Donkey Kong Bananza: First Hands-On Preview

For the past respective years it’s felt similar Nintendo conscionable hasn’t cared that overmuch astir Donkey Kong. As Nintendo talented beauteous overmuch each 1 of its cherished characters their champion outing ever on Switch, the large ape who erstwhile stood precocious atop the girders of Nintendo’s indispensable arcade furniture faceplanted hard connected the factual with a litany of ports, remakes, and remasters. But connected Switch 2, Nintendo is yet giving 1 of gaming’s biggest icons the emotion helium deserves with a marque new, flagship, motorboat model 3D action-platformer, and if the archetypal 30 minutes we spent with Donkey Kong Bananza are immoderate indication, Mario’s archetypal rival is looking poised to basal gangly erstwhile again.

It’s hard to speech astir Bananza without referencing that darn plumber arsenic conscionable seconds aft jumping into its Underground World, the important parallels to Super Mario Odyssey became abundantly clear. While Nintendo hasn’t confirmed the developers of Bananza, aft playing it we’re consenting to stake Odyssey developer Nintendo EPD Tokyo is down it.

Bananza’s setup volition consciousness instantly acquainted to anyone who’s spent hours throwing Cappy and collecting Power Moons. DK is joined by an adorable adjunct (this clip successful the signifier of a purple stone who talks and sings) to scour self-contained explorable sandboxes for Golden Bananas, immoderate of which are recovered by completing communicative missions portion others are sprinkled crossed the scenery conscionable waiting to beryllium found. As you explore, you find isolated linear situation rooms that dial backmost the exploration successful favour of investigating your combat and platforming abilities. There are different collectibles to find too, similar golden presumably playing the relation of coins, dozens of fossils (which we didn’t find a usage for during our demo) and currency we’re hoping volition beryllium utilized to outfit Donkey Kong successful the section flavor. Even the UI is reminiscent of Mario’s globetrotting adventure! So if you were disappointed the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct lacked a big, flashy 3D Mario, I'm present to archer you that Donkey Kong Bananza feels similar the sequel to that look we’ve been clamoring for, it conscionable happens to prima the elephantine monkey instead.

Wrecking Crew

Like the champion Nintendo games, Donkey Kong’s marque caller moveset wholly suits him arsenic a quality and feels close the infinitesimal you measurement into his shoes (okay, large hairy feet). Bananza is furiously accelerated and delightfully destructive arsenic Donkey Kong tin demolish astir of the terrain successful his path, and we spent our demo transforming the lush opening country filled with grass, trees, and lakes into DK’s idiosyncratic chaotic excavation site. DK punches forward, upward, and downward, instantly destroying astir materials and oftentimes carving a makeshift way to travel that tin pb to wholly caller areas. At 1 constituent I was punching done a upland conscionable for the heck of it and a invaluable collectible fell into my lap, truthful there’s decidedly worth to breaking crushed everyplace you tin – it whitethorn pb to a groundbreaking discovery.

If pulverizing each chromatic partition successful show sounds overwhelming, it truly didn’t consciousness that mode successful the moment, which is apt owed to however overmuch amusive we had controlling Donkey Kong. In summation to turning everything to rubble, Donkey Kong tin besides prime up elephantine chromatic boulders from the ground, walls, oregon wherever, and hurl them to obliterate adjacent enemies. Or, helium takes a leafage retired of Link’s publication and tin usage the chromatic slab to boogie committee astatine a accelerated gait crossed the landscape. There are surely dozens of unsocial moves and concatenation combos waiting to beryllium discovered and I tin ideate however overmuch amusive speedrunners volition person trying to maestro DK’s moveset, which already feels ripe with expressiveness and possibility.

Bananza’s cardinal taxable of exploration via demolition was contiguous passim each 2nd of our demo, adjacent down to the representation screen. Instead of a elemental top-down overview of the landscape, the representation present is simply a fully-rendered 3D exemplary of the full country in its existent state, meaning erstwhile you intermission to get your bearings, you tin spot each of the walls you’ve punched and caves you’ve carved. It’s similar the Hero’s Path diagnostic successful Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom cranked up to 11, and it felt similar an incredibly awesome touch.

That representation helped america way down situation rooms which rewarded america either with Golden Bananas oregon a ton of cash. And dissimilar Odyssey, there’s nary much wondering if you person a Moon near to find and going wrong to hold for Cappy to archer you, due to the fact that the entranceway to each bonus country tracks however galore Golden Bananas you’ve recovered and however galore much are waiting within. We saw 3 of these rooms successful Bananza’s opening area, with each focusing connected either platforming, combat, oregon destruction: we had to monkey barroom our mode done an obstacle course, instrumentality down 3 chromatic enemies earlier clip ran out, and blast done arsenic overmuch golden ore arsenic imaginable to instrumentality location a large payday. They were each amusive and unsocial and near maine excited to spot what different challenges are successful store.

I besides deliberation Bananza is connected way to beryllium 1 of the astir gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen. It truly does instrumentality vantage of Switch 2's hardware – the environments are beauteous and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I near feeling similar the adjacent procreation of first-party Nintendo games had genuinely arrived.

Donkey Kong Bananza is retired July 17 for $69.99, and I mightiness destruct my full location if I person to hold that agelong to play it again.

Logan Plant is the big of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. He played the full Donkey Kong Country bid earlier this twelvemonth and is truthful excited for a marque caller DK game. It's mode overdue!