BinaryMessiah Donkey Kong Bananza Review

Super Mario Odyssey was one of the best games released this last generation. It was imaginative, never got old, and was just the right length, but I also didn't want it to end. There was something insanely addictive about Odyssey that the mainline Mario games always got right. I hadn't felt that way since Galaxy. Bananza is made by the Odyssey team, but can they catch lightning in a bottle twice? Like all other Mario games, the story isn't much and is nothing special. It's barely there to keep the player threading through a series of levels. Essentially you play as the titular ape who wants nothing but banana gems. He works for a mining company (or so it's implied) on Ingot Isle and ends up coming across a mysterious talking rock and Void from Void Co., an evil ape hellbent on stealing the Banana Core to make his wish come true. It's fine. I couldn't care less about Mario stories for the most part, but they're at least entertaining. That's not why you're here, though. Bananza has a similar gameplay loop to Odyssey in the sense that you can just follow the main story thread and do only the main objectives, or you can venture off and discover a new challenge somewhere or how to get a hidden Banana Gem. There are 777 in total in this game compared to Odyssey's 880 Power Moons. It seems like less, but the game is much larger than Odyssey as a whole. The main gameplay element in Bananza is the terrain deformation and total destruction of entire levels. This is incredibly satisfying all the way to the end of the game. There are many layers that make up the game, but you are starting out from the outermost core of the planet and are making your way to the center. Naturally, layers will get tougher as you dig deeper, and each level has a layer hardness rating. This means the main terrain that makes up what you are walking on will take more hits to get through. You also have a slap power that sends shockwaves through the ground, showing you what's hidden underneath. This is essential to finding hidden items spread out everywhere. This is what made this game confusing at first to me. I'm used to most Nintendo games having everything you need to find visible. You just have to figure out how to get there. This adds an entirely new element to the way you think about navigating levels. You can dig through nearly every object in the game. Of course, there are layers and material you cannot dig through to stop you from cheating. However, some Banana Gems have more than one way to them. You can either dig straight through or find a clue on the surface to get there. These might be flattened-out areas on walls that are obvious dig spots, gold veins that lead to a hidden item, or places where you need to use one of your five abilities to get to it as well. There's a lot to this game, and it can be very overwhelming at first. The completionist in you will go absolutely bonkers seeing how massive some levels are and where to even begin to find their hidden treasures. That's also the fun of it. You feel like an excavator, an explorer, and someone on a hunt for treasure. Your main objective will always be highlighted with a yellow exclamation. You need to talk to characters who will constantly extend the bread crumb trail to get you to the level's main boss. There are many different ways this can happen. There are a mix of platforming and combat trials that you go through as well as using your abilities and dealing with the current state of the world's terrain. For example, in the Festive layer there is poisonous slime that can be dissolved by grabbing salt chunks and melting it away. There are things like Switcharoo Goo that consist of two different colors. Hitting one color will fill the other in the opposite X and Y axis. Later levels will throw multiple things at you, such as the Switcharoo Goo, but you need to have an enemy eat it while you run around one color to climb up to the next. You're constantly on your toes and always having to think quickly and react quickly. The level design and pace of the game are perfectly done. I always wanted to see what was next or what the game had to throw at me. That's where combat and platforming challenges come in. There are multiple types, and all award Banana Gems. The Combat challenges are single banana platforms that are covered by purple Void Co tape that you need to have Pauline sing to get rid of. When you drop down, you have to defeat a certain amount of enemies in a time span, and they are usually the same type in the current level with terrain you have to use as well. Another terrain example is in the Radiance Layer: there is light that turns certain terrain soft, and in shadow it will turn hard. Enemies can be covered in this terrain, and you must find a way to break through a wall to get the light to shine on them or cover them in shadow. Platforming challenges offer three banana gems, with one being hidden somewhere on the level, but are not timed. Each layer has a Donkey Kong Country 2D style level as well, usually named something clever after the SNES series. Other challenges include Swifty challenges, which are white triangles that require you to destroy all the white wall pieces in that small area in less than 20 seconds. Usually you need to use an ability or manipulate the terrain around you in some way. There are quizzes from the Quiztone (characters in this game are called Tones); some will place a spot on your map for a hidden banana gem, and some challenges are just seeing one through a wall that you can't get to and you need to figure out a way around. You're always thinking and solving puzzles when exploring. They are also just clever enough that you can figure them out on the fly and get that "Aha!" moment every time. There are a few other challenges I haven't covered, but suffice it to say despite all of this there are a lot of the same type, and they do eventually wear thin after 30 hours of doing them. More on that issue later. Bosses themselves, while designed cleverly, are very easy and barely offer any challenge. Due to the RPG elements of Bananza and being able to buy items at the shop that will fully restore health, etc. You can breeze through bosses pretty quickly. The only real challenge was the final couple of boss fights that seemed to last forever. This is pretty typical with most Mario games. Boss fights in Mario games are usually not that hard despite being clever and fun. I just wish there was more of a challenge here. At least the game doesn't go the route of a boss rush at the end or anything like that. I only fought two bosses again later in the game, so it wasn't that bad. As I stated earlier, there are RPG elements in this game. Those gold nuggets you acquire in the game are actual currency to buy things in the shops, construct shortcuts and gateways (rest spots), and unlock challenges. Some main objectives require gold as well. Another currency are Banana chips which are used to exchange for Banana gems. The third currency is fossils. Each layer has its own type of fossils. Common, uncommon, and rare fossils. These are used at the clothes shop to dress up DK and Pauline. Clothes add defense against the main element in the layer that can harm you, such as burning, poison, shock, etc. You can also change DK's fur (no added bonus) for some fun. You can then upgrade those clothes up to level 3 with more fossils. Banana Gems are used to gain skill points (five get you a skill), which unlock things like more hearts, making it easier to break through tougher layers, and adding bonuses to your ability powers as well. DK can do a couple of interesting things with terrain, such as using it to "terrain surf" and knock into enemies to travel long distances. Softer terrain deteriorates at a fast rate, so it's not advised to surf over terrain that can hurt you, as it will disappear quickly from under your feet. There's an ability for DK to surf over water, allowing you to skate over hazardous surfaces like the aforementioned hot grease in the Festive layer, but this is an unlock in the skill tree. Pauline herself is an assist character similar to Mario's hat in Odyssey. She doesn't get in the way and never leaves your shoulder. You use her voice to change into forms and get rid of purple tape on certain objects. That's it. She's a great character to see that's not shoved off to the side in a Mario Kart or Mario Party game. She has character and sp*unk, and her relationship with DK over time is charming, albeit nothing more than what you would see in a Pixar movie. It's not very deep or memorable, but it's nice to see. I wish her singing was put to more use. I like her melody that she uses when you unlock purple tape, and the songs that she sings while in each ability form are catchy, but they wear thin real fast. Hearing the same song on repeat every time you transform gets old. The songs also flip when you switch abilities quickly (you don't need to go back to normal form and re-form into another ability), so it's like skipping tracks on a CD back and forth constantly. Not the nicest things on the ears. That's my biggest issue with this entire game. It wears thin after a while. I loved seeing all the new layers. When you first drop into the Lagoon layer and see how the sky is swirling out of the hole like water and dropping into this bright and colorful world, it is just fascinating. That never got old, but as you get deeper, those bright and colorful layers are less frequent and give way to drab dark worlds with lots of browns, blacks, and little light. I feel the game overstayed its welcome, with too many later levels feeling too similar, and many challenges towards the end of the game felt like they were put in to extend the game time. The fact that the final level just goes on forever isn't a good thing. There are 17 freaking levels in this game. It could have easily been cut in half with just the best ones, and it would have been fine. I liked having the couple of "break" levels, like the Racing layer, that didn't have a ton of challenges and Banana Gems to get. Sometimes I just wanted a cool new thing to do that didn't require dozens of hours of exploring. The visuals and audio are top-notch here. While the game doesn't quite look like a full-blown Switch 2 game (it was started on Switch 1 anyways), the impressive deformation and destruction and textures that you can almost swear you know what it tastes or feels like is something Nintendo does well. The ice cubes look and sound like real ice. The burger mountain looked so good I wanted to go and get a burger. I wanted to know what the Switcharoo Goo tasted and felt like to squish. The physics and textures are so well done here. However, the game has some terrible performance issues with frames dropping into single digits when hundreds of objects are flying around or when the camera zooms away to show the entire level for a few seconds. It's noticeable all the time, not just once in a while. I feel like Nintendo not utilizing the power of the Switch 2 is a real problem. No VRR, no DLSS, and the game doesn't look too hot in handheld mode either. It doesn't ruin the game, but it could have been better. Overall, Donkey Kong Bananza is one of the best games this year. While not quite the perfect slam dunk that Odyssey was due to overstaying its welcome and many later levels feeling too similar on top of just way too many challenges that start to feel like a chore after a while, I feel that was the biggest issue with this game. The final level could have been cut down, and 17 levels is a massive undertaking despite there being something new to offer in each level, that newness just doesn't hit quite as hard as earlier levels. With the insanely fun destruction (destroying a building-sized racing cup full of gold is one of the most memorable moments in this game), great level design, and making Donkey Kong a fun character to play as for a new generation, Nintendo did something you can't easily do. From the fun DK Country references (find Cranky Kong in every level for a Banana Gem!) to the fantastic and occasionally otherworldly and surreal feeling and scope of the music, there's something here for everyone.