charming a Nintendo character as I’ve seen in a great many years.
Where Donkey Kong Bananza pushes boundaries further than its ancestors is that you’ll gain a skill point for every five bananas found. These vary from upgrading the strength of your punches, to gaining new jump abilities, or upgrading the sonar smash. Oh that sonar smash. If you’re someone who likes to get 100% of things, you might be in trouble ever actually finishing Bananza. Running around pinging repeatedly, seeing shiny things in the distance. It’ll be the death of me, I swear.
The thing is, it’s the perfect pick up and play title. You can leave the Nintendo Switch suspended today, but tomorrow grab it and find 12 bananas before you head out to Costa, or Pret, or whatever the trendy barista is these days. Then you’ll realise you want to see more of it, head to the boss battle, move down a layer, and see a whole new environment that excites the mind. It does that clever trick of making you think you’ve seen it all, then blowing you away all over again. Few games achieve that level of execution in ideation, and DK is certainly up there with the best.
None of it would work, of course, if it wasn’t such blissful fun beating the entire world to an absolute pulp. Whether it’s some strange catharsis or analogy for how we all feel right now, finer philosophisers than I have mused on, but all I know is this: I enjoy punching my way through rocks as Donkey Kong. A lot. I’m sure I’ve caught myself shouting something angry while punching through rocks, but maybe I imagined it. It’s perhaps trite to say Nintendo just gets “gameplay” and “fun”, but that’s truly the situation here. It feels almost like it should get old fast, but somehow it just doesn’t. Magic.
Where Odyssey gave you reason to collect things other than the main objective, Donkey Kong Bananza splits them up and makes everything feel worth collecting. Environments will have little houses you can build for the gold you collect just by smashing rocks up, but other currencies like fossils will let you buy outfits. These aren’t merely cosmetic here, instead buffing DK to make the world less painful for him. You want to be able to take less damage from poison, then upgrade your trousers. Want to be able to surf on a rock you pulled from the ground over poison, then use your skill points to unlock that ability.
Then there’s the titular Bananza transformations. I hesitate to reveal too many of them for fear of spoilers, but playing as Donkey Kong and turning into an Ostrich to fly across a gap is something else. While some of these transformations feel almost like difficulty modifiers, they’re fun and daft, but do make things easier. The challenge rooms you encounter can be trivialised slightly with these Bananza powers, but it doesn’t diminish the joy of experiencing them.
Speaking of difficulty, this is a game that definitely sets its stall out in a way that makes you think it’s a bit on the easy side. But there’s a definite ramp up as you progress to around the halfway point. It’s never frustratingly difficult, but it does eventually begin to offer a challenge, and I think if it being “easy” is what’s putting you off, perhaps you’re missing the point, or not the intended audience in the first place.
Donkey Kong Bananza is a truly special game, one that rewards you for your ideas, and one that I don’t think could have been achieved with this level of quality on the original Nintendo Switch. It wasn’t a launch title and perhaps should have been, but it’s here now, and it’s easily one of the most enjoyable games of the year so far. I never thought I’d be okay with not having an Odyssey sequel, so kudos to Nintendo for delivering Donkey Kong Bananza, a game I didn’t know I wanted until I got it. Bravo.
