As the minutes before the Nintendo Switch 2's full reveal counted down, to fill the silence before the oncoming storm a colleague turned to me: "what game would truly sell you on the new console?" I sat down, leant back in my large gaming chair, and I looked out of the window at the sunny streets. "A followup to Super Mario Odyssey," I replied cooly. With that, the monkey paw curled. It became a fist. And then DK himself walloped me. Because, reader, Donkey Kong Bananza is that Super Mario Odyssey 2.
After all, the king of swing and the mustachioed plumber share plenty of history. Arguably it's their first feud in the original Donkey Kong back in 1981 that made Nintendo the company it is today. It is perhaps only fitting that when Mario takes a break to cruise the highways of Mario Kart World, that DK, tie flapping in the wind, should launch into the spotlight, beating his chest. From the way Donkey Kong Bananza looks to be evolving the exploration-based platforming that Super Mario Odyssey managed to redefine, to the superstar simian's movement mechanics, the link between the two games feels almost as clear to me as the one between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Ape escape
Ever on the hunt for bananas, Donkey Kong comes upon a huge haul on Ingot Isle – shiny, "tasty" golden bananas that shimmer like diamonds, the source of a new resource called Banandium. Yet, before he can dig in, the villains at VoidCo simultaneously suck the loot into a strange storm-bringing orb while smushing the island deeper underground. Clinging his paws to the shiny bananas he so craves, DK is flung into the destruction.
Yet, as he uses his fists to go deeper to recover his banana motherlode, he uncovers new biomes beneath the rocks. Each area is a sandbox style level, throughout which loads of golden bananas are tucked away, rewarding player curiosity as you poke and prod – or rather, smash and pummel – at the wide, densely designed levels. If something causes you to scratch your gorilla-chin in curiosity, it's always well worth checking out.
It's obviously a similar set-up to Super Mario Odyssey. There, uncovering Power Moons, Mario pauses in the air as he holds them up with the on-screen text "You got a moon" alongside pithy text describing the moon's challenge such as "Flooding Pipeway Ceiling Secret". Here, Donkey Kong smashes each golden banana into bits, with the camera pausing on the destruction with the text "Oh, banana!" followed by a similar description, like "Through the Banana-Mining Belt" before he gobbles up that sweet, sweet, Banandium.
In Super Mario Odyssey, Mario uses Cappy to break apart the rules of the platforming stages laid out before him – empowering him to make mind-boggling leaps of faith, spinning and leaping off his hat to gain lots of air. Donkey Kong Bananza has a similar philosophy, but revels in a much more hands-on approach for DK. Yes, he can roll around in a ball, and climb up almost any surface he wants, but he can also pull out chunks of the level and use his fists to destroy and reshape the world around him. He can create tunnels, punch around obstacles, and even pull out chunks of stage to 'turf surf' on top of.
The destruction adds an almost The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom approach to puzzle solving. You might come across a concrete wall that DK can't smash with his fists, but a nearby bit of Boom Rock can explode it – revealing a Golden Banana. Yet at the same time, approach from another angle, and DK can circumvent the blockage entirely, using his paws to smash through to the prize. This ape thinks outside the box. I do worry about whether the possibility to smash through problems will diminish challenges that are set out, but Nintendo hasn't let me down so far with similar approaches in other games.
A detailed map is another way Bananza diverges from Odyssey, with it displaying any destructive alterations DK has made to the stage in real-time. It can also allow you to see points of interest where you've yet to quite literally leave your mark. The destruction creates more verticality to the stages by design too. DK can punch in any direction, always able to ascend or descend as long as he's not hitting upon bedrock or the mysterious, purple-glowing voided terrain. Even a leap from up high will end with DK leaving a crater behind him where he lands.
"The underground is odd but beautiful here."
Golden bananas, then, might end up a bit more hidden than Odyssey's power moons, but a handy clap allows DK to highlight banana treats like a kind of snack sonar through walls. It also brings any loose Banandium – that stuff is everywhere – into his waiting mouth. Likewise, DK and new buddy Odd Rock (who is, how do I put this, a talking odd rock) can whistle to mark the way ahead – handy if you get lost in a cavern of your own creation. There's moments of loudness to pulling things apart punctuated by quieter melodies. It makes for a warm tone.
While chowing down on natural resources and accruing Golden Bananas is clearly the point of Donkey Kong Bananza, the exact relationship the items have on progress compared to Super Mario Odyssey has yet to be determined. Donkey Kong finds himself descending a layer at a time, progressing by finding and destroying the Void Stakes left by VoidCo in order to dive even deeper. In the first proper layer we've seen, the Lagoon Layer (with its dazzling blue sky actually, somehow, being the sea itself – the underground is odd but beautiful here), there's multiple Void Stakes you can smash up to progress. Which means, interestingly, alternative ways to go deeper to new levels. What that means in play remains to be seen, but it's a new approach we've seen from Nintendo in how levels are connected.
What is clear is how much Donkey Kong Bananza rewards clever use of its movement to reach oodles of secrets. From the golden bananas themselves to collectible fossils, and even challenge levels and friendly apes to uncover (yes, Cranky is back), there's loads packed into every dense level before you even get into tearing it apart with your bare (erm, monkey) hands. I've never been the biggest Donkey Kong guy, but as a lover of 3D platformers Donkey Kong Bananza is shaping up to be an adventure that doesn't just ape the joyous feeling of discovery I last felt with Super Mario Odyssey, but to genuinely evolve the concept. Oh, banana!
Yes, we've gone hands-on with the game already! Donkey Kong Bananza is the most fun I've had with Switch 2 yet thanks to its gleeful, chest-thumping destruction
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