Donkey Kong Bananza Review: Going Ape Underground

One thing you need as a Donkey Kong fan is patience. I don’t just mean patience with the games themselves, although their difficulty certainly will test that, I mean patience in waiting for the games to come out.

Donkey Kong is a lot like Metroid. Both are beloved Nintendo IPs, but they have peaks and valleys in their releases. They’ll have periods where they pump games out left and right, and then long stretches where nothing comes out at all.

Let me give you a bit of a history lesson and you’ll see what I mean. Donkey Kong started in the golden age of arcades, but after Donkey Kong 3 bombed the franchise went on ice for eleven years until Donkey Kong Country came out. I did a review a while back for the DKC trilogy if you want the lowdown on them, but the important thing is that they were very successful and brought Donkey Kong into the modern era.

Developer Rare then became the stewards of the Donkey Kong IP for a time. Not just making the Country games but also making the Diddy Kong Racing spin-off series and bringing the series to 3D with Donkey Kong 64.

Then Rare got bought up by Microsoft and that left Donkey Kong without a core developer. There were still Donkey Kong games being made, but he was largely stuck in spin-off hell for years. it wasn’t until Retro Studios took over with Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze that the series finally got back on track.

Unfortunately, Tropical Freeze wasn’t as successful as hoped, and it’s been seven years since then and no new games have come out. Although if we ignore the Switch port and just count the Wii U original, it’s been eleven years since the last DK game. The exact same amount of time between Donkey Kong 3 and Donkey Kong Country.

Part of the reason there is sometimes a big wait between titles is due to one simple reason. Nintendo doesn’t always know what to do with it. Nintendo doesn’t like to make sequels for the sake of it; they need a strong idea for what the sequel can do differently.

The reason why we haven’t had a new Star Fox or F-Zero game is because Nintendo don’t have a lot of strong ideas on how to evolve those series. They just don’t know how to keep them going other than just doing the exact same thing, which they don’t like doing. Unless your Mario or Kirby but those are special cases.

Donkey Kong is its own special case though. See, I don’t think Donkey Kong has been “Nintendo’s” for a long time. Starting with Country the series moved away from the original arcade games in a big way. Not just gameplay wise but stylistically too.

Nintendo’s Donkey Kong was the original arcade game. A game with a big goofy ape inspired by old cartoons like Popeye. Donkey Kong Country was meant to be hip, cool, and had a sardonic sense of humour that was very much a thing from Rare. To put it bluntly, Donkey Kong Country wasn’t Nintendo’s, it was Rare’s.

That’s why Nintendo let Rare be stewards of the IP. For all intents and purposes, it was a Rare game now. So, when Rare left, Nintendo were stuck with a franchise that was unrecognisable to them. That’s why the series was stuck with making spin-offs because Nintendo were at a loss for what to do with it.

I think it’s telling that the first Donkey Kong platformer Nintendo made post Rare was Jungle Beat. A bongo controlled 2D platformer that had none of the characters or even the world that Rare created. Instead replacing both with a more generic jungle setting, and evil Kongs with one note personalities.

It wasn’t because they didn’t like the Rare cast. They kept the characters around; they showed up in a few Mario sports games and the spin-offs still used them. They never went away, and Nintendo even gave each a redesign to keep them up to date. Nintendo never hated them, it’s just that they were characters designed by a different studio with different design philosophies and Nintendo had no idea where to go with them.

Even when Retro took over you could tell Nintendo were still stuck on what direction to go with the big ape. They kept some of the Donkey Kong cast, but not all of them, and the style and tone were both much more toned down from the Country games. Being a bit more cartoony but not to the same extent of the classic arcade games.

They clearly knew the Country games were popular and that going in that direction was a viable option, but I don’t think Nintendo were fully committed to that approach. But Nintendo are back to finally and definitively make Donkey Kong theirs.

So, what did they do? Bring him back to his arcade roots, commit to the Country games, do something wildly different? Donkey Kong Bananza is their answer, and it turns out the answer was all the above.

Donkey Kong Bananza feels like a genuine attempt to try to bring the disparate eras of Donkey Kong together for the first time, while also bringing the series into a bold new era of its own. Just like Country was a reimagined Donkey Kong for a new era, so too is Bananza.

Did it succeed? Yes, yes it absolutely did. Bananza is one of my favourite games of the past five years. Not only does it pay homage to the vast history of this franchise, but it’s also a damn fine 3D platformer in its own right.

That last part, being a 3D platformer, is one of the big things about this game. This is the first 3D Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong 64, and that was twenty-six years ago. I told you Donkey Kong fans need patience.

Mind you, considering Donkey Kong 64 has a bit of a mixed reputation these days with some loving it and others hating it, maybe there’s a reason they haven’t tried it again in so long. But we have the Mario Odyssey team working on this. We are in very good hands here.

Actually, that’s what this game feels like. This is the Donkey Kong equivalent to Mario Odyssey. Not that the two games are identical, but just that they have a very similar vibe to them. Even the way it opens with you given a quick set up and then getting stuck into things is very similar to how Odyssey handled things.

But I should probably give you that set up. Somewhere offshore of Donkey Kong Island is the mining village of Ingot Isle. An island that has just uncovered a large stash of Banandium Gems. Banana like golden gems that are also somehow edible. Because why not.

Donkey Kong, being the avid banana lover he is, goes to island during this gold rush to get as many as he can. Not long after he arrives though the island is sunk into the ground by the villainous Void Company. A devious mining corporation run by the greedy Void Kong who wants all the Golden Banana’s for himself.

Trapped underground, Donkey Kong soon finds a strange creature named Odd Rock and travels with it further into the earth to stop Void. Not long after setting off DK finds out Odd Rock is actually a young girl named Pauline who was kidnapped by Void for her supernatural singing ability.

Why? Well you don’t find out until later, but Void wants to use Pauline to awaken the Banandium Root in the centre of the earth that’s said to grant any wish to those who can reach it. on learning of the Root, Pauline and Donkey Kong decide to head there to stop Void and to get their own wishes granted, Pauline to go home and DK just wants bananas. Because you can never have too many bananas in Donkey Kongs world.

It’s a simple story. This is a 3D platformer, so the plot is not that important. This genre is more about the gameplay. You want a story? go play an RPG.

That said, the story here does work and a lot of that has to do with the world building. One thing I really like about Mario Odyssey was how every world you visited had its own distinct culture and species. It not only made the levels more fun to explore, but helped make the world feel lived in.

Bananza keeps that same idea. Every layer you visit has its own kind of vibe, its own kind of character that makes each unique. There’s a layer of zebra that make ice cream and speak like surfer dudes, there’s a layer of snakes that build glass light structures, there’s a layer of ostriches who run a massive egg-shaped hotel, and more.

Not only does it make each layer feel unique, but it makes the individual species have a personality all their own. Even the common Fractones, these sentient rock-like creatures that exist on every layer, have their own distinct cultures on different layers that make them feel unique.

The writing itself isn’t the strongest, but it gets the job done. The characters all have distinct personalities and there is a lot of charm that keeps things entertaining. I especially love the relationship between Pauline and Donkey Kong. These two were just adorable together and I completely bought that they were close friends by the end.

We do need to address the elephant in the room though. No, not the elephants in the game, but Pauline’s age. See in the original arcade game Pauline was an adult and was kidnapped by Donkey Kong, and the Country games established that Cranky Kong was the original Donkey Kong with it taking place many years later.

But in Bananza Pauline is only 13. So this is a prequel to the arcade game right? No, because not only is Cranky still here and still making references to the original arcade game, but the Country games are also referenced to have happened too. How is Pauline a kid then?

It’s a big retcon and fans are still trying to figure out the details. The prevailing theory being that Pauline wasn’t in the original arcade game but that was her grandmother instead. Since the arcade game never actually named her Pauline, she was named Lady. The Pauline name came later.

The theory makes some sense, Pauline does mention her grandmother a few times and there is evidence in the game to support Lady being the true identity of the girl in the original game, but it still leaves questions on Pauline’s appearance in Odyssey and her relationship with Mario. Who can’t be in the original arcade game now since he would be as old as Cranky Kong. So, who the hell is Jump Man then? Mario’s granddad?

It’s a mess, but it’s always been like that. The Donkey Kong/Mario canon has always been loose and ill-defined. I view it like old cartoons; the characters change themselves to fit any role the stories require. Sometimes their adults, sometimes they’re kids and sometimes they’re babies. Just go with the flow and enjoy it.

I don’t mind the change with Pauline anyway because I love this version of her. Ever since Odyssey Pauline has become a regular part of the larger Mario cast appearing in a bunch of the spin offs, and while that was awesome to see it always felt it was cool because of her legacy and not her character.

Like it only felt good to see her because she was the original damsel in distress and not because of her having a strong personality of her own. They made her a songstress in Odyssey, which was something, but she still felt lacking compared to the rest of the cast. Mind you the Mario characters don’t have the strongest personalities to begin with, but we’ve known the other characters for much longer. They’ve had more time to develop what little they have.

This Pauline though, this one made me love the character. I love her arc of growing more confident, I love her spunky new design, I love how sweet her relationship with DK is, and I love the little interactions she has whenever you sleep at a hideout. I would often stay at them just to hear what she had to say.

I am now fully on board with Pauline appearing in every Mario game going forward, especially if young Pauline can make it in. I also would love to see the Void co. characters come back too because I liked them a lot.

Which is great because the more recent Donkey Kong games haven’t introduced any memorable characters to the Donkey Kong cast that stuck around. The Tiki Tak tribe from Returns was boring and the Snowmads from Tropical Freeze were neat but lacked a lot in personality.

Void co. are the full package. They have fantastic designs and fun personalities that make them feel like fresh additions to the DK cast. Grumpy and Poppy Kong are both great, I know Poppy Kong will be popular with a certain subset of Donkey Kong fans, but my favourite is Void himself.

Not only is his design great with all the gold and the cute little bowtie telling you a lot about his character, but he acts as a nice rival character to Donkey Kong. He’s basically Donkey Kong’s version of Wario. A mirror reflection that is greedy, self-obsessed and a little bit goofy. He makes for a fun villain, and I wouldn’t have minded if he was the main villain. Spoilers, he isn’t, but I’ll get to that later.

The story is simple, but it makes up for that with good world building and a likable cast of characters. That’s all you need in a platformer narrative. Again, this isn’t a genre you go to for the story. At least not the Nintendo ones. Those always put the gameplay first and the story is just there to provide context.

I will say that is a plentiful amount of voice work for a Nintendo platformer. Granted most of it is just various grunts and noises made by the animal cast but those all sounded fine. They added a lot to the games charm and to the characters personalities and gave me a lot of Banjo Kazooie vibes oddly enough. I don’t know if that was intentional, it probably wasn’t, but it was what I felt.

The only full vocal performance is Jenny Kidd as Pauline, and she did a great job. Just a really charming performance all around and she handled the songs with aplomb.

Yes, there are a few vocal songs in the soundtrack and they’re all excellent. The main theme “Breaking Through” being the main highlight. Turning the old Donkey Kong arcade theme into a heartfelt ballad should not work but my god they found a way.

The whole soundtrack is great. it manages to capture the same spirit as both the Country games, and the original arcade games while also doing its own thing at the same time. A perfect blend of the old and new and the older.

I don’t think it’s as consistently good as the Country soundtracks. It’s all good stuff but some lean a bit too hard into atmosphere than melody. It isn’t quite as catchy as the Country soundtracks got. Except for Country 3, it is better than that one at least.

But when it’s good it’s up there with the best of the entire franchise. The challenge room themes being a personal highlight of mine, although I loved the Feast Layer track because it is the most accurate amusement park music I have ever heard. It should play at Nintendo World it’s that spot on.

Plus, it has some banger remixes of some classic Country tunes, and even the arcade game music gets some love. Not a lot mind you, but it goes for quality over quantity. I’m just glad Stickerbrush Symphony made it in. That doesn’t get nearly enough love.

The whole sound design is great. Aside from the music, the sound effects are punchy and really help make every hit and explosion feel so damn good. I’ll get into gameplay specifics in a bit, but this is a game with a heavy emphasis on destruction, and the sound design helps sell that destruction. It’s a great sounding game across the board.

The game looks phenomenal too. It’s very bright and colourful like a lot of Nintendo platformers. Every layer has its own unique theme and colour palette that makes every level visually distinct. The Hillside layer has a different feel than the Freezer Layer which itself is very different from the Landfill Layer.

It helps keep every layer visually interesting. Even something like Hillside layer which is basic still looks really nice and has a cosy vibe to it. The characters all look great too. They all have fun designs and have great animations with a ton of expression and personality to them. I especially love the elders you visit on certain layers with their Banana features and DJ headwear. They look weird, but in the best possible way.

There is one character design that we need to talk about though and that’s Donkey Kong himself. One of the big talking points of this game prior to release was Donkey Kong’s redesign. A good portion of the fanbase hated the redesign They felt like it removed a lot of Donkey Kongs cool factor that he had in the Country games.

I can understand where people are coming from. It’s definitely a lot goofier than the Country design. Much more cartoonish in his expressions and characterisation. I can see why people who grew up on the Country design might be turned off by this.

But I also see why it was changed, and no it wasn’t to tie into the Mario movie. That design was made for the movie not the games I don’t think it had influence on it. if anything, given Bananza was in development during production of the movie, it was originally being made for Switch 1, the game design was what influenced the movies.

No, I think this was done to bring the character back in line with Nintendo’s vision for him. Remember what I said earlier, Donkey Kong for a long time wasn’t really Nintendo’s. The design he has had for decades now was created by Rare and is very much their design and take on the character. Rare was the one that made Donkey Kong cool to make him hip for the 90’s. They even tried to give him a real shotgun before Nintendo asked them to change it to a wooden gun.

Point is, the Donkey Kong you’re used to isn’t Nintendo’s, it is Rare’s. Even the Retro made Country games removed a lot of DKs cool and made him a bit goofier. Because Nintendo’s Kong isn’t cool, he’s a big lovable idiot as exemplified by the original arcade, and it’s the arcade that the design is pulling from.

This Donkey Kong is a big dumb goofy goofball, and I fucking love him. I love his big dumb expressions and loveable personality. He’s not cool, but that’s ok. Donkey Kong has been a lot of different things over the years. He doesn’t have to be exclusively cool, he can also be cartoonish, goofy and silly too. Even Country had its silly moments.

Country DK had his qualities, but he had his problems too. I always liked the Donkey Kong Country design, but it wasn’t the most expressive. A big part of that was the brow. The brow just made him look angry all the time.

For this new design they’ve heightened the brow and rounded out his face more. The result, a Donkey Kong that is far more expressive than he’s ever been. This design might not be cool, but what it lacks in cool factor it makes up in how lovable it makes the character. Old Donkey Kong didn’t express much; this one is dripping with it.

Part of me will always have a soft spot for Rare’s design. I grew up with it so I will always love it in some capacity, but Donkey Kong isn’t just the Rare design, he’s also the arcade version too, and this new design feels like a good mix of the two. Because some of that Rare design is still in there, it’s just mixed with the goofiness of the arcade design.

So, while some may hate it, I’m sorry, but I can’t agree. I love this new design. It’s just too expressive and lovable for me to hate. I’m sure most will grow to accept the design change in time, and I’m really curious to see how Smash Bros handles it, but after playing this game I’m fully on board with this change/

Bananza is just a great looking game. The levels are full of vibrant colour and detail, and the character designs and animations have a ton of charm and personality. On a presentation level they knocked it out of the park, but there is a cost.

Despite this game being a good showcase of the Switch 2’s graphical capabilities, it does still suffer from occasional frame rate drops when too much is on screen. This doesn’t happen that often thankfully. It usually occurs when there’s a lot of destruction going on and it doesn’t last long.

It’s not enough to ruin the gameplay. Just a minor hiccup. I have heard though that some players have experienced motion sickness while playing this. I didn’t suffer from it, but I thought I should let people know just in case. It’s not a major issue as I understand it, but it is worth mentioning just in case you suffer from motion sickness. Just be careful if you do, no one should get hurt playing a videogame.

Besides some slight performance issues, the presentation is stellar. I have little qualms about how the game looks or sounds. Which shouldn’t surprise me considering this game was made by the same wing of Nintendo behind Mario Odyssey and Galaxy. If there’s one this this team knows it’s how to craft gorgeous looking worlds you just want to explore.

Which is exactly what you’ll be doing in this game. Donkey Kong Bananza is a 3D collectathon. The game drops you into a big open level and your job is to explore them to find the various collectables found within, completing missions along the way which award you with even more collectables.

It’s a classic gameplay loop. One that Bananza does quite well, even if it does borrow quite a bit of its structure, and even some missions from Mario Odyssey. However, calling Bananza a Donkey Kong skinned Mario Odyssey would be disingenuous. Because despite some surface level similarities, the two games are very different experiences.

For one Bananza isn’t as heavy on the platforming. Don’t misconstrue, the game is still a platformer with plenty of jumping challenges. What I mean is Donkey Kong isn’t as acrobatic as the portly plumber. Unlike Mario who had a score of different jumps that allowed him to cross levels in a myriad of different ways; Donkey Kong is a bit more rigid in his jumping ability.

That doesn’t mean he is limited in his mobility. Far from it. Donkey Kong is still plenty agile, and he still feels great to control. He’s got a good deal of weight to him, which makes sense given he’s a big ass gorilla, and while he lacks the bounciness he had in Country it’s still a great feeling game to control.

While he might not have the same jumping prowess as Mario, DK has a robust move set of his own. A move set which still incorporates elements from the Country games.  Donkey Kong still has access to his classic roll jump ability from the Country games where you can roll off a ledge then jump to gain extra distance, and it works great in 3D.

In fact it got an upgrade. You can now roll again in mid-air after a roll jump. DK may not have a traditional long jump, but this is a more than adequate substitute. Honestly, I like it better than the long jump. It just feels better to pull off. You can get some great distance from it and outright skip some platforming sequences if you time it right, it’s awesome.

Donkey Kong can also climb on almost any surface, even across ceilings if the right terrain is there. So vertical movement is not an issue. Climbing may not be as satisfying or as skilful as a wall jump, but it does mean Donkey Kong should have little to no issue getting where he wants.

But jumping and climbing isn’t the main focus of Donkey Kong’s move set. That would be punching. Donkey Kong is a punching machine in this game. Punching forward, punching upward, punching down, slamming fist first into the ground, there’s more fists flying than a Bruce Lee movie.

In fact, three of the face buttons are dedicated to punching in different directions. The default control scheme even has Y punching forward, B punching down and X punching up, while A is used for jumping. Each one reflecting the direction you punch.

I did not keep it this way though. I swapped it so B button was jump and A punched down because that was just more natural to me. I’m so used to B being jump that anything different just feels alien. I’m glad they gave you the option to swap that.

But these punches aren’t for dealing with enemies. Well ok they are, and it is very satisfying to land a hit and send these goons flying. No, you use these punches to dig. Donkey Kong can dig through most surfaces, which you’ll need to do to solve some of the games challenges or to just dig around for some treasure.

That’s not all though, DK can also pick up terrain and this is where the move set starts to open up. With a piece of terrain you can do a bunch of stuff. You can jump off it for a makeshift double jump, you can swing it around as a weapon, you can surf on top of it for added speed or to travel on terrain you can’t normally, and you can throw it.

That last one might not have been the most exciting, but Donkey Kong is known for throwing things. Made sense to end on that. Plus, it segways into my next point. The different terrain that Donkey Kong can pick up have a wide variety of effects.

Softer terrain like sand won’t don’t much damage or last long when surfing, but it can stick to walls to create platforms. Harder terrain on the other hand is a more potent weapon and will last a bit longer when surfing.

But a big reason to pick up hardier terrain is to help break other terrain you can’t get through normally. Different terrain has different strength levels, and while you can break through most of it with standard punches, there are some terrain that you just can’t punch through. But with a good chunk of rock, you can bust through it no problem.

That’s not all though, some terrain can have additional effects. Some terrain explodes which can make it very easy to break through large chunks of ground at once, some terrain is bouncy and can’t be picked up, and some terrain will lift you into the air when grabbed just to give a few examples.

There’s a ton of different terrain types that let you interact with the world in different ways, and since every world has its own types of terrain, and even some gadgets that interact with terrain in unique ways, there’s plenty of variety in how you use it.

When you combine that with roll jumping and climbing you have a solid base move set. That’s not even all you have either. Donkey Kong can also hand slap which can act as a radar to find collectibles or pick up smaller items off the ground, he can whistle which can break certain barriers and show him the way to the next objective, the only thing he lacks is the ability to swim underwater. Although considering underwater levels suck in a lot of 3D platformers I can’t say I’m upset at that.

All of that is just what Donkey Kong can do on his own. There’s even more to the move set and it’s tied to the game’s namesake. As Donkey Kong and Pauline explore the underground world they’ll run into five elders that will grant Donkey Kong a Bananza transformation. Allowing him to transform into a different animal with new abilities.

Well except the Kong Bananza. That’s just a bigger Donkey Kong. A Super Saiyan 4 Donkey Kong as some have called it. This form boosts Donkey Kongs strength and gives him a charge punch that can destroy terrain DK can’t normally. This is the Bananza I used the most. It’s great for combat and can make getting through tough areas much easier.

The Zebra Bananza allows DK to run at super speeds. Enabling him to run on crumbling surfaces or water. He can also use a charge dash that lets him run even faster but loses some control. This is a good form for getting around, but I never used this much in the late game. The added speed was nice but as levels get more complex and platforming heavy it becomes less useful.

Ostrich Bananza let’s Donkey Kong glide over long distances and drop egg bombs on enemies below. I didn’t use the latter much, but the glide was very useful. Makes some of the platforming challenges a non-issue.

The Snake Bananza is all about jumping. You get a charge jump that can take you way higher, a double jump that can also be charged, and you can even freeze time. No idea how that last one works. This is the Bananza I used the least. It isn’t bad, and there are times when the high jump is useful, but it’s a bit cumbersome to move around, and the high jump isn’t as useful for vertical travel when you can climb most surfaces.

And finally, there’s the Elephant Bananza. Which flat out breaks the game. No seriously, its main feature lets you suck up terrain and store it for ammunition, and the suction is so powerful it can clear entire rooms in seconds. It’s busted.

Which leads me to an interesting flaw with Bananza. I say interesting because it might not actually be a flaw depending on who you ask. With all the abilities you have, the climbing, digging through terrain, using terrain as a surfboard, the Bananza forms etc, it can make it very easy trivialise if not flat out ignore some of the games challenges.

Why do a tricky platforming challenge when you can just glide to it with the Ostrich? Why run through a tricky part of the level when you can climb a wall and circumvent it? There’s a lot of puzzles and platforming sequences that can be broken with the right abilities. It makes a lot of the game really easy. A bit too easy in some cases.

This isn’t normally an issue for me. I don’t mind easy games, I mean I’m a Kirby fan for God’s sake, if anything as I get older I prefer easy games. But considering this is Donkey Kong, a series that is famous for its difficulty, it does feel a bit disappointing the game doesn’t test your skills more.

Granted Mario Odyssey wasn’t that hard either, aside from the post-game where it got severe difficulty spikes, but Mario as a series has never been that challenging. There’s a different expectation there compared to Donkey Kong.

However, there is a reason why this might be a flaw for some. While it is very easy to trivialise certain challenges, that is something you need to make a conscience choice to do. This thing with Donkey Kong Bananza, what makes it so good, is how open ended it is.

The game gives you so many tools that you can get any of the collectibles in any way that you want. You could trivialise them, or you could do them normally. The game simply gives you options and it’s up to you to decide which of those options you want to go for.

I actually made a conscious decision to not use the Elephant Bananza unless I needed to. The option is there, and I will admit I did use it on occasion, but for the most part I just tried to do everything normally and I still had a great time.

There is of course the age-old problem of one option being so good it renders all others irrelevant. Like how in Contra the spread gun the best weapon is objectively. You just don’t want anything else when you have it.

But, for as busted as Elephant Bananza can get, I don’t think it reaches that level. While decimating an entire room is certainly useful, it isn’t always the right solution. You can absolutely use it to break the levels, but not every challenge is suited for that approach.

You will still need to use the other Bananza forms for certain missions, and while decimating the terrain can uncover secrets faster, it can also make navigating the levels harder. It can even lock you out of certain collectables.

The Elephant is still a potent option in many missions, but it is only one of several. Every option you have has its own advantages, and it’s up to you to decide which is the best for the given situation. There are no wrong answers. Only the answers you personally give.

The game is open ended enough that you can play it in any way that you want. In fact, it’s so open ended that it doesn’t feel like there is the intended way to do things. You can play this thing however you want, and it never feels like cheating. There’s so much room for player expression in this.

But I don’t want to make it seem like the game is broken because it isn’t. There are balances in here to prevent that. For one the Bananza forms don’t last forever. They have a time limit and transforming use a resource called Bananergy, this game loves its banana puns doesn’t it. No Bananergy, no transformations.

You gain Bananergy by getting gold, which is everywhere, and you can regain Bananergy even when transformed. It’s not hard to stock up on it so you can transform again. Once you gain two Bananza forms you can also switch them right before time runs out to keep it going if you have the energy.

Ok, bad example, but it does make sense for it to be designed like this. There’s a big emphasis on the Bananza forms and even swapping between them. If you couldn’t build Bananergy fast, it would make a lot of the game unnecessarily frustrating.

The real balancing comes from the level design itself. While a lot of the game is open ended, not everything is. A lot of the collectables can be gotten in different ways, but some can only be gotten through specific means.

This is most noticeable in the games challenge areas. Which are short combat or platforming challenges that have stricter level design. So, while the game remains open ended and gives a ton of freedom to the player, the level design is reserved just enough to prevent the player from stampeding through everything like a maniac.

The earlier levels are a lot less rigid. Those ones let you just go nuts so you can get used to the controls and gameplay. The later levels are a lot more intricate. They are where they will start testing your skills with more thoughtful puzzles and tighter platforming challenges.

The level design itself is excellent. Despite how large these levels can get they never feel empty. They’re still densely packed with things to do. Even just walking around you’ll find a new challenge room or collectable every minute. There’s something around every corner which makes basic exploration fun and rewarding.

The levels are creative too. They’ll often utilise the same kind of terrain but in different ways. The Freezer Layer is the traditional ice level, but the lower sections will also have lava. The only way to get through them is to use the ice to cool sections of it to walk on.

Then there’s the Tempest Layer. This level also has lava, but it’s themed around storms, and by that point you have the Elephant Bananza and can just suck it up. So, the game adds in lava rain that drops down from the ceiling that need to be blocked by holding terrain over your head like an umbrella.

See, both levels use the same obstacle, but utilise that obstacle in different ways that reflect that stage’s theme. A lot of the game is like this. Much like how the Country series would make every level different by introducing new ideas and gimmicks in each, so does Bananza.

The game is constantly introducing new ideas and all of them work. Some are more fun than others, but I never found any of the level ideas outright bad. I also love some of the themes they went with. The Jungle and Freezer Layers might be typical themes for this series, but when you add on a hotel and ice cream theme respectively it makes them a lot more fun.

My favourite level in the game though is the Feast Layer. This level’s theme is that of an amusement park based around fast food. Amusement park levels are usually a highlight for me, so I was always going to like this one, but the fast-food theme really helps it stand out.

I love it. Sure the amount of fast food in it makes me hungry and you can feel the heart aches coming just from looking at it, so much grease and salt, but it’s inventive. It’s something I haven’t seen before.

The whole level is built around the theme. The main mission in it is to go on all the attractions to build a gigantic burger tower, and all the attractions are based on some kind of food. Instead of a water boat ride, you have a ride where you ride on fries across bubbling oil, there’s a ride where you run across grated cheese, there are pools that are filled with soda, my heart is palpitating just thinking about it. It might be unhealthiest place on earth, but it was still fun

It also has a unique terrain type with salt, which is used to get rid of slug like muck scattered in the level. Again, taking the basic mechanics of the game but building a new idea with it that ties into the theme of the level. This whole level was a big highlight for me, but there were plenty others that I loved.

I really can’t think of a level I actively disliked. Maybe the Tempest Layer with how hidden some of the collectibles were, but even that had some great ideas, and I can’t say I hated it. I just didn’t like it as much. There are levels that are weaker than others, but none of them were bad. They were all enjoyable in their own ways.

There’s a great sense of discovery in this game. Since every level is different, it makes getting to a new layer exciting because you want to know what the game will throw at you next. Even the Landfill Layer, which is a literal trash level, is fun because it’s different from the levels that proceeded it.

It might be the dullest looking level, and it is largely just digging one big hole downward, but it’s not long enough for it to outstay it’s welcome. Which is something that greatly helps the game. While each level is large and packed with things to do, not every level shares the same scope.

Some levels are massive with several different layers while others are fairly small in comparison. The Freezer and Tempest Layer are both huge with multiple floors, but the Feast Layer only has one large upper layer and a smaller internal layer.

The pacing in this game is impeccable. Because when you finish a large level, it’s usually followed by a smaller level that acts as a reprieve. My favourite example of this happens early on after you beat the Freezer and Jungle Layers. Those are some of the longer stages in the game with some tricky platforming challenges and enemies for early in the game, and you need to beat those back-to-back.

When you complete those the next level is the Resort Layer. A much smaller level with few enemies and very simple platforming. After the two preceding levels, it makes for a refreshing change to have a level that is just fun to around in with little getting in the way.

Then there are levels that aren’t levels at all. There are some that act as intermissions to connect to the larger stages, and then there’s the Racing Layer which exists just to have a short racing minigame. Both serve as nice breaks in the action.

The game is very good at knowing when to slow down and give the player a chance to catch their breath, and when you combine that with every level having new ideas while building on the main mechanics, the game never gets old.

The pacing and level design is so tight that I didn’t get tired at all when I was playing it. I enjoyed it so much I had to force myself to stop playing it just so I could go do something else. It’s incredibly addicting.

That isn’t to say the pacing is flawless. There are points where I had to grind for resources. There’s a spot near the end where you need to pay gold to continue and I ended up not having enough, which was weird for me because I’m usually good at avoiding that.

I ended up having to go back and grind to get the gold I needed. The same thing happens in the postgame where some of the final collectables require an insane amount of gold. These are extreme exceptions though. For the most part the pacing is very strong and even when I had to back track the game made it easy to do so thanks to the amount of fast travel points.

The game is very generous with these. It makes the post-game clean-up a breeze. This is one of the easiest 3D platformers to 100% that I’ve played in recent memory. Not just because of the lower difficulty but because the fast travel made getting to where I needed to be quick and painless. These levels are massive and being able to warp across them in an instant to get a collectable I missed is a massive convenience.

But since I’m on the subject, I think it’s time we talk about the main crux of any collectathon, the collectibles. I already mentioned gold so let’s start with that. Gold is everywhere in this game and is used as the main currency, as well as a good source of Bananergy. You can use this to buy helpful items like balloons that help recover from a fall or maps to find the main collectables.

I don’t usually buy helpful items like the balloons in games like this, but I did it here because it felt like the game wanted me to use them. In other platformers they’re purely there to help casual players get through the game, but here they feel like a natural part of the design. They even give you them in treasure chests so you might as well take advantage of them.

You can also use gold to unlock hideouts. These are very useful. Not only do they serve as an extra fast travel point and shop, but they can also fully heal you when staying there. You can also gain bonus health from doing that too, and the more hideouts you get on that level the more bonus health you get. So if you see a new hideout location make sure you go for it.

You can also listen to music at a hideout, but you’ll need to unlock the songs first. You get new tracks from records that drop from enemies. They aren’t too hard to get, but you will want to defeat as many enemies as you can if you want to get them all.

But ok, let’s move on to the main collectables. Of which there are two, the Banandium Gems and the Fossils. The Fossils are less important so let’s start there. Fossils are scattered everywhere in most layers, and these also serve as a special currency used to purchase new costumes for DK and Pauline.

These are the equivalent of the Purple Coins from Odyssey. Unlike Odyssey though the outfits you get aren’t just for aesthetics. They have different stats like increasing the rate of treasure chests that drop randomly when digging, increasing Bananza time, increasing swimming speed, increasing defence and more.

I’m torn on this. On one hand having stats makes the outfits have a more tangible impact on the gameplay. Giving you a better reason for wearing them. On the other hand, because they do have an impact on gameplay it can lead to you sticking to a certain costume because its effects are too good. Once I got the Treasure Tie early on, I never took it off. Increasing the drop rate of treasure chests was too good.

It also creates an imbalance since some costumes are very useful, while others are lame or so situational you’ll probably only use them once. Some of them will even get made redundant by other costumes you get later in the game.

I wish there was a way to mix and match outfits and the stats they give you. You know have a separate equipment slot for the look you want and the effects you want like a lot of modern RPGs do. Since there’s a few costumes I really like in this design wise that I never used because they weren’t that useful.

I will say that at least the effects are noticeable. You can feel the difference they make so at least it got that right. You can also upgrade costumes to increase their effects, which you can do by finding larger Fossils.

There are three types of Fossils. Smaller Fossils are the most common and are pretty much everywhere. Medium sized Fossils are a tad rarer and are used to upgrade costumes to second or third levels. Then there’s the giant Fossils, of which there’s only one per layer. These are used to get the final upgrade for the neckties. Kind of weird they just do that, wish they’d do more, but the ties have some of the better effect, so I guess it makes sense.

Despite my issues I’d say the costumes are an improvement on Odyssey overall. The added gameplay benefits do make it slightly better. And while the stats increases are useful, they are mostly a bonus and not something you need. You can just focus on the aesthetics if you want.

I just wish it had a balance of style and substance. I also wish there was a bit more interesting outfits to pick from. There aren’t that many to pick for DK. Just colours and different short designs. not a lot of the weird outfits that Odyssey had like the old Mario 64 model, would have loved to see the DK equivalent. But that game got tons through updates and hopefully this will too.

And it’s here where I should mention that while I was writing this review the game got a DLC pack which did include new outfits. I haven’t played that though because it’s a bit too expensive for what it offers. I’m trying to be smart with my purchases and that just didn’t seem worth it. Sorry I can’t comment on it, but it is what it is.

But let’s move on to the main collectable, the Banandium Gems. Or the Bananas, I’ll just call them Bananas for short. These are what you’ll spend most of the game down. You can find a lot of them hidden in the open, some are hidden behind terrain, some require you to solve a minor puzzle or platforming challenge, and you can also find challenge stages that reward you with Banana’s cor completing them. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of Banana’s in this.

As for what they do, that’s where things get interesting. In most collectathons the collectables are used for progression. With you only able to move forward by getting a certain number of whatever you collect. That’s how it works in the 3D Mario games, you collect enough stars or moons or whatever and you unlock the next level.

Donkey Kong Bananza is not like this. The game is more mission based. You progress further into the game by just completing the objectives the game gives you. There are very few areas where you need Banana’s to progress, and most of those are in the post-game.

If that is the case, what do the Bananas do? Well, they upgrade you. Donkey Kong Bananza introduces a skill tree that will upgrade Donkey Kong’s abilities. A lot of the moves I went over during the move set run down like the double jump are gained through the skill tree and you can use it to gain increases to your health or upgrade your punching power to break through sturdier terrain easier.

This, to me, is a fantastic addition. One of the problems with collectathons is that at some point the collectables become meaningless. In most cases you only need to collect a percentage of the total collectables in the game. which can make the rest feel superfluous.

Normally there is some kind of 100% reward for getting everything, but those aren’t always worth it. You ever see what you get in Mario Sunshine? Plus, unless you look it up you won’t know what you’ll get anyway, and because the individual collectables don’t do much of anything it’s not as satisfying to collect them.

Me personally I always felt collectathons were better when going for 100%. Because then you see all the game has to offer and I find it satisfying to collect everything. But a lot of other players don’t. A lot of people don’t go for everything because they find it tedious and I can completely understand that.

I especially felt that with Mario Odyssey. That game had so many moons that did nothing but add to the completion total that it made completing it a chore. I still have never fully completed it. I’ve beaten it, I find it enjoyable to play but completing it is a nightmare because of how much there was to collect.

By tying Bananas to the skill tree, Bananza manages to circumvent this issue. Because now every Banana you get is one more step towards a skill point, you need five Bananas to get one skill point, it makes the individual Banana’s more rewarding to get. Plus, since the skill tree is designed so that the point total needed to get everything requires every Banana, there’s a better gameplay incentive to collect every single one.

Do you need to? Not really. You can get plenty of Banana’s through normal play to get all the skills you need, but there is still a better reason to want to go after them. It’s not uncommon for you to play this game, working towards an objective, seeing a Banana in the distance, making a beeline towards it and seeing other Banana’s you want to get along the way.

It’s very easy to get sidetracked in this game, and I mean that as a good thing. Because Banana’s are so satisfying to get, you’ll want to actively hunt them down. You can spend an hour just wandering around not making any real progress but still have fun because there’s so many collectables to uncover.

The thing is though, doing the main objectives does reward you with Banana bunches that give you multiple Banana’s. Finishing a layer will even reward you with a five bunch Banana which is an automatic skill point.

You can still focus on the objectives and get a lot of the skills you need, but you’ll still feel the urge to get the side Banana’s because it gets you those skills faster. Plus, why have a lot of the skills when you can have all of them you know.

This makes Donkey Kong Bananza one of the most satisfying collectathons I’ve ever played. Every Banana felt good to get, which isn’t something I can say for the Moons in Odyssey, or the Jiggies in Banjo, or even the eggs in Spyro 3. Love those games though I do, this game made the individual collectables feel more impactful, and it did so by ironically not tying them to progression.

Now, I will say that completing the game is still time consuming. There are 777 Banana’s and 696 Fossils to collect. That is a lot of collectables, it’s up there with Odyssey in the amount of stuff to get. Though thankfully it is not as bad as Donkey Kong 64 which was just insane in how it handled collectables.

It will take a long time to get everything. It took me well over 50 hours to fully complete this game, so if you’re a completionist be prepared to lock in. That said, I found the act of completing the game to be one of the smoothest experiences in a 3D platformer.

While some of the collectables and missions gave me pause, particularly the racing/timing-based missions which took me a few tries, I didn’t find any of them frustrating. Even the final challenge wasn’t that bad. There’s nothing here that’s close to the nonsense Odyssey had you do. I can never look at jump rope the same way again after that game.

Finding them isn’t too hard either. The radar is incredibly useful in finding collectables behind terrain, and if you do struggle with finding these things you could always just buy a map at the store to point in the right direction. One of the reasons I never took the treasure tie off was to increase the chance of finding a chest with a map in it to make my job easier.

You will need to get gold for the maps, and I wish the prices didn’t go up as you buy them, it’s like real time inflation, but it’s not too hard to get the gold you need. Honestly despite how long it took, I found completing Bananza to be a pretty easy going and at times even relaxing experience.

That said, I didn’t technically complete it. I got all the Fossils and collected all the main Banana’s, but I didn’t get all the skills. There are a few postgame skills that you can’t get even if you get every Banana. They don’t give you the skill points you need/

To do that you need to buy extra Banana’s. There’s one final currency in the game in the form of Banana Chips, and you can use these at the Chip Exchange to get more Banana’s. You need to do this at least once for a mission, but you can do it a few more times to get the last Banana’s needed for the final skills.

I did not do this. it would require a lot of grinding and by that point I had already collected all the main Banana’s, collected all the fossils, finished the post-game challenges and gotten the true ending. I was more than done by that point. All you get is a DK shaped balloon anyway, it really isn’t worth the hassle

The thing is you don’t need all the Banana’s to finish the post-game. You only need 600 Banana’s to finish the post-game story and see the true ending. I know 600 sounds like a lot, but it isn’t that bad. While it technically says there are 777 Banana’s in the game, that number isn’t entirely accurate.

The 777 only counts the missions tied to the Banana’s, while the 600 you need counts the Banana’s you’ve eaten. So Banana Bunches are counted as one Banana on the list but count as three or five Banana’s eaten since that’s how many you get out of them.

So there aren’t 777 Banana’s, it’s more like 1000. That’s a lot of potassium. 1000 is a big number, but you only need 600 to see the end. So you have a lot of wiggle room to get the Banana’s you need.

It is weird that the true ending isn’t tied to 100%, but it does make it much easier for a more casual audience to see it. You do get a special secret ending if you get everything. It’s not much, just a reworked final image, but it is something. At least completionists don’t walk away empty handed.

So, 100% completion isn’t too bad. It’s not required, but I found it a good time. I certainly enjoyed it more than Odyssey in that regard. Ignoring that though, playing Donkey Kong Bananza normally and just collecting what you can along the way is still a satisfying time.

The level design is fantastic, the control is tight and responsive with a wonderful game feel, and the game has plenty of variety to keep you going. It is by no means perfect though. The control scheme is a bit cumbersome. This is one of those games where every button does something different and that leads to me messing up.

It’s mainly the triggers. I don’t know why but those always give me problems. I think the game is aware of this too because there’s a hint system that will remind you of the controls for certain things when you need them. Bit of an overcorrection there though; I wish you could turn those off.

To be honest, most of my complaints with this game are either nitpicks or issues with 3D platforming design in general. Some missions being a bit annoying, the camera sometimes acting up, the crappy racing level, you know the normal problems you put up with in the genre. They don’t ruin the game; they’re just minor annoyances you need to tolerate.

The only other issue I can think of is with the bosses. Specifically, the early game bosses. They’re too easy and short for their own good. I beat most of them in less than a minute without even trying. I was worried that the bosses throughout the game would suck. Which has precedence considering the 3D Mario games aren’t the best with bosses and this was made by the same department.

But after a while, the bosses started to get a lot better. They had more interesting patterns and were a lot tougher to take down. Not terribly hard, but far from the pushovers the early bosses were. I’d even say the bosses in the second half of the game were pretty good, especially the final boss.

The entire end game is just absolute peak. Spoilers ahoy. After a decently challenging battle with Void Kong at the Banandium Root, Void tricks Pauline into awakening it, only for the Root to be revealed to be an imprisoned King K Rool. He’s finally back after years of absence and it is glorious. He yeets Void Kong away like he was nothing and immediately takes over as main villain. It’s a great twist that sadly got spoiled for me. That’s what I get for being late to the party.

After that you go to the final level which is a much more linear affair with some really fun challenges that tests all of your skills. Then it tops off with a fun final battle against K-Rool that uses your Bananza forms in a climactic final showdown.

Then, right when that’s done and you think the credits are going to roll, a fake credit scene plays and K Rool gets back up for round two. As a Donkey Kong Country fan this gave me a big nostalgia high. You then have another fun fight while traveling to the surface, but it’s still not over.

Because even after that you get one final obstacle course in New Donk City where the game throws everything at you. Before finally ending with the true final fight against K Rool in his new King of Rot form. It’s such an epic finale. It just keeps building up and building up until you reach a grand crescendo. The Odyssey finale was really good, but this one blew it out of the water.

But the finale, beyond being a great spectacle, highlights the big reason I love this game so much. I mean after everything I’ve gone through you probably gotten a good idea of that. But here’s the thing, all that stuff, the great gameplay, presentation and the sheer deluge of content, that’s not why I love it.

That is why the game is great, but they aren’t what pushes it over the edge to being something I love. No, that would be how much reverence this game has for the Donkey Kong series. There are so many throwbacks, references, shout outs and allusions to past games across this franchise that it should warm the heart of any DK fan.

There’s a bit of Country here, a bit of arcade there, even the oft forgotten 64 has multiple references across the game. Arguably it has the most since the classic “Oh Banana” line is said after every Banana you pick up.

The fossils have characters from past games, including ones you would never expect. In the final level before the K Rool fight the enemies are changed to the Kremlin Crew, and when you beat them it plays the old grunt sound effects from the Country games. They didn’t need to do that, but you don’t put tiny details like that in unless you truly love the franchise you’re working on.

Even the Bananza forms are all based on the Animal Buddies from the previous games. The Ostrich is Espresso, the Snake is Rattly, the Elephant is Ellie, even the Zebra is sort of based on the rideable wildebeest in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. It’s a stretch I know, but an argument could be made for it.

I’ll admit it sucks that the Animal Buddies still haven’t returned, but their spirit lives on at least. The Bananza forms are a great evolution of them. Even if we don’t see them again, I’m glad they aren’t fully forgotten. Although Rambi still lives on. He’s the only Animal Buddy that stuck around. Shame you only play as him in a lame racing mission, but hey it’s something at least.

Look, in any other game these throwbacks would be seen as nostalgic pandering. And I can’t lie it does come across as that. However, this game gets away with the nostalgic pandering. Because this game doesn’t rely on nostalgia, it earns its nostalgia. Instead of relying on reverence of the old to get by. All the nostalgia is just the cherry on top. It doesn’t need any of it because it has a solid foundation that builds something new.

It doesn’t use nostalgia as a crux to hide uncreative gameplay like New Super Mario Bros series did. It has new ideas, creative ideas that are just as strong as what came before it. But it also knows it wouldn’t exist without those older games, and it pays reverence to them as often as it can. Not because of pandering, but as a thank you. A thank you to the legacy they created.

Donkey Kong Bananza is the continuation of that legacy, and a fantastic one at that. It’s a great 3D collectathon that, for me, is the best way to bring Donkey Kong into the third dimension. Donkey Kong 64 was fine, but let’s be honest it was basically a 3D Rare platformer with a Donkey Kong skin. It played a lot like their other platformers like Banjo or Conker.

This one feels like a Donkey Kong game. It has all the familiar elements you remember, while also adding its own, and it makes them all work in 3D excellently. This is what I wanted out of a 3D Donkey Kong game.

Is it as good as the 2D games? The jury is still out on that. I do lean to liking the 2D games more, but that’s because I prefer 2D over 3D anyway. Right now, I’d say the game isn’t as good as Tropical Freeze or Country 2, but I would put it up there with the original Country. Which is high praise from me because I love that game.

I highly recommend this one. especially if you’re a fan of Donkey Kong. The collectathon formula might not be to everyone’s taste, but I think they work around the flaws of the genre that even those put off by it can enjoy it. No matter where you stand on it, this is one you need to check out.

Granted you need to buy a Switch 2 for that and given how expensive that is… yeah, I don’t blame you if you can’t get this yet. But if you ever do get one make sure you pick this up. For me it was well worth the price of admission. Now I just have to wait patiently for the next DK game. Hopefully I’m not waiting another eleven years. Jeez now I know how Metroid fans feel.