For the last several years it’s felt like Nintendo just hasn’t cared that much about Donkey Kong. As Nintendo gifted pretty much every one of its cherished characters their best outing ever on Switch, the great ape who once stood high atop the girders of Nintendo’s essential arcade cabinet faceplanted hard on the concrete with a litany of ports, remakes, and remasters. But on Switch 2, Nintendo is finally giving one of gaming’s biggest icons the love he deserves with a brand new, flagship, launch window 3D action-platformer, and if the first 30 minutes we spent with Donkey Kong Bananza are any indication, Mario’s original rival is looking poised to stand tall once again.
It’s hard to talk about Bananza without referencing that darn plumber as just seconds after jumping into its Underground World, the significant parallels to Super Mario Odyssey became abundantly clear. While Nintendo hasn’t confirmed the developers of Bananza, after playing it we’re willing to bet Odyssey developer Nintendo EPD Tokyo is behind it.
Bananza’s setup will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s spent hours throwing Cappy and collecting Power Moons. DK is joined by an adorable assistant (this time in the form of a purple rock who talks and sings) to scour self-contained explorable sandboxes for Golden Bananas, some of which are found by completing story missions while others are sprinkled across the landscape just waiting to be found. As you explore, you find isolated linear challenge rooms that dial back the exploration in favor of testing your combat and platforming abilities. There are other collectibles to find too, like gold presumably playing the role of coins, dozens of fossils (which we didn’t find a use for during our demo) and currency we’re hoping will be used to outfit Donkey Kong in the local flavor. Even the UI is reminiscent of Mario’s globetrotting adventure! So if you were disappointed the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct lacked a big, flashy 3D Mario, I’m here to tell you that Donkey Kong Bananza feels like the sequel to that formula we’ve been clamoring for, it just happens to star the giant monkey instead.
Wrecking Crew
Like the best Nintendo games, Donkey Kong’s brand new moveset completely suits him as a character and feels right the moment you step into his shoes (okay, big hairy feet). Bananza is furiously fast and delightfully destructive as Donkey Kong can demolish most of the terrain in his path, and we spent our demo transforming the lush opening area filled with grass, trees, and lakes into DK’s personal chaotic excavation site. DK punches forward, upward, and downward, instantly destroying most materials and oftentimes carving a makeshift path to follow that can lead to entirely new areas. At one point I was punching through a mountain just for the heck of it and a valuable collectible fell into my lap, so there’s definitely value to breaking ground everywhere you can – it may lead to a groundbreaking discovery.
If pulverizing every stone wall in sight sounds overwhelming, it really didn’t feel that way in the moment, which is likely due to how much fun we had controlling Donkey Kong. In addition to turning everything to rubble, Donkey Kong can also pick up giant stone boulders from the ground, walls, or wherever, and hurl them to obliterate nearby enemies. Or, he takes a page out of Link’s book and can use the stone slab to boogie board at a rapid pace across the landscape. There are surely dozens of unique moves and chain combos waiting to be discovered and I can imagine how much fun speedrunners will have trying to master DK’s moveset, which already feels ripe with expressiveness and possibility.
Bananza’s central theme of exploration via destruction was present throughout every second of our demo, even down to the map screen. Instead of a simple top-down overview of the landscape, the map here is a fully-rendered 3D model of the entire area in its current state, meaning when you pause to get your bearings, you can see all of the walls you’ve punched and caves you’ve carved. It’s like the Hero’s Path feature in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom cranked up to 11, and it felt like an incredibly impressive touch.
That map helped us track down challenge rooms which rewarded us either with Golden Bananas or a ton of cash. And unlike Odyssey, there’s no more wondering if you have a Moon left to find and going inside to wait for Cappy to tell you, because the entrance to each bonus room tracks how many Golden Bananas you’ve found and how many more are waiting within. We saw three of these rooms in Bananza’s opening area, with each focusing on either platforming, combat, or destruction: we had to monkey bar our way through an obstacle course, take down three stone enemies before time ran out, and blast through as much gold ore as possible to take home a big payday. They were all fun and unique and left me excited to see what other challenges are in store.
I also think Bananza is on track to be one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen. It really does take advantage of Switch 2’s hardware – the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I left feeling like the next generation of first-party Nintendo games had truly arrived.
Donkey Kong Bananza is out July 17 for $69.99, and I might destroy my entire house if I have to wait that long to play it again.
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN’s Database Manager & Playlist Editor. He played the entire Donkey Kong Country series earlier this year and is so excited for a brand new DK game. It’s way overdue!
