Gamer Update
  • Home
  • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Gamer UpdateGamer Update
Font ResizerAa
  • Home
  • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
Search
  • Home
  • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
Follow US
- Advertisement -
Ad image
Main

Nintendo’s keeping quiet about Donkey Kong Bananza’s developer, but it feels like a souped-up Super Mario Odyssey

Author
Last updated: 10.04.2025 12:57
Author
Share
SHARE


I’ll be honest, when Nintendo revealed the grand finale of its Switch 2 Direct was a new Donkey Kong game, I felt a little deflated. Where was Mario to help launch the new console? (He’s in Mario Kart World.) And how long has it been now since Nintendo’s last proper 3D Mario game, Super Mario Odyssey? (You don’t want to know, it’ll just make you feel old.)


Thankfully, after playing the opening level of Donkey Kong Bananza, my initial disappointment was quickly shorn away – and instead chiseled into excitement for something that simultaneously feels very new, but also quite Super Mario Odyssey-like.


Nintendo may be back to its usual trick of not wanting to say exactly which development team is behind each of its games (during an interview published this week, the company flat-out refused to reveal to Nintendo Life who was working on Bananza), but Donkey Kong’s new outing certainly has a 3D Mario feel.

Eurogamer goes hands-on with Donkey Kong Bananza.Watch on YouTube


Once revealed, the game’s opening area stretches out before you with multiple routes and several different objectives to explore. DK’s jump may not match Nintendo’s mascot, but his loping strides and ability to clamber up any surface faster than Cat Mario means Bananza’s world instantly feels approachable, and full of opportunities. Indeed, numerous mini-objectives will reward you with Golden Bananas, this game’s take on Odyssey’s Power Moons, and DK even pulls a Mario-like pose in celebration as you nab one and the words OH BANANA! appear on screen.


Bananza begins underground, with a brief tutorial introducing the game’s impressive destruction mechanics. Could Mario still have been the star here? I suppose so, if he was given some magical new boxing gloves as a gimmick. But this is a game about strength – and as anyone who has seen Mario’s arena fight in the Super Mario Bros Movie will know, DK has by far the bigger upper body muscle – arms down.


In Donkey Kong Bananza, the ape’s beefy arms can be commanded to either punch outwards, upwards or into the ground beneath your feet to carve through walls, floors or ceilings – turning solid 3D spaces into the equivalent of Swiss cheese. You can also slap the ground to collect nearby items, or scoop up chunks of rock from the floor to use as projectiles, which can be flung at foes.


Golden Bananas are scattered around, hidden inside mounds of dirt or underneath what you’d expect to be the base of a level, either to be discovered by chance or via maps you can unlock through further destruction. Levels are also dotted with other apes to aid or gather intel from, some of whom can reward you with Golden Bananas, too. (I unlocked one collectible by discovering a sneaky cameo from Cranky Kong, who turns up to deliver a suitably cranky speech to DK and set up an interesting debate over Bananza’s place within DK canon).

Image credit: Nintendo


While there are some limitations to the game’s destruction – there is a layer of permanent bedrock at the base of each level, it seems – I was still surprised how breakable areas could be. And it’s a joy to break them – DK’s fists causing an eruption of shining rocks, pebbles and ores as he pummels through walls, reminiscent of the mindless but mesmerising tumble of Lego bricks that scatter out when destroying the scenery in TT Games titles.


It’s this destruction – its visual effects and the resulting permanent impacts of your pummelling – that ensures Donkey Kong Bananza feels more than just another 3D platformer – and more than just another 3D platformer from Nintendo, even. And there’s a convincing argument here for the Switch 2 hardware itself, too. There’s just no way this game’s voxel-based destruction could work as well, or look so good, on Switch 1. As a (near enough) launch title for Nintendo’s new hardware, it is arguably the company’s strongest showcase for the new console’s technical power.


Whether the game is the work of Super Mario Odyssey producer and Nintendo design legend Yoshiaki Koizumi and his team or not, Donkey Kong’s new adventure looks set to ably fill Odyssey’s spot as the just-after-launch big hitter that Nintendo can confidently lean on to ensure you cough up for something else as well as Mario Kart. Bananza isn’t a new 3D Mario, but I’m no less excited for it.

You Might Also Like

Match-3 devs blasted for “incredibly harmful” stereotypes and gender-based violence in advertisements

2.2 million people applied to pre-order a Switch 2 in Japan alone, says Nintendo

AppLovin cuts another 97 jobs, including CEO of subsidiary studio Machine Zone

Moon Studios' Ori series tops 15m sales | News-in-brief

Devolver’s Mycopunk is a chaotic co-op romp with silly robots, outlandish upgrades, and dismemberment

Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
- Advertisement -
Ad image

Contact us

- Advertisement -
Ad image

You Might Also Like

Main

Meta reportedly lays off over 100 employees across AR/VR hardware and games division

3 Min Read
Main

The Xbox Games Showcase returns on June 8 | News-in-brief

0 Min Read
Main

Finnish mobile dev Seven Stars secures seed funding round

2 Min Read
Main

Switch 2 looks to be streamlining screenshot and video capture sharing so it’s less of a faff

4 Min Read
  • Home
  • About us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

© 2025 Gamer Update. All rights reserved.

Gamer Update
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?