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.
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).
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.