Latest news with #platformer
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Donkey Kong Bananza: gorilla finds his groove with Mariah Carey on his shoulder
While searching for gold in the dingy mines of Ingot Isle, a severe storm sweeps dungaree-donning hero Donkey Kong into a vast underground world. You think he'd be distraught, yet with the subterranean depths apparently rich in banana-shaped gemstones, DK gleefully uses his furry fists to pummel and burrow his way towards treasure. From here, the first Donkey Kong platformer since 2014 is a dirt-filled journey to the centre of the Earth. Much like the Battlefield games of old, Bananza is built to let you pulverise its destructible environments as you see fit. That seemingly enclosed starting area? You can burrow your way through the floor. Bored with jumping through a cave? Batter your way through the wall instead. There's a cathartic mindlessness to smashing seven shades of stone out of every inch of the ground beneath you, pushing the physics tech to its limits and seeing what hidden collectibles and passageways you unearth. In order to add an element of humanity to all the destruction, a young girl named Pauline (whom players may recognise from classic DK games) joins Donkers for the ride, perching on his simian shoulders while singing, like a Brit School-trained parrot. In a welcome nod to the jazz-filled refrains of Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline sends DK into a frenzy by warbling like Mariah Carey. As DK locks into a gorilla groove by thumping on his chest, Pauline steps up to the mic and sings her heart out, powering him up to new hulking heights – his Bananza form – allowing him to smash through concrete as he glows red and embarks on a rhythmic rampage. As DK's journey progresses, you unlock additional animal-themed transformations, with one later level seeing DK flutter through the air as a pretty bizarre-looking Ostrich. As it's 2025, there's now a skill tree, enabling players to upgrade DK's moves, raise his health and even teach him new attacks and tricks. Continuing the RPG-lite approach, collectible hidden fossils are also carefully scattered across each new level, a currency used to buy new stat-boosting outfits. More importantly, these outfits are a huge amount of fun, allowing you to swap DK's default crimson fur for a more gothic black-furred Kong – along with a pair of blue denim dungarees and a yellow tie of course. Thanks to its 3D hub worlds, ranged projectiles and wacky transformations, there's more than a whiff of Rare's seminal N64 Donkey Kong platformer to Bananza. Part Banjo-Kazooie, part Incredible Hulk simulator, the destruction-led chaos is a world away from the pristine Super Mario Odyssey. If you get tired of punching, you can opt to chuck objects at your surroundings instead. Donkey Kong can hurl slabs of stone and granite at foes, walls and ... well, anything really, even launching a special glowing material to destroy cursed structures and unlock one-off challenge areas. Some NPCs are even made out of gems, allowing you to pulverise them mid-conversation before they slowly reassemble, feigning nonchalance with a dead-eyed look in their shimmering crystallised irises. The development team seems to have had fun coming up with new fearsome foes for DK to face off against. From being bombarded by hordes of tiny angry blobs, to battering a golden skeletal pterodactyl or fleeing a hopping stone alligator head, the slightly nightmarish threats that you pulverise match Bananza's off-kilter tone, looking pleasingly distinct from the usual Mario fare. Bosses promise to be a big part of Bananza too, with DK clashing with the nefarious VoidCo, a brooding gang of villainous apes who steal DK's much-coveted Banandium Gems. Grumpy Kong, for example, pilots a towering concrete mech which you have to chip into layers, eventually lowering him to ground level and doing what DK now apparently does best – delivering a brutal beating. Mine kart sections make a welcome return, seeing you leap between rails to dodge obstacles and take out enemies and structures alike by chucking glowing rocks into them until they explode. In a bid to keep the frame-rate solid while you chisel the landscapes around you in real time, the visuals take a slight hit. While character models look great, certain environments and areas look a little bland – but most of the time, you're moving too swiftly to truly care. While we start off in a dingy mine, we travel through a luscious lagoon and find our way leaping out of deadly rivers of toxins in a poison-filled swamp. Like Odyssey, there's a half-hearted co-op mode in Bananza. Put in the sulky boots of Pauline, a second player can click and chip away at the environment via the Joy-Con mouse. Each click chucks or destroys bits of the environment, with both players reaching a screen-filling, eyeball-straining degree of carnage. Give this to a young'un and furious-click induced chaos will no doubt ensue. You have been warned. Donkey Kong Bananza is weird, a little janky at the moment and more chaotic than Nintendo platformers of old. It's the playable equivalent of Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit, big, brash and impossibly enjoyable. While the Switch 2 has been accused of being iterative rather than innovative, for his first Switch 2 appearance, it seems that the iconic ape is burrowing his way towards a new type of fun. Donkey Kong Bananza is released on 17 July on Nintendo Switch 2
The Guardian
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Donkey Kong Bananza: gorilla finds his groove with Mariah Carey on his shoulder
While searching for gold in the dingy mines of Ingot Isle, a severe storm sweeps dungaree-donning hero Donkey Kong into a vast underground world. You think he'd be distraught, yet with the subterranean depths apparently rich in banana-shaped gemstones, DK gleefully uses his furry fists to pummel and burrow his way towards treasure. From here, the first Donkey Kong platformer since 2014 is a dirt-filled journey to the centre of the Earth. Much like the Battlefield games of old, Bananza is built to let you pulverise its destructible environments as you see fit. That seemingly enclosed starting area? You can burrow your way through the floor. Bored with jumping through a cave? Batter your way through the wall instead. There's a cathartic mindlessness to smashing seven shades of stone out of every inch of the ground beneath you, pushing the physics tech to its limits and seeing what hidden collectibles and passageways you unearth. In order to add an element of humanity to all the destruction, a young girl named Pauline (whom players may recognise from classic DK games) joins Donkers for the ride, perching on his simian shoulders while singing, like a Brit School-trained parrot. In a welcome nod to the jazz-filled refrains of Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline sends DK into a frenzy by warbling like Mariah Carey. As DK locks into a gorilla groove by thumping on his chest, Pauline steps up to the mic and sings her heart out, powering him up to new hulking heights – his Bananza form – allowing him to smash through concrete as he glows red and embarks on a rhythmic rampage. As DK's journey progresses, you unlock additional animal-themed transformations, with one later level seeing DK flutter through the air as a pretty bizarre-looking Ostrich. As it's 2025, there's now a skill tree, enabling players to upgrade DK's moves, raise his health and even teach him new attacks and tricks. Continuing the RPG-lite approach, collectible hidden fossils are also carefully scattered across each new level, a currency used to buy new stat-boosting outfits. More importantly, these outfits are a huge amount of fun, allowing you to swap DK's default crimson fur for a more gothic black-furred Kong – along with a pair of blue denim dungarees and a yellow tie of course. Thanks to its 3D hub worlds, ranged projectiles and wacky transformations, there's more than a whiff of Rare's seminal N64 Donkey Kong platformer to Bananza. Part Banjo-Kazooie, part Incredible Hulk simulator, the destruction-led chaos is a world away from the pristine Super Mario Odyssey. If you get tired of punching, you can opt to chuck objects at your surroundings instead. Donkey Kong can hurl slabs of stone and granite at foes, walls and ... well, anything really, even launching a special glowing material to destroy cursed structures and unlock one-off challenge areas. Some NPCs are even made out of gems, allowing you to pulverise them mid-conversation before they slowly reassemble, feigning nonchalance with a dead-eyed look in their shimmering crystallised irises. The development team seems to have had fun coming up with new fearsome foes for DK to face off against. From being bombarded by hordes of tiny angry blobs, to battering a golden skeletal pterodactyl or fleeing a hopping stone alligator head, the slightly nightmarish threats that you pulverise match Bananza's off-kilter tone, looking pleasingly distinct from the usual Mario fare. Bosses promise to be a big part of Bananza too, with DK clashing with the nefarious VoidCo, a brooding gang of villainous apes who steal DK's much-coveted Banandium Gems. Grumpy Kong, for example, pilots a towering concrete mech which you have to chip into layers, eventually lowering him to ground level and doing what DK now apparently does best – delivering a brutal beating. Mine kart sections make a welcome return, seeing you leap between rails to dodge obstacles and take out enemies and structures alike by chucking glowing rocks into them until they explode. In a bid to keep the frame-rate solid while you chisel the landscapes around you in real time, the visuals take a slight hit. While character models look great, certain environments and areas look a little bland – but most of the time, you're moving too swiftly to truly care. While we start off in a dingy mine, we travel through a luscious lagoon and find our way leaping out of deadly rivers of toxins in a poison-filled swamp. Like Odyssey, there's a half-hearted co-op mode in Bananza. Put in the sulky boots of Pauline, a second player can click and chip away at the environment via the Joy-Con mouse. Each click chucks or destroys bits of the environment, with both players reaching a screen-filling, eyeball-straining degree of carnage. Give this to a young'un and furious-click induced chaos will no doubt ensue. You have been warned. Donkey Kong Bananza is weird, a little janky at the moment and more chaotic than Nintendo platformers of old. It's the playable equivalent of Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit, big, brash and impossibly enjoyable. While the Switch 2 has been accused of being iterative rather than innovative, for his first Switch 2 appearance, it seems that the iconic ape is burrowing his way towards a new type of fun. Donkey Kong Bananza is released on 17 July on Nintendo Switch 2
Digital Trends
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Donkey Kong Bonanza gives Banjo Kazooie vibes in the best ways
Donkey Kong Bonanza might not be the remake of Donkey Kong 64 many fans hoped for, but it has all of the same elements with a dash of Banjo-Kazooie tossed in. Wednesday's Donkey Kong Bonanza Direct showcased many of the game's features, including a young Paulina riding on DK's shoulder like a singing bird, using her voice to help everyone's favorite Kong explore the world and dive deep to the planet's core. But the standout element is how much inspiration the game seems to take from another famous duo (also from Rare). Paulina can access songs that make DK transform into different forms like the power Kong Bonanza, the speedy Zebra Bonanza, or the flying Ostrich Bonanza. Recommended Videos Familiar characters also make an appearance, including Cranky Kong and Rhambi. Rather than battling against antagonists like King K. Rool, DK is up against a trio of nefarious Kong family members: Poppy Kong, Grumpy Kong, and Void Kong. These three run the Void Company, set on reaching the center of the planet before anyone else to unlock its wish-granting powers. And while there's no mention of Chunky Kong, chunks play a big role in the game. DK can rip chunks of terrain out of the ground to use as a double-jump platform, a surfboard, and much more. And of course, DK can also punch his way through terrain, dig down into the earth, and utilize a variety of other approaches to explore the world. This will come in handy, especially since Donkey Kong Bonanza looks to be absolutely full of collectible items. Everything from outfits, music discs, fossils, and other items gives players a lot to do after conquering the main story. The Direct didn't give too many details on the story, but Paulina suggests that she and DK could 'make her dream come true,' perhaps hinting that this game is a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey, where Paulina is a famed singer in New Donk City. Co-op play will be possible, with one player taking control of DK and the other controlling Paulina. Only one person will need a copy of the game, too, thanks to online GameShare functionality. You can play with your friends even if they haven't bought a copy of the game (or if they have and you haven't). Wednesday's Direct revealed a lot more about the game for eager fans. With a release date of July 17, players won't have to wait long for the chance to explore a new 3D Donkey Kong title, and it looks like it's going to be a hit.
Forbes
02-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
You Have One Week To Play A Perfect Video Game Before It Disappears Indefinitely
Poinpy is an absolutely perfect video game, and you only have a few days left to play it. The very best new video game I played in 2022 wasn't God of War: Ragnarok or Horizon Forbidden West. Nor was it PowerWash Simulator or Rollerdrome (as great as all four of those are). Instead, it was a perfectly realized mobile game. And it's one that's about to vanish into the ether for the time being. Let me tell you about Poinpy. It's a platforming game designed by Downwell creator Ojiro Fumoto and Team Poinpy. While Downwell was all about, uh, going down, Poinpy sees you ascending through a variety of environments using a combination of jumps and strategic bounces. Along the way, you'll have to collect fruit to make juice to satiate the blue beast that's facing you. Otherwise, you will fall victim to the monster's fiery wrath. Time slows down as you line up each jump, giving you a few precious extra seconds to find the right angle. You'll have a limited number of jump orbs you can use before you have to touch the ground. Once you've collected the right ingredients, touching the ground completes a fruit juice cocktail and resets your jump orbs. You can also restore a jump orb by slamming down on an enemy or pot. This is a roguelike, meaning that while there are a number of biomes with their own distinct elements, each run is different. The placement of fruit, enemies and obstacles will never be the same between runs. You can unlock permanent upgrades and choose between various power-ups 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 Poinpy is a perfect game. Fumoto and his team get everything exactly right here. Their vision for the game is crystal clear and they realized that faultlessly. The visuals are adorably colorful and the soundtrack from Calum Bowen (aka Bo En) is a real treat. The difficulty scaling is on point and, most importantly, Poinpy is a delight to play. Make it to the end and you'll get to experience a terrific, oddly devastating ending as well as a lovely post-credits sequence and an endless mode. But there is going to be an end to this, regrettably. The only way to play Poinpy at the minute is on an iOS or Android device. And you'll also need to be a Netflix subscriber to play it. As noted by Ryan Brown (the head of Lost In Cult's publishing label, Editions, which is largely focused on game preservation) on X, Netflix is removing Poinpy from its catalog on June 9. Publisher Devolver Digital confirmed on Discord that Netflix's licensing agreement for Poinpy is coming to an end, three years after the game's debut. After June 9, there won't be any way to play Poinpy until it's ported to other platforms. There's currently no timeline for when that might happen. "For the time being, Poinpy will become unavailable, and we know this sucks," a Devolver representative wrote on the publisher's official Discord server. "With how these integrations work, Poinpy will require further development in order to be releasable in other stores, and realistically we do not know when we would have time in-between other projects. Ojiro and us at Devolver hope to be able to release the game on other platforms in the future, but we do not have any news regarding this currently." This is such a bummer. I often dip into Poinpy to play a run or two. It's such a soothing, delightful experience and I'm so sad that I won't be able to play it for the foreseeable future. While some games certainly would not exist without the financial backing from the likes of Netflix Games, Apple Arcade and Game Pass, it stinks to see some of these works of art vanish when they leave these subscription services. Even with the Nintendo Switch 2 coming out this week and Summer Game Fest taking up much of my time this weekend, I'll be playing Poinpy as much as I can until June 9. I'd encourage you to do the same as well. I don't think you'll regret giving it a go. I hope that enough people check out Poinpy over the next week to show decision makers it's worthwhile to retool the game for the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and/or other platforms sooner rather than later. As soon as it's available elsewhere, I'll snap it up with no hesitation. If and when that happens, it could help this wonderful game find a far larger audience. In the meantime, I'm going to be waiting impatiently for Poinpy's return. Follow my blog for video game coverage and insights, and word games hints. It helps me out a lot! Follow me on Bluesky too! It's fun there. And make sure to subscribe to my newsletter, Pastimes!
Android Authority
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Android Authority
One of the greatest platformers of all time is currently free on Android
TL;DR Limbo is currently free on both PC and Android via the Epic Games Store. The stylish 2010 title is considered one of the best platformers ever made. It will be free until June 5, but it remains in your account forever once claimed. Platforming games have long been one of the best suited to playing on phones, and if you act quickly, you can grab one of the best platformers of all time for keeps. The essential horror/puzzle/platform title Limbo is the latest free game on the Epic Games Store, and it's available on both PC and Android. In case you somehow missed Playdead's 2010 classic, Limbo is a stylish black and white platformer where you control a boy searching for his sister in a dangerous land. Many of the game's puzzles rely on trial and error, with the expectation that the player will frequently die and restart from the last checkpoint. Once claimed, the game will remain on your account forever. Each of those deaths is pretty gruesome. You'll be impaled by giant spiders, crushed in hydraulic presses, and smashed by bear traps as you make your way to the end of the game. Despite this, watching your character ragdoll due to the unique physics engine is actually a highlight. The game was released on Android over a decade ago, but the critically acclaimed 2016 sequel Inside has not. It was ported to iOS way back in 2017, but for whatever reason, it never received an Android release. Playdead's third game has been in development for more than eight years at this point, but there's still no news on a release date. Regardless, you can claim Limbo from the Epic Games Store for free until June 5, so don't miss out. Once claimed, it will remain on your account forever. On PC, you can grab both Limbo and Tiny Tina's Wonderland. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
