DK Rap composer Grant Kirkhope has revealed he has made less than a dollar off the song's 1.5 million plays on TikTok.

The DK Rap is widely considered the most influential piece of music ever composed. This triumphant song about a group of five iconic simians transcended the Nintendo 64 game it was an intro to and made musical history. Without Lanky Kong, you probably wouldn't have had The Beatles debut about 40 years earlier.

At the very least – whether through meme remixes (see below), ironic enjoyment, or just appreciation for art – the DK Rap has become a staple of the series, arguably being more popular than Donkey Kong 64 itself with appearances in Super Smash Bros., The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and most recently, Donkey Kong Bananza. DK Rap composer Kirkhope has embraced the fandom around the song with a remake of the song for it's 25th anniversary, and by making the "Yooka-Laylee Rap" for the titular game.

Over on Twitter, Kirkhope comments on the song's enduring popularity, saying: "In other news the DK Rap had 1.5 million plays on Tik Tok." But there's a caveat: "I got paid 56 cents."

While the amount artists make off their music in the streaming era is a hot topic as of late, having the numbers laid out in front of you like that is somewhat wild. Kirkhope follows up the tweet, saying: "It shouldn't surprise me that most people don't know how music royalties work. Most composers don't either…"

Unfortunately, Kirkhope hasn't had too much luck with the DK Rap as of late, as famously the song's appearance in the Mario Movie didn't result in him getting a credit in the film, with a generic "Nintendo" credit shown. Kirkhope admitted last year: "I still haven't watched the movie yet. I've seen that bit with the rap. But I was so pissed I haven't watched it."

Donkey Kong Bananza devs admit the blatantly OP elephant transformation "probably went too far," but "it's fun" and "that's what matters most."

Nintendo is celebrating the 45th Anniversary of Donkey Kong today, so I've hit the digital badlands of eBay. That original date refers to everyone's favorite gorilla's first outing in arcades, but I'm taking things back to the home console this week. Looking to build the ultimate Donkey Kong collection in time for the big boy's birthday? I've got you covered.

Below, you'll find every major Donkey Kong game released into our hands and homes (though I've omitted re-releases in the form of compilations, mini-games, virtual consoles, digital bonuses, and DSI-only downloads), alongside eBay's average sold price at the time of writing.

In short, it's everything you need to start plugging some holes in your collection or start right from scratch with the cheapest pickups. We're taking this banana-train all the way through to the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 to boot - where the games listed will run alongside their lowest prices on the web right now.

Before Cranky Kong gets ahead of me, just note that some of the prices below may seem a little high at first glance. That's because this is a full average of all recently sold listings - whether it's pristine in box or simply a cart in a bag.

Donkey Kong Game and Watch games

Donkey Kong NES games

Donkey Kong SNES games

Donkey Kong Game Boy games

N64 Donkey Kong games

Donkey Kong Game Boy Advance games

Donkey Kong GameCube games

Donkey Kong Nintendo DS games

Donkey Kong Wii games

Donkey Kong 3DS games

Donkey Kong Wii U games

Donkey Kong Nintendo Switch games

Donkey Kong Nintendo Switch 2 games

Donkey Kong 64: Recompiled promises to give us all a perfected version of Rare's N64 collectathon, playable on PC complete with modern resolutions, high frame rates, and extensive additional features via mods. The project isn't ready for release just yet, but the devs have a good reason for announcing it early – they want to make sure their version is front of mind instead of a "poorly made" alternative built with AI code.

The trailer for DK64: Recompiled covers pretty much all of the bases you'd expect from a project of this nature, building a new version of the game for various PC platforms with the help of the N64: Recompiled tool that was released back in 2024. Donkey Kong 64 still has a controversial reputation among Nintendo fans thanks to its vast pile of collectables and massive difficulty spikes, but for those whose love of the game remains true, this will likely be an ideal way to play it.

But, of course, it's not yet available, and won't be until later this summer. In a Reddit comment (thanks, Kotaku), developer Ballaam says that the team normally wouldn't announce a project so early, but there's "a competitor who is vibe coding their way through, and doing a very poor job of it. As such, we want to get our intention out that we're doing a recomp of actually good quality before our competitor releases their poorly made one and some infrastructure is built around that one."

I'm not qualified to speak on how useful AI code is to experienced programmers – Gabe Newell is certainly excited about it – but the fans behind projects like this have been inundated with examples of it being used badly. Earlier this year, the devs behind PS3 emulator RPCS3 starting begging would-be contributors to "stop submitting AI slop code" because it just wasn't worth the hassle of sorting through it all.

In theory, Donkey Kong 64: Recompiled should be able to serve as a platform for modders who want to expand the original game with new features and content, but that only works when you've got a strong foundation from the beginning. Even the announcement trailer for the project promises that it "does not rely on AI vibe coding," and it's clear the devs want to put their best foot forward for the community they're hoping to foster.

After years of suffering, Spyro fans suddenly have not just a brand-new game but an impending PC port of the OG PS1 classic with 60 FPS and "true widescreen" support.

Dataminers have apparently discovered an update to the Nintendo Switch Online retro games library, and it looks like Nintendo may be planning a spiritual successor to one of the Wii U's crown jewels.

Despite being a standard thing in the industry for over two decades now (yes the Xbox 360 was 21 years ago, you're old), Nintendo has never dabbled into achievements. Some games have featured an in-game version of them, sure, but there has never been a console-wide system for it, with Shigeru Miyamoto saying all the way back in 2009 that "I'm not a big fan of using the carrots to motivate people to play. I want people to play because they enjoy playing and want to play more."

However, it looks like Nintendo may now be dabbling in a similar system, but rather than being strictly achievements, it instead feels like a spiritual successor to the fantastic NES Remix series. BlueSky user Luigiblood reportedly found the details while datamining the NES, SNES, and Game Boy Nintendo Classics apps. Rather than give you achievements for completing specific tasks in-games, you'll apparently select a challenge which will then plunge you into a given retro game to complete it.

Meanwhile user Spectralstar69 posted a look at the first batch of apparent challenges, which are all themed around Donkey Kong games. These don't tell you what the actual challenges are, but the cards have descriptions, like "Catch the Key" for Donkey Kong on Game Boy, and "High-Flying Mine Cart!" on the original Donkey Kong Country. Even Donkey Kong Jr. Math is getting in on it, with a challenge called "DK Accounting!"

Presumably we could find out more about this new challenge system in the Nintendo Direct later today, and as someone who is a big fan of the NES Remix games, I'd be excited to see Nintendo get back to introducing fun challenges to its retro titles.

Zelda and Star Fox remakes are fine, but former Nintendo staff say it needs "more than nostalgia."

Donkey Kong 64 has a mixed reputation these days, thanks to its often bloated design and downright dizzying array of collectables. But while there were certainly some people who were complaining about those things back in the day, it didn't stop Donkey Kong 64 from becoming the best-selling game of 1999 on any platform, dethroning even the millennial monster of Pokemon Red and Blue.

"According to Circana's Retail Tracking Service, Donkey Kong 64 was the #1 best-selling video game of 1999 in the US market in dollars, besting Pokémon Red/Blue," according to Mat Piscatella on Bluesky. The OG Pokemon games had launched a year earlier in the US, but the nation was still fully in the hold of Pokemania in 1999 – the notion of any game dethroning Red and Blue at the time is absolutely wild.

Other 1999 releases that Donkey Kong 64 beat include Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Gran Turismo 2, Resident Evil 3, Tomb Raider 3, Driver, Super Smash Bros., and any Dreamcast launch game. Final Fantasy 8 also failed to beat the DK crew, though, again, these numbers are just about US sales – the story would almost certainly be different if you took Japan into account.

These days, games tend to accrue the bulk of their sales in the days and weeks following launch, but that often wasn't the case in the '90s. In fact, Donkey Kong 64 is itself something of an outlier, since it topped the full-year chart despite launching in late November and having just a few weeks worth of sales counted. "Games sold at a different cadence in the late 90s than they do today," as Piscatella puts it.

"US lifetime sales of the N64 version exceeded 2.3M units and $130M," Piscatella adds. That makes Donkey Kong 64 the ninth best-selling US N64 game of all time, and helpfully, he's also provided a full list of the top ten.

• Super Mario 64
• GoldenEye 007
• Mario Kart 64
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Super Smash Bros.
• Pokemon Stadium
• Diddy Kong Racing
• Star Fox 64
• Donkey Kong 64
• Pokemon Snap

That's actually a pretty excellent list of games – clearly us N64 kids had excellent taste. It is a bit surprising to see Donkey Kong 64 in the top 10 above the likes of Banjo-Kazooie, which is by pretty much all accounts Rare's far better N64 platformer.

That said, despite the memes, I'm not going to dunk on anyone with nostalgia for Donkey Kong 64, because I'm right there with ya. I was sent that infamous Hot Newz 64 tape, instantly fell for the hype, and spent months convincing my parents that I needed a new console and a copy of Donkey Kong 64 – which, coincidentally, launched right around my birthday.

These days, I absolutely understand why the difficulty spikes, the labyrinthine levels, and all those damned bananas have put people off of Donkey Kong 64, but I loved it at the time and I still have a soft spot for it now. I'm a little frightened to see what the discourse is going to look like when Donkey Kong 64 hits Nintendo Switch Online, but at least we'll be looking at the game with fresh eyes rather than 27 years of pent up nostalgia (or animosity).

Donkey Kong 64 did not make our list of the best N64 games of all time.

Donkey Kong 64 is finally being added to Nintendo Switch Online, so now you can experience his first ever 3D platformer on a handheld.

Despite being intrinsically linked to the great ape, Rare actually didn't spend that much time with Donkey Kong. Between 1994 and 1999, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy rebooted the whole franchise, the Donkey Kong Land games adapted those to Game Boy, and then finally the studio took what it learned with Banjo-Kazooie to make a 3D platformer (also Diddy Kong Racing, too, I didn't forget). And while the Country games have been on Nintendo Switch Online since the service launched in 2021, Donkey Kong 64 has been one of the biggest omissions from the N64 library.

And out of nowhere, Nintendo confirmed that yes, finally, Rare's 1999 platformer will be coming to Nintendo Switch Online's N64 library on June 4, 2026 – almost exactly one year after the Switch 2 launched. And now you can finally experience Donkey Kong 64 with save states and a rewind feature, which should hopefully cut down on how unfathomably tedious of a game it can be.

While it has its fans for sure, Donkey Kong 64 took Rare's collectathon style from Banjo-Kazooie to the absolute extremes, with each level having a ton of collectibles to grab and five sets of them to correspond to each playable character. And for those playable characters, you have to backtrack to a barrel within the level to manually switch them – and it's no surprise that one of the most popular mods for it is the ability to switch on the fly, which will obviously not be included in this version.

To this very day, the game holds a Guinness World Record for most collectible items in a platformer game; it's an absolute beast. And while Donkey Kong Bananza is the better game for a multitude of different reasons, I'd still recommend trying this one out to take in the sheer amount of it. Plus, it gave us the DK Rap, so it can't all be bad.

Donkey Kong Bananza devs admit the blatantly OP elephant transformation "probably went too far," but "it's fun" and "that's what matters most."

A massive trove of court documents related to Universal's 1983 lawsuit against Nintendo has suddenly become publicly available online. These documents include everything from mundane court records to testimony from Nintendo legends like Shigeru Miyamoto, Gunpei Yokoi, and Hiroshi Yamauchi. Perhaps most immediately interesting are some of Miyamoto's original ideas for Donkey Kong.

Video game researchers are already combing through these documents for new insights into Nintendo history, and you're free to do the same – they're all available for your perusal on the Internet Archive. These documents come courtesy of excellent YouTuber Norman Caruso, who you might know better as The Gaming Historian. Today, Caruso announced that he's retiring from his YouTube channel, but as a "parting gift" he's left us with these documents, which he scanned from the National Archives in Kansas City while researching for a video he no longer plans to finish.

The documents all relate to Universal's lawsuit against Nintendo over what it claimed were similarities between its film, King Kong, and Nintendo's arcade game, Donkey Kong. As a result, much of the material concerns the origins of the Donkey Kong character, and the name that both he and the game share. In one development document, Miyamoto laid out a stack of potential names for the arcade game, including:

• Giant Kong
• Big Kong
• Kong on the Run
• Kong Chase
• Steel Kong
• Mad Kong
• Heart & Kong
• Lady & Kong
• Attack the Kong
• Kong Attacker
• City Kong
• Build On
• Family Kong
• Funny Kong

In a testimony given during the trial, Miyamoto said that Build On was his "favorite name for the game." I guess it makes sense given the game's construction theme, but I gotta say, I'm glad Miyamoto lost that fight.

But there is another major revelation from Miyamoto's testimony that's blowing my mind. He tried to make Donkey Kong "close to a human being as compared to the usual gorilla," he said. "And I tried to make it as a human being wearing stuffed doll." There's some awkward wording in the deposition because of the translation, but Miyamoto later clarified, "What I meant by stuffed doll is the actor, in other words a human being, wearing gorilla costume and act like a human being."

So yes, Miyamoto originally envisioned Donkey Kong not as a gorilla, but as a man in a gorilla suit. I can only imagine how something like Donkey Kong Bananza might look if Miyamoto's headcanon had carried forward.

There's much, much more waiting to be found in these documents, which comprise 1.3 gigabytes of material, and you can be sure that video game historians are already picking them apart for new insights into Nintendo's early days in game development.

If you want to relive Nintendo's '80s era, check out our guide to the best NES games ever made.

Donkey Kong Bananza isn't just one of the best games of 2025 and a delightful reimagining of Nintendo's leading gorilla. No, it's also a meditation aid – a way for you to to focus on whatever's weighing on you while you mindlessly destroy the game's levels. An unlikely way to play Donkey Kong Bananza? Maybe, but Nintendo's own devs recommend giving it a try.

"The goal in creating this game was to create a game that feels good to destroy," programmer Tatsuya Kurihara tells GamesRadar+ in an interview at the Game Developers Conference. Certainly the game's destructive potential is something the devs spoke about extensively in a panel at the event. But Kurihara thinks there's a constructive way to play, too.

"You know, another alternative way to play this game is – you've got something stuck in your head," Kurihara continues. "You've got something to think through. You can just put Donkey Kong Bananza on and focus on your thinking as you're just mindlessly destroying the game. That's one way to enjoy this as well."

It's an odd way to hear Donkey Kong Bananza presented, especially by an actual Nintendo dev, but I can see it. This is the kind of game where it feels good to smash things for pieces, and I found an odd amount of satisfaction in the few times I've tried pulling a level down to its foundations. It has a charm not far off of something like PowerWash Simulator, and those kinds of simple, repetitive actions do tend to make it easier to focus your thinking.

So hey, next time you've got a problem to work out, maybe throw on Donkey Kong Bananza. It won't make the problem go away, but it'll let you think of that problem as a mountain you can smash to pieces. That's basically the same thing, right?

"Some ideas from Donkey Kong Bananza" may inform Nintendo's next big project, producer says, but "the standard is really what will feel fresh to a player in a new title."

No one knows whether there will be more 3D Donkey Kong games, and Nintendo refuses to confirm one way or the other, but Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura has suggested the latest outing's positive reception helps him sell Nintendo on the great ape's potential.

Of course, Donkey Kong is a Nintendo icon right up there alongside Mario and Zelda, but unlike those heroes, he's been largely confined to the 2D space even in modern entries like the fantastic Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. That changed with 2025 GOTY contender Donkey Kong Bananza, and thank goodness it did, as it sounds like it could be the reason we get more games like it.

"I guess maybe what stands out to me is the idea, first of all, that Donkey Kong, as a character – and this is true for Mario as well – really are a part of Nintendo," Motokura tells Game Informer. "And so, for us, it's almost like we're borrowing them to create software with.

"For me, being able to see people have fun once again with the character of Donkey Kong helps me communicate the potential for that character. I have a sense of relief knowing that's something that people can enjoy in the future as well."

Naturally, Motokura declines to get into "any specifics of future plans," but if I'm picking up what he's putting down, 3D Donkey Kong hopefuls have good reason to be optimistic. Either way, he recently told GamesRadar+ that "some ideas from Donkey Kong Bananza" could help shape Nintendo's next big project, which sounds like great news.

Donkey Kong Bananza devs admit the blatantly OP elephant transformation "probably went too far," but "it's fun" and "that's what matters most"

The same team at Nintendo that brought us Super Mario Odyssey also developed Donkey Kong Bananza, and while there are some obvious similarities between the two games, they both offer very distinct flavors of 3D platforming. That's by design, as Nintendo wants to be sure the games each feel unique from one another.

As producer Kenta Motokura tells GamesRadar+ in an interview at the Game Developers Conference, part of how Nintendo approached Donkey Kong Bananza's destruction mechanics was "motivated by us thinking about, 'Well, what sort of things can a human not do? What sort of things could Mario not do? What scale of destruction would you see only from Donkey Kong as he's punching rocks and that sort of thing?'"

Early in Bananza's development, Motokura and the team went to Shigeru Miyamoto and long-time Mario producer Yoshiaki Koizumi "so that we could discuss what were the particular characteristics of Donkey Kong as a character." Those discussions "started to lead into ideas for gameplay and also the types of technology that we might use to bring that to life."

"This comparison with Mario versus DK" was something that the dev team was very conscious of, "in terms of what sort of a player do they appeal to. Is there perhaps a slightly different kind of person that might prefer one character over the other?" Accentuating the appeal of DK's big, tough character gets us to a game where you can punch entire levels to pieces.

"Certainly, you can have really fun experiences in Mario games and really fun experiences in Donkey Kong games," Motokura concludes. "But we want to find the differences between those two IPs, and really bring that out, as variety for people to enjoy. And that goes to the style of play as well."

Donkey Kong Bananza devs admit the blatantly OP elephant transformation "probably went too far," but "it's fun" and "that's what matters most"

Donkey Kong Bananza is the premiere Nintendo platformer for the time being, having been built by the A-team that delivered Super Mario Odyssey back in 2017. There's clear connective tissue between the two games, even if they ended up becoming wildly different games, and producer Kenta Motokura believes a similar sort of lineage is likely to build for the team's next game.

"Probably, we'll see the same sort of phenomenon as we did when going from Super Mario Odyssey to Donkey Kong Bananza, where there were some ideas and development that acted as hints for the future development of Donkey Kong Bananza," Motokura tells GamesRadar+ in an interview at the Game Developers Conference. "I do expect that will be the case where some ideas from Donkey Kong Bananza provide future hints for our next project, as well."

In an official interview ahead of launch last year, Motokura previously noted that Bananza "will come to symbolize 3D Donkey Kong." You could interpret that to mean that future 3D Donkey Kong games will be similarly focused on destruction, but Motokura suggests that offering something fresh is more central to the team's ambition to set new standards.

"As far as, 'what is the standard,' I think the standard is really what will feel fresh to a player in a new title," he tells us. "So for example, when we were developing Super Mario Odyssey, we were thinking about Mario transformations that no one had seen up to that point. That's always a goal in mind when working on a project."

We asked Nintendo point-blank about Donkey Kong Bananza's biggest mystery: They wouldn't tell us who Pauline really is.

Donkey Kong Bananza is a masterclass in cathartic game design, and by far the most satisfying moments in the game come following transformations that let you rip through environments and pound enemies to dust even quicker than usual. That said, there's one elephant-sized transformation that even Nintendo admits is a little overpowered.

"I think we can agree the most destructive transformation is the Elephant Bananza, and honestly speaking, it probably went too far," says programmer Tatsuya Kurihara in an interview with Game Informer. "But at the same time, it's fun, it feels good. And that's what matters most."

Kurihara is absolutely right. The peak Donkey Kong Bananza experience is one of controlled demolition, and although from a strict gameplay perspective the elephant power-up might be a little unbalanced, by the time you've unlocked it late in the game it very much feels like a moment of earned release.

Donkey Kong Bananza released a couple of years after Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a game that also prominently featured an elephant power-up, but Bananza producer Kenta Motokura insists there's zero connection between the two transformations.

"To be honest, the fact that we both had elephants was a complete coincidence," he says. "When I think about how the elephant transformation works in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it's clear to me that there were different goals for what they were trying to accomplish, even though it's the same animal transformation."

We asked Nintendo point-blank about Donkey Kong Bananza's biggest mystery: They wouldn't tell us who Pauline really is

Ever since Donkey Kong Bananza was first revealed, Nintendo nerds like me have had a big question: who is Pauline? I mean, yes, she shares a name with the character who serves as the mayor of New Donk City in Super Mario Odyssey, who in turn seems to be the same lady that Mario rescues in the original Donkey Kong, but the ages are all messed up. And the full game, with all its narrative twists and Easter eggs for long-time Nintendo fans, doesn't really provide a final answer.

So, when my colleague James got the opportunity to interview producer Kenta Motokura and programmer Tatsuya Kurihara at the Game Developers Conference, I needed him to ask about Pauline's true identity. James was willing to pass along my question, but unfortunately, the devs weren't willing to offer an answer.

"I have to apologize to Dustin," Motokura tells us via translator, "but we're going to have to leave that to his imagination for now."

Alas, both my imagination and yours will have to cling to our respective headcanons, but at least I get to enjoy the dubious honor of a half-joking apology from Donkey Kong Bananza's producer for the time being.

Truth be told, I always hold some doubt about whether Nintendo generally gives much care to established 'canon.' As much as I love The Legend of Zelda and all the bizarre ways its labyrinthine lore smashes together, you don't get something like a three-way timeline split as a result of careful story planning.

With that in mind, maybe there isn't really a true answer about Pauline's identity. But still… Donkey Kong Bananza does pay a fair bit of respect to prior DK games, offering deep cut character cameos targeted right at us 30-somethings with nostalgic memories of Rare's Donkey Kong Country trilogy, and even the divisive Donkey Kong 64. And young Pauline is a fairly well-developed character in Donkey Kong Bananza, with frequent bits of dialogue referencing her family, teasing out possibilities for her relationship to the adult Pauline we already know.

Well, hey, we're still debating how, exactly, Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong are related to this day, and Pauline's identity might be the same way. I guess some mysteries, however maddening they might be, are more fun without answers.

Here are the upcoming Switch 2 games we'll be playing as we distract ourselves from the wider mysteries of Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong Bananza is hardly the only game that allows you to destroy the levels you play in – after all, Minecraft and its many imitators all let you tear their worlds apart and rebuild them piece by piece. But merely destroying blocks wasn't quite fun enough, as the devs at Nintendo found when they first started prototyping Donkey Kong's latest adventure. No, for it to be fun, you really need to be destroying something pretty.

In a talk at the Game Developers Conference, attended by GamesRadar+, programmer Tatsuya Kurihara explains that, even when the team built the ability for you to destroy levels, "the satisfaction of destroying them was still lacking." The devs soon realized that "it's more fun to destroy something that doesn't look like it can be destroyed. It is more fun to destroy that which is beautiful. With this in mind, the development team set out to pursue destruction."

The underlying building blocks of Donkey Kong Bananza's levels are just that: blocks. Or more accurately, they're voxels. "Voxels are three-dimensional versions of pixels and can be thought of as boxes containing data arranged in a three-dimensional grid," Kurihara explains. "By dynamically changing that data within the game, you can create interactions at a voxel level, which is more granular."

Producer Kenta Motokura explains that "voxel everything" was the concept driving Bananza's development.

"The producer makes it sound easy when he says he wants to create everything out of voxels," Kurihara jokes. "How do we actually do it?"

Well, in Donkey Kong Bananza, each voxel contains information "such as density, material properties, damage, wetness, and more." Then, Kurihara explains, "polygon meshes are dynamically generated from this voxel data. To maintain 60 frames per second as much as possible we kept the number of polygons limited."

But even if the polygons displayed are limited to save on performance, there's still a massive number of voxels underlying it all. "To give you a sense of how much voxel data there is, the rather big Canyon layer actually has about 340 million voxels," Kurihara says.

Here are all the upcoming Switch 2 games you need to know about.

The designer behind Donkey Kong's 1994 redesign has revealed the original model had no fur while questioning the cursed cartoon's version's place in the character's evolution.

Over on Twitter, an account named Video Game History posted an image showing the evolution of Donkey Kong, from his 1981 design, through to his Super Mario Bros. Movie and Donkey Kong Bananza looks. Kevin Bayliss – who is credited as designing Rare's version of the character which would become his default look from then until last year – took notice.

The Donkey Kong Country render used in the tweet was actually an updated version, as Bayliss notes. "The 1994 version I created of DK didn’t have fur on, we didn’t add that for a while because the tech wasn’t there." He later added, "I feel very lucky to have been involved at a time back when there were significant changes in technology and graphics"

Now, this doesn't mean Donkey Kong was buttass naked the whole time on SNES and you just don't remember it. The original Rare renders instead had DK with weird brown sleeves (via Mario Wiki) like someone had covered him in Play-Do. The furry design wasn't implemented until later, with the first SNES sequel Diddy's Kong Quest featuring actual fur on the characters.

Bayliss also took aim at the 1999 Donkey Kong Country cartoon version of the character being included in the image, saying, "I wouldn’t class the 1999 tv show version as part of his evolution. It was more a 'spin off' version." He continues, "And hideous."

To be fair, it really isn't a redesign. The series was based on the Rare trilogy, with a few weird redesigns like Candy and Funky Kong thrown in. You can actually watch the whole thing for free on YouTube to see how cursed it is, but I'll leave you with one of its many beautiful musical numbers.

Pokemon Presents February 2026 time – as the Pokemon Day stream draws near, we're all hoping for a Gen 10 reveal

Just over a year after it first released, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD – a port of a now 15-year-old Wii game – has received a new playable character alongside Switch 2 enhancements.

Obviously, Nintendo is big on Donkey Kong again with the theme park, rumored movie, and the best game of 2025, Donkey Kong Bananza. But it's easy to forget that Bananza wasn't the only DK release in 2025, as a remaster of Donkey Kong Country Returns sneaked out in January and was swiftly forgotten about, aside from the complaints about its price and missing visual effects.

Except, it turns out Nintendo didn't forget about it at all, as out of the blue it has released a new update for the game. It not only includes upgrades for Nintendo Switch 2, including enhanced visuals and making the loading screens less miserable, but more significantly, Donkey Kong Country Returns now has Dixie Kong as a companion character. She's seemingly ported directly from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, but for a 2010 Wii game to get a new playable character over 15 years later, in a free update released a year after the remastered version, this is one of the weirdest Nintendo moves in recent memory.

Of course the question is now, why the hell didn't the original release have this? Donkey Kong Country Returns HD has to have been one of the most scrutinized first-party Nintendo releases of all time given that it was a full priced re-release of a Wii game that was not only from 2010, but cheaper then than it was for the Switch version. Not that Dixie Kong would make the cost worth it, but it would definitely have been a far better reason to pick the re-release up.

After 44 years as second banana, Donkey Kong Bananza makes Nintendo's first star a mascot to rival Mario and Link in the Switch 2 era.

As my first Donkey Kong game, I wasn't sure what to expect with Donkey Kong Bananza, but it's a doozy, and I'd argue that – currently – it's the main reason to own a Switch 2. As a substantially beefed-up Super Mario Odyssey, both in terms of the scale of the game and the strength of its protagonist, the blend of platforming, puzzle-solving, and collectible-hunting feels instantly familiar.

But DK's destructive capabilities add a whole new layer to how you tackle these things. Where Super Mario Odyssey requires you to master the titular plumber's platforming proficiency and Cappy capabilities, DK can simply smash his way through almost any part of the many Donkey Kong Bananza sublayers, and doing so isn't always a good idea! I got myself completely turned around more times than I care to admit by smashing the main path until it was unrecognizable – my thorough excavations for fossils, gold, and more getting in the way of just enjoying the adventure.

However, getting distracted by collectibles is inevitable, so at least make sure you're hunting down valuable Donkey Kong Bananza bananas. Also known as Banandium Gems, these edible mineral collectibles are vital to Donkey Kong's journey, with many hidden in challenge levels such as Hanging on Roof Road and Nostalgia Country. If you want the game's true ending, which I've covered further down, you'll want to collect as many bananas as you can, but their more immediate benefit is that they grant DK skill points. Every five bananas you collect provides one point that can be spent or saved to unlock one of many skills, so it's often worth deviating from the main path to nab a few 'nanas and power up DK, even if you're not bothered about collecting every single one (there are almost 800 after all).

The problem I found is that a few of these skills are a bit useless across most of Donkey Kong Bananza, resulting in wasted skill points. Once I reset my skill points, I was then able to test all the skills to see what the best Donkey Kong Bananza skills were, all of which are laid out in the linked guide.

Of course, as well as skill points, you'll also be unlocking the eponymous Donkey Kong Bananza transformations – temporary animal forms that provide unique abilities, from immense punching strength to rapid sprinting that lets you cross certain treacherous terrain types. Each Bananza has its own set of skills too, and I've also covered which of those are best in the skills guide linked above.

So, with skills, Bananzas, and even outfits for DK and Pauline all mixing with environmental hazards and special terrain types, there are so many small systems that you need to bear in mind. Because of that, it's a good idea to look at my general Donkey Kong Bananza tips to see what really matters when you're playing, helping you have a much smoother time – I cannot stress how useful it is to unlock Getaways and buy Red Balloons! And there's also no shame in turning on the Donkey Kong Bananza Assist Mode, which you can do at any time. With constant objective markers, you'll rarely get lost and several improvements to DK's health means he's a much more durable ape.

As you venture down the sublayers, you'll come across a few novel ones that don't quite behave like the standard, mostly linear ones. The Divide is the best example as it presents you with the Donkey Kong Bananza Divide choice, letting you choose whether to head to the Freezer or Forest layer next. It's ultimately a relatively inconsequential choice, but knowing what's in store at each layer can be helpful. Later, you'll reach the relaxing Resort Layer where you can find the Collectone that allows you to scan amiibo figures for Donkey Kong Bananza amiibo unlocks. But, I'll be honest, most of them aren't very exciting.

Plunge through the rest of the layers and you'll eventually reach the end of DK and Pauline's epic journey down to the core of the planet. Except it's not really the end as there's a whole Donkey Kong Bananza post game quest to complete if you want the truest of endings for the game. Be warned that this requires you to collect a lot of bananas, so it's quite a commitment if you haven't already been searching thoroughly, but I can lead you through the whole process with my guide to round of DK's adventure.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Nintendo is arguably better at reinvention than any other publisher in the game industry. What other company has managed to take a character like Mario, who debuted all the way back in 1981, and keep him relevant across so many console generations it would seem silly to count them all? Mario defined 2D platformers, then 3D platformers, and when other franchises might've hit the doldrums, the plumber was continuing to star in industry-defining hits that defied gravity and put a new spin on open-world action.

But Mario didn't even have a name in that 1981 debut – it was the then-villainous Donkey Kong who was the star of the show. Yet Nintendo has always seemed content to let DK play, er, second banana in the platformer hierarchy. After all, beloved games like Donkey Kong Country weren't even developed by Nintendo internally, instead handed off to the devs at Rare, who put their own spin on Donkey Kong's world.

But with Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo finally seems to be recognizing that the big ape can anchor a tentpole release – not just a major new game from the Super Mario Odyssey devs, but a key launch title for the brand-new Switch 2. According to an official dev interview, Donkey Kong Bananza's development got underway "with an eye to expanding the Donkey Kong franchise further," and it's clear that Nintendo is taking the opportunity to reevaluate – and elevate – DK's place in its first-party canon.

Reinvention

The new generation of Nintendo reinventions – games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Mario Kart World – all stretch out the scope of their predecessors, turning them into either full or semi-open-world games, while keeping much of the core action that's defined those series intact. Donkey Kong Bananza follows in the semi-open-world mold, with a multitude of massive, open-ended levels to explore, but it takes far greater liberties with the core mechanics.

You can see why Nintendo would feel the need to transform Donkey Kong – after all, Mario already has the platformer space covered, right? Donkey Kong Country was great on Super NES, but it was no Super Mario World. Similarly, Donkey Kong 64 has its fans, but there's a reason Super Mario 64 is considered the definitive 3D platformer of its generation. If Donkey Kong is going to be one of Nintendo's flagship franchises, it can't just be the second-string version of Mario.

"Keeping in mind that this game will come to symbolize 3D Donkey Kong," producer Kenta Motokura says in that aforementioned interview, "and with the theme of bringing Donkey Kong's strengths and new actions to the forefront, we thought the concept of 'destruction' would be a good fit." Motokura leaves open the possibility that 2D DK will continue separately, presumably through the Donkey Kong Country Returns lineage a la the New Super Mario Bros. series, but Bananza represents the future of 3D Donkey Kong.

I won't fully rehash the praise I lavished on these destruction mechanics in my Donkey Kong Bananza review here, but as it turns out, tearing things apart is a hell of a concept for a video game. If Mario is Nintendo's Bugs Bunny, Donkey Kong is now its Tasmanian Devil, an id-only character who's ready, willing, and able to smash everything he wants. Grabbing a video game controller to embody a rampaging gorilla strong enough to smash through stone is cathartic, and there's a little bit of precarious joy in becoming the thing the name "Donkey Kong" meant all those decades ago: a wild ape on the loose.

Legacy

But revelling in that chaos is no longer an act of villainy, because DK himself is no longer the villain he was in that arcade debut. Literally, even. When Rare took over the series in the Super NES days, the original Donkey Kong morphed into the character we now know as Cranky Kong, with the new, tie-clad DK either his son or grandson.

Yet Nintendo always seemed a little hesitant to acknowledge that lore. I remember being aghast as an 11-year-old Super Smash Bros. Melee player when I read a trophy description suggesting that the current Donkey Kong was the same character who stole Mario's girlfriend in the arcade, and while elements of the Rare games still pop up from time to time – particularly in the externally developed DKC Returns games – it's seemed that Nintendo has been far more comfortable sweeping Rare's take on the character under the rug.

But that's changed with Donkey Kong Bananza. I want to avoid spoiling the game's final twists, but they're built to please those of us who remained fans of DK through the Rare years, finally bridging the gap between three disparate eras. This is a sequel to the arcade game, the Donkey Kong Country series, and Super Mario Odyssey all in equal measure, and no part of the equation feels unequally valued.

The same way Breath of the Wild united three disparate branches of Zelda lore, wiping the slate clean to give the series a new identity, Donkey Kong Bananza has united 40-plus years of competing takes on Donkey Kong into a new vision that pays tribute to what's come before while reestablishing the ape as one of the pillars of Nintendo's lineup.

Even without all that baggage in mind, Donkey Kong Bananza would still be the highlight of Switch 2's first year simply because it's so dang much fun to play. But as we enter Nintendo's new console generation – and perhaps even more importantly, as the publisher readies its characters to become movie stars – it also serves as a mission statement. Nintendo's beloved characters may be decades old, but they can still take on a new form just as essential as those that have come before. Donkey Kong Bananza might just mark the launch of a third flagship for Nintendo.

Donkey Kong Bananza ranks very highly in our list of the best games of 2025.

Banjo-Kazooie director and long-time Rare staffer Gregg Mayles has revealed the original design document for the mythical Stop 'N' Swop system, revealing that Donkey Kong was also involved in the process.

Mayles, who left Rare earlier this year following the cancellation of Everwild (which in itself was a part of Microsoft's sweeping layoffs), posted a document on Twitter (spotted by DK Vine) revealing plans for the "Coldswap" mechanic, which was known as the Stop 'N' Swop in Banjo-Kazooie. Not only did these documents reveal that Donkey Kong 64 was also going to be part of the process but that Donkey Kong would become an unlockable character in Banjo-Tooie's multiplayer mode at the end of it.

Stop 'N' Swop – for those unaware – was a proposed feature included in the original Banjo-Kazooie, where players would collect eggs and an Ice Key with the promise of them unlocking something in Banjo-Tooie when it eventually released, which would be done by physically swapping out the cartridges while the N64 is running.

However, Tooie was released without the feature, turning it into an urban legend for years, until the Xbox 360 ports of the game reintroduced the feature, rewarding players with the likes of Avatar images and content in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The reason this was never implemented was apparently due to an N64 hardware revision where the game was stored in the consoles' RAM for 10 seconds, giving players a while to swap it over, but the new consoles reduced it to one second.

Previously it wasn't known that Donkey Kong 64 would be a piece of the puzzle, but Mayles' documents lay out how players would transfer items from Banjo-Kazooie, through DK64, into Banjo-Tooie and potentially even further through something known as "Next N64 Game" (which Mayles says wasn't about anything in specific). The Stop 'N' Swop was already one of gaming's biggest "what if" moments, so to hear it was potentially far bigger than we ever knew only makes me think more of what could have been.

Before Banjo-Kazooie's mascot was a bear and after he was a human, the N64 icon was actually a rabbit, according to a former Rare developer

The Nintendo Switch 2 is keeping up its massive momentum, selling 10 million consoles within its first four months.

In Nintendo's latest financial report, the company confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2, as of September 30, 2025, has sold 10.36 million consoles, up from 5.82 million in June. And while it still hasn't beaten the Wii U's lifetime sales, it seems like it will inevitably by the end of 2025, especially considering these figures are from before Pokemon Legends: Z-A launched last month.

It was already the fastest-selling console of all time, and with Nintendo's pre-launch forecast that the console would sell 15 million units over the first year looking like a given, the company is now forecasting 19 million consoles sold within its first year. Although Nintendo is reportedly looking to have made 25 million consoles by next March. By comparison, the original Nintendo Switch took nine months to reach the 10 million consoles sold mark.

Alongside 10.36 million consoles sold, Nintendo also confirmed that Mario Kart World sold 9.57 million copies (up from the 5.63 reported in June), with Nintendo confirming that 8.1 million of those were from the Mario Kart World Switch 2 bundle.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch 2's – and 2025's – best game (and Ultimate Game of the Year nominee at the Golden Joystick Awards), Donkey Kong Bananza, sold just under 3.5 million copies between its July launch and the end of September. The team's previous game, Super Mario Odyssey, sold 9.07 million copies within its first two months, but given Mario is leagues more popular, over a third of that is nothing to sneeze at.

Nintendo Switch sales are almost neck and neck with the DS, just 10,000 units away from dethroning the beloved 2004 handheld as the company's best-selling console of all time.

Former Nintendo of America vice president of sales, Bruce Lowry, who helped launch the NES, has lifted the lid about the much-maligned Donkey Kong Jr. Math.

When the Nintendo Entertainment System launched in 1985, the first year of it had some major games that have stood the test of time, like Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and several games that I wouldn't say held up but are certainly remembered, like Wrecking Crew, Ice Climber, and ROB the Robot's duo of Gyromite and Stack-Up. But one stands above all as the most revolutionary of all time: Donkey Kong Jr. Math, which takes the classic Donkey Kong Jr arcade game and makes it bad.

Speaking to Time Extension, Nintendo of America vice president of sales at the time of the NES' launch, Bruce Lowry, spoke about Nintendo's rigorous quality control: "Whenever you submitted your game to Nintendo, they not only analyzed it for bugs, but also for its play value and what was shown in it."

He adds that Nintendo boss Hiroshi Yamauchi was adamant, "'Our games will always be games that people of all ages can play. There won't be violence. There won't be shooting and killing."

However, it wasn't always perfect, as Lowry notes, "Our first year, the worst game we released was Donkey Kong Jr. Math; it was the worst game we ever sold. I think that was one game that slipped through." Jr. Math takes the gameplay of DK Jr. but instead of traversing platforming levels to get to Donkey Kong, you would climb the vines to solve math problems he held up. Lowry recalls, "We thought it'd be great for kids' education, but we couldn't give it away."

Pokemon Legends Z-A includes music from a super fan who's posted excellent covers to YouTube for 13 years, earning a nod from Undertale beats master and fellow Poke-musician Toby Fox

Grant Kirkhope is known as the composer behind some of the most iconic tracks in games like GoldenEye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie, but there's another type of sound he created that might be burned into your memory: he's the guy who said "oh banana" in Donkey Kong 64. As it turns out, he only did it because he was tired of asking everyone else to do the voice acting.

"I asked people at Rare – does anybody want to voice a character? – and no one wanted to do it," as Kirkhope tells industry newsletter Push to Talk, "and I got so sick of asking, I said, I'll just do it myself, and bollocks to it."

Kirkhope ultimately recorded several other small voice samples for the game – "OK" is the one I remember best, outside of the banana line – and many of them would be used by Nintendo for future games.

At the time, "Nintendo owned half of Rare," Kirkhope explains. "So when they asked for the samples, of course I sent them. But I never thought they’d really use it."

"Oh banana" in particular has taken on a whole new life thanks to its inclusion in Donkey Kong Bananza. Since it plays every time you get a banana in that game, you'll hear it hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of times if you're thorough, and as if DK64 hadn't already burned the line into my brain, by now I can't even look at a real-life banana without murmuring DK's drooling voice to myself.

It's unclear if Donkey Kong Bananza is still using Kirkhope's old recording – if it is, the sound is heavily modulated – but the spirit is certainly there. The same is true of the DK Rap, but it seems Nintendo isn't terribly concerned about making sure Kirkhope is still credited for his contributions to the series.

Here are the upcoming Switch 2 games you need to have on your radar.

Composer Grant Kirkhope is a legend for a certain generation of Nintendo fans, having created iconic music tracks for Rare classics like GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, and Donkey Kong 64. In 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie rather infamously sampled the latter game's opening DK Rap while leaving Kirkhope out of the credits, and it seems he's still annoyed enough about the whole ordeal that he still hasn't seen the film.

Kirkhope commented publicly on Twitter about his exclusion from the credits at the time, and because he'd recently worked with Nintendo on the arrangements for the Banjo-Kazooie music added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he had a contact at the publisher. So he reached out to find out what the deal with the credits was.

"So I got a response back from, I guess, one of the legal people," as Kirkhope tells industry newsletter Push to Talk. "And it said, basically, they came up with this three rule criteria, which was they decided that for any music owned by Nintendo that appeared in the movie, they wouldn't credit the composer apart from Koji Kondo. Then they decided that anything with a vocal, they would credit the composer. So the Donkey Kong rap score's there. But then they also decided if Nintendo also owned that, they wouldn’t credit the composer."

He describes it as "this arbitrary thing," and the theater would be "entirely empty" by the time his theoretic credit might come up. "There's only me and my wife and my kids sat there going, look what I did. You know, for a second, a bit of text, what's it matter?"

That theater experience is a purely theoretical one, though. "I tell you what, I still haven't watched the movie yet. I've seen that bit with the rap. But I was so pissed I haven't watched it."

The DK Rap was once the butt of a lot of jokes, but over the years it's developed a lot of ironic fans – by this point, the love might be close to genuine. It even made a comeback in Donkey Kong Bananza earlier this year but, once again, Kirkhope had no idea it was happening.

These are the best Switch 2 games you can play today.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson might not be actively wrestling these days, but that doesn't mean he's not still an expert at getting heat even when cutting micro-sized promos. The Hollywood star has just revealed two of his favorite video games of all time, and while one is probably about what you'd expect, the other is sure to annoy those who grew up with Donkey Kong Country and are now clamoring for Donkey Kong Bananza's GOTY award.

During the promotional tour for The Smashing Machine, Johnson's new film, IGN asked him about his favorite video game of all time. "Oh, man," Johnson says after a moment's consideration. "I gotta go with Madden, if it's at home." A perfectly acceptable answer for somebody whose primary hobby isn't gaming.

"Stand up?" Johnson continues, thinking back to the arcades of his own youth. "Donkey Kong." A 1981 arcade classic, and the title that established Nintendo's legacy as a video game publisher. Another fine choice.

But here's the cheap heat for Nintendo fans: Johnson adds that he hasn't played any other Donkey Kong games because "none of them matter." Donkey Kong Country? DK64? Diddy Kong Racing? Donkey Kong Banza? That's right – you can turn those all sideways and shove them straight up your candy ass.

Rocky delivers that line with a smile, so he's certainly not entirely serious – but equally, I'm guessing he probably genuinely does not care about whatever your favorite Donkey Kong game is. That's okay, Dawyne. Cena was always better anyway.

There's a reason Bananza tops our list of the best Switch 2 games.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake co-director and Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi has praised Donkey Kong Bananza as one of his favorite games of 2025.

We've known that the Nintendo Switch 2 is getting Final Fantasy 7 Remake since the day the console was properly revealed, and we now finally know it's set for January 22, 2026, with an Xbox launch coming the same day. And while the series director Naoki Hamaguchi has already called out Fable as his favorite Xbox series, the question remains on what his favorite from Nintendo is.

Speaking to RPG Site Hamaguchi is asked which games from 2025 he's played and really enjoyed, and since the interview is about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, he decides to keep the focus there.

"So in terms of Switch 2 titles, I'd say the Donkey Kong game on Switch 2, I thought it was amazing," he says, of course referring to Donkey Kong Bananza, which is not a surprise given it is the best game of 2025 (if you ask me, anyway).

Hamaguchi continues: "I guess you can't really call it a real open world, but then, I felt that the sort of interaction that one can gain with the world inside of it was truly amazing." He then goes on to say that "it's definitely one of the top picks for me for this year." So maybe if we're lucky, Hamaguchi will be so inspired that he finally establishes the One-Winged Kong into Final Fantasy canon.

Elsewhere in the interview, Hamaguchi is asked about the existing Cloud and Sephiroth amiibo that are available thanks to the Super Smash Bros. series, and whether those would have any uses in the Switch 2 edition of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. To this, the director responds: "We don't currently have clear plans for that, but if there is a lot of positive player demand for that, it would make for really great discussions with Nintendo I believe."

Switch 2's controversial game-key cards "let us do things that maybe we wouldn't otherwise," says Final Fantasy 7 remake co-director, but "I really get where people are coming from in terms of their negativity."

Donkey Kong Bananza's DK Island is what I assume the majority of us expected would be part of the game once you completed the main campaign. After all, the developer's previous game, Super Mario Odyssey, let you explore the Mushroom Kingdom, so heading back to DK's homeland seemed like the natural bonus area to let players explore. And while I was initially quite excited for the area upon its announcement during last week's Nintendo Direct – even with it being part of a $20 DLC – DK Island leaves a bit to be desired.

When you arrive on DK island, it's gorgeous. It's a lovely reimagining of the island as seen in the SNES and N64-era games and hit me with a lovely bit of nostalgia. And exploring the island was great; I loved arriving nearby the wreckage of King K. Rool's Gangplank Galleon, climbing up the big Donkey Kong face embedded into the mountains (and smashing it, obviously), taking a minecart ride throughout the caves, and noticing little easter eggs sprinkled about the island. But it soon hit me… where are all the bananas?

Mario Odyssey's Mushroom Kingdom area was similarly a delightful bit of fanservice, but it was also a fully-fledged level for players to roam with its own batch of power moons and challenges for players to do. Bananza's DK Island has no Banandium Gems to collect, and the only challenge rooms are bonus stages that are recycled from the main game. It was a bit disappointing – but thankfully, the DLC adds something even better.

Kong-like

Emerald Rush is a new mode added with the Donkey Kong Bananza DLC that features DK getting hired by the game's villain, Void Kong, joining the ranks of Void Co's mining operations to collect newly discovered emeralds. This takes the form of an Emerald Rush in which DK must roam the land over the course of a run, consisting of multiple rounds. Yeah: Nintendo added a roguelike to Donkey Kong Bananza, and it rules.

Donkey Kong Bananza is already my favorite game of 2025, largely because of how good Donkey Kong feels to play. Moving around as the big ape, rolling, jumping, and using chunks of land to surf feels exceptional – mixed with the ability to destroy terrain and smash through enemies, it makes for one of the most satisfying platformer characters ever made. And perhaps Emerald Rush's best feature is that it lets me do that even more.

An average round of Emerald Rush involves Void Kong giving you an emerald quota and you running around smashing stuff to bits to get it. These are split into rounds, with his quota being taken from your overall emerald count at the end of each, with the amount needed increasing with each round.

However, there are a few catches. First off, Void Kong will give you missions throughout to give you bonus gems (think of it as the contracts in Warzone); these could be the likes of "beat this group of enemies," "Turf Surf for x meters," or "high-five Cranky Kong." Completing these will give you bonus emeralds, banana chips, and skills.

You're completely stripped of your abilities from the main game, with your skill tree being cleared out. You can bring these back by spending emerald banana chips or by smashing specific Emerald Banandium Gems on the map.

But that doesn't mean you are powerless, as each fossil found and mission completed will give you the choice between three skills to power up DK, ranging from getting more emeralds per mission completed or by defeating enemies in a specific way to increasing the amount of treasure found when using a specific Bananza form.

You also get overall records, with the ability to unlock new perks, levels, and outfits by leveling up your Void Co employee card. This in particular is way more elaborate than it first appears, and at risk of spoiling it, all I'll say is keep playing. By completing runs you unlock higher difficulties, which incur more rounds, higher requirements, and limited access to your transport barrels and Bananza abilities.

Breaking barriers

It's a simple concept and a fun spin on the core mechanics of Donkey Kong Bananza, all while making great use of DK Island.

DK Island itself is still quite a placid environment – it's only one layer, and you won't find many enemies except the ones spawned for Void Kong's missions – but when the mode takes on other Bananza maps, it becomes truly elite.

Because these maps are designed for regular platformer play, there's an extra level of challenge as the likes of Bananas and Emerald Deposits get more spread out, and Void Kong's missions become that much harder when Cranky Kong is hidden within the environment. It's a genuinely exhilarating rush you get when you manage to just sneak in enough emeralds to pass a round, especially as the later rounds get absolutely brutal with difficulty.

Donkey Kong Bananza's DK Island + Emerald Rush DLC is a tale of two halves. The flashy inclusion of a new map may have been the most exciting thing going in, but it ends up as a bit of an underbaked inclusion that could've been perfect with some new missions and challenges. But Emerald Rush made me happy with purchasing the DLC, as it gave me exactly what I wanted: a reason to not stop playing Donkey Kong Bananza after I'd already done everything.

Check out all the upcoming Switch 2 games we can't wait to play in 2025 and beyond!

Donkey Kong Bananza, is getting a DLC expansion allowing players to explore DK Island, with a new Emerald Rush mode and it's out today

Donkey Kong Bananza released in July, and is already the Game of the Year in my eyes, but one of my biggest disappointments with it was you were unable to explore DK Island during the game. Nintendo clearly knew this would be the case as during today's Nintendo Direct it was announced that Donkey Kong Bananza is getting a DLC expansion titled DK Island and Emerald Rush.

DK Island is a new map within the game that lets you explore Donkey Kong's homeland, with the likes of Diddy, Dixie, and Cranky Kong hanging out. Plus you'll be able to go hang out in DK's house.

Alongside this is a new mode called Emerald Rush where Void Kong hires Donkey Kong to collect emeralds around the island. The catch is, this is a roguelike mode where you can give DK perks via fossils. You will also be given specific challenges from Void Kong like defeating specific enemies or smashing specific emerald deposits.

Nintendo also confirmed that the mode will add Emerald Rush to the game's other layers. Completing Emerald Rush runs will give you new fits for Pauline and DK, as well as statues that you can place around DK Island.

The paid DLC launches later today for Nintendo Switch 2, with the game also getting a free demo alongside this DLC release. However, the price of this DLC hasn't been confirmed just yet, but it's not like it'll be long until we find out.

Nintendo confirms Super Mario Galaxy 2 is finally coming to Nintendo Switch next month with the original game returning from its 3D All-Stars purgatory.

Donkey Kong Bananza's director has said not to think too deeply about the lore implications of certain easter eggs in the game.

Speaking to Nintendo Dream (via machine translation), Donkey Kong Bananza director Kazuya Takahashi talked about the decision to include callbacks to previous entries in the series, like the arcade game and Donkey Kong Country. He said that the priority, first and foremost, was to make a Donkey Kong game with the theme of destruction, and that everything else (such as whether Cranky Kong would make an appearance) was secondary.

The interviewer asked if things like classic DK levels and DK's house appearing in the Ruins Challenge levels meant that the Ruins are somehow connected to DK Island (where the original game is set). Takahashi responded, "The Ruins Challenge is a self-contained world."

As the game progresses, there are references to previous titles, but "please enjoy it without thinking too deeply about it." Which feels like a direct shot at me after I wrote that the game killed off countless Donkey Kong Country characters, but I'm glad to hear they are okay.

The team also explored why Pauline was specifically 13 years old in the game, a detail that is not typically revealed about Nintendo characters. Takahashi explains that this is the age when children "start to think about their dreams for the future," making it the perfect age for Pauline.

He also revealed that the idea of linking the Bananza transformations to song came first, then Pauline. Takahashi says, "At first, I tried using an adult character, but I thought a girl would be a better fit in terms of size," then young Pauline was born.

Shigeru Miyamoto himself suggested Donkey Kong Bananza's baffling default button settings.

Donkey Kong Bananza director Kazuya Takahashi has revealed that one of the game's weirdest control quirks was actually decided by Shigeru Miyamoto.

In an interview with Nintendo Dream which was translated by Nintendo Patents Watch on Blusesky (via Nintendo Life) director, Kazuya Takahashi said B was originally the default button for jumping, "However, Miyamoto-san pointed out to me, "for digging downward, wouldn't the B button be more intuitive?'" Takahashi recalls, "When I actually tried it, this key mapping indeed felt more intuitive. So that was Miyamoto-san's suggestion."

Donkey Kong Bananza is still one of the best-feeling platformers I've ever played. The way Donkey Kong moves around the world of that game feels incredible, and the controls are pretty much perfect… after you change them in the options, that is. Those default controls of A to jump and B to smash downwards (with X and Y also being directional smashes based on direction), as opposed to having the bottom button be a jump like we're used to (which is an option in the game's menus, proving the devs definitely know this) are frustrating.

In theory, it makes sense that "punch up" is on the top button and punch down is on the bottom – but being able to jump and use the regular punch (which is the one you'll be using the most) with your thumb is far more intuitive, if you ask me.

It was also revealed that Miyamoto's suggestions were also responsible for making Donkey Kong's footsteps louder in order to give him a heavier feeling, after the creator of the series noted he seemed a bit "floaty and light."

Donkey Kong Bananza can be beaten without collecting a single banana, meaning the "Potassium Deficiency%" speedrun is entirely possible.

"See that mountain? You can climb it," Todd Howard infamously said while promoting Skyrim in 2011. Despite my love for that game, that turned out to be an exaggeration. Fast-forward to 2017 and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild let us climb every mountain in the distance for real. Eight years later, Nintendo EPD 8 could've marketed Donkey Kong Bananza with "See that mountain? You can destroy it." That wouldn't be a lie.

As much as Bananza borrows from recent Nintendo hits such as the last two 3D Zeldas, Super Mario Odyssey (same dev team), and even Splatoon 3's campaign mode, its core design philosophy feels more attuned with that of sandboxes of old like The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Prototype, and Mercenaries. Hell, in the absence of a new Hulk game that embraces the 'HULK SMASH' power fantasy, Donkey Kong Bananza might be the best unofficial Hulk game we've had so far.

It's easy to see why so many studios over the last 20 years or so have adopted GTA, Assassin's Creed or The Elder Scrolls as tried-and-tested blueprints. After all, they're perfect fits for almost every single-player fictional world you can think of. That's half the work done, a godsend for most developers who struggle to even get a pitch past the prototype (not the game) phase.

Break stuff

We can say 'too much of a good thing' is a genuine concern in the games industry right now though. Even after learning Assassin's Creed Shadows has been a certified hit and as everyone prepares for GTA 6's world-shaking launch next year, there's a consensus (often backed by shocking data like the first-ever Star Wars open-world game underperforming) that we crossed the point of 'there are too many open-world games being made' a while ago. In the continuous chase of long-term player engagement, the sort of linear action-adventure which, for example, Naughty Dog mastered with Uncharted has become an incredibly rare occurrence in the AAA space.

This doesn't mean we need to adopt the extremist 'open worlds need to die, actually' position that's increasingly common these days. No, they aren't going anywhere, and they don't need to. A possible solution to most developers and publishers' big dilemma is... offering different flavors of open worlds beyond the coat of paint. Folks are having similar thoughts about the FPS genre, but every now and then, something comes out that breaks the mold. Looking at games which are giant sandboxes – sci-fi, fantasy, realistic, or whatever – the situation is more dire. But Donkey Kong Bananza may have unwittingly made a huge push to save the genre from itself.

Back when many developers were trying to make their version of Grand Theft Auto (the mid-2000s), studios like Radical Entertainment and Pandemic Studios went the opposite direction with all the newfound freedom and structural possibilities that had just opened up: Bigger playgrounds meant bigger destruction, depth and realistic world simulations be damned. I mean, the first Mercenaries was literally titled Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction; the best (official) Hulk game ever went with 'Ultimate Destruction' as the subtitle. "See this city? You can completely level it."

Well, okay, maybe Mercenaries didn't fully get there until its (otherwise disappointing) 2008 sequel, but Pandemic was dead-set on putting chaos over everything else in both Mercenaries and its Destroy All Humans games. As for The Incredible Hulk, Radical cooked so much with that previously unseen power fantasy that Prototype, an all-new original superhero (villain?) IP, was born.

Sure, there were stories to follow and more than a few shared strands of DNA, but this group of action-oriented sandboxes were all about the thrill of bending the game worlds to your will through extreme, overwhelming violence. I'm also tempted to bring up Just Cause – a series that somehow survived into the eighth generation of consoles – yet it could ultimately be reduced to a GTA-type of sandbox with extra pyrotechnics and tools.

Though Donkey Kong isn't presented as an antihero or villain in Bananza, his schtick from the get-go is... punching through obstacles and the world itself. Platforming is for suckers, a last resort. 'First, let's try to break the thing in front of me into little pieces.' Same goes for his poor foes: They're gonna be punched or stoned relentlessly before a second strategy is even considered. Leave the complex acrobatics to Mario. Sure, this oversimplifies the full scope and intent of the game (its puzzles and challenges are nice changes of pace), but at its core, Donkey Kong Bananza posits that, sometimes, it's fun to just break the world apart in order to save it... and obtain delicious Banandium. Alex Mercer didn't care about turning New York City into a battlefield either.

Few of us expected Nintendo EPD 8 (and the bigger company) to change its tune this substantially following the success of Super Mario Odyssey, but it's the sort of genre-shaking shift that more publishers should look into while continuing to refresh famous properties. Mario and Link's latest adventures won't be the blueprint for every family-friendly icon in Nintendo's massive portfolio. That's a relief, no doubt, but the bigger implication is this Kong-sized success might remind veteran studios and rights-holders that 'going apeshit' is the most video game-y and easy-to-sell pitch you can think of.

We've also rounded up the upcoming Switch 2 games still to come in 2025 and beyond

Donkey Kong Bananza players are testing the game's limits; almost instantly, they were able to find a skip for the Canyon Layer that allowed them to skip an entire boss fight, and, in the time since, they've beaten Bananza while skipping the majority of its typically necessary transformations. This madness seems possible thanks to the game allowing players to absolutely level its environment.

So since players have already mastered skipping transformations, the natural next step is beating Bananza without collecting any of its 777 Banandium Gems – which is also entirely possible. Twitter user Akfamilyhome posted their attempt recently, saying, "Just beat Donkey Kong Bananza with 0 bananas. Honestly a fun challenge, I recommended doing as a NG+ run after 100%."

Unlike something like Super Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Bananza's main collectible doesn't actually gate progression. Until the post-game Bananza Rehearsal challenges, no part of the game requires you to have any bananas.

However, the Bananas do contribute to DK's skill tree, which does add a layer to the no-banana challenge. As Akfamilyhome puts it, "It's pretty much smooth sailing at the start, figuring out some neat ways to bypass certain sections during the mid-game, and then suddenly, the endgame forces you to lock in, because you die in 1-2 hits."

So while it's going to be a bit of a nightmare for players to beat Bananza without bananas, a bananaless run is possible. One user suggested it as a speedrun category called "Potassium Deficiency%."

However, it doesn't seem like the devs of Donkey Kong Bananza expected players to play the game this way, as AK notes there's no unique dialogue for beating the game without bananas – unlike beating the game while missing Bananzas, which does give you a bit of dialogue after you conquer the game's final boss (as the post-game isn't possible without them).

Donkey Kong Country's DK designer is once again defending Bananza's redesign: "I'm not sure why I even made him brown – the gorilla I based him on was gray."

Donkey Kong Country designer Kevin Bayliss is continuing to heap praise on the big ape's new look in Donkey Kong Bananza, praising the fur color for his redesign.

We saw Donkey Kong's new design in a tiny snippet of Mario Kart World footage back in January, and since then people haven't stopped talking about his Nintendo Switch 2 makeover. Kevin Bayliss – who was behind Donkey Kong's first big redesign alongside Rare's Donkey Kong Country – has been really positive about the design since it was first unveiled, and was celebrating the launch of the game with everyone else.

Now that he's had some more time with the game, Bayliss has talked more about the design. In response to a fan saying their only critique of DK's new design is the fur – which looks more orange than brown – Bayliss chimes in: "Looking at my original character, his color palette wasn't good, and I'm not sure why I even made him brown – the gorilla I based him on was gray!"

Bayliss adds that "now Pauline is introduced into the character almost as an accessory, the whole palette needed a rethink, and I think Nintendo did an excellent job balancing the colors in this new version."

However, as some have noted, DK's fur color is actually tied to the Bananergy meter in-game. When his meter is full, his fur glows much brighter, which looks more orange when used with his natural fur. However, since it's very easy to have your Bananergy maxed out, it's not surprising that people are thinking that's his new color. Bayliss responds to this saying: "Good use of color as a gameplay element!"

But despite this feature, Bayliss notes "you have to consider his [sic] your character will look in the environment. I think my original blended in with the jungle palette, and it worked – but things are a lot more vivid and colorful in his new game so it's understandable why his palette was updated!"

Donkey Kong Bananza's Pauline sometimes gets confused about fruits: "We love an occasional girlfailure who eventually grows up to be a bonafide girlboss mayor."

Due to how Pauline's AI works in Donkey Kong Bananza, players are unsure if she isn't quite sure what specific fruits look like.

You're not going to believe this, but Donkey Kong Bananza has a lot of bananas in it. While Mario is out there collecting stars, moons, and shines in both sun and cat form like a loser, the big man is focused on one thing: bananas. However, there are a lot of bananas, the gold in the Mario realm has some connection to bananas, the streets are made with banana, and even the lens flare is banana.

The sheer amount of bananas has clearly affected young Pauline, as players have noticed that sometimes she has trouble identifying fruit. A Reddit post reads, "She's a little confused, but she's got the spirit," as the clip shows Pauline exclaiming, "An apple!" as DK approaches the giant glowing banana that is seconds away from being devoured.

She's a little confused but she's got the spirit from r/donkeykong

Granted, Mario universe lore expert Supper Mario Broth has explained this on Bluesky, saying, "In Donkey Kong Bananza, Pauline will often point out a banana when Donkey Kong approaches it. Due to a quirk in the game's item noticing priority, it is possible for Pauline to shout 'An apple!' when approaching a banana, appearing confused about the nature of the fruit."

So while there is an actual reason, players, of course, have other theories. One poster notes, "I love people's reads that are going between 'she's traumatised and confused' and 'she's a child and doesn't know much better'. But I am a personal advocate of 'She KNOWS it's a banana, but calling it an apple is just funnier.'" Regardless, some don't see this as a big issue, with another comment saying "We love an occasional girlfailure who eventually grows up to be a bonafide girlboss mayor."

I beat Donkey Kong Bananza feeling 100% confident about Pauline's true identity, but now I'm deep in a rabbithole of fan theories and I don't know what to believe anymore.

Donkey Kong Bananza players are pushing the game's speedrunning potential to its limits. It hasn't even been a week yet, and already someone has figured out how to get to the endgame without unlocking over half of the Bananza transformations.

Super Mario Odyssey showed that Nintendo EPD Tokyo has the sauce to create some incredible speedrunning games thanks to their in-depth movement systems; and players were showing that off on day one of Donkey Kong Bananza with a skip for the Canyon Layer being discovered. The game features five Bananza transformations that let DK take on the form of a superpowered beast, and the abilities gained through these are integral for completing their specific areas… at least they're meant to be.

Spoilers for the final Bananza transformations and a screenshot of an endgame area follow.

In the time since Bananza's launch, it's gotten even more intense, as now players have discovered it's technically possible to beat Donkey Kong Bananza without unlocking a number of the Bananza transformations. In a post on Reddit, a user has posted a thread titled "The amount of sequence breaks in this game is crazy" alongside a screenshot of Pauline and DK hanging out in the Planet Core Layer. However, upon closer inspection, the screenshot reveals that they only have the first Bananza transformation (Kong) and the second-to-last one (Elephant) displayed on their HUD.

The amout of sequence breaks in this game is crazy from r/donkeykong

"Just did a second run of DK Bananza trying to skip as much content as possible and I ended up unlocking only 2 Bananzas in the entire game." The user said, "It's wild how much of the game you can bypass with the right tricks. There are also entire layers you can skip. It's a really fun and surprisingly strategic way to experience the game differently."

While this wasn't a speedrun, it definitely shows off the potential of what Donkey Kong Bananza speedruns could be with this much of the game able to be casually bypassed. I'm sure someone will find a way to skip other Bananza's at this rate.

Granted, the final area of the game seems pretty much impossible without these, as there's one segment that requires the Zebra Bananza to reach the final boss, but I'm sure that'll be figured out in no time, too.

Donkey Kong Bananza credits reignite a popular Mario Kart World fan theory that the beloved gorilla is getting his own expansion in the Switch 2 racer.

Amid speculation over a DK-themed expansion for Mario Kart World, fans have noticed two voice actors in the credits of Donkey Kong Bananza that are also credited in the Switch 2 racer.

Major spoilers for both Donkey Kong Bananza and potential Mario Kart World DLC announcements to follow.

Despite being the stars of the Switch 2's killer game, Donkey Kong and Pauline kind of got short-changed in Mario Kart World. Both characters only got one costume each when the likes of the babies were getting at least five in what is a disgusting piece of disrespect. Naturally, this led players to speculate whether Mario Kart World is set to receive a Donkey Kong-themed expansion pack, and now that Bananza is out, that speculation is a little more well-founded.

For whatever reason, Mario Kart World didn't list the voice actors alongside their characters in the credits, which led to us only finding out the new voices for characters over a month later when the actors were allowed to confirm it. However, Donkey Kong Bananza does list characters, and players have noticed two names in common.

As pointed out on the Mario Subreddit, both Yuu Hayashi and Tsuguo Mogami are listed as voice actors in Mario Kart World, and in Donkey Kong Bananza, these two are the voices of Void Kong and King K. Rool, respectively. While the lack of voice credits in Mario Kart World does make it entirely possible that both actors voice other characters in World, paired with the conspicuous absence of DK content, it's certainly interesting.

Players have noted that King K. Rool also has a brand new emblem featured prominently during his appearance in Bananza's endgame, which seems like a perfect fit for an icon to appear on a Kart in the racing game. Of course, K. Rool's appearance in Bananza hasn't been mentioned publicly by Nintendo yet, as it's a surprise in the third act, so I can't imagine the reveal coming anytime soon, but it certainly adds to the theory that the Mario Kart World DLC will be DK-inspired.

I beat Donkey Kong Bananza feeling 100% confident about Pauline's true identity, but now I'm deep in a rabbithole of fan theories and I don't know what to believe anymore.

Ever since the full reveal of Donkey Kong Bananza, we've had one big question: why is Pauline a child? I played the game ahead of launch for our Donkey Kong Bananza review, and I finished it feeling very confident that I understood the nature of Pauline's identity. But now that the game's actually out and the DK fandom at large has started to finish it, a tidal wave of new fan theories has got me questioning everything.

Obviously, this means we're about to talk major spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza, so if you haven't yet finished the game – and you care about preserving the surprises the plot has in store – this is your cue to go smash some more bananas.

Prior to the launch of Bananza, we – that is, Nintendo fans who care about the Mario and Donkey Kong lore – understood Pauline to be the same kidnapped woman, often known as Lady, from the original arcade Donkey Kong game. That Donkey Kong would morph into Cranky Kong, grandfather of the DK we've been familiar with since the Donkey Kong Country series.

How, then, could a 13-year-old Pauline team up with the current Donkey Kong, occasionally meeting up with a very well-aged Cranky Kong, in Bananza? Well, throughout the game, you'll hear young Pauline make reference to her grandma. During scenes where she naps with DK, Pauline will talk about how her grandmother's love of music inspired her.

"Ah," I thought to myself, "obviously this young Pauline must be the granddaughter of the original Lady, just as DK is the grandson of Cranky Kong!" Young Pauline picked up her love of music from OG Pauline, and her post-game quest to put on a big performance in New Donk City was born out of love for her grandma, whose musical talents were displayed with Jump Up, Super Star in Super Mario Odyssey. Aw, so sweet.

After reading far too many posts on the Donkey Kong subreddit, I am forced to conclude that I was a damn fool, holding beliefs so absurd, I may as well have been claiming that the Mushroom Kingdom is flat. Everyone seems willing to acknowledge that OG Donkey Kong's distressed damsel, Lady, is a separate character from our modern Pauline, but there's another possibility, and one that's quickly taken hold in the fandom.

Young Pauline isn't a separate character from modern, adult Pauline – she's Lady from the original DK, who's separate from any modern incarnation. Donkey Kong Bananza is not a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey, but rather a prequel, telling the story of how that Pauline rose to prominence as the musical mayor of New Donk City.

That would make the entire Donkey Kong series, from Donkey Kong Country through DK64 and even Bananza, a prequel to the entire Super Mario series. It would also mean that Jumpman, the arcade protagonist we've believed to be Mario this entire time, isn't actually Mario at all. Modern Donkey Kong, Pauline, and Mario would, in fact, be the descendants of Cranky Kong, Lady, and Jumpman.

While parts of this fandom theory started making me question myself, the idea that Jumpman and Mario are separate characters is where it breaks down for me, and I find myself returning to the original theory I felt was obvious while playing Bananza for myself.

Jumpman and Lady are simply the old versions of Mario and Pauline. Young Pauline, as we meet her in Donkey Kong Bananza, is the granddaughter of the Pauline we've always known. It's clean. It's simple. It doesn't require retconning every single Donkey Kong and Mario game of the past 40 years to make the timeline work.

And yet… suddenly I'm thinking of Donkey Kong Jr., the arcade sequel where Jumpman clearly, obviously dies at the end. Could it be true then, that our modern Mario is a different character? What of the continued confusion over whether Cranky is actually DK's father or grandfather? Is it possible that there's some other factor we're not considering?

Or is it possible that there is no answer, and Nintendo's simply spent decades building up all this lore without a plan for what to do with it in the end?

I'm laughing at myself a bit now, but with the amount of love Bananza has shown for the DK games that have come before, I can't help but wonder how the devs themselves would answer.

You know what I do understand? Bananas. Here's where to find Bananas in Donkey Kong Bananza.

As someone who is physically pained by the sight of new tech being damaged in any way, this video of a Donkey Kong Bananza enthusiast painting his Switch 2 cartridge yellow and then inserting that cartridge into his console to disastrous effect is genuinely uncomfortable to watch.

As a brand new Switch 2 owner, I'm in the thick of that stage of new tech ownership where I don't even feel comfortable handling the console at all at risk of the naturally occurring oils in my freshly washed hands being too abrasive for its delicate, newborn plastic shell. This is the reason the whole Switch 2 staplegate debacle was so hard for me to stomach, even if it did have a happy ending.

Anyway, this is all to say, I can't believe a TikToker going by Gardner was comfortable taking apart his copy of Donkey Kong Bananza, desecrating it with a can of yellow spray paint, and then sticking it into his Switch 2.

"Gamers are spray painting their copies of Donkey Kong Bananza in order to match the aesthetic of Donkey Kong Bananza. Now, you might be asking, 'Who's doing this?'," Gardner says in the below video compilation of a series of highly upsetting TikToks. "It's me."

Edited a few of this guy’s TikToks together to create a horrific movie.

— @davidturners.tcgs.co (@davidturners.tcgs.co.bsky.social) 2025-07-22T19:55:35.074Z

"I can hear the comments now," Gardner says. "'Gardner, you're damaging a $70 game. Gardner, you're just going to get chips of paint inside of your Nintendo Switch 2.'"

YES. YES, that is actually what I'm thinking! But then he does it anyway, apparently because, "maybe it's worth it to me."

In a subsequent video, Gardner is seen examining his poor, unsuspecting Switch 2, which now has a painted copy of Donkey Kong Bananza "absolutely stuck" inside of it.

In a final update shared to Gardner's TikTok on Monday (included in the compilation above), he takes a big ol' pair of pliers and tries wrenching the cartridge free from his Switch 2, and you can just about hear the anguished cries of all parties involved, even as Gardner himself seems astonishingly unbothered. "Hmm... huh," he says as his cartridge, and possibly console, appears to be permanently damaged.

"I'm chilling 'cause I'm gonna be playing the game for a while, but I'd love your suggestions [on how to get it out]," Gardner says, before peeling off a hunk of plastic from the stuck cartridge. "I also just actually broke the cartridge. Oh God."

Someone excuse me, I need to go give my Switch 2 a big, tight hug (with sanitized surgeon gloves on, of course).

These Switch 2 accessories made my first weekend with Donkey Kong Bananza so perfect, I can't wait to play more.

While Nintendo has been killing off their characters in Donkey Kong Bananza, former Rare developers behind Donkey Kong Country seem really keen on his latest adventure.

Donkey Kong Bananza is the biggest shake-up for the series since 1994, when what was then Rareware rebooted the series into Donkey Kong Country, with the new design being the characters' first makeover since then. When the game was revealed, the designer of Donkey Kong Country's redesign, Kevin Bayliss, was a big fan of it – despite fans pitting the designs against each other- and has since praised the new look for Diddy Kong too.

Now that Bananza is out, Bayliss was quick to get his hands on it, posting on its release day with a copy of the game. "REUNITED AT LAST!" Bayliss tweeted, promising to stream "my first play with my ape-son for a looooong time!" And after actually getting his hands on the game, Bayliss added, "It's FANTASTIC! TOADALLY BANANAZ," joining in the praise that has landed the game a spot as the fourth highest rated game of 2025.

However, Bayliss isn't the only Donkey Kong Country alumni to hype up Bananza, with Playtonic co-founder Steve Mayles – who worked on first two SNES games as an artist, before going on to work on titles like Banjo Kazooie and Yooka Laylee tweeting, "The more I see of DK Bananza, the more I consider getting a Switch 2 just to play this game...looks like they've done a great job on it."

Donkey Kong Bananza player spends over 4 hours pushing its destruction to the absolute limit by smashing up an entire level: "Well, that took a while."

Donkey Kong Bananza players are pushing the game's destruction to its limits by leveling entire areas.

The Super Mario Odyssey team is perhaps best known for the freeform nature of their games. While the games by the studio do have intended ways to complete them, thanks to the mechanics, it's a common sight to see players finding roundabout ways to complete objectives. Donkey Kong Bananza takes things to the next level, as not only were players finding speedrun tech on day one, but DK's ability to destroy terrain can lead to you being able to skip puzzles entirely, or y'know, just destroy the level.

Super Smash Bros. YouTuber PJiggles – who has proven many times before that he is not afraid to spend inordinate amounts of time on things for the love of the game with his videos – is one such player who seeks to push the limits of the game. In a tweet that simply reads "Well that took a while," PJiggles revealed that they had destroyed everything possible in the game's second area – the Hilltop Layer.

While the Hilltop Layer is one of the more basic areas in Donkey Kong Bananza, it wasn't some breezy feat, as PJiggles mentioned that as a whole, destroying the entire level took him "about 4 hours and 15 minutes." It's also worth noting that PJiggles has access to the Elephant Bananza, which allows DK to take away massive amounts of terrain very quickly, so if you were to punch your way through the entire level, it may take far longer.

My Donkey Kong Bananza playthrough is being haunted by the remains of numerous iconic enemies and allies from classics like Donkey Kong Country.

I didn't realize at the time how blessed we were with the original Nintendo Switch launching with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Though it cross-launched on Nintendo Wii U, it still felt like the killer app that defined the console. I've been worried that Nintendo Switch 2, though a great bit of kit as we discuss in our Nintendo Switch 2 review, has been lacking in a game that would define its launch. But, no monkey business, Donkey Kong Bananza is thankfully that game.

It's great to finally have that defining game on Nintendo Switch 2 – Donkey Kong Bananza has stabilized me, having felt a bit wobbly in the first few weeks after the console's launch. While Mario Kart World was clearly the marketing-bullet-point system seller given the console bundle that came at launch, for me it struggled at the starting grid thanks to a focus on straightforward rallies compared to the series' long history of circuit play. Though Donkey Kong Bananza is just as experimental, it feels like a real evolution of Nintendo platformers in a way that also champions the power of the new hardware.

Ape escape

We still loved the launch racer in our Mario Kart World review, but no matter how you feel about it, there's one undeniable fact – Nintendo isn't known as a racing game developer, as good as it may be at party-style spin-offs. Even the best Mario Kart game would struggle to really define a system for me (except for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! of course).

No, as far as I'm concerned Nintendo games are all about the spirit of adventure – whether that's an epic quest like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or a huge summer getaway like Super Mario Sunshine. Importantly, they're about setting out for adventure as you, the player, championing expressive play such as the unique traversal mechanics of Super Mario Odyssey or leaving you to chart your own course as you explore Zelda's dense maps.

Donkey Kong Bananza really carries that forward, combining just about everything Nintendo have learned across their first-party 3D adventures together to create something that feels really unique – a form of freedom that only Donkey Kong, in his little tie and not much else, can represent. On a quest to liberate (and consume) glittering bananas, his Jules Verne-esque journey to the center of the planet is one that puts the power of the king of swing into my own simian-like paws.

Each new 'layer' of the world is a sizable chunk of world to explore, though not too large as to get lost. With child Pauline in tow (she helps him to transform into more destructive forms), just about every interesting looking bit of the environment rewards DK with goodies, from bananas themselves to collectible fossils. Each can be traded in for the likes of skills or costumes, but really just smashing them into DK's suspiciously absent pockets or, indeed, his stomach (yes, that's how it's presented in the UI) is rewarding in and of itself.

It's a similar rhythm to Super Mario Odyssey, which itself re-tooled the series' traditional star collecting into smaller, bite size bits of discovery – except here, as Donkey Kong, banana collection is much more immediate. Where Mario might ground pound a suspect bit of the earth, DK can simply dig his mitts in and tear the world apart, the 1:1 destruction helping you find your own paths to discovery without feeling too arbitrary either. Rather than an absence of guided design, it's more like Donkey Kong Bananza allows me to doodle connections between them. It's like finding your way through a tricky maze drawn in pencil, but allowing you to use an eraser on the walls.

These dense environments aren't just littered with collectibles themselves, but 'temples' too, ruins that take more than a peel from the fruit of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. These more strictly designed challenges – ranging from 2D jumping challenges to finding hidden balloons – still allow for creative approaches using Donkey Kong's muscled mind, but are more specific puzzle boxes. Transforming into an Ostrich to leap across moving platforms isn't dissimilar to having Link construct some kind of puzzle-breaking tool out of sticks, but with the added bonuses of hearing DK's ape grunts while he does it.

Donkey Kong Bananza is all about the joy of tearing things apart and sometimes smashing things together, both literally in the game and in terms of genre – forcing Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild to slot together like mismatched puzzle pieces, and with DK having the strength to wedge them together.

It helps that the smashy action that means Donkey Kong can deform every landscape before him and the game will remember the destruction for as long as you want – it feels like the kind of ambitious terrain development previous consoles couldn't pull off. Heck, even Donkey Kong Bananza occasionally struggles as I pull up the map that reflects it all – but I wouldn't have it any other way. Going ape on Nintendo Switch 2 shouldn't be easy, after all, we're witnessing history in the making.

Want more to play? Check out our best Nintendo Switch 2 games ranking!

Donkey Kong Bananza has seemingly confirmed the demise of many beloved characters in the Donkey Kong Country series thanks to the in-game fossils.

Donkey Kong Bananza seems to be playing things very loose with the timeline, thanks to the inclusion of Pauline as a young girl, despite her being kidnapped by Donkey Kong's grandfather, who features in-game as an old ape. But now that players have their hands on it, there's another huge implication for the lore, that being that some of Donkey Kong's greatest allies are dead.

Donkey Kong Bananza features several types of collectibles, with fossils serving as the currency for the in-game style shop. You find Fossils in each layer of the world, with the main layers having three different types in terms of rarity. While these start as typical fossils like dinosaurs and ammonites, they quickly get sinister.

Oh my god.They killed him.Those sick fucks killed him.

— @scottmccrae.com (@scottmccrae.com.bsky.social) 2025-07-21T10:04:26.491Z

The Forest Layer is where the game starts taking no prisoners, as you'll quickly find the remains of the DKC enemy Gnawty, which I suppose is not a huge deal, considering DK himself dispatched a lot of them in the old days, but I took it pretty hard, to tell the truth.

But then that Layer's medium fossil is Professor Chops, the glasses-wearing pig who helps the kongs out at every checkpoint in DKC Returns and Tropical Freeze (although a Reddit post was quick to say "he won't be missed"). Finally, the giant fossil found on this layer is perhaps the most devastating, as it reveals the massive remains of DKC2's animal buddy, Squitter the Spider, complete with his trainers.

This continues throughout the game as the Tempest Layer features the remains of one of the most beloved friends, Enguarde the Swordfish, alongside the likes of the Banana birds. Not only is it truly devastating to know that some of DK's closest allies are gone, but his finding their remains only makes things that much worse... although trading their remains for new fits has some moral implications I'm not sure I want to think about.

Nintendo is probably regretting those Switch 2 mouse controls as players flock to Donkey Kong Bananza's artist mode to create penises and other cursed sculptures.

Donkey Kong Bananza is here, and aside from celebrating the fact that it's just released the highest-rated Switch 2 game so far, I think Nintendo might also be regretting its Switch 2 mouse controls a bit as players flock to the new DK Artist mode to create some predictably cursed sculptures.

One of the very first things I saw when I opened up Twitter yesterday following Donkey Kong Bananza's launch was a statue of a penis one player proudly decided to show off to their friends over Switch 2 GameChat. The same phallic artwork, later claimed in a viral tweet, was said to have given its creator a permanent GameChat ban. However, they've since clarified that this was just a joke, so there's no need to panic. Either way, this, uh, artwork really set the tone for what was to come.

Looking at Reddit, what sculptures have fans decided to share? Here's one titled "The Crucifixion of Kong" – it's exactly what it sounds like, with a slightly abstract take depicting DK on a cross.

The Crucifixion of Kong from r/donkeykong

Another user shares a scarily accurate recreation of Donkey Kong from that one reaction image where he stares forward with a knowing, charming smile on his face. It's actually really good, but I don't particularly enjoy making eye contact with it.

My DK artist Mastapies from r/donkeykong

Elsewhere, we've also got the familiar faces we should expect by this point – an Among Us imposter and Sans Undertale (in Kong form). If someone is given the option to make those guys, they're gonna do it. It's just the law.

💀 from r/donkeykong

Although there are plenty of slightly cursed artworks out there, there are loads of genuinely impressive ones, too. Just look at this ode to that Donkey Kong Land commercial where DK gets crushed by a Game Boy while admiring a plate of bananas – now that's art.

spent 2 hours in DK artist mode on this, and it was 100% worth it for this alone from r/donkeykong

I've only spent a small amount of time in the DK Artist mode, but I did end up making a little Bulbasaur statue that I was rather pleased with (which my fellow GamesRadar+ friends have been very kind about too – thanks folks). The mouse controls are great fun to use, even if the process of adding material and sculpting it can feel a little clumsy.

Given that we're only a day past the game's launch, I'm just excited to see what else players manage to create when they've had more time to hone their craft.

I'm glad to announce Donkey Kong Bananza has the Super Mario Odyssey sauce: it's taken less than a day for players to skip a boss fight entirely with speedrunning tech.

In less than a day, Donkey Kong Bananza players have already found a massive speedrun skip that allows them to avoid a boss entirely, proving the Super Mario Odyssey sauce is present.

When Super Mario 64 released back in 1996, it would go on to become one of the best speedrunning games of all time thanks to its fantastic movement tech. Fast-forward 21 years and Super Mario Odyssey took the best shot at the throne we've ever seen, with players discovering some absolutely wild tech thanks to Mario's new skills like the cap bounce and mid-air dive. And even if the 3D Mario team has abandoned the plumber for its latest game, his spirit lives on as players are proving Donkey Kong Bananza has the sauce.

In the game's third major area, Canyon Layer, players have found a skip which allows you to skip the boss fight with Grumpy Kong. A clip shows Donkey Kong grabbing a big chunk of the ground and using the Turf Surf ability in the air, before diving and using the chunk jump ability to get a boost upwards, landing them on a later area of the map.

While this is just one skip, it definitely shows the potential of Donkey Kong Bananza's movement system, especially when you consider they don't even have the flying ostrich Bananza unlocked yet. HowLongToBeat lists Super Mario Odyssey as taking 12 and a half hours to beat when just going straight for the main goals, while the current Super Mario Odyssey world record is less than an hour. So expect to see Bananza times be cut right down as players discover more about the game, especially when you can destroy pretty much the whole map.

Nintendo icon Shigeru Miyamoto spent his time testing Donkey Kong Bananza "smashing and digging" in one spot, which tracks following his hour-long Breath of the Wild playtesting stint "just climbing trees."

Donkey Kong Bananza is out today, and players already have physical copies in hand to verify one important fact: the game does not have the latest Nintendo Switch 2 firmware on the cartridge. That's a bummer, since it means there's still no way to play Switch 1 games on the new console without an internet connection.

As you may recall, there was a minor controversy around the Switch 2 launch when it became clear that the system was not going to launch with fully functional firmware. Instead, you'd need to connect online and download a day one console patch to enable features like GameChat, GameShare, and the Nintendo eShop. Those features mostly require the internet to work anyway, so the online connection isn't a notable barrier, but there's one big elephant in this room.

Switch 1 backwards compatibility is not enabled out of the box on Switch 2, so you need that firmware update in order to be able play old games on the new system. Switch 2 carts - at least the real ones, not the game-key cards - work without the updated firmware, but you can't plug, say, your old copy of Super Mario Odyssey into a Switch 2 and play it unless you connect online for the update.

BIG story of today: #DonkeyKongBananza does NOT come with newer firmware compared to the launch games. Still runs on 19.1.0. No update prompt.Best bet for offline backwards compatibility now is Mario Party, since it makes use of the SW2 camera, which needs a firmware update.

— @doesitplay.org (@doesitplay.org.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T17:41:17.657Z

Generally, new physical games include a console's latest firmware updates, but it seems Donkey Kong Bananza won't solve the issue. The game "does NOT come with newer firmware compared to the launch games," as DoesItPlay, a physical media compatibility watchdog group, notes on Bluesky. "Still runs on 19.1.0. No update prompt. Best bet for offline backwards compatibility now is Mario Party, since it makes use of the SW2 camera, which needs a firmware update."

This is a pretty narrow issue for now, since a pretty small number of people leave their consoles offline these days. But it does matter for that group, and it will matter to a much broader range of collectors in the future, when Nintendo will likely shut down the update services for Switch 2. Here's hoping that future physical games will offer an alternative path to the new firmware.

One of these upcoming Switch 2 games has to have the firmware on-cart… right?

Look, I'm not saying playing Donkey Kong Bananza with a set of Donkey Konga bongos is the optimal way to play. But, as soon as the new Switch 2 adventure came flying through my door, I just had to know whether it'd work with the weird old GameCube controller. Spoilers, but it does, and it's all thanks to a cheap adapter.

If, like me, you're hellbent on playing Donkey Kong Bananza in the most inconvenient but funny way possible, and happen to have some Donkey Konga bongos to hand (who doesn't?), you'll want to grab a Mayflash Gamecube controller adapter. It'll only set you back $18.99 at Amazon, or 30 bananas for anyone who trades in fruit.

Once you've got hold of the adapter, you'll want to give it a quick firmware update so it works with the Switch 2. Doing so will actually save you from buying the new GameCube controller since it'll let you use old wired pads. I even managed to get a DualSense working using the accessory, but today, it's all about the Donkey Kongas.

Upon firing up Donkey Kong Bananza for the first time with early 2000s bongos in hand, I was expecting to run into compatibility issues. Yet, against all odds, I was able to punch through the adventure's intro rock wall using nothing but a funky beat, and the controller's button pads were already assigned to inputs.

Smashing rocks with the power of music is only half the battle, as the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the bongos lack thumbsticks or even a d-pad. I figured that the lack of directional controls would mean I'd have to thrust myself forward by throwing punches, but it turns out that you can still move around using a secondary gamepad.

At this point, it almost feels like Nintendo wants me to play Donkey Kong using the bongos, and I gladly accept its challenge. While I'm sure there will be sections of the game that require putting monkey business to one side and using a proper controller, I find it incredibly easy to roam around with the standard pad, then start bashing the bongos whenever it's time to smash.

In fact, this setup could be weirdly great for co-op, as one player could be in charge of moving DK around while the other smacks out a sick beat. Naturally, I'll be enforcing the same rules that apply to younger siblings in that it'll be me on bongos and my partner using the normie gamepad, but it'll still make for a phenomenal date night.

Keep in mind that Donkey Kong Bananza is fresh off the press today, so I've had minimal time to truly mess around with my stupid bongos setup. I'm pretty sure that if I remap some of the buttons using the Switch 2's integrated settings, and work out if I can use the mic as an extra input, I can perfect this ridiculous setup and actually help DK get his banana diamonds back.

Looking for more Ninty gadgets? Check out the best Nintendo Switch accessories and best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express cards for more add-ons. You'll want to peek at our ultimate Nintendo Switch 2 starter pack too if you're just starting out.

Donkey Kong Bananza has confirmed the identity of the big ape's new voice actor after Mario Kart World didn't feature Takashi Nagasako in the credits.

The Nintendo Switch 2 isn't only the start of a new era for Nintendo in the literal "it's a new console" sense, but it also marks the continuation of a new era for Mario specifically. Several long-time voice actors for the series have been recast, it started with Kevin Afghani taking over for Charles Martinet as Mario, Luigi, Wario, etc from Super Mario Bros. Wonder onwards. Then, with the Switch 2 launch and Mario Kart World, both Donkey Kong (Takashi Nagasako), and Princess Peach (Samantha Kelly) – whose actors had been with the series for 20 years and 17 years respectively – were recast.

Mario Kart World didn't feature Nagasako in the credits, but many put two and two together when they saw Koji Takeda – who voiced DK in the Super Mario Bros. Movie's Japanese dub – was featured in the credits, but because Mario Kart didn't list characters with each actor, it remained unconfirmed. Well now, according to IGN, the credits for Donkey Kong Bananza have fully confirmed that Takeda has taken on the mantle.

Meanwhile, Pauline voice actress Kate Higgins has also been recast as the character this time around, with Pauline being voiced by Jenny Kidd. However, considering Pauline is 13-years old in Bananza and Higgins still voiced the character in Mario Kart World, I don't imagine she'll be permanently replaced as the character in the series (unless adult Pauline doesn't feature in future games).

Interestingly, it's unclear if Nagasako is still the voice of Cranky Kong in Donkey Kong Bananza, as Cranky Kong goes uncredited in the game. Nagasako has voiced the character since 2007, except for in the Super Mario Bros. Movie where he was voiced by Naomi Kusumi (who provided the Japanese voices for Scooby-Doo in Zombie Island, and Pacha in The Emperor's New Groove).

Be sure to read our Donkey Kong Bananza review where we scored the game 4.5/5.

The team behind Donkey Kong Bananza has revealed that series co-creator Shigeru Miyamoto got to playtest the game, and what he got up to is seemingly quite on brand for the industry icon.

Donkey Kong's latest game is all about breaking stuff. Bananza started as a Switch 1 game, but when the developers realized the console couldn't handle the full scale of this destruction, it was moved to Switch 2 in 2021. Thanks to the game's in-depth voxel tech (which a developer says "must have been an absolute nightmare for the programmers"), everything in the environment is destructible, which fits perfectly with a giant gorilla.

One person who was clearly a fan of the destruction found in Bananza is Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto. In an interview with The Guardian, Super Mario Odyssey director-turned-Bananza producer Kenta Motokura recalled presenting the game to Miyamoto. "Instead of progressing through the game, he just stuck to one point, smashing and digging around a lot. It was a good thing to see him playing that way … it proved that there are a lot of things that players could potentially be curious about in the game."

Granted, this isn't the first story about Miyamoto playtesting a game in an unconventional way. Back in 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi revealed Miyamoto spent his first time with the game climbing trees for an hour (via Nintendo Life). "When we first presented this to Mr. Miyamoto, he spent about an hour just climbing trees. We left little treats like rupees on the trees, but we also left other things in other places we thought he might go. But he just kept climbing trees."

At the very least, the developers of Bananza had a better reaction to Miyamoto's methods than he did for his own son playing Super Mario 64 – "Geez, does this kid have any brains?"

Loving bananas and wanting to wreck everything in sight aren't the only things that make Donkey Kong a relatable icon. He's also self-conscious about his posterior - or, rather, Nintendo was, which is why Donkey Kong Bananza's hero isn't totally naked this time around.

You might have noticed that Donkey Kong has a whole new look in the Switch 2 era, ushered in by Mario Kart World. He's now even more adorably animated and squishy-looking, but that redesign actually originated during the development of Donkey Kong Bananza.

Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura recently explained, in the newest Ask the Developer blog, that the team at Nintendo "were also conscious of how Donkey Kong would look from the back while he's moving" since players tend to stare at a character's backside a lot in third-person games.

Donkey Kong's behind in his old design apparently just looked like "a mass of brown fur," which wasn't a problem for the predominantly 2D platformers that he had previously headlined, but for a next-gen 3D platformer, Nintendo needed to upgrade his butt.

"That inspired us to make some creative adjustments to his outfit, such as giving him britches and suspenders," Motokura explained. As we saw pre-release, DK and Pauline also have Mario Odyssey-style outfits to unlock. Of course, at one point in the game, our big ape also loses his newfound clothes, so Nintendo was sure to make him "look rich and thick." His fur, I mean - Nintendo made his fur "look rich and thick"

Elsewhere in the blog, we also learned that Nintendo originally tested Bananza's wild destruction tech by giving a goomba hands, of all things, and the team wanted to establish "two separate branches" for DK just as they had done for Super Mario's 2D and 3D games.

For now, check out our Donkey Kong Bananza review before you go diving in to find all Donkey Kong Bananza Bananzas.

One of the biggest Nintendo Switch 2 features announced in the run-up to the system's launch was its support for Nvidia's DLSS upscaling technology, promising "10x the graphics performance" of the previous console. But while you normally expect first-party games to offer the best showcase of console-defining features, it seems Nintendo is content to let third-parties make the most of DLSS, because the tech is nowhere to be seen in Mario Kart World or the impending Donkey Kong Bananza.

"The Switch 2 supports technologies such as DLSS, and we've seen them in numerous games," as Digital Foundry's John Linneman says in a tech analysis of Donkey Kong Bananza. "But Nintendo does not take advantage of it at all. Instead, we simply have this combination of AMD's FSR1 with SMAA, a post-process anti-aliasing. I'll admit it, the image quality is decent. But seriously, FSR1 again? Come on, Nintendo, we can do better than this."

We've got a big breakdown for you if you need AI upscaling explained, but the basic idea is that the console renders a low-resolution version of the game with improved performance, and that render is then upscaled to a higher resolution through a separate technology. In an ideal situation, you might get the smooth performance of running a game at 1080p combined with the visual detail of a native 4K image.

DLSS uses specialized hardware for upscaling in one of the rare useful applications of AI tech. FSR1 is hardware agnostic - in fact, it even worked on Switch 1 - and as a result, produces far less impressive results. Linneman notes that in DK Bananza, the FSR1 and SMAA combo still has a fair bit of visual noise, which DLSS likely wouldn't have produced.

I'll admit that I took absolutely no notice of any visual issues while playing through the game for our Donkey Kong Bananza review, but I have to wonder if DLSS might have also helped clean up the frame rate issues that I did find distracting. Both Mario Kart World and DK Bananza started life as Switch 1 games, which may explain why they've each got a foot in the technological past, so I hope Nintendo's future first-party titles can take a bit better advantage of Switch 2's new features.

Dig into the best Switch 2 games out there.

Donkey Kong Bananza reviews are in, and it's the fourth highest rated game of the year on Metacritic, and tied for the highest rated Donkey Kong game.

Donkey Kong Bananza is set to release later this week, and reviews for Nintendo's first major Nintendo Switch 2 release following its launch have arrived. The game is developed by the Super Mario Odyssey team, which is tied as the second-best game of all time in Metacritic at 97, so you won't be shocked to find out that Bananza is doing pretty well.

Sitting at a 90 on Metacritic, Donkey Kong Bananza is the fourth best-rated game of 2025 (well, sixth, but the top two are ports of Switch Zelda games). Alongside that, it now holds the highest rating of all time for a Donkey Kong game on the site, tied with 1999's Donkey Kong 64 (although that game has 14 reviews compared to Bananza's almost 80; otherwise, I'd wager that the rating would be much lower, given that game's quirks).

In our GamesRadar+ Donkey Kong Bananza review, Dustin Bailey gave the game 4.5/5 and said, "This is the best reason yet to own a Switch 2, and shows Nintendo at its absolute best. The central destruction mechanic is so much fun, and smart level design keeps it delightful from beginning to end with an adventure rivaling Mario's very best."

All 79 reviews are positive so far, with Inverse, IGN, and Pocket Tactics giving the games perfect 10/10 scores, while on the lower end (if you can call it that), Eurogamer, The Gamer, and The Guardian all gave the game four out of five in their reviews.

"It must have been an absolute nightmare for the programmers": Nintendo explains Donkey Kong Bananza's voxel tech and why it doesn't look like "stacked cubes" like Minecraft or Hytale.