Several moments of my two-hour hands-on preview of Donkey Kong Bananza felt like I was playing the gritty 2009 action game Red Faction: Guerilla — except this time I was actually playing as a gorilla. For example, I had to level a multistory building during a timed minigame. Just like in Guerilla, I targeted the load-bearing columns with Donkey Kong’s ripped arms to quickly bring it down. Reveling in the destruction made me feel equal parts satisfied and sinister, all while Donkey Kong struck a goofy pose.
Other times, I could sense a direct throughline from Super Mario Odyssey and other major Nintendo franchises. The way that Donkey Kong can roll into a jump (and roll at the top of a jump) feels like maneuvering with Odyssey’s Cappy, while exploring the heights and depths of sublevels and experimenting with physics is reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But through it all, the new Switch 2 game coming out on July 17th feels, above all else, like it’s breaking new ground as its own thing.
Bananza is an open-world platforming RPG, complete with a skill tree that you can chip away at as you collect banandium gems. Finding five of them grants you one skill point. The skills range from upgrading basic moves, such as expanding the radius of the “clap” action, which automatically picks up nearby collectibles while revealing some hidden ones, to unlocking entirely new abilities.
Image: Nintendo
Upgrading will happen quickly if you’re the exploring type, as there are dozens of hidden rewards in every area. New routes — not just secrets — will be exposed as you punch through materials. I get the impression that no two people will explore or fight their way through this game the exact same way.
As Donkey Kong, you can punch forward, upward, and downward, each with a different face button. You’ll rip out a chunk of the ground beneath by pressing ZR. Pressing and holding the button again will let you aim your throw, either with the right stick or with motion controls.
If you don’t feel like strategizing how you’ll destroy enemies, filling up your Bananergy meter by collecting gold will let you go into Bananza mode, which is apeshit. Donkey Kong can transform into different creatures, each with their own abilities. You can toggle between forms on the fly, allowing for some truly bewildering destruction and tactics.
Part of my demo’s focus was to explore the variety of locations in Bananza. Your main objective is to reach the core of the planet, and so you progress by digging deeper. I started at level one, and after being jumped around to a different part of the game, I was at level 300. Many of the sublevels that I visited were large, self-contained worlds full of collectibles and challenge areas. The fact that there are hundreds of them waiting to be explored has me excited to fully dig into the adventure.
Image: Nintendo
Another focus was on Pauline, Donkey Kong’s kid sidekick, who Nintendo says is a major character in the new game. She has personal stakes in helping Donkey Kong reach the planet’s core because it’ll supposedly grant her the wish to go back home. In addition to fleshing out her backstory (she’ll have to meet Mario at some point in the future, since she eventually grows up and becomes mayor of New Donk City, right?), Pauline is a playable character if you enable co-op mode in the game, which can be done via the pause menu.
Player two isn’t a bystander. They have crosshairs and can shoot at terrain and enemies to aid player one. I tested this mode with a Joy-Con 2 in mouse mode, moving it around to aim and firing with the ZR trigger. It felt pretty natural. As you move the cursor, it shows the type of material you’re hovering over (concrete, sand, gold, etc.), and you can set it as your ammo type by holding ZR. Alternatively, you can control Pauline’s crosshairs with a controller.
Image: Nintendo
Pauline’s projectiles take the form of comic-style onomatopoeia (e.g., “HA!” or “WOW!“). There’s no explanation for this other than it’s just funny. But from a gameplay perspective, the action allows player two to play a major role in progression. For example, she can shoot gold at enemies and obstacles to create more damage on impact than with stone. It’s a smart evolution of player two’s more passive involvement in Super Mario Galaxy.
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t notice some technical shortcomings with this prelaunch version of the game. During some hectic transitions, the frame rate took a noticeable dip, but gameplay was smooth for the most part, which is an achievement for a game that’s bursting with physics and particle effects. Also, when I was covering a lot of distance while flying in Bananza mode, there was a lot of texture pop-in. The game’s fast loading speeds, detailed character models, and vibrant worlds make it clear why this had to be a Switch 2 game, but the visual issues are a little disappointing to see on the new, more powerful hardware, especially for such a high-profile release.
Mario fans might bemoan the lack of a new 3D platformer, but I get the impression that Bananza — made by the Super Mario Odyssey developers — is a huge game that should keep players satisfied for a while. It’s tough to shake the feeling of its joyous, yet slightly overwhelming depth, when loading a level. I’m a person who wants to see what’s hiding under every stone, and now there’s finally a game that will let me do just that.
