By Jim Norman
Nintendo has a real knack for testing my attention span. I felt it in the subtask-filled Hyrule of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but, far more importantly for this preview, it’s Super Mario Odyssey that most effectively bombarded me with distractions. Even a simple ‘Walk to that giant building in New Donk City’ would quickly turn into a three-hour parkour sesh to find a Moon nowhere near my assigned objective, followed by a journey down a manhole cover, through some girders and any other way I could think of that wasn’t towards the mission icon that silently judged me from the side of the screen.
I bring all this up because in Donkey Kong Bananza, the Odyssey team has seemingly done it again — and yes, we now know for sure that this is Nintendo EPD (or “the Super Mario Odyssey team”). At a recent hands-on preview, I was lucky enough to play the upcoming platformer for around three hours, and I feel like I hardly scratched the surface, which is ironic, considering this is a game all about scratching, punching, digging and kicking surfaces. Donkey Kong Bananza has the hallmarks of an all-timer, and I can’t wait to dive back in and see all the kongtent (sorry) I missed.
If you’ve somehow avoided the marketing for this one so far, allow me to provide a brief refresher. This is DK’s first 3D platformer since the controversial collectathon Donkey Kong 64, and it sees Nintendo’s prized primate on a journey to the centre of the planet, in hot pursuit of the banana-pinching Void Co. He’s joined on this downward dig by Pauline — yep, that Pauline — a 13-year-old singer-turned-purple rock who assumes Diddy Kong’s usual position of back companion to the great ape, and can assist with her musical talents.
DK’s abilities are a little more destructive than singing. He can punch, rip off chunks of the environment, and climb just about any surface in front of him. Each level is almost entirely destructible, too, so you’ll be relying on these moves to uncover secret collectibles, alternative paths, and challenge courses that are scattered around the layers. DK’s also got some the freaky Bananza Transformations, which mutate him into a different jacked-up jungle inhabitant and grant him a sweet new ability in the process, like improved strength, speed, or flight.
I explored three of the game’s starting levels and a later Forest sublevel in my preview, each of which presented me with a very simple challenge, outlined by a yellow exclamation mark. It might have been to follow the music in Ingot Isle, remove a giant Void Co. lock that was plugging up the water supply in the Lagoon, or head to the mine in the Canyon Layer, but immediately, my Odyssey distraction radar started tingling.
Sure, I could head to the mine, but what happens when I punch through this wall? Why is that pile of Bomb Rocks so close to that clearly bombable doorway? Within minutes, that yellow icon was pushed to the back of my mind, and I was off digging for a nearby Banandium Gem (Bananza’s equivalent to Odyssey’s Power Moons) or trying to leap to a faraway island that appeared temptingly just within reach.
Being a timed session, I was eventually told to stop mucking about and get back to the critical path, but every time I tried to, something else would catch my eye and I’d be back down the rabbit hole. After exploring the Lagoon for roughly one hour, I took a quick glance at the map — which neatly updates with your real-time destruction — and saw that I had ticked off but a fraction of what the layer had to offer. What’s more, every time I gave a cursory glance around the room, where a group of other journalists were mining through the same level, every screen displayed a different location that I had yet to stumble across.
The exploration potential is quite the beefy banana, and every locale I saw was dripping with enough charm to make the journey feel worthwhile. DK is as expressive as they come (photo mode is going to be a blast) and his cutscene reactions got more than a fair share of chuckles from me.
But after I had finished ogling at his ever-shimmering fur coat and its transition from wet to dry, I was more than happy to sit back and soak in the visuals. The textures are dreamy, the lighting is ace, and everything is presented with such an attention to detail that it’s hard to shake the feeling that Bananza was spawned from a place of absolute love for the character. Whether it’s in the big-eyed, weird NPCs that looked like they’ve walked in off a Rare drawing board, or the side-scrolling ‘Challenge Course’ extras that had me moaning about mine carts and bad-mouthing blast barrels as if I was a Donkey Kong Country fresher all over again.
DK’s iconic movement is back in full force, too. He still packs his signature roll, and the climbing, Turf Surf and Transformation-specific abilities like Ostrich Bananza’s Flutter make exploring each stage a breeze. It didn’t feel quite as deep as Mario’s Cappy moveset, but an in-menu skill tree teased that there is an arsenal of slick skills at DK’s disposal, all you have to do is unlock them.
That said, at no point did Bananza feel like a game for the hardcore only. The challenge is there for those who want it, and I saw DK bite the dust many-a time, but the option to follow the critical path and not dive into all the digging and terraforming is a perfectly valid one too. In fact, the co-op feels made for this experience. While the wonderful Alex-from-Nintendo-Life-here and I made a mean DK and Pauline team, the mode will be much better suited for those who want to play with a little one in tow, letting them bark out commands, pick up collectibles and attack enemies with Pauline in Mouse Mode, while you focus on the slightly more intense monkey business.
My biggest reservation after going hands-on with the game at the Switch 2 Experience back in April was its performance, and while I was pleased to see that things had definitely swung in the right direction in the months since, I couldn’t help but notice a couple of small issues remained. The camera still has a nasty habit of getting a little sticky when smashing up walls down under, the frame rate wobbles in certain inconsequential instances like opening the map, and, on a couple of occasions, the sky itself took on an earthy hue when DK stood awkwardly on the threshold between a cliff face and a freshly-dug tunnel.
But not one of the issues troubled the DK-sized grin on my face. It felt like a bit of a TOTK situation, where the performance might not be perfect, but you forgive it for its ambition — and yeah, a game where you can seamlessly move in any direction, at any time, no matter what stands in your way feels like it’s earned the right to a little hiccup every now and then.
I should also clarify that we were told our game build still isn’t finalised, so there’s every chance that things will be that bit smoother come launch day. Fingers crossed, at least.
As my three-hour session came to an end and I emerged, blinking into the sunlight, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had just played something special. In its top-notch visuals, silky smooth movement and wealth of distractions, Donkey Kong Bananza is showing all the signs of becoming DK’s greatest outing to date. Heck, it might even end up as a Nintendo all-timer, assuming those technical mishaps can stay as inconsequential as they seem to be. Watch out, completionists, your next obsession might be right around the corner.
Donkey Kong Bananza swings onto Switch 2 on 17th July for £66.99 / $69.99, and it’ll even be accompanied by a new DK and Pauline amiibo at launch.
What’s your Bananza hype level looking like, with just a few weeks to go? Barrel blast down to the comments and let us know.