There was a small part of me that was sceptical about Donkey Kong Bananza when it was announced earlier this year. Not only was I desperately craving a new 3D Mario game, but I was worried the shift from precision platforming to Hulk-style pounding and pulverising might get a bit repetitive.
Fortunately I needn’t have worried, because the team behind Super Mario Odyssey is back with another classic platforming adventure full of charm and creativity for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Donkey Kong Bananza sees players delve deep underground in a bid to recover Golden Bananas that have been stolen by the villainous Void Company. With Pauline at his side, Donkey Kong ventures to the Planet Core, encountering a series of diverse (and physically impossible) environments along the way.
While I don’t play these kind of games for the story, Donkey Kong Bananza makes a more of an impression than usual, largely thanks to the expressiveness of the characters during cutscenes, not to mention the dynamic between Pauline and DK. The jazzy cutscenes are beautifully animated and scored, while interactions between the two characters at nap time further builds a bond.
Needless to say, the world itself is also brimming with character and personality. Donkey Kong Bananza has the same timeless quality as games like Wind Waker, Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Odyssey, and might just be Nintendo’s most visually impressive game to date.
It’s not just the bright colours and expressive characters, but it’s the amount of love and care that has gone into making every stage feel so alive.
There’s so much going on both big and small, from spectacular explosions that wipe out entire structures, to foliage floating through the air when DK clumsily bounds through fields and forests.
Most impressive of all, however, is that despite being able to smash through almost everything you see, stages still feel meticulously crafted and tightly designed.
The game leads players towards a goal, all the while providing a higher level of freedom. The combination of DK’s smashing abilities and surprising number of navigational skills (like rock surfing, rolling, ground pounding etc.) means that most obstacles can be overcome in multiple ways.
If you want to avoid a laser, for example, you could burrow beneath it and tunnel forward, or rip up a slab of rock and use it as a kind of double jump. Likewise, that poisonous swamp that’s standing in your way can be surfed over, or you could use DK’s Ostrich ability to glide between platforms.
Donkey Kong Bananza doesn’t have quite the same level of fluidity as Mario Odyssey, but it arguably gives players more freedom to experiment.
The game is also packed with Golden Bananas to find, gold to collect and fossils to discover, not to mention special challenge areas with various objectives. You can use Golden Bananas to unlock even more skills and upgrades, such as spin jumping and egg bombs, while fossils are used as currency for purchasing new costumes, colours and other customisation elements. The continuous accumulation of gold, meanwhile, is reminiscent of finding studs in the LEGO games and you know how satisfying that is.
If you like to find and collect absolutely everything like me, then Donkey Kong Bananza will provide tens of hours of gameplay.
So is Donkey Kong Bananza as good or better than Super Mario Odyssey? Well not quite, but it’s a lot closer than I imagined.
There are a couple of smaller problems that crop up every now and then, such as frame-rate drops, old-school texture pop-in and camera issues. It’s not enough to put a downer on the experience, but it can take you out of the moment.
The game actually performs better than expected based on recent news reports and considering how busy everything is. For the most part, frame drops only briefly occur and don’t impact gameplay, barring one particularly chaotic boss battle. I would say the frame-rate was far more noticeable and off-putting in Link’s Awakening for the original Nintendo Switch, which is surprising considering that game’s more sedate pace, and the amount of destruction in DK Bananza.
Indeed, Donkey Kong Bananza is a purposely messy experience that pulls players in all directions, especially deep down into the very core of the game world. This sheer level of destruction can be disorientating, and despite Nintendo’s best efforts to keep up with DK’s destructive impulses, it is easy to get lost within the weeds, so to speak.
Camera issues are somewhat alleviated thanks to a dedicated tunnel cam that follows DK into the dirt, but veering off into different directions sometimes leads to confusion.
My only other complaint is that some of the challenges and boss battles are a tad repetitive, something that isn’t helped by the lack of challenge.
Fortunately, everything is such a spectacle and the gameplay is so much fun that these issues are easy to ignore.
Indeed, Donkey Kong Bananza’s real strength is in exploring the beautiful game world and discovering its bountiful secrets.
The game gets better and better the deeper you explore, becoming even more inventive as you unlock new abilities and encounter new hazards.
Nintendo has unearthed another gem in Donkey Kong Bananza, a game that more than makes up for the lack of 3D Mario at the Switch 2 launch.
VERDICT: 4.5/5