My first thought upon starting up Donkey Kong Bananza was, “Why yes, I actually would like to go ape shit.” The game starts by having Donkey Kong smash through a wall to reveal a glittering gem waiting to be liberated from the rock. But instead of punching the bright yellow gem into bite-size pieces, I kept punching through the walls and floors, digging tunnels into the landscape.
With the Nintendo Switch 2 finally out in consumers’ hands for more than a month now and the luster of the console’s newness fading, we’re left asking, “What’s this thing actually capable of?” The first big exclusive, Mario Kart World, was a nice aperitif, giving players a bit of the new — processing power and graphics — firmly enmeshed in the old familiarity of Mario Kart. Donkey Kong Bananza, now the console’s second major exclusive, represents the Switch 2’s first real course, and it’s a fantastic feast.
Image: Nintendo
In Bananza, Donkey Kong has given up the lush comfort of his island to become a working monkey (or ape, as it were). He’s added a pair of overalls and a hard hat to his look and has ventured to Ingot Isle to dig up banadium gems — precious stones in the shape of banana bunches — with religious zeal. However, a gang of ruthless capitalists comes along and steals all the banana gems, forcing DK and his new friend Pauline to venture to the planet’s core to stop them.
There’s one rule to keep in mind playing Bananza: ABP. Always Be Punching. There’s an enemy ahead? Punch it. An obstacle? Punch through it. A friendly rock offering you some health-restoring apple juice? Ah, what the hell, punch him too. The punch action is extremely satisfying, enhanced by all the sounds of the different materials. Sand has a powdery quality to its sound as it crunches under DK’s feet. So does gravel, but the sound it makes is perceptibly different in the same way real sand is different from real gravel.
The variety of punchable materials definitely makes the case for Bananza being a Switch 2 game. Bananza’s developers told me that this was originally meant to be an original Switch title before the prospect of the Switch 2’s enhanced graphical and processing power changed the calculus of development. I can see what all that extra power was for when I spot detail in the environment at a distance. When DK punches through snow, snowflakes sprinkle around. Speaking of sprinkles, I love that the frozen layer is actually a huge dessert factory and that what I thought was mud was actually textured chocolate sprinkles. I hate that DK can eat apples for health but not the chocolate dirt.
Punching things is the main mechanic in Bananza and damn if Nintendo didn’t make it satisfying to do. Image: Nintendo
It’s not perfect. There are rare moments when there’s a lot of graphical noise that the game chugs a bit. Nintendo says it is aware of the issue, though I only encountered slowdown once and during the exceedingly badass end boss fight.
With Bananza, I could tell that the Breath of the Wild duology still has a chokehold over Nintendo’s designers. Not only does Bananza present BOTW-style openness emphasizing exploration, but every level starts with a slow, cinematic reveal as DK free-falls from the sky. Despite the fact that there are 17 distinct levels, dropping in from the air BOTW-style never got old. Each level was crafted with a creativity that was fun to peel apart — in some cases literally.
One of the later levels, deep within the mantle, was a beach resort strewn with colossal fruits that were fun to tunnel through. The fleshy fruits weren’t exactly rendered true to life, but I still had a moment of discomfort imagining DK and Pauline getting all sticky tunneling through a giant strawberry. I could also see the DNA of Super Mario Odyssey in the general cadence of gameplay. There are bananas (like moons) to uncover either in the world itself or contained within special challenges.
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