Donkey Kong Bananza is the perfect killer app for Nintendo Switch 2 – Reader’s Feature

Donkey Kong Bananza screenshot — Donkey Kong Bananza – a great near-launch game (Nintendo)

The first new 3D Donkey Kong game in 26 years gets the seal of approval from a reader, who considers it one of the Switch 2’s best games.

After 70 odd hours of play time it pleases me to conclude that Donkey Kong Bananza is an incredibly fun, creative, and cathartic experience. And in my opinion very much the definition of a killer app launch title for a new console: very original, effortlessly fun, and technically impressive in a way that’s delectable in its distinctiveness and tangible.

I was just enraptured by the powerful allure of diving deeper and deeper into its mesmerisingly malleable world until I reached the core. The urge to see what wildly imaginative region the lovable ape and Pauline would fall into next was so captivating. The adventurous, layered level design of the world was immensely satisfying to navigate and de-kong-struct with such playful abandon.

There’s just so much I admire about this game, like the joyful Bananza powers (the elephant one is insanely destructive!) and their awesome theme music, and the way DK can climb up over most any surface Zelda: Breath Of The Wild style; making the vertical traversals feel so brisk.

I loved the heart-warming symbiosis between DK and Pauline – especially the latent songstress’ charming musings at bedtime. I was wonderstruck by the multitude of disparate rock type materials and their inventive platforming and combat properties (the rainbow one was peak design!).

Then there’s the wide range of impressive self-contained platforming and combat levels, the smart sonar clap ability and how it inexorably fuels the seamless, systemic exploration of buried treasures, that caramel-like currency, bananas, fossils, and chips.

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I also appreciated the lean and meaningful skill tree, and the fine array of clothing that actually feels beneficial to Kong’s and Pauline’s grand descent. I can go on and on with why I feel like the sumptuous sums of the game’s design forms such a triumphant whole.

Most of all, it’s the tremendous tactile feedback and technical wizardry of the voxel-based terrain deformation mechanic that really left a crater sized impact on me.

I’m still ploughing away 70 hours in, so close to securing all the bananas (only 55 more to go!) and every time I punch, rip, and smash my way through the environments it leaves a huge dopamine-surged smile on my visage. This core aspect of the game design simply hasn’t lost its lustre for me; its primal level of addictive and playful fun is quintessential Nintendo tactile fun.

And I have to say, the post-game content in this game is so good. The level design in the rehearsal challenges is some of the most inspired design I’ve seen come out of Nintendo EAD.

The enemy and boss rush trials are also great fun and quite refreshingly challenging. And I have to hand it to EAD for that spectacular crescendo that for me is right up there with the likes of Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101, and Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom for the most euphoric end sequences in a modern game.

Of course, Donkey Kong Bananza is not flawless, nor quite on the same stratosphere of supremacy as Super Mario Odyssey and the Super Mario Galaxies, in my opinion. The camera during the dig-duggery is quite cumbersome at times, the early bosses are a cakewalk, there isn’t the greatest variety in enemy designs, and I expected more speed and challenge from the racing layer.

Aside from the blemishes, this game is an absolute bonanza of fervent imagination, searingly cutting edge interactive ambition and super fun mechanics, and I’m so glad Donkey Kong has finally got his big 3D break in the modern era!

By reader Galvanized Gamer