Before going into yesterday’s Switch 2 Direct, everyone had their own wish list of what they wanted to see. While I’m sure not many people had my picks of Splatoon 4, a GTA 5 port, or anything Kingdom Hearts, the one game that everyone expected to see was a new 3D Mario.
Whenever a new Nintendo console launches, a big mainline Mario game is guaranteed to follow, or at least be teased for further down the line. Or so you’d think. When the Direct teased a big reveal and showed a colourful world ripe for platforming that seemed ripped straight out of Odyssey, I was certain the mustachioed plumber was getting ready for his big Switch 2 debut.
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But instead of the obvious Odyssey sequel, Nintendo’s first big platformer for the Switch 2 is giving another of its mascots a chance to shine by dragging Donkey Kong out of his post-Tropical Freeze retirement with Donkey Kong Bananza. Not only is Bananza the first exclusive platformer on Switch 2, but all signs, such as the engine and even the font used during dialogue, point to it being developed by the Odyssey team.
I’ve wanted Donkey Kong to make his long-overdue comeback for years but, even as an admitted DK fanboy, I was surprised to see Nintendo take such a big swing for the launch of its most anticipated console. Mario would have been a safe and crowd-pleasing bet, but after playing Bananza at a recent Switch 2 preview event, I’m confident they made the right choice by going all-in on Kong.
Donkey Kong Has Never Looked Better
Before I swing into what makes Bananza my most anticipated Switch 2 game, we have to address the Rambi in the room – Donkey Kong’s redesign. DK’s squishier look was controversial when it debuted, but Bananza instantly proves it was the right call. The tie-wearing ape has simply never had as much personality and charm as he has here, and I say that as someone who knows all the words to the DK Rap.
Whether you’re a fan of DK’s new look or not, Bananza is stunning. It’s a real showcase for the Switch 2’s increased power with vivid colours, fluid animations, and, most importantly, a smooth framerate. Good looks and sounds are the standard for a first-party Nintendo game, but I was surprised at how impressive the tech behind Bananza is, especially with how it handles destructible terrain.
Fittingly for a character known for smacking his hands on the ground and chucking barrels, destruction is the name of the game in Donkey Kong Bananza. From what I played, almost all of the world can be smashed, punched, ripped apart to use as projectiles, and even tunnelled through. DK leaves a trail of carnage wherever he goes, and Bananza handles the Red Faction: Guerrilla-style terrain deformation without skipping a beat.
I’ve heard the Red Faction: Gorilla jokes too and wish I’d thought of them first.
Ground-Breaking… Literally
My first taste of the havoc that Donkey Kong can cause came at the start of my preview, where DK found himself in a tightly packed mine that could be smashed to pieces to create a path forward, upward, and downward as you hunt for the game’s Star equivalent, Banana Gems. Aside from the unbreakable layer of floor and some specific borders, DK could punch away to his heart’s content, which never got old, no matter how much time I wasted on it.
In many ways, the freeform destruction and chance it provides for player expression remind me of Tears of the Kingdom’s object building and how quietly impressive it was that the Switch could handle such a big and expansive world. Bananza’s destruction is similar, but while Zelda certainly pushed the Switch to its limit, DK’s new adventure feels like it’s scratching (or punching) the surface of what the Switch 2 is capable of.
While destruction is clearly a massive part of Bananza, it isn’t just a glorified tech demo. Once I’d moved outside of the mines and to a more open level, I got to experience DK’s movement abilities and get a grip on what Bananza is all about, which is where the Odyssey vibes really started to shine through.
Don’t Worry, It’s Not All About Destruction
The first element that reminded me of Mario and Cappy was the world itself, which was a big island full of different tasks that reward Banana Gems, a la Moons. Despite the focus on controlling a bigger beast who causes chaos on a dime, DK is surprisingly spry and has a ton of different abilities, from simple rolls and leaps to more skill-based techniques like pulling chunks of earth out of the ground and riding it around like a big Beyblade. As you can imagine, I did that constantly.
DK can also climb around the environment freely without a stamina bar. Eat your heart out, Link.
While the mission I played on the island wasn’t anything too taxing and saw me learning how to use Bananza’s equivalent to bombs, it still stood out as something special thanks to how all the game’s mechanics and features came together. The impressive tech and gorgeous, destructible world are one thing, but combining that with how great DK feels to control and how many ways the world can be interacted with makes me think of a middle ground between Super Mario Odyssey and Tears of the Kingdom.
My time with Donkey Kong Bananza sadly came to a close shortly after discovering a massive area deep beneath the ground that I was desperate to explore some more, but everything I did play made me think that Nintendo is on to a winner here. It might not be the Mario we were all betting on, but Bananza is exactly the wild card that the Switch 2 needs.
Action
Adventure
Platformer
- Released
-
July 17, 2025
- ESRB
-
Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence
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