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.
