3 hours with Donkey Kong Bananza reveals its depth – but can it really match Mario?

It’s finally confirmed: Donkey Kong Bananza was developed by “the team behind Super Mario Odyssey”. Nintendo won’t say any more than that, such as who the key staff or even the game’s director is, but it’s exciting news, nonetheless.

The fact that we’re just now learning the most basic of details around the platformer’s development is, of course, absurd, but at least we haven’t had to wait until the end credits roll to find out, as is typical for most modern Nintendo titles.

Why exactly the company has decided to buck the trend and spill the beans ahead of release this time is unclear, especially because it previously told VGC it had no plans to do so, but it could be because the early previews of Bananza weren’t quite unanimously positive. And that’s mostly an issue of expectations.

Every Nintendo game comes with a great deal of faith that it will deliver quality, but this is Donkey Kong, and this is (as long expected by many) the 3D Mario team – names which understandably come with the anticipation of a truly genre-defining production. And for me, the first Switch 2 Tour hands-on demo didn’t quite hit that very high bar.

Since then, DK’s return has revealed its depth via a strong Nintendo Direct live stream, after which VGC was invited to Nintendo UK to play just over three hours of the Switch 2 game. It left me more excited than I was before, but most of all eager to play more, because I feel that Donkey Kong Bananza could be hiding its best bits under the surface.

Donkey Kong Bananza takes place on Ingot Isle, a sort of mining colony where DK and his fellow primates are digging for special golden bananas called Banandium Gems. The story starts when a sudden storm sends DK deep underground, where he discovers a new companion, Odd Rock, who, it later turns out, isn’t a rock at all, but the singer Pauline.

Pauline is not yet the confident and glamorous woman we know from Super Mario Odyssey, but a timid young girl who aspires to return to the surface and become a musician. Together, DK and Pauline embark on a subterranean adventure towards the planet’s core, all while the nefarious Void Company attempts to stop them.

Pauline’s reveal automatically makes Bananza a more compelling narrative than previously thought, and she has significant gameplay implications too. Once you’ve collected enough Gold to fill up your Bananergy meter (if you’re not a fan of puns, this game may not be for you), Pauline’s singing ability can be used at any time to transform DK into various Bananza forms based on other animals such as a Zebra, an Ostrich, and more.

DK can use the Bananza forms’ unique abilities to solve puzzles and traverse the various stages, which, just hours in, are looking much more vibrant than in the original reveal, with scenery changing drastically the deeper the pair progresses through the underground world.

The core mechanic of the game is destruction, with DK able to punch through virtually any scenery using the face buttons to control the directions of his swings. Destructible environments already feel pretty PS2 era to me, and combined with large, complex environments to explore, full of various different collectibles, Bananza has an almost nostalgic feel, like a classic platformer remade in 2025.

“Pauline’s reveal automatically makes Bananza a more compelling narrative than previously thought, and she has significant gameplay implications too.”

Its opening stage features adjustable water levels that reveal pathways to new areas, numerous NPCs to converse with, countless Challenge mini-games, and puzzles related to the Bananza transformations.  If this was rebranded as a modern Banjo-Kazooie, you wouldn’t need to change much.

Of course, Bananza is also very reminiscent of Super Mario Odyssey, right down to its UI, and how DK can build makeshift camps to change his clothing or take a break. The broad gameplay structure is also similar, with DK seeking out the Banandium Gems in place of Mario’s moons, which are liberally hidden around the world, rewarding exploration and intrigue.

DK also has an extensive selection of moves which, I suspect, will offer similar complexity when mastered in the full game. Compared to Mario, the ape virtually glides around the environment, clambering up walls, hanging from ceilings, rolling in a ball, and even surfing atop pieces of scenery. This time, many abilities can also be added, or upgraded, via Skill Points unlocked from collecting enough of the prized bananas.

The most important correlation, however, appears to be in how, like Mario’s recent 3D outings, Donkey Kong Bananza will likely be greater than the sum of its parts – a cavalcade of ideas and mechanics that might not seem like much on their own, but together form a consistently entertaining adventure.

In the three environments we played, there was constant variety in gameplay, with side-scrolling stages, mini-games that challenge players to smash down a house as quickly as possible, boss encounters, and NPC towns with unlockables to purchase and challenges to complete.

The core destruction mechanic by itself, like Odyssey’s possession powers, doesn’t feel particularly unique, with no special technical implementation or fancy physics (in fact, there doesn’t appear to be any physics model at all, with structures standing rigidly regardless of demolition). Instead, its appeal comes from its connection to the rest of the design.

“Donkey Kong Bananza will likely be greater than the sum of its parts – a cavalcade of ideas and mechanics that might not seem like much on their own, but together form a thoroughly entertaining adventure.”

Enemies and obstacles feel unique, with DK able to smash bits off of them to reveal their vulnerable skeletons, or even pull off chunks of their rocky bodies and then batter them with it. There are also examples in Bananza’s early stages of how destruction could evolve into a novel puzzle tool, with one sequence requiring NPCs to be escorted to a destination by chiselling a path for them around perilous water, or another segment where DK has to tunnel underneath deadly lasers to reach a goal.

These moments were fleeting in the 3 hours I played, but I fully expect them to evolve as the game progresses. The game was also very easy, as you can see from the footage above, but the 3D Mario template again suggests more challenging content will be back-ended.

The most imaginative use of destruction is often in the Challenge Courses, which occasionally forced me to think differently about how to solve a platforming challenge in order to reach the goal. Sadly, these were often paired with moments of mindless pummelling through scenery, battling with the camera, which at points left me feeling pretty motion sick.

This is the main issue I have with Donkey Kong Bananza: by itself, I don’t think the destruction mechanic is particularly interesting, and the game appears to fall flat in the segments where you’re left to use it as means of exploration. Smashing through walls and floors rewards players with fossils – used for unlocking new outfits – and the occasional Banandium Gem, but it’s not all that fun, and other games have done it far better.

DK has a clap move, which reveals items buried inside the rock for you to tunnel towards more easily, but to me, this feels a bit like a brute force solution to a flawed idea.

That said, it’s really worth stressing I’ve only played the very early game, and as noted, Bananza is clearly a big adventure game that, like Odyssey, will shine on the scale and variety of its ideas, and that’s difficult to show off in just a few hours.

And there’s clearly hidden depth I’ve not yet seen. For example, the game tracks the individual ingredients that make up the environment, such as dirt stone and sand, and each level opens with a rating for how tough its scenery is. Chunks of sand, for example, can be stuck together to form makeshift bridges. In co-op mode, a second player can even pick up individual ground types and fling them at scenery.

And outside of punching holes in the game world, Bananza has a lot of promise, particularly around the animal transformations and how, in the later game, they appear to encourage frequent switching for smart platforming sequences, reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, if you’ll forgive a 25-year-old reference. For example, the Zebra Bananza can be used to run on water, before swapping to the Ostrich to glide across a gap.

Those few flaws, combined with Nintendo’s hesitation to elaborate on key personnel, have me suspecting that Bananza might be the work of a younger team inside of Nintendo EPD, perhaps with experience working on 2021’s Bowser’s Fury. So we might yet see a 3D Mario game on Switch 2 in the near future.

Which would be welcome news, because I’m not convinced that Donkey Kong Bananza is quite at that level, and it would mean we have two big budget platformers to look forward to. That said, I’m excited to play more of DK, and I strongly expect its best is yet to be discovered, just under the surface.