Donkey Kong Bananza

September  13, 2025 

The debut of Donkey Kong Bananza is supported by a system that can handle the product that it aims to be. The increase in processing power of the Nintendo Switch 2 paves the way for more demanding titles to enter their way into the mainstream market. To attempt to put Bananza into perspective, think of a 3D plat-former with level design such as Spyro the Dragon. Couple this with puzzles reminiscent of the Zelda series, the whimsical character design and storytelling of a Mario game, and the sandbox freedom of a Minecraft world. Design like this is not just a breath of fresh air for the Donkey Kong series, but for gaming as a whole. At the surface level, the sandbox nature is the first trait that stands out the most. The sheer amount of the map that DK can punch through and destroy while the system remains at a solid 60 FPS is quite impressive. The “ZR” button allows for DK to grab “chunks” of the planet which he can throw in any direction, or use with a multitude of different ways. The fidget-toy aspect of being able to destroy everything in your vicinity resembles “Hollow Knight”, only cranked-up ten fold. The physics in this game beautifully harmonize with each other the way that you would expect them to. When punching through the terrain of the planet, the game will stay smooth even when tinier bits get knocked around and then break other elements of the map upon impact. The list of breakable aspects include decorations such as pots, fences, doors, and more. It doesn’t just stop at items though, this mechanic extends to the literal map of the game as well. Walls, ceilings, the floor, the Franctone NPCs, larger structures such as houses; nothing is safe from the grasp of the Kong. With the ability to punch in almost any direction, breaking the map is an expectation for how the game is played. Even just spamming the ‘B’ button several times will result in DK breaking the terrain beneath himself and borrowing downwards. Similarly ‘X’ and ‘Y’ are mapped to punching forward and upward respectively. At the core of Bananza, Donkey Kong’s move set revolves around punching and the level design is the boxing bag. Similar to how each Mario game structures most interactions around jumping, the world of Bananza is waiting to be broken into pieces. 

Bananza is both a completionists and an ADHD individuals worst nightmare. Its incredible how easy it is to get sucked into wandering around in the giant layers of the map. Very often I find myself getting side tracked by puzzles in the middle of playing through the main quest. Whether it is collection Banandium Gems to level up the skill tree, finding objects that look fun to punch, interesting puzzles, the variety and scope can be overwhelming. Considering that there is exactly 777 Banandium Gems to collect in this game, along with 696 fossils, the scope of the title can feel daunting at first. Despite this I found that I’ve about formed my own game play style after about layer 200. Typically, when a new section is unlocked in any game my intuition is to proceed with the rest of the story-line to advance further. Now, I am no monster, and I still like to absorb the scenery of a new environment that I come across. Often times, the best experiences in a video game is finding the little nooks and crannies that the developers managed to hide surprises. Keeping this in mind, this game is simply too large in scope to immediately run from checkpoint A to B. At the same time it is also too large in scope to find every collectible before progressing in the story. This best way to play is a balance between the two; where you know further plot-line advancement is an option once a decent portion of secrets are uncovered. The fossil and Banandium tracker in this game is a best friend to any completionists. To my surprise, each fossil and banana is numbered in a list. If hunting down a particular fossil is giving you a hassle from fully completing this game, a map of its location is a simple yet steep purchase away at any of the Stuff Shops. 

Scattered among the puzzles, secrets, and story line are a multitude of bosses that range from characters, creatures forged with VoidCo technology, and literal inanimate objects. The mini bosses and main bosses are fun to fight against in their own unique way, though these battles are not completely without issue. I can’t help but feel a touch underwhelmed with the overall difficulty of most of the battles in this game. It feels that the build up of some of the fights are sort of unnecessary if some bosses can be defeated with one or two streaks of button mashing. The trend of increasingly simple boss fights is an all too common one with recent first party Nintendo releases (I’m looking at you Super Mario Bros. Wonder). Not all of the bosses suffer from this issue, however a majority of them do and they typically end with the player wanting more. At the very least, the battles with Void, and some other highlights such as Muckety-Muck and the Mad Mixer are difficult enough and require some thinking outside the box. Yes, there is a boss named Mad Mixer in this game and it is basically an over sized KitchenAid mixer. Where a lot the boss fights fall short in difficulty, there is no denying that the designs of them along with their personality are highlights in their own right. Funnily enough, after a fight with either Poppy or Grumpy Kong, neither immediately disappear upon defeat like most video game antagonists. I can’t recall a past title where the bad actor hasn’t ran away swearing vengeance in shame of their L. Outside of Void himself, the rest of the squad in VoidCo do the exact opposite as they hang around the area where the fight occurred and interact with DK through quirky dialogue. Their sarcasm and disposition while pointing DK in the direction of their leader is hilarious in its own unique way. 

Even in areas of the game where I seem to get the most annoyed (I’m looking at you fossil 59 in the Feast Layer), these annoyance are typically overshadowed by the brilliance of the overall map design. There was one moment towards the later part of the game where the surrounding area was mostly lava that dealt damage upon contact. This part of the game also included a lot of movement with the Ostrich Bananza which resulted in a lot of accidental deaths. Each death causes DK to lose 500 gold and is followed by a respawn at the last checkpoint. Even with this inconvenience I find myself at awe of the beauty of the game, or the silly and fun mechanics that clash together within the level which resulted in the death to occur. Each layer of the game has its own overarching theme going on which provides differentiation (unless you’re the Hilltop Layer, such then you’re just a plain open field). Without getting too spoiler heavy (that is for the last and hidden section of this review), the Frozen Layer incorporates Zebra shaped objects and design all throughout its map since this is where the Zebra NPCs primarily reside. The same can be said for all of the beast transformation and their respective layers, giving each setting a distinct look and feel. Environment theme can be seen with small objects sharing the silhouette of the animal, or even entire terrain being modeled after them. 

Bananza is a title with such high highs, that the lowest lows barely seem significant when observing the game in its entirety. Truth be told, there are countless other aspects of Bananza that could be covered in this review; enough to possibly write an entire novel. The title of the game, “Bananza”, references the various bestial power-ups that grant DK extra abilities. Without getting too spoiler heavy, the Bananzas allow Donkey Kong to transform into one of couple different beasts for a set period of time. Each transformation has an awesome design, background track, and special abilities. For example, the Zebra Bananza unlocks a speed boost in every aspect of his move-set. Along with an increase to speed, other powers such as “Spin Slam” are granted during this time, which let DK perform a spinning attack with a chunk that is being held. Movements such as this help with map traversal or clearing a hoard of enemies during combat. Lets also not forget the lump of post-game content once the main story has been completed. Each of the elders present curated campaigns that expand upon the original slew of abilities with each Bananza. They’re essentially much longer versions of the various challenge rooms that are seen all across the world map. I do wish the difficulty was increased by removing the checkpoints, but they still provide a fun reason to go back to the layers for an upgrade to abilities. Expanding DK’s Bananza toolkit is a genius way to extend the content of the game. On top of that, it is very likely that players will have many more collectibles to obtain post completion of the story. In my play through, I still had about 150 Banandium Gems to locate, along with ~120 more fossils to unlock the rest of the clothes at the various Style Shops. A surplus of fun post-game content is always a welcome treat for players who crave a bit more past the main story. 

It is safe to say that Donkey Kong Bananza would have made for a more substantial launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2. This game even takes advantage of the Switch 2’s hardware even more than Mario Kart World. The title screen contains a DK Artist mode that resembles a 3D version of Mario Paint, while utilizing Bananza’s terrain manipulation physics in the form of a sculpture simulator. This mode is pure silly and goofy fun which utilizes the mouse mode that was introduced with the Joy-Con 2. DK Artist, and the in-game photo mode are both playful ways to take a break from the main adventure. I will say, both Bananza and MK World have very pleasing looking water physics, something that I’ve noticed a lot with recent first-party Nintendo titles. Seriously, the water looks unreal – like it would be very quenching in real life. Besides all of the entertaining hardware gimmicks, Bananza’s core game play is something that doesn’t feel boring or stale even after many hours of exploring the map and collecting Banandium Gems. There is so much personality oozing out of every corner all the while surpassing much of what is being set out to accomplish. The unique designs within each planet layer, to the interesting plot-twist of the story creates such a captivating experience in this 3D platforming sandbox adventure. 

Rating

9.8 / 10

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