Donkey Kong Bananza Review
Donkey Kong Bananza should be called Donkey Kong Odyssey because the amount of similarities with Super Mario Odyssey is astounding! You can go down the list, line for line and check off every single box that is nearly identical.
The core gameplay loop revolves around finding Super Bananas (Banandium) instead of Super Moons, which also happen to have a near identical shape
Instead of Cappy powers that largely enhance Mario’s abilities, you now have Bananzas to drastically alter DK’s abilites.
Each biome has multiple types of currency to collect, purchase cosmetics, and alter your characters appearance.
The entire VoidCo villains are very forgettable and feel reminiscent of the Broodals.
Music plays an integral role in the plot
The finale of the game is a massive tribute to the series.
There is normal and assist mode.
There are music tracks to collect around the world
You quickly move from biome to biome during the campaign.
The list goes on and on, but did I forget to mention that I think Super Mario Odyssey is the best game from the Nintendo Switch generation and also happens to be the best 3D Super Mario of all time. Taking inspiration from a prestige title like this is actually a fantastic idea. In addition to how great the formula already was, using Donkey Kong’s movement and destruction opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
It might not reach the same heights as Super Mario Odyssey and it unfortunately retains some of the shortcomings, but Donkey Kong Bananza is an experience unlike anything else.
Donkey Kong Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is arguably the best game on the Nintendo Switch. Considering it released in 2017, sold 30 million copies and it was the last 3D Super Mario title, there were expectations that the Nintendo Switch 2 would be launching with Super Mario Odyssey 2, but it quickly became clear that the team was working on a new 3D Donkey Kong Game, something that hasn’t happened this decade, century or even millennium. Donkey Kong Bananza is also the first 3D Donkey Kong game to be made by Nintendo proper as DK64 was developed by Rare and the first console title since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat to be developed exclusively by Nintendo, which was over 21 years ago in 2004.
Donkey Kong Bananza begins on Ingot Isle where all the monkeys are mining Banandium Gems, which contain super powers, similar to super moons. Ingot Isle serves as a bit of a tutorial area and after getting your feet wet with all of the incredible smashing abilities and understanding the destruction of the world, you are quickly introduced to the main villain Void Kong and the rest of his associates from the evil company VoidCo. Void Kong was operating a failing mining business until he learned the power of the Banandium and like most evil villains has become power hungry and wants to seek world domination.
If Donkey Kong wants a chance to stop Void, he must descend to the core of the planet where the Banandium Root resides. Donkey Kong quickly finds an ally that happens to be Pauline, who we know as Mayor Pauline from Super Mario Odyessey, except in Donkey Kong Bananza, Pauline is only 13 years old. Together they harness the power of music and the ability to dismantle the VoidCo traps around the world and learn the power of Bananzas, which are huge transformative powers.
As you travel from sublayer to sublayer, working your way to the planet core, you will cross all types of different environments from forests, deserts and frozen tundras where you will slowly be granted the Bananza powers. The first Bananza you unlock is Kong Bananza, which is just a much bigger and enraged version of Donkey Kong who now has the ability to smash through walls that were previously indestructible. There are a total of five different Bananzas in the game and discovering what they are is half the fun. The other half is learning how to embrace the new skills to complete objectives and harness the abilities to find previously inaccessible bananas.
Before getting too far ahead, what makes Donkey Kong Bananza so magical is the destructibility of the world. Not only is smashing nearly everything therapeutic, but it also adds a layer of complexity and creativity for finding hidden items or solving puzzles.
One of the biggest improvements from the Odyssey formula is that Bananza has added a layer of depth on top of a few of the systems. Finding enough money around the world to purchase new outfits for Mario was a joy and was a reward on its own. Bananza returns with the exact same system, but instead of just offering a cosmetic difference, they now provide stat bonuses such as get more Bananza energy for smashing or take less damage from a certain element. There are also outfits for Pauline that affect stats as well. This was an added incentive to find fossils and purchase different outfits each biome. In addition to outfits, you can also purchase different hair dye kits for Donkey Kong to change his fur color, which was also simple, whimsical fun.
The other layer of depth came from collecting the Banandium Gems, which are the Super Moon equivalent. Instead of just collecting them, which once again was already a worthy reward for most people, especially completionists, they also helped you unlock nodes on a skill tree, which features over 30 different nodes to upgrade. Every five Banandium gems you find gives you one skill point, which can be used to upgrade DK’s total health or his smashing power, which is useful as the terrain gets stronger or even improve some of the Bananza powers.
As you travel from biome to biome, it becomes clear that just like in Super Mario Odyssey, the joy will come after the credits, as you are leaving so many hidden items unearthed as you follow the trail of evil to stop Void Kong. You don’t feel the urgency to help as you can now explore and smash every inch of these biomes looking for bananas and fossils. When the credits finally rolled, I wasn’t upset because the game was over, I was elated because the real game had just begun.
ROTTEN BANANAS
Donkey Kong Bananza is an incredible game, but it should have been one of the best of all time. The biggest issue I have with Bananza is that it lacks true Donkey Kong personality and fails to showcase what has made this primate an icon over the past five decades.
Donkey Kong has featured some incredible soundtracks, but a lot of the songs in Bananza are slight variations of songs that we already heard in Odyssey in 2017. Not only was swimming a huge part of Super Mario Odyssey, but swimming plays a huge role in the legacy of Donkey Kong Country, but in Bananza, Donkey Kong can’t go under water.
In Odyssey, there were Koopa’s constantly in my face about racing, Luigi asking me to hide red balloons, Captain Toad camping out and giving me hints. You’re constantly reminded of the iconic characters of the series. You do encounter familiar faces like Diddy, Dixie and a few others, but they feel extremely under utilized.
Two of the weakest aspects of Odyssey was the co-op and the villains. Bananza features co-op, but just like Odyssey, it feels tacked on, but it also feels broken as the second player has the ability to spam explosives, which completely diminishes many of the challenging aspects of Bananza including enemies, puzzles and platforming.
Just like the Broodals, Void Kong and the rest of VoidCo were also very uninspired and not representative of Nintendos history of making iconic villans. Making matters worse, boss fights had major issues. They were too easy, except for a few at the end, where the difficulty massively spiked, and they would also be re-used as they would often run away at the end of the fight, which was unsatisfying.
Is Donkey Kong Bananza Worth It?
Donkey Kong Bananza is the definition of a next generation experience. It’s doing something that wasn’t possible on the Nintendo Switch with the near limitless destructibility of the environment and so much more. Whatever flaws Donkey Kong Bananza might have, it’s overcompensated with a level of fun that is rarely achieved.
For the entire life cycle of the Switch, Super Mario Odyssey was “the” game that you needed to get with the Nintendo Switch. While I don’t think that Donkey Kong Bananza reaches the same heights as Super Mario Odyssey, I feel confident that over the next seven years, when someone asks what is the one game to buy for the Nintendo Switch 2, Donkey Kong Bananza will be that game.
