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Donkey Kong Bananza
Released On: Jul 17, 2025
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
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User Score
User reviews are not available yet
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All Platforms
There is a platforming game in Donkey Kong Bananza, buried somewhere deep inside the recesses and soil and rock. From the small taste I played, I can tell that there will be objectives and crystal bananas and enemies to dispatch and directions to go and probably more than a few boss fights. The relatively small number of each of those that I saw in the demo seemed very fun. But Donkey Kong Bananza more than anything is a toy that lets you dig through solid rock and dirt as a super-strong monkey, and that's just the purest form of childlike fun. [Hands-On Impressions]
My time with Donkey Kong Bananza was defined by this sense of pure, playful joy. I still don’t know much about this game’s plot, or what’s really going on, or why Donkey Kong is going on his very own odyssey. But with its very weird vibes and its silly world of digging holes and discovering treasure, it should provide me a new avenue towards loving Donkey Kong. I never thought I’d see the day, but with Nintendo choosing to experiment wildly here, Donkey Kong Bananza might just be the thing to get me enthralled by DK’s entire world. [Hands-On Impressions]
I smiled, danced to its jungle beats, felt destructive and brutal like a furry wrecking ball. A bold reboot move that Nintendo has been building towards with its Universal movie and theme park deal, but for it to strike gold, the game itself has to deliver. This July, it'll need to make up for the inferior character appeal with pure, genuine fun. [Hands-On Impressions]
Donkey Kong Bananza swings the franchise in a bold direction, giving the ape himself a personality-packed makeover and offering up gameplay that combines the sandbox platforming formula of Super Mario Odyssey with the open-ended, play-as-you-will ethos of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. While the demo I played was a bit rough around the edges in some respects, DK Bananza promises to potentially be an amalgamation of some of Nintendo’s most acclaimed games of recent years. We don’t know for sure if that will be the case yet, but I’m eager to unpeel the full package and find out. [Hands-On Impressions]
From the short demo I played, Donkey Kong Bananza feels like a better, Kong-ified version of Super Mario Odyssey. The same gameplay beats are there — you gotta use your platforming skills to collect a bunch of special “jiggies” while thwarting a cosmopolitan team of very cool-looking villains — with some minor tweaks and additions (destructible environments!!) to keep the gameplay loop fresh. I took a survey of the press at the event, and everyone said Donkey Kong was the best game there [Hands-On Impressions]
This can feel a bit chaotic — and actually resulted in some motion sickness, requiring me to turn down some of the sensitivity settings — but it was a blast. The meditative platforming you might find in a Mario game has been replaced by something entirely different, and entirely in line with Donkey Kong’s persona. Dude loves bananas and wrecking shit. [Hands-On Impressions]
Donkey Kong Bananza has made me go ape – I'm obsessed with tearing its gorgeous world to shreds. [Hands-On Impressions]
User Reviews
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Summary Explore a vast underground world - by smashing your way through it! Bash, throw, and climb through just about anything in DK’s brand-new 3D platforming action-adventure game!
Rated E +10
for Everyone +10
Platforms:
- Nintendo Switch 2
Initial Release Date: Jul 17, 2025
Genres:
