Monkeying around has never been more fun! (Donkey Kong Bananza in review)

     When I was a kid, I got Donkey Kong 64 along with my Nintendo 64, even though I picked it up a long time after they were off the market. It was the Nintendo Wii's time and I saw an old Nintendo 64 with the Expansion Pak in it, which is what you needed to play this one massive game. I loved that game, though I never got even close to the end of it. Why am I talking about Donkey Kong 64? This was the one and only fully 3D adventure game for the ape for over 25 years. It came out in 1999, and beyond that, there hasn't been any type of Donkey Kong focused game to come out since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2012. It's for this and so many other reasons that I was really excited for this new adventure with everyone's favorite tie-wearing gorilla, Donkey Kong. There are many reasons for DK to get less love, for one thing, the rights are all weird with Rare, the creators of the Donkey Kong Country series on the SNES, as well as the aforementioned DK64. Donkey Kong Bananza is a fantastic reinvention of what it means to play as Donkey Kong. Paying tribute to a lot of lore and history of the character while feeling like a game that I've definitely never played before. This game is all about diving down, so let's go ahead and dive into the next layer!

Oooh, Bananas!

    Donkey Kong Bananza begins very simply, DK shows up to the Ingot Isles to investigate some giant golden bananas that have been popping up all over the place. Monkey miners have set up shop here to mine for gold and DK is completely on board. He's having a great time, eating all the bananas he can, and collecting lots of gold, when suddenly there's a massive vortex that sucks him and the other miners, as well as the mining town, into an abyss. He wakes up in this void and discovers a mysterious purple metal that even he can't break. He teams up with a living rock that is at first terrified of the giant ape, but quickly comes around to him after realizing that he's only attacking the enemies that came along with this mysterious and sinister presence. The rock has the power to sing and make the purple metal break, meaning that DK can handle the rest. As you've probably seen, it's not too long before that strange rock reveals itself to actually be a 13 year old girl named Pauline. The rest of the game, without giving spoilers, consists of getting to the planet's core, where it's said you can make your wish come true. Pauline wants to get back up to the surface, and DK... wants bananas, so they're focusing more on Pauline's dream. You already get plenty of bananas on the way down. The heart of this game is all about the bond between DK and Pauline, and genuinely it's done really well.

    If you're not familiar with the Donkey Kong lore, allow me to take a few minutes and acquaint you with it. Donkey Kong was first introduced in an arcade game called Donkey Kong where he was actually the bad guy. He kidnapped Jumpman's (the original Mario's) girlfriend, Pauline (or Lady, as she was originally known), and climbed up a construction site. The Donkey Kong in this game, presumably the same one from Donkey Kong Country and DK64 is not that one. Cranky Kong, the grandfather of this Donkey Kong, was actually the original one from the arcade game, and allegedly makes this current character the son of Donkey Kong Jr. but they don't really talk about him much. Confused yet? This game makes things even more strange, introducing a young Pauline, putting this game in a strange timeline set somewhere between Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Odyssey, with a few lines here and there that Pauline says about her Granny, which could be Lady from the original title. It's confusing that not much else is said about the original arcade game, but it does call into question the heroism of this great ape if you address the kidnapping, I suppose. I could talk about this timeline all day, but I won't, because I can recognize that I'm going off the beaten path. Funny enough, that's exactly what this game is about.

    This game is all about moving fast and destroying everything in sight. I've never seen a platformer that plays like this game, where you can actually destroy almost everything in a level to a certain point. This allows the puzzles to be solved in all manners of ways, and they are almost designed to be broken. The biggest mechanic of this game is the ability for Donkey Kong to dig and pulverize almost anything in the environment, and it truly sets it apart from other games. The first layer that you traverse is basically just to get you used to the gameplay and the destructible environments. I'll admit, at first I was really worried that this wouldn't click with me, or even come across as fun. I'm so happy to report that I was completely wrong. While this is the most interesting thing about this game's mechanics, that's not the only trick that it has up it's sleeves. This was made by the team behind Super Mario Odyssey, and boy does it show. Every layer that you pass through is full of weird and new mechanics that are a blast to discover and play around with.

    On top of the terrains, you get a lot of new powers both from the skill tree and just as you play through the game. The skill tree is a crazy addition for Nintendo to put into a new platformer, but it pays off in huge ways. Every 5 Banandium Gems (your main collectible, think of them like moons or stars) you collect gives you a skill point, which can be put into many different skills, some as simple as giving DK more health, and others giving different abilities such as a double jump of sorts if he's carrying a chunk of the ground. You collect fossils as you go through the layers in addition to the Bananas, and the fossils let you buy or upgrade different pieces of clothing, each individual to that layer. Think of it as the purple currency in Super Mario Odyssey, which was only valid in whatever Kingdom you were in. The main difference here is that the different clothing options all have special effects, some of which are a huge help. On top of all this, we have the titular concept of Bananzas, which are special songs that Pauline learns throughout the game which transform DK into different forms. The trailers already showed off three of them, being Kong, Zebra, and Ostrich, and there are a few more for you to find as you're playing. All of the transformations feel pretty great to play as, and a big positive is also listening to the different songs that allow for the transformations. Many of the songs that Pauline sings are constantly getting stuck in my head, or I'll find myself dancing along as I'm running through the world as a Zebra.

    The issue with writing about this game so soon after it came out means that I don't want to give away too many spoilers. There is a lot to this game, but I'm excited for you all to try it out! Even though I got through the game in about a week, there's still even more to explore. The story is really cool and I was surprised and excited by all that they put into it, so many twists and turns that I wasn't sure exactly where they were going, but it all made for a pretty spectacular game. No matter if you're a fan of Donkey Kong, or if this is your first game starring the leader of the DK Crew, chances are high that you'll have a barrel of fun.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I can't say that I've always been the biggest fan of Donkey Kong, but as I've gotten older, I've really appreciated a lot of the silliness that this series has to offer. It doesn't hurt that he has had some stellar side-scroller adventures over the past few decades. Are you interested in this new title or are you waiting a while for your next Switch 2 adventure? Let me know somewhere online, I'd love to hear what you're looking forward to. I hope you're all having a great week and as summer comes to a close, I hope you're not dreading the season to come too much. Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Kong, and I'll talk to you again soon!