Now onto the second game of the Switch 2 I am reviewing, which is also the second major release for it from Nintendo. And it’s the return of an icon after 25 years. That’s right 3d Donkey Kong games!
The announcement for DK Bananza came as the last reveal in the first full Switch 2 announcements showing a stone wall being punched and then the big ape bursting through it. Which is a good example of what you’re going to be doing a lot of in this game. 3 different buttons are all dedicated to punching!
After the last 3d DK collectathon with DK 64 a lot has happened. We had several video game generations but also two returns to Country Games which played like the Classic Country Games 2d side scrollers. This time we start right away, a short description is followed by you leaping into punching rocks and collecting bananas in the opening section.
The opening helps explain the basic controls and one of the big features of this game YOU CAN PUNCH THROUGH ALMOST EVERYTHING!
The floor? PUNCH! (though you may hit bedrock or metal that you can’t burst through) The walls? PUNCH! The roof? PUNCH! You can also climb up walls as long as they aren’t greasy so exploration can go mad and very easy to get hit by wanderlust… which if you want to get everything is something that’s going to happen.
As you progress through the game you get accompanied by Odd Rock… ok the trailers gave this away, it’s actually a young Pauline.. It’s not a spoiler, it’s on the front cover of the game box. This completely threw out the perceived Mario continuity, as while Cranky is still the original Donkey Kong from the arcade game, it would not only appear Pauline wasn’t Lady… but that the entire country games happen BEFORE Super Mario Brothers.
Pauline unlocks the Bananza transformations, you get these as you progress through the game and give DK a bunch of new powers, ranging from just plain stronger with the Kong Bananza, to elements like gliding as Ostrich, double jumps and sucking up terrain as others. The amount of destruction you can do to the map is astounding, which you can see in real time when you open up the map. All this is for finding those Bananas or Banandium gems as they are technically called. While not needed to complete the main game (you do need them for some post story hard challenges) you gain skill points for every 5 (and yes someone did do a no banana challenge) which can raise your stats like health, power up your abilities or get further powers for your Bananza forms.
The other main collectable in the game are the fossils. These are then sold in shops to buy outfits for DK and Pauline that give further abilities. Though I found once I got the treasure tie in the first main level, I never switched out of it since I found getting maps for locations of fossils was too useful.
The Levels or Layers are themed and come in a good number of varieties though strangely for a game set under the ground, no lava layer. The closest you get is in the ice layer where you do get some lava or lava-like structure in that one… though one of your bananazas can just scoop that up quickly.
There is a co-op mode where one person plays as Pauline that can be best described as a turret and is broken as hell from what I’ve heard but I have not played it.
For those that play it, it should come as no surprise this game was made by the people who made Mario Odyssey and with these two games, I wonder what next they are going to work on?
Rating: 🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮
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