Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2)

It's been a while since Donkey Kong has had his own 3D platformer.  Actually, it's only happened once, and that was 26 years ago with the Nintendo 64's Donkey Kong 64.  I, personally, was rather lukewarm on Donkey Kong 64 growing up, and I've always felt that Donkey Kong is a better 2D platformer than 3D.  Donkey Kong Bananza doesn't necessarily change that conclusion, but it does significantly improve my view of Donkey Kong in a 3D platformer.

The game starts out with Donkey Kong using his fists to mine for banandium in a mine just below the planet's surface.  The villainous Void Co., a ruthless mining company owned by the evil Void Kong, begins causing mayhem as they are plundering the planet's underground in an attempt to reach the Banandium Root, the source of the planet's banandium which is said to be able to grant any wish to those who reach it.  Donkey Kong begins journeying through the planet's numerous sublayers - each a world unto itself - to reach the planet core where the Banandium Root rests before Void can.  His wish?  Bananas.  That's it.  DK is a simple fellow.  Along the way, he teams up with Pauline - the same Pauline from Super Mario Odyssey but only 13 years old here.  Her wish is a bit less silly - to return to the surface so she can get home.

When I first started playing Bananza, I described it to my friend, Colin, as "What if we made Minecraft but less craft and more Kong?"  That's obviously a gross oversimplification, but the focus on terrain destruction does feel rather reminiscent of Minecraft's terrain destruction and mining.  Being the game's core mechanic, there is obviously a lot of terrain destruction required to progress in the game, but there are other benefits to mining through the ground.  You might find the game's two primary types of collectables, banandium gems (five of these gets you a skill point) and the fossils used as currency at the "style shop" where you can purchase new outfit pieces of Donkey Kong and Pauline.  There's also a chance of finding a chest which could contain gold, health restoration, bananza energy restoration - that's the powerful transformations you unlock as your progress through the game - or, most significantly for me, maps that show the locations of a fossil or banandium gem.  You'll also often just find random deposits of gold as you dig.  That's all on top of the fact that randomly punching your way through a mountain is just fun, and that's arguably the most important reason of all.

I've already heard a lot of people talking about Donkey Kong Bananza as a Game of the Year 2025 contender, and I understand why.  It's the most content-rich Donkey Kong game we've ever gotten, and it can get seriously addicting.  It's not in the running for my 2025 GOTY, but it is an excellent game.  The visuals are fantastic, the sound design is perfect, and it has lots of references and allusions to previous Donkey Kong games.  A sampling of the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64 plays in your hideaway bases, and the game pretty much confirms in some mid-game dialogue that Bananza is a sequel to the SNES Donkey Kong Country trilogy and takes place at some point after those games.  Since Pauline is a child here, that also makes it a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey.  Granted, most people don't care about the Super Mario/Donkey Kong universe's timeline continuity, but I'm not most people, so I enjoyed those small lore hints.  The diamond of the game, though, is not its visuals or sound design, fantastic though they are, but the gameplay.  Boss battles are fun and varied, and there are various battle and platforming challenges found throughout the game's worlds.  Each of the game's worlds has a distinct and unique feel, and outside of one brief section in the mid-game, you're never moving backwards through previously cleared worlds but always forward to some new experience.  Progression is as rewarding as the environments are diverse, Outside of one specific challenge area, nothing in the game feels unfairly difficult.  Some parts, especially towards the end of the game, are definitely challenging, but they're not rage-inducing or cheap.

My only real complaint with the game is a pretty controversial one, and I have as many friends who vehemently disagree with me as I do friends who agree with me, and that's the game's length.  This game is a lot longer than one might thing.  There are over a dozen distinct worlds in the game, and none of them are optional.  Around 3/4 of the way through the game, it started to wear out its welcome with me.  One of my biggest pet peeves in gaming is when a game starts to feel like it's dragging on because of its length.  How long that takes is unique to each game, and in a lot of cases, when a game starts to reach "too long" is a very subjective thing for each person, so keep in mind that I'm not saying Donkey Kong Bananza is a lesser game by some objective metric when I say that the game felt too long.  I, personally, just could have done without two or three of game's worlds.  Some just didn't feel especially interesting or engaging to me, although that was balanced out by some worlds that I absolutely relished.  I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 hours with this game, although it's worth noting that I was collecting 100% of the fossils and banandium gems in each world before moving on for the first 3/4 of the game.  I would have liked for the game to be five to ten hours shorter in length, but while I say that, I wouldn't say there's any degree of bloat to this game.  It's not like some of the more recent Assassin's Creed games where the length is artificially lengthened through pointless side quests.  Everything that you do in Donkey Kong Bananza, even hunting down the collectibles, feels worthwhile and important.  I, personally, just wish there had been slightly fewer of those things to do.

Donkey Kong Bananza is, as of the time of writing, sitting at a 91 on Metacritic, and it's not hard to see why.  It's arguably the best game in the Donkey Kong series, and it's definitely the most content-rich.  This game, both in terms of quantity and quality of content, shows that while we may not like the $80 price tag for Nintendo's top IP Switch 2 games, they can definitely justify that price point.  Yes, it dragged on a bit for my taste, but people are not exaggerating when they say that Donkey Kong Bananza will give Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a run for its money for the title of 2025 Game of the Year.  This is definitely a must-own for Switch 2 owners, and it's the perfect heavy hitting exclusive to make those who haven't picked up the Switch 2 yet move that purchase up a few rungs on their priority list.

My Rating - S