When I first played Donkey Kong Bananza at the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, I enjoyed it but was nevertheless left vaguely apprehensive. The core destruction mechanic was fun, I reasoned. I jokingly referred to the game as ‘Red Faction Gorilla’, referencing another destruction-driven game that is jolly good fun. But… was that it? Is that all – smashing stuff up?
A deeper hands-on, undertaken in advance of getting my grubby mitts on the full and final game, gives an answer: No. And yes. But mostly no.
In that same April preview I referred to Bananza as “extremely Super Mario Odyssey coded”, and I am now quite happy to accept rounds of applause, flowers, and general plaudits: for I was right, and it’s not just coded – it that team.
Nintendo typically obfuscates the identity of the developers of a game, telling us all to wait until we see credits roll to find out who is making something. But this time, it seemingly has realized that the developer identity is a marketing boon rather than a potential pitfall: so at preview, they casually mentioned: oh yeah, “the development team of Donkey Kong Bananza is the same as for Super Mario Odyssey.” So there you have it.