Although the obvious comparison is Super Mario Odyssey (the much-loved 3D platformer that shares some key developers with Bananza), a totally different collection of games were popping into my head while playing.
If you enjoyed the old LEGO games by Traveller’s Tales, particularly that oddly joyous feeling of smashing up everything in your path, you’ll find a similar itch scratched here.
And if you enjoyed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, particularly that feeling of being constantly sidetracked from the main mission because you keep bumping into other diverting activities, you’ll find a similar itch scratched here.
Sure, there are comparisons to be made with Mario Odyssey. Where Mario had a function that allowed him to temporarily gain new abilities, here DK has ‘Bananzas’, a slightly convoluted mechanic that essentially allows him to temporarily gain new abilities.
Whereas Odyssey allowed you to throw the hat whenever you like at whatever you like, Donkey Kong’s latest outing really makes you work for each transformation. If you want to turn into a zebra version of DK, for example, you’ll need to locate the village elder of the zebra people and do a whole quest for him involving tracking down the missing pieces of a smashed vinyl disc.
However, the transformations are clearly not the main attraction here. That would be the aforementioned smashing of everything. While there is some light platforming and the occasional not-too-difficult boss battle, you’ll spend most of your time exploring a series of mini open-world levels where you can punch almost anything you see into smithereens.
This never stops feeling fun, and you’ll feel a pang of disappointment every time you encounter a surface that you can’t break (some of them require Bananza transformations, while others are fully indestructible in order for the game to keep some semblance of structure).
Speaking of structure, in terms of story, we wouldn’t say that Donkey Kong Bananza has the most compelling narrative arc holding it together. Your overarching goal is to work your way down to the planet core, through a series of layers, to stop the baddies and possibly get a wish granted at the end of it.
Donkey Kong is largely mute in the game, save for a few grunts, which feels like an odd choice when other characters like the sidekick Pauline are voiced (speaking of Pauline, it never stops being odd that she’s been turned into a child, and her songs are quite wacky as well).
There are also NPCs that just get the text-on-screen treatment. The baddies, Void Kong and his goons, do talk sometimes but rarely have anything interesting to say.
Assuming that Donkey Kong as a character plays a big part in Nintendo’s future movie plans, this does feel like a missed opportunity to build out his character and make people care about him a little more.
All of that being said, it’s odd that Donkey Kong Bananza still hangs together so well. It’s really easy to spend time with, and you never feel annoyed when you find yourself getting sidetracked away from the main quest in favour of collecting bananas, completing mini challenges and generally exploring each lovingly crafted layer.
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There’s one other niggle, and it’s about the graphics. The worlds are impressive and the colour palette is fab, but the game does sometimes struggle to load in the whole field of view. Almost like a fog of war effect, you’ll sometimes see a big black rectangle of nothingness before the world that’s meant to be there pops into view.
Again, it’s odd how much that doesn’t bother me. You know the game is working hard to bring you a fun world, so you let slide the odd visual cover-up. Even a literal barrier doesn’t seem to block my enjoyment of this game.
The biggest comparison to Mario Odyssey is probably in how, simply put, fun this game is. There’s a lot of imagination on display, and there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had as you wreck your way through each layer in chaotic fashion. I never knew I needed Zebra DK in my life, but my life is very much better for having experienced it.
If this game was a bunch of bananas, there would be a couple of fruit looking bruised and disappointing. But they’d be far outnumbered by the colourful, beautiful bananas ripe for enjoyment.
Donkey Kong Bananza launches 17th July for Nintendo Switch 2, and you can order your copy now.
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