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Forbes
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Donkey Kong Bananza' Review: Have A Banana
This is easily one of the best platformers of recent years. The latest entry in the Donkey Kong series is a banana-fuelled blast, and may be one of the best platforming games in recent years. The main setup of the game has you control the titular Donkey Kong as he tackles the evil Void Company while venturing to the core of the planet to make things right. Developed by the team behind Super Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Bananza has a lot of functional and structural carry-overs from that game. Each new level, as you venture deeper into the planet, has distinct biomes and is effectively a mini-open-world layout. Now, in Super Mario Odyssey, you collected coins and moons to progress, whereas in Donkey Kong Bananza, it's more open-ended with additional currencies to choose from. The skill upgrades are as numerous as they are helpful. The currencies are also more functional here and are spread out over different areas of gameplay. The gold you mine goes into buying items, whereas fossils give you different clothes (which also afford differing attributes). The 'moons' in this instance are massive Banandium Gems, and these are used to upgrade a large and varied skill tree. This is because this game is as much about exploration as it is about destruction. The last game that nailed this kind of setup was the original Dragon Quest Builders, which still holds a fond place in my heart to this day. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Anyway, destroying an area in a fit of monkey rage is deeply satisfying and also gives you the currency for all the aforementioned upgrades. You also have fun challenges dotted around each area and tasks you have to complete in order to thwart the evil Void Company. Even as you tunnel underground, the camera keeps up fine. Boss fights are also ingenious and again help you satiate your banana-induced monkey rage. The game is also entirely massive and has a huge amount of replay value, as you go back and search for items and more Banandium Gems, so you definitely get your money's worth on this one. There's also a great musical component to the game, as Donkey Kong and Pauline sing songs, which makes for a lovely and characterful experience. As this is a new Switch 2 game, it does look lovely and runs very smoothly considering all the deformable terrain at work here. Controls are also very fluid, and the camera handles all the crazy bespoke tunnelling you do pretty well. Overall, Donkey Kong Bananza does what Super Mario Odyssey did before it: offer one of the best platforming games available on a new system. The fact that the bulk of the game is about wanton joyous destruction is also another big bonus. So, if you want to tunnel to the center of the planet and destroy most of it along the way, Donkey Kong Bananza is your kind of platformer. Donkey Kong Bananza Platform: Nintendo Switch 2 Developer: Nintendo EPD Publisher: Nintendo Released: 17th July 2025 Price: $69.99 Score: 9/10 Disclosure: Nintendo sent me a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
CBC
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Donkey Kong Bananza's controlled chaos makes it a must-play game for Switch 2
Donkey Kong Bananza feels like an unintentional conduit for this generation's societal frustrations. You aren't playing as Mario, who gleefully jumps and bounces around the Mushroom Kingdom while shouting "wahoo." You are Donkey Kong, a 500-pound gorilla with massive arms punching, pounding and smashing his way through unknown lands in a world threatening to crush you beneath its oppressive weight. It's the video game equivalent of an anger room, a place full of breakable objects begging to be demolished, as you walk inside carrying a sledgehammer and wearing a pair of protective goggles. Paired with the puzzle-platforming DNA that makes the Mario games instant classics and a vibrant visual style all its own, Bananza rockets past Mario Kart World as the new Switch 2's must-have game — even as it struggles with glaring technical problems. WATCH | Donkey Kong Bananza overview trailer: The story, thin as it might be at first, is enough to set the stakes for the theme park-like adventure through over a dozen colourful environments. Donkey Kong is working at a mine staffed by other monkeys when they find banandium gems, giant edible (at least by D.K.) golden bananas. Soon after we encounter the Void Company, who are bent on reaching the planet's core for unknown reasons, causing havoc along the way — and Pauline, a young girl with magical singing abilities. The main villain and eponymous head of the company is Void Kong, who also happens to be a corrupt businessman with wildly styled hair. Void Kong is obsessed with golden bananas, insists everyone call him "the president" and angrily says his underlings are "fired" whenever they fail. Nintendo is not the kind of company to deliberately pull from the latest headlines for inspiration. But, even accidentally, Void Kong is the perfect antagonist for a video game in 2025 that encourages players to work out their frustrations by shattering everything in front of them. The young Pauline, meanwhile, rides on D.K.'s back, guiding the player along the way, as she's the only character to speak (and sing) in a human language. Longtime players might scratch their heads at her inclusion — in the 1981 original Donkey Kong game, Mario had to rescue a grown-up Pauline from D.K.'s then-villainous clutches; she later appears as the mayor in Mario Odyssey. It's best not to think about the timeline implications, as Nintendo remixes their mythologies as they see fit across most of their franchises. More importantly, the loveable big goof and savvy youngster formula infuses the game with heart and humanity even though it feels like it cribbed too much from Wreck It Ralph's notes to look completely original. All about destruction In a developer interview conducted and posted by Nintendo, producer Kenta Motokura said the principle concept behind the game was destruction. On the surface, nearly everything is built around Donkey Kong's destructive capabilities. Besides moving around and jumping — classic video game's basic alphabet — three buttons are dedicated to causing havoc: punching forward, punching up, and punching down. Other abilities further your devastation: tearing off chunks of terrain, swinging said chunks to destroy enemies and obstacles, or surfing on the chunks to rocket you through the underworld. It's an upheaval of the usual video game logic, where the environment is usually locked, except for the elements the player is supposed to overcome. You wouldn't break through a rock wall in a Zelda game unless there was already a treasure chest hidden behind, for example. In Bananza, those rules are usually thrown out the window. You can level entire mountains to rubble with your fists whether there's something to find or not. Often times you'll be rewarded by finding a banandium gem along the way; much like Mario Odyssey's hundreds of hidden Moons, they are meant to be found in abundance. But if you want to simply let loose and destroy everything around you, without any pretence of treasure hunting, the level's malleable geometry is happy to oblige. Serious frame rate problems All that destruction appears to have pushed even the new Switch 2 hardware to its limits, however. When playing the game while connected to the TV, the frame rate can slow to a crawl, or stutter inconsistently. It most often happens when hundreds of shards of glass, rock and mud fly across the screen at once, but can mar the experience even in calmer moments. Some of the later boss battles, with particle effects covering the screen, can make it feel as though you're trying to walk underwater. It appears to only be a problem when docked to a TV, however, as the game ran at a smooth 60 frames per second without a hitch when playing in handheld mode. Review: Donkey Kong Bananza is an a-peel-ing Switch 2 title 10 minutes ago One of Nintendo's oldest and most beloved characters is back in Donkey Kong Bananza for the Switch 2. We took the game out for a spin ahead of its release on July 17. The destruction motif doesn't limit Bananza's developers when it comes to level design, however. Devious puzzles and inventive enemies will constantly put players on their toes in ways that the House of Mario has perfected over decades. The best examples juggle pinpoint platforming with different terrain's properties; throwing an enemy made of ice will cool nearby lava, making it traversable; parasites that ooze corrosive slime can be neutralized by dumping piles of salt-rich sand onto them. All of this is tied together with the vibrant, surrealistic visual and environmental design. Typical video game biomes are given a slight twist, like adding chocolate and vanilla ice cream-shaped landscapes in an ice world. The cartoony denizens include the Fractones — creatures made of cerulean crystal with big, Pixar-like eyes — and a race of ostriches who run a five-star hotel inside a skyscraper-sized eggshell. (One note from the ostriches belies the script's occasional profundity: ostriches can't help but look down on others with their long legs, so must work extra hard to empathize with, and ultimately serve, their patrons.) As worrying as its technical hitches are this early in the Switch 2's life, Donkey Kong Bananza is a triumphant return for the titular gorilla. It'll take players about 20 hours to reach the thunderously exhilarating final act, but they'll likely have more than twice that spent just searching the underground world for more banana gems and other hidden treasures.
Daily Mirror
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Donkey Kong Bananza release date and when you can get stuck into its destruction
Donkey Kong Bananza is the next big thing from Nintendo, and it's not going to be long before we're smashing the ground and tossing rocks in the latest 3D platformer The much-anticipated new adventure of Donkey Kong is nearly upon us, and it's time to gear up for some terrain-tearing action in Bananza. Nintendo is poised to redefine the concept of groundbreaking with its latest 3D escapade, a surprise that gamers didn't quite anticipate when it was initially unveiled. Donkey Kong Bananza emerged as the 'one last thing' at the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, replacing what many expected to be a new 3D Mario title. However, any initial disappointment swiftly made way for enthusiasm for this fresh, expressive DK adventure featuring terrain destruction and rock hurling. Even at first glance, the game promises to be an absolute riot. Although not exactly a launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2, the Donkey Kong Bananza Direct demonstrated that it's set to be one of the most memorable games of the console's inaugural year, hitting the shelves shortly after the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remake release. The game is breaking new ground in several ways, sending Donkey Kong and a young Pauline on a journey to the core of a planet teeming with diverse locales and cultures at every level. The game places a significant emphasis on destruction as you collect Bananium Gems and thwart the Void Company from exploiting their power for nefarious purposes. No matter how you reach your goal, you're bound to cause quite a bit of chaos along the way. If early previews are anything to go by, it's shaping up to be an exhilarating underground adventure. And luckily, we won't have to wait much longer to get our hands on this latest addition to the Nintendo Switch 2 games lineup. But when exactly can we expect the Donkey Kong Bananza release date? Here's everything you need to know about when you can embark on your subterranean quest. READ MORE: Zenless Zone Zero 2.1 release date and when you can grab its new characters Introducing All Out Gaming Introducing All Out Gaming, a dedicated gaming brand providing the best gaming news, reviews, previews, interviews and more! Make sure you don't miss out on our latest high-quality videos on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook, where we'll be posting our latest reviews, previews, interviews, and live streams! You can also subscribe to our free All Out Gaming newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day's biggest stories. Donkey Kong Bananza release date The Donkey Kong Bananza release date is scheduled for Thursday, July 17 at midnight local time. This date has been confirmed by its listing on the Nintendo eshop, aligning with its initial announcement during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. Nintendo has yet to announce a specific release time, but as Nintendo likes to launch its first-party games as the clock strikes 12, it's likely we'll see a release at midnight local time. The exception is America, where East Coast gamers can expect a midnight launch, translating to a release time of 9pm PDT / 11pm CDT on Wednesday, July 16. This aligns with the first-party titles appearing on the Nintendo Switch like the Mario & Luigi: Brothership launch time and the Donkey Kong Country Returns HD debut, suggesting a pattern in the company's launch plans. The game's launch is poised to be a significant event, anticipated to both showcase the capabilities of the Switch 2 and demonstrate Nintendo's creative vision for the console's lifespan. This premiere is set to be thrilling for numerous reasons, not least of which is the return of the DK Rap on our consoles. Frankly, that alone is more than we could have hoped for.
