Donkey Kong Bananza - Review

Donkey Kong has graced videogames for more than 40 years and in that time, he has only ever had one 3D platformer and while I love Donkey Kong 64, many did not. While DK has had a few 2D platformers since then and a unique trio of bongo games, to name a few, many were wondering where his next 3D adventure was and now it is here. Has the time between 3D games truly been worth the wait?

The story setup for Donkey Kong Bananza is fairly simple, DK sets out to a new land upon the discovery of banana shaped gems and we know DK goes ape for bananas. Soon after his arrival there, a mysterious trio of apes appear and cause chaos and destruction, taking the main mining area down into the planet. While DK is fine after all is said and done, Ingot Isle and those who call it home are panicked and before anything more can happen, a strange purple rock plummets from the giant hole above them. DK and this new Odd Rock decide to follow the villainous group down further into the planet, in order to put a stop to their mischievous plans, only things don’t go according to plan. Odd Rock is soon revealed to be Pauline, a young girl with dreams of singing, but struck with a terrible case of stage fright and this Void Co, seem to have more dangerous ambitions than just stealing the bananas.

There is a lot of story across the game, far more than we have ever seen before in a Donkey Kong game, even Donkey Kong 64 did not have such a grand story. What makes the adventure and therefore the story shine is the dynamic between DK and Pauline. There is a history between characters with the same name, given that Pauline was the girl players had to rescue in the original Donkey Kong, but none of that matters here. Because of that clean slate, so to speak, it means that the characters just behave like new characters and that lets them get to know each other and more importantly grow. The best example of this is when you nap around the world, Pauline will often check if you are awake and if you acknowledge that, she has things to talk about. None of the other characters that you interact with in the game speak out loud with words, but the game has a solution for that, Pauline is such a good singer, she understands the tones of their voices. There are so many little details that by the time you hit the final battle, you will feel for both characters and those that call the many layers home.

Speaking of layers, that seems like a good time to talk about the games progression mechanic, which is smash everything. This is partly a good thing and partly not, but before you go ape on me, let me explain. The good about this is that it gives you a certain level of freedom that honestly, outside of recent games in The Legend of Zelda series, no other Nintendo game has offered. Deciding to just stop following the path and literally punch your way through a hill can lead to some fun discoveries. The chaos of that deformation means that what my Lagoon Layer looks like by the time I leave it, compared to yours, is going to be quite different. It is also fun to discover a hidden banana underground and just literally tear up everything in your way to reach it. Where the not so good comes from is in the terrain deformation, I know a juxtaposition to be sure. See the freedom to smash apart almost everything around you, means that occasionally the game will challenge you to do something and your previously destroyed world will get in the way. If there was a reset button in each level then it might not be such an issue, but there is not and it is a pain to leave and hope the world resets.

As there are a variety of layers, each with their own terrain, you won’t be punching out everything right away, or at all in some cases and that is fun to discover. Early on you will find out that DK cannot punch concrete away, but he can use stone or chunks of concrete to make a dent in it. Almost all of the world can be picked up and used as a weapon, means of transport or if you get really creative a new path to follow. You do need a little lesson in geology though to really make use of the materials on offer, because a chunk of sand can not destroy stone. This interaction between the elements may not seem like a big deal in the early layers, but later on it does factor in, especially once snow, lava and other dangerous liquids start appear. Thankfully, the more challenging layers can be tackled with the various Bananza powers that DK unlocks.

We got a taste of these powers in the Direct for the game and there is more to them than what we saw there. For the sake of spoilers, I will only talk about the Donkey Kong Bananza power… which turns DK into a Mega DK, think Pokémon Mega forms. When DK is in this mode, or any of them, there is a limited time that players can make use of that, so you need to be sure of your need before you activate. Once active, you are bigger and have more strength, which can come in handy in some boss fights. Each power has a reason to use them and fitting them into your exploration or the boss fights can be fun. In order to power up the transformation you need gold and given it pops out of the ground with great frequency, finding it is not hard. My only issue with these power ups is that I rarely needed them, outside of specific uses like the previously mentioned boss fights. Even then when I got to one section towards the end and there was a giant gap, I did not think at first to use one of the powers, because I had so infrequently used them til that point.

Speaking of gold before, that feels like a good time to talk about the number of collectables, because if you thought Donkey Kong 64 was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Not counting the hundreds and hundreds of Banandium gems, the banana shaped gems, there are also Banandium chips, gold and three types of fossils in each level. The bananas are used to unlock skill points, which you can use to power up DK and his various abilities, which can give you some help in the later parts of the game. The fossils include one rare to find, a few harder to find and usually like 50 normal ones, those are then exchanged in the style store for outfits. Those outfits give you buffs, like ties for DK that let you find more treasure chests in the ground or cool down lava. For Pauline they extend the Bananza rate and all of those can be upgraded. Even the space between the layers are filled with gold to collect, there is just so much to collect in this game that at times it can feel a little overwhelming.

The sheer number of collectables aside, I do have a problem with the game and that is the repetition on the gameplay. I know games like Super Mario Odyssey have elements of that as well, almost every game does but here it just feels like it is embedded in it. Each elder you meet has the same issue, they used to be master’s at something but are now DJ’s, the boss fights repeat and even when you do enter a new layer, it might be themed differently, but it’s the same course of action in it. Even throwing in a layer where DK could not destroy anything would have been enough to break things up, pardon the pun. There are countless throwbacks to older games and those are great, but being able to break new ground here, ok that pun was intentional, would have been interesting. Please don’t misunderstand there is nothing wrong with what they are offering, but variety is the spice of life, as they say.

One area that I have mostly no issues with is the presentation, which is just incredible in most places. Donkey Kong himself looks great, not only in the fur texturing, just don’t look to close, but it’s the new look and expressions that his face portrays that make it. When he and Pauline are having moments, you can see it on their faces and that is some attention to detail I love to see. Beyond that whenever you head to another layer, you get a nice shot of it and the detail across all the landscapes is great. Some of them are quite a bit smaller than others, but even those feel packed with fun. The three members of Void Co are interesting, while their designs are fun, they just don’t leave me with the same wow that other DK baddies have.

It is not all great news though, the game does suffer from performance issues at times, usually when you transition down to a new layer, or are in a boss fight with loads of things to interact with. If it were just those times, then I would not really care, but the game also suffers in loading in of assets, as there were times when things would pop in just meters ahead of me. This is not related to small things like a decorative plant, but rather large items like gold elements, rocks and other parts of the world.

The sound design in the game is thankfully rock solid, there are tons of tracks that are nostalgia powered, but a host of new ones. As I mentioned earlier, the only character that speaks actual words is Pauline and there are times when it comes off a little forced, but mostly she is great. Again, the conversations with DK are the highlights of her work and the actress that voices the character has done a great job there. I have heard people praise some of the songs in the game and I can’t see why, I know they added lyrics to the Donkey Kong Country theme and sure, but even now I don’t really recall any of them. Something I did like is that occasionally as you battle enemies, you will find discs, which you can playback in your little hang out spots you unlock.

Donkey Kong Bananza is a fun game, the freedom to literally punch your way through everything is great and the story and characters make you want to keep doing that. The games destruction tech is amazing, but it is also one of the things to be wary of, as you can quickly get yourself in trouble if you start up some monkey business before a challenge appears. Due to the repeating nature of each stage there are sometimes when you will get bored of smashing stuff, but the variety in the themes should keep you moving forward. For those long time DK fans, this is a great game and there are layers to discover; and for those new it is a great game to discover why people rap about Donkey Kong.

The Score

8.5

Review code provided by Nintendo

The Pros

DK and Pauline feel like they are friends by the end, they have moments of growth and it feels great

The terrain deformation is insanely impressive, with you being able to find new ways around each level…

The Cons

…but there are times when some of your hard work gets in the way of the games progress

Each stage boils down to appear, punch a lot of things and move on, which is not ideal