Donkey Kong Bananza - Review

Going Bananzas!

Console: Nintendo Switch 2.

Before the Switch, I wasn't a fan of platformers. I didn’t really ‘get’ them. After some very good experiences with Super Mario Odyssey and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero and the like, though, I grew quite a taste for the genre. When the first footage of Donkey Kong Bananza was shown as the 'one more thing' of the Switch 2 reveal presentation, I just knew I had to get it. It ticked all the right boxes for me. It looked colourful, imaginative, and grand. And that was before the Direct showed us Pauline and all those transformations!

Yes sir, this game was looking to be a smashing adventure that I couldn't wait to play. That would give me that ‘killer-app’ for my brand-new Switch 2 after Mario KartWorld left me wanting. A game to truly capture my full attention

And so, without further ado, let's talk about the big ape's biggest adventure to date!

Travelling to Ingot Isle to find these rare, edible banana-shaped gems, Donkey Kong's eternal quest for yellow fruit gets a lot more complicated. Void Kong, CEO of VoidCo. mining company, and his employees Grumpy Kong and Poppy Kong cause chaos and destruction with their massive drill. Swept underground, Donkey Kong encounters a young girl kidnapped by VoidCo: Pauline. Learning that Void Kong is drilling to the centre of the earth to get to the Banandium Root, which is said to grant any wish, Donkey Kong and Pauline set of in pursuit to stop him and get back to the surface.

The story of Donkey Kong Bananaza is both simple yet more involved than I thought. Its premise is simple: get to the planet's core. It's more involved in the characters, with Pauline and DK, and the bond they share. They give off strong "Ralph & Penelope” vibes from Disney's Wreck-It Ralph. The big, strong guy and his small girl sidekick. Whereas DK is a silly yet brave banana-loving ape who shows affection for Pauline in small ways, Pauline herself gets more to do.

Pauline has a clear character arc. She overcomes her shyness and lack of confidence over the course of her game in pursuit of her dream: to be a singer. She does a lot of talking, making her the character that you get to know the best. She's by far the most endearing character here because of all this attention. Time will tell if it's this teenage version of Pauline or the adult one that will be the most prominent version of the character. Just... don't try to make any sense of the implication of teenage Pauline in the Mario timeline. You won't find any.

Our golden duo. 

The best part of the story, hands down, is the last act. While I was spoiled to bits of it through YouTube thumbnails (bah!), that takes nothing away from how great it is. Action-packed, emotional, visually impressive, and challenging. More than one twist keeps you on your toes, and people who played the Donkey Kong Country games will certainly find themselves surprised in more ways than one.

Donkey Kong Bananza, like its spiritual predecessor Super Mario Odyssey, is a 3D platformer, though that doesn't quite sum this game up. That is all thanks to its defining feature: the nearly fully destructible terrain. DK can smash his way through nearly everything. Wood, bedrock, gold, you name it. With a lot of patience, you could strip an entire layer bare!

I didn't have the patience to do this, nor the desire to. The camera gets weird when you’re digging, unable to find a good positioning, which can be really hindering. These levels are also way too enjoyable to just smash to bits. With over a dozen different layers, there is a lot of varied locales to explore, both big and small, and lots of colourful characters to meet. What I appreciate about Bananza’s levels is that we don't just repeat the same tried-and-true level aesthetics.

Yes, we have had a fire and ice combo level before, see Super Mario Galaxy, but have you ever been to a jungle swamp where Ostriches built and run a 5-star hotel? Have you met meteorologist elephants living up high in the mountains? I don't think so! Also, here to bring some charm and nostalgia is quite a bit of Donkey Kong Country flair. From Diddy, Dixie, and Cranky Kong to the shooting barrels to musical cues. Elements I didn’t expect since I figured Nintendo NPD wanted to do their very own thing with Donkey Kong. Guess I was wrong.

Back to the gameplay. DK can do a lot more than just smashing. He can tear off pieces of terrain to throw at enemies, surf, and do a dive roll to get places faster and extend his jump. It's not the most varied move set, Mario is a lot more resourceful, but I didn't find this limited move set all that lacking. I made more than do and even forgot some DK moves, such as that spinning jump of his, because I really didn't need them to pull off those tricky jumps.

One of the reasons DK's normal move sets isn't that vast is because of the other central gimmick: the Bananza transformations. Triggered by Pauline's singing, DK can transform into some mighty animal forms. From a Zebra to an Ostrich, each comes with unique powers. They all bring at least one thing to the table that gives them an edge in certain situations. From simply extra raw power to a double jump - a holy grail in platformers.

It took too long for the game to start chaining Bananzas together, and some are clearly better than others, but that is about where my criticism end. With cool designs and some really exciting stunts you can do if you know how to use them well, going Bananza is always exciting.

You know what makes transformations that much more exciting? The music! Each Bananza has their own theme song that is played whenever you transform, sung by Pauline herself. I love these songs. From the rock song that is the Kong Banzanza to the rap that is the Snake Bananaza. These songs are all as varied as the transformations themselves and true little earworms. The 'normal' soundtrack isn't too shabby either, but these Bananza songs, plus the header 'Heart of Gold' are the main attraction here, musically speaking.

Aside from all this smashing, you have the 'standard' 3D platforming stuff. Running, jumping, collecting. Together with the Bananza powers, moving and exploring your surroundings can be pretty addictive in that 'one more thing' and 'what's over there' sort of way. Whenever I get to a new area, I spend a good amount of time just on the hunt for Banandium gems and, to a lesser extent, fossils before moving to the next objective.

What makes the Banandiumgems so worthwhile to collect is that they serve a purpose. For every 5 gems you collect, you earn a skill point. From upgrading your hearts to unlocking more abilities in your Bananza form, there is a lot to unlock and improve in DK’s skill tree. The promise of a stronger DK made collecting Banandium gems that much sweeter.

The same goes for all the challenges that reward you with Banandium gems. Whenever I saw one of those Obsidian doors, I went for it, eager for what lay behind its entrance. Be it a combat challenge, a puzzle, or a Donkey Kong Country inspired 2D level, I was almost always ready to tackle them with a smile on my face!

As an ape, one of the challenge levels of course has to be about climbing.

What can you use all those fossils for? For fashion, of course! The fractones living in the underground sell you a variety of ties, fur dies, and clothes for DK and Pauline to bring out their inner fashionista. If, like me, you're not all that fashionable and mostly just stick with the basics, there is another purpose to these clothes than just east ethics. They can net you gameplay bonuses. From needing less gold to fill your transformation meter (my personal favourite) to heat immunity. I found that stacking these bonuses made the game a bit too easy for my liking, but that doesn't take away from the fun of experimenting.

Plus, I quite like that whatever tie DK wears carries over to your Bananza forms. That was a nice little attention to detail. Come to think of it, the game is full of these. When you alter the controls, for example, these changes are reflected in the rest of the game. The correct button prompt appears in tutorials and the like, not the intended button, as most games do.

What I’m not impressed by are the boss fights. Because of how strong DK is, most bosses can be beaten by sheer force, undermining their design. There is this boss whose armour shifts between different terrains, ideally requiring different strategies to beat. In practice though, with the right Bananza, you can break through his armour and beat him in less than 15 seconds. I timed it. That's fun once, maybe twice, but certainly not thrice. That relegates what are supposed to be these big moments to nothing more than a speed bump.

Thankfully, there are bosses here you can't just punch you're way through. Multi-phased fights that either up the anté or switch around strategies. Bosses that are genuinely challenging, requiring good reflexes and strategy to beat, and not just punching. I see that the camera and the performance are the points that most critics raise as flaws, but to me, the weak bosses is the biggest flaw of Donkey Kong Bananza.

That isn't to say I don't understand their points. As I said, the camera angle can be really weird and the game can struggle to run a times. The framerate takes a small hit in the 3D map, because of the 3D, no doubt, and in a repeating boss fight. That one throws so many different obstacles, so many different graphical effects and so many different enemies at you that the game struggles to show it all. It is very noticeable and not good but only happens twice. Not enough to call the performance bad - just troublesome at times.

Speaking of graphical effects and the like, Donkey Kong Bananza looks as good as you would expect from a Nintendo 3D platformer on their most powerful hardware yet. Detailed and vibrant what it becomes overwhelming or ‘glazed’. The most impressive feat, I find, is simply the amount of stuff that can be on screen at once with only those occasional problems.  

Fun fact time: these graphics are one of the reasons Nintendo moved development of this game from the Switch 1 to the Switch 2. The original could run the game, but compromised in the graphics department. A very good comparison is a shot between the Jungle layer between the Switch 1 beta and the final Switch 2 product. One looks like a genuine vegetation-heavy jungle. The other, well, not so much.

Credit: Nintendo

Before finishing this review up I have one more remark to make that I couldn't find a place for anywhere else. Colour me surprised when at the beginning of the game Odd Rock started to talk to me - in Dutch. Ever since the Switch, Nintendo has been very persistent in translating its first-party games to Dutch, except for the voice acting. That has remained English until now. I immediately switched back over to English voices since I prefer it that way, but I quite appreciate the extra step Nintendo took here. An outlier or a sign of things to come? Time will tell.

Conclusion

Donkey Kong Bananza is precisely the kind of game I hoped the Switch 2 would deliver. This game screams sheer fun to me with its destructible terrain, Bananza transformations, music, and addictive Banana-hunting. Even when I wasn’t chasing objectives, I just wanted to keep exploring and smashing things to see what surprises popped up.

Some flaws in the camera and boss fight department notwithstanding, this is one of the first big reasons to own a Switch 2. For my money, between Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, this is the game to go bananas over.