After years of being overshadowed by his friendly rival Mario, Donkey Kong is back again (and about time, too). With the recent Donkey Kong Country expansion at Super Nintendo World and a dedicated spin-off movie from Illumination rumored to be on the way, Nintendo is going all in on the banana-loving ape for the Switch 2 generation. Donkey Kong Bananza, DK's first new 3D adventure since Donkey Kong 64 (1999) and the second major Switch 2 exclusive following Mario Kart World, is finally upon us. Developed by the talented team behind Super Mario Odyssey (2017), the influence becomes very apparent as soon as you pick up your Joy-Con 2 to play, and the end result is undoubtedly, as you might have expected, a barrel of fun.
Down in the mining tunnel of Ingot Isle, Donkey Kong discovers golden bananas known as "Banandium Gems" and immediately starts finding (and eating) as many as he possibly can. Unfortunately for him, the Void Company, which consists of new series antagonists Grumpy Kong, Poppy Kong, and Void Kong, somehow manage to push Ingot Isle deep underground, stealing the cave's banana supply in the process. While assessing the damage, DK comes across a mysterious talking rock that can sing, who we quickly learn to be a young Pauline that was put under a curse by VoidCo. The two form an unlikely friendship, unknowingly bringing the Mario-canon into question, but both with the same goal of venturing down towards the Planet Core- where wishes are said to be granted, ironically being the only way to return to the surface.
The narrative, while simple, packs an emotional punch, as Pauline attempts to gain the confidence necessary to get over her stage fright after she discovers that her singing is more powerful than she realized. Donkey Kong and Pauline's interactions are as comedic as they are adorable, and the expressiveness of the duo, which is partially thanks to DK's modern redesign, adds a whole new depth to the beautifully animated cutscenes. While most of the characters speak in the same type of gibberish that has become accustomed with classic 3D platformers, all of Pauline's dialogue is fully voice acted throughout the entire game.
Pauline's singing is more than a driving plot point though, it's also a major gameplay mechanic. As you travel between the layers of the planet, with each one acting as a massive open sandbox, you'll encounter the Elders of the Underground World, who will teach you an ancient power known as "Bananza" transformations. Activated by Pauline's singing, Bananzas temporarily turn Donkey Kong into the type of animal of the Elder they learned it from, giving him the abilities of said animal. For example, the Kong Bananza equips DK with extra strength, while the Zebra Bananza gives him faster running speeds. Once a Bananza is learned, they can be swapped between and used at any time, as long as you have gathered enough gold to fill up your Bananergy metre. Bananza abilities create for some unique and challenging platforming, and the catchy little songs that Pauline sings during them are a real treat, but after a few dozen hours of gameplay, I eventually had to turn them off in the settings to preserve my sanity.
Donkey Kong himself also has many natural abilities of his own, and his fluid moveset is a blast to control. He can jump, roll, climb, punch forwards, upwards, and downwards, pick up chunks of terrain to swing, throw, double jump, or surf on, hand slap to activate sonar to detect hidden nearby items and gather gold, and whistle with Pauline to conveniently show points of interest. Many of these abilities can be upgraded and improved upon using Skill Points, with 1 earned for every 5 Banandium Gems collected. If you've played Super Mario Odyssey, think of Banandium Gems like Power Moons; they're in abundance, with some being hidden in plain sight, and others where you'll need to complete a challenge or boss fight, but only some are required to proceed. The challenges in Donkey Kong Bananza are quite different however, ranging from platforming levels, including 2D side-scrolling Donkey Kong Country-like segments (although these are much more scarce than I was expecting them to be), to defeating a certain amount of enemies in a set amount of time. I won't go into detail about the boss fights so you can experience them for yourself, but I found them to be thoroughly engaging from beginning to end.
Whether it's a whimsically themed lagoon, hilltop, canyon, or forest, every layer is filled to the brim with optional collectables that will keep even the most diehard of completionists engaged. This includes the aforementioned Banandium Gems, music discs dropped by enemies, and fossils that can be used at the Style Shop to purchase different fur colours and costumes for DK and Pauline, each with individual passive benefits. There is also gold just about everywhere, which not only fills your Bananergy metre, but can be spent at the Stuff Shop for useful items like Red Balloons to not take damage when falling over a ledge, Apple Juice to automatically restore health, Melon Juice to Bananza transform in a pinch, and maps that will reveal the exact location of a collectable.
However, if you're not willing to dish out any of your gold, the fully destructible terrain, which is one of the main selling points of Donkey Kong Bananza, is filled with hidden chests that have the chance to contain any of the items available at the Stuff Shop. Destroying just about everything in your path is just as satisfying as it looks, feeling like an endless rage room with secrets to find, and while the camera angles can be a bit awkward at times, none of it ever feels game-breaking. Because each layer is so large, sometimes even having multiple sublayers, checkpoints allow you to easily "Teeleport" from one location to another by selecting it on your map. You can also reset the terrain you've destroyed from the map at your leisure.
Taking full advantage of the Switch 2 hardware, Donkey Kong Bananza is a graphical splendor and naturally one of the best looking games Nintendo has ever produced. With impressive particle effects from the voxel-based destructible terrain, the game pushes the custom NVIDIA-powered processor to its absolute limits, resulting in some pop-in from far away objects and, unfortunately, massive frame drops in certain areas. Although running at an optimized 60fps the majority of the time, the frame drops are frequent enough to be quite apparent if you're susceptible to that sort of thing. It shouldn't be understanded just how breathtaking the visuals themselves are though (Photo Mode is perfect for this game), with high-poly 3D models and quality textures accompanied by a brilliant art style, but it would have been nice to see some kind of performance mode to help iron out the framerate, perhaps by lowering the native resolution.
Before closing out this review, there are a couple other modes we should go over. In co-op mode, which the entire main game can be experienced, locally or online via GameShare with just one copy of the game, a second player can take control of Pauline, allowing them to control the camera and sing to destroy terrain, either with mouse controls or motion controls, which feels similar to shooting Star Bits in Super Mario Galaxy. Additionally, the single-player mode, DK Artist, can be accessed from the main menu to get your creative juices flowing in-between banana collecting sessions. Here, you can sculpt and paint 3D models of rock, starting out with templates such as Donkey Kong's head. Although I'm not much of an artist myself, DK Artist feels robust enough to create some insane masterpieces, and I can't wait to see what other people come up with.
Donkey Kong Bananza is a dream come true for fans of 3D-platforming collectathon sandboxes. While the ambitious visuals can cause some noticeable framerate issues, the gameplay loop of exploration and destruction is more than satisfying enough to make up for it. With a fun cast of characters, wholesome narrative, surprisingly deep worldbuilding, and vast open areas bursting with creativity (and plenty of bananas), if you enjoyed Super Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Bananza is sure to make you sing your heart out.
9/10
A copy of Donkey Kong Bananza for review purposes was provided by Nintendo UK.
