Good day gamers! Lets dive into the world of Nintendo today. If you were one of the lucky ones to even get your hands on a Nintendo Switch 2 – you probably know one of the most anticipated first party games that was coming out was Donkey Kong Bananza, and while I am not the most die hard Nintendo fanboy out there, I have to admit, the game did look fun from the trailers.

More importantly though, after getting to spend some time with the game, I’m glad to say that Donkey Kong is back, and he didn’t come to play nice. Donkey Kong Bananza has single handedly restored my hope in Nintendo’s ability to make a great game out of a simple concept that doesn’t feel stale or rehashed. This time around Donkey Kong isn’t the one of old, but instead, he is re-introduced in a whole new way that is engaging for more hardcore gamers like myself and original fans of the character. Here’s my first impressions breakdown.

New Look and Vibe

The visuals in DK Bananza are straight-up lush and vibrant. Environments break apart masterfully, his fur ruffles, and banana bunches (even crystallized bunches) gleam like tropical gold. This new world is absolutely awesome, and pretty much fully destructible. Donkey Kong can literally punch his way through the world in search of gold, bananas, and the evil monkey villains who plan to dominate the world’s banana supply. Each part of the world feels alive and unique—like the levels themselves are daring you to conquer them or at the very least punch them to bits to find what’s hiding underneath. This ties into the next great part about the game which is it’s gameplay loop.

New DK New Mechanics – Gameplay Impressions

After years of being in the shadows while Mario, Link, and even Kirby hogged the spotlight, DK’s return feels more than just a revival; it’s an injection of primal ape rage – and its amazing. From the opening moments of Bananza, you start breaking the world apart with your (DK’s) fists. As you punch your way through a literal gold mine – you find that he can use his fists for combat and as a way to navigate the world. As silly as that may sound – its actually the most fun thing to do as DK, punch stuff. Punch the world, the walls, the ground, punch a tree, a rock, it doesn’t matter – punch everything. His fists are the key to playing the game and it is such a simple mechanic that ties so well with the destructible world they’ve built for him.

Something new for DK this time around are the climbing mechanics (heavily borrowed by Zelda) which allow him to climb most surfaces and reach pretty much anything. He can also use rocks or other materials to “surf” his way around which is also a fun way to move around more quickly. Another new feature in the game are DK’s transformations which allow him to get through certain parts of levels and give him additional powers like super strength with his first form, running super fast with the zebra form, and flight with his ostrich form? (this was kind of an odd choice). All of the transformations allow DK to move through specific parts of the levels he could not reach in his base form and opens new opportunity to add variety to the gameplay.

Final Thoughts…

My time with Donkey Kong Bananza has been a true surprise for me. I’m not the biggest Nintendo fan out there but I do enjoy those classic and iconic characters – but this game was genuinely something refreshing. Personally, I love characters who display strength and power so this version of Donkey Kong has been awesome to play. At some points of the game, I felt like it has some elements of some older open world power games like Prototype and The Incredible Hulk back in the Xbox 360 days. While not as violent or dramatic as those games, the energy that Donkey Kong carries was very similar and I loved it. As well, Bananza features a photo mode and even though it was very straight forward, it was so much fun to mess around with and get funny photos of DK’s expressions when he’s staring at bananas, or angrily punching an enemy.

My only real gripe with the game was its wonky camera, which sometimes causes you to get stuck or feel claustrophobic because of the tight angles. Besides this, the rest of the game has been smooth sailing. From the straight forward story, to the vibrant graphics, the awesome level designs, satisfying punching mechanics, DK and Paulina’s customization, and a decent photo mode – all of this is solid modern gaming and I feel it should be an example and set the standard for what single player Nintendo titles should be. Overall the game seems to be a big success and I think it will continue to sell extremely well. This is the Donkey Kong game I didn’t even know I wanted to play for a very long time, and I’m so glad its here. Nintendo did right by DK on this one, even with the funny moments, wonky camera, and quirky co-op mode, the game is still a hit and I have to recommend it for fans of Donkey Kong or Nintendo games in general.

As always gamers, if you made to the end here thank you so very much for your time. I hoped you enjoyed the post and are also enjoying Donkey Kong Bananza as well. I will be adding some older posts here going forward as well as some new stuff, so don’t be surprised if you see posts about games from 2024, I will be trying to post 2 at a time so that I can get myself all caught up on all the cool games I didn’t get a chance to post about. For now continue to stay positive, and have an amazing week!

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