Donkey Kong Bananza is the first fully-3D Donkey Kong platformer in over 26 years, ever since Donkey Kong 64 came out. In that time, we went from the Nintendo 64 to the Nintendo Switch 2! And, Rare went from being a Nintendo-affiliated company to a Microsoft-owned company… poor Rare.

Aside from that potential doom and gloom, there’s the matter of the game itself to look forward to.
Is it good, or is it awful? Let’s go and find out.

 

Having a Bananza of a Time

While this can be beaten in well under 2 hours if you’re good at sequence-breaking, this game is MUCH more enjoyable when you take your time with each of the game’s 16 layers. For full disclosure purposes, this was my most played game in recent memory, beating out the Switch 2 -enhanced Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. While I go back to SV for the Occasional Event raids and the Terapagos cutscene up in Kitakami’s Crystal Pool, I played Donkey Kong Bananza non-stop like I was on a banana-fueled mission, much like the titular character himself was when Donkey Kong went to Ingot Isle.

Getting used to jumping with A and attacking with B, X, and Y – Down, Up, and Forward, respectively, was a bit of a challenge – surprisingly, in Donkey Kong Bananza.

Now, there are only one or two times you need to backtrack in this game to previous layers in order to do new things. Thank. Goodness. This is mainly due to Layer 400 being the “The Divide” layer. Here, you decide which Bananza you unlock next in the corresponding layer (Ostrich for Forest, and Zebra for Freezer).

This game became more open-ish and even more fun with each new Bananza transformation unlocked out of 5 total (Kong, Zebra, Ostrich,, Elephant, and Snake, in that order). Each transformation brings new benefits, like slowing down time and eventually double jumping as a Snake, gliding for relatively long periods of time as an Ostrich, inhaling and chucking chunks of absorbed material at enemies (very useful in the 2nd boss fight against Poppy Kong and the very last set of bosses in the game), destroying sturdy concrete as a Super Saiyan-esque Kong Bananza, and running across ice and other crumbly surfaces quickly as a Zebra.

All of them are rather useful against all but ONE boss in the game…ironically, the boss you’re NOT allowed to use them on has a good plot excuse and a good setting as a wonderful set-up excuse for prohibiting the usage of your Bananza powers. This forces you to beat this particular boss fight as regular Donkey Kong, which means you better have invested some skill points in health, surf turf, etc., if you want to stand a remote chance of winning. Also, adjusting your character’s outfit and Pauline’s outfit helps out as well.

All this makes that particular boss fight (I’m being intentionally vague to avoid spoilers here) very satisfying as traversal, gyro-aiming, roll-punching, dodging, turf navigation, and turf surfing are all put to the ultimate test here. Add in an epic soundtrack, and this boss fight, while admittedly easy if you know what you’re doing, is an enjoyable and fun one to undertake, even if it took me 7 times to get through it successfully.

And what happens afterward? Too spoilery to give away, but this game could’ve ended right after that non-Bananza boss fight, and I woud have had zero regrets with that, but NOOO, they went on to give such an incredible, real comeback for the true finale to this game, and I was invested fully into finishing the game in that particular sitting (I was playing on and off over three weeks, folks). I was rewarded with enemies I haven’t seen since 1996 (2008 if we count Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber), and a three-phase boss fight and traversal gauntlet that put every Bananza to full use, whether in the gauntlet itself or the final three fights.

And the end credit song playing after all was said and done? Simply magical and too beautiful, like something out of a Pixar/Disney movie, which is ironic as Wreck-It Ralph was inspired by Donkey Kong in the first place.

Now, one thing I wish was hinted at more by Pauline in-game was that she can sing to help find the way to the next objective. I say this due to getting lost a few times in the later layers of the game (particularly Feast).

Performance-wise, the game only stuttered and dropped frames about once or twice during the big “Climax” at the 15th layer, and that’s because there was so much stuff happening on-screen at once. Other than that? Smooth 60FPS for Donkey Kong Bananza.

While the game is generally easy outside of the final two layers (seriously, 9,999 gold to pass Security Fractone 3? No thank you!), the game does get genuinely harder in the final stretch and ramps up the difficulty again once you hit the post-game, much like Super Mario Odyssey. Those armored scorpions can seriously rot! I beat three of them by pure, dumb luck, and I couldn’t even think of what I did that made them vulnerable in that challenge room. Thankfully, it was optional, but it was still a tough Banandium Gem to get.

Graphics are incredible. There was next to no pop-in during my playthrough. And I already described the technical stuff above.

 

Summary

So, in summary, Donkey Kong Bananza is EASILY my favorite game of 2025 as of right now. In addition, this is in the running to be my Game of the Year of 2025 when that time comes. Nintendo EPD knocked it out of the park with this one. I know that I’m willing to replay a certain section all over again. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I got more Rambi Rumble racing to do.

Developer: Nintendo EPD

Publisher: Nintendo

Platform: Nintendo Switch 2

Release Date: 17th July 2025