Donkey Kong Bananza Reviews
If Super Mario Odyssey were a music album, it would be a top-tier Art Pop record. Donkey Kong Bananza, on the other hand, leans more towards baroque Progressive Rock. The game starts off slowly, but it's a continuous crescendo leading to a masterful finale, with unique, deep, and often brilliant mechanics. It's one of the best 3D platformers ever made - deeply respectful of the character's past, yet entirely forward-looking.
Review in Italian | Read full review
What starts as a straightforward romp quickly reveals itself to be one of Nintendo’s most creative and mechanically playful platformers in a long time. Donkey Kong Bananza's level design is smart, the gameplay mechanics even more so, and the sheer joy of controlled destruction never really gets old. Even with a few performance hiccups and a main campaign that flies by quicker than expected, there’s a ton to dig into here if you’re willing to peel off its many layers (pun very much intended).
Donkey Kong Bananza is a constant series of pleasant surprises and shows exactly what the Switch 2 can handle.
I'm happy to say that Donkey Kong Bananza is here to whisk you off to multilevel worlds of satisfyingly smashing madness, to cheer you up and give you an excuse to punch the heck out of things.
Not only does the game look great and once again shine with a charming and detailed setting, but above all, it's incredibly powerful in terms of gameplay. Even if we could just smash half the world, we'd have tons of fun.
Review in German | Read full review
Donkey Kong Bananza follows the successful formula of Super Mario Odyssey, with great additions like a skill tree, functional customizations, strategic transformations, and intense exploration. It’s liberating to destroy everything in your path, with beautiful and varied layers, charismatic NPCs, and Pauline’s stories that are always worth listening to. The outfits acquired throughout the journey do more than change appearance—they also offer important functionalities like poison resistance, health recovery, and longer transformation durations, which are key to progress. The game can be finished in about 50 hours without feeling tired or bored, and there’s even post-game content. The only downside is the ease of the battles, but everything else makes up for it. Donkey Kong Bananza is a must-have for Switch 2 owners.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Donkey Kong Bananza rightfully stands alongside the great 3D Mario platformers and serves as a flagship title for the new generation of Nintendo's consoles.
Review in Unknown | Read full review
Galaxy moment and one of the best 3D platformers to come out of Nintendo this decade. It is chaotic, random, and at times, one of the weirdest games I have played. But there’s just nothing else like it and I can’t praise this enough. I didn’t think Donkey Kong would ever join the list of one the greatest games ever made but here we are.
Donkey Kong Bananza is one of Nintendo's funniest games ever, capable of bringing smiles to children's faces and energizing adults' love of video games. The 3D levels are playgrounds that you can almost completely destroy, in a design that uses simplicity as a launch pad for a huge amount of fun.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Donkey Kong Bananza is an imperfect masterpiece. Its ambition pushes Nintendo’s new console — the Nintendo Switch 2 — up to and beyond its limit; serving as both a technical showcase and a reality check.
Donkey Kong Bananza delivers a triumphant return for the ape, offering an open-world, destructive 3D platforming adventure on the Nintendo Switch 2. As a spiritual successor to DK64, it blends nostalgic collectathon mechanics with innovative terrain destruction and new animal transformations, making it a must-buy system seller for the new console.
Donkey Kong's triumphant return to 3D delivers an incredibly fun experience. Minor technical issues are easily outweighed by the creative gameplay, the strong presentation and the perfect dose of nostalgia. This is the system seller the Switch 2 needed.
Review in German | Read full review
With “Donkey Kong Bananza”, the Switch 2 is getting its next must-play title after “Mario Kart World”. One month after its release, the console already has its first in-house single-player hit.
Review in German | Read full review
While Donkey Kong Bananza has a few frustrating moments, the new 3D adventure with DK and Pauline is a pleasure throughout thanks to fun visuals, colorful worlds and impressive gameplay that has you grinning from ear to ear (almost) every step of the way.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
Donkey Kong Bananza has all the makings of unlimited fun, but it's easy to miss the mark.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Donkey Kong Bananza is far deeper than I ever anticipated, and it's absolutely one of this year's best games. There has never been a better Donkey Kong adventure than Bananza.