June 2025 was all of 11 months ago now, and with that comes an upcoming 1st anniversary for Nintendo's latest console foray: the Nintendo Switch 2! The console launched with Mario kart World, which is an okay game, as I've talked about previously.
A month after the Switch 2's launch, I had this worrisome feeling in the pit of my stomach - Nintendo was telling us that the next big to release on Switch 2 was in July. It wasn't a Zelda, it wasn't a Mario; hell, it wasn't even a Pokemon. It was a Donkey Kong game.
The name of the game was Donkey Kong Bananza, and almost immediately my faith and trust in the console's launch was tested and shaken.
I specifically recall thinking something along the lines of: "Are we seriously entering this new console generation with a lesser Mario Kart game and a 3D DK game?"
The initial gameplay shown was of a re-designed Donkey Kong running about and smashing everything in the game world surrounding him. And I mean everything. This punch-proficient primate dealt knuckle sandwiches to everything he could get his hands on! It quickly became established between that first gameplay and the game's dedicated Direct soon after that smashing up enemies and environments alike was the name of the game; as if you dropped Odyssey-era Mario into a destructible sandbox a la Minecraft.
I say "Odyssey-era" because the other main impression I got from the game's pre-release material was its obvious shared DNA with Super Mario Odyssey. This impression was soon proven true, as both games were developed by Nintendo EPD in collaboration with 1-UP Studio. It's pretty easy to tell when you see both games in motion and were already familiar with how Odyssey played!
These later discoveries paired with the more expansive showcase of the gameplay from the dedicated Bananza Direct convinced me much more of the game. I walked into my local EB Games on the game's release - a Thursday, July 17th - and got to playing the game that evening after work.
I was immediately enchanted with the game.
There's something about the games made by Nintendo EPD that remind you of how amazing this studio is at polishing every little detail of their projects. Every movement feels right, every idea poured over, and I can tell the developers had a really fun time toying with people's expectations with this game's pace and structure. It truly feels like a DK game re-imagined in every sense of the word.
Developers aside, the game itself - what's going on with it? Why is there a little girl on DK's back? In fact, why does DK even look the way he does?
Well there's two probable answers to the latter:
- Nintendo wanted DK to adopt a new design that takes after what The Super Mario Bros. Movie used, and;
- There was a desire to bring back DK's design to be inspired more by the original arcade design;
Through these two reasons, it's clear what we wind up with a sort of mixture of both DK designs in Bananza. It's not quite the same as the movie Donkey Kong - Seth Rogen Kong is must taller and sleeker! This DK adopted the face and overall look, but it still much more compact with a squatted silhouette like how Rare's DK is.
The game is a joint quest between DK and - younger? Teenage? - Pauline to get to an ancient relic called the Banandium Root, a mythical entity that can grant wishes to those who find it, as well as being the source of all the golden banana-themed stuff lining the game's universe.
What this turns into is an often-trodden journey to the center of the earth. The game is separated into "worlds" much like your average 3D Mario game is. In order to tie the bow on this digging theme, the worlds are separated not as islands, not as other bodies of land - but as rock layers as DK and Pauline excavate their way to the middle of the planet!
These worlds demonstrate a lot of variety which all have their own Odyssey-esque, individual challenges for DK to tackle with his arsenal of abilities. You have your obvious archetypes in a water world, a forest world, a fire/ice world... But the deeper you get into the game, the more and more unique those world concepts get! There's an entire world dedicated to being a nightclub, as well as a theme park.
It's a choice of pacing that prevents the game from feeling like it's wearing thin or doing the same thing over and over again. A truly great piece of media - a game, a movie, a play, a story - is one that keeps you guessing what comes next. However, these twists and turns still have to feel organic, calculated and plausible. Bananza does exactly that, achieving a sense of whimsy that never tips over and spills into absurdity. The pace is a big part of why!
The game also has DK taking on different forms with new abilities to help expand his methods of traversal. These forms involve DK and Pauline performing a ritualistic song and dance that allows DK to turn into other animals, the name of these rituals being the titular Bananzas. DK can take the form of anything from a zebra to a bird to a snake, and all of these forms grant abilities like super speed, flight and higher jumps in order to allow DK to reach areas he otherwise couldn't. The mastery of these forms then are required for future challenges, boss fights, and for collecting other bananas to lend to the game's completion. It's familiar but well-executed 3D platformer stuff!
Putting all of these aspects into practice, I'm happy to report that Bananza is a joy to play. It was the gem of a game I wasn't even really expecting, as I had started out being skeptical of the game.
There's an elegance behind the duality of the game's controls, and it reminds me a lot of Odyssey: every bananza transformation has a gimmick dedicated to it that acts as a proverbial lock and key for the game's many puzzles, such as the Kong Bananza being able to break through metal ot the Zebra Bananza being able to run across fragile ground that easily gives way beneath your feet. However the flip-side to this is how the Bananzas all can be hotswapped freely between one another, leaving room for a lot skill expression by the more savvy gamers out there able to be used to interesting and often, game-breaking results.
The controls are slick, the ideas and sheer variety of locales and transformations makes for a fantastical world of layers to traverse through. It all feels... Weirdly familiar. I had a similar feeling when I played Odyssey.
There's this lingering and aforementioned feeling of whimsy, of adventure; this cheeky but wholesome view of the world as we see it through DK and Pauline's eyes as they confront the malicious VoidCo crew of villains and as they venture from world to world. It gives it this Saturday morning cartoon-vibe, but in a good way!
There's no mistaking it: Donkey Kong Bananza feels like a Rareware game.
Starting with Odyssey, Nintendo has managed to pull together a team that can seemingly capture that X-factor responsible for the legendary 90's run of Rareware games. I don't know how they do it, but between Odyssey and Bananza, there's this uniquely perfected way they can hearken back to the good ol' days of Rare ilk such as Banjo-Kazooie, Conker, and of course Donkey Kong 64.
I don't think there's much higher praise I can lend Bananza than that: in a world where we have a visible section of the OG Rareware team themselves come together under Playtonic Games and churn out a game like Yooka-Laylee to incredibly limp and unimpressive fanfare, it's nothing short of a miracle that Nintendo of all companies could put together a team of Japanese developers to out-Rare Rare.
It's not like any of this is confirmed, of course; I'm going off of vibes. No developer at Nintendo or within the EPD team has ever come out and said that Bananza took heavy influence from Rareware's games... But between it and Odyssey streamlining its usual 3D Mario formula to almost precisely copy that of the original Banjo-Kazooie? When you pair it with both games - no spoilers - creating explicitly N64-flavoured nostalgia and fanservice, it's clear to me that Nintendo EPD are a band of Rareware diehards.
So when I think of Bananza, it's almost like I can't consider its quality in a vacuum. I can only think of it in this new Rareware-inspired context; to consider its influences from before and what it will inspire after.
My verdict? DK is remaining the leader of the bunch. And while I already know him well - I hope we all get a chance to know him and Pauline a lot better in the future!
All of this isn't even bringing up the masterpiece that is this game's ending. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've been genuinely blown away by the sheer gravity, aura and fun of a game's ending? If you haven't played this game yet and you have a Switch 2 - you really need to make Bananza your next purchase.