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Donkey Kong Bananza

Donkey Kong Bananza reviews roundup

Nintendo’s next major Switch 2 exclusive following Mario Kart World is almost here, and reviews for Donkey Kong Bananza are now starting to come in.

We’ve mentioned this a few times, but Donkey Kong Bananza is the first 3D platformer in the series since Donkey Kong 64. There’s impressive talent behind it as the team that worked on Super Mario Odyssey created the game. And during the adventure, you’ll be journeying with Pauline as you explore the Underground World by smashing, crashing, jumping and singing your way through it.

Here’s the full Donkey Kong Bananza reviews roundup:

My Nintendo Donkey Kong Bananza rally towel

Just in time for the arrival of Donkey Kong Bananza comes a new My Nintendo reward. As of now it’s only available in North America

Starting today, memebers can get their hands on a rally towel, which measures 8 x 12 inches. The design features Donkey Kong blasting forward in a minecart. As noted by Nintendo, “it’s the perfect size for cheering on the big guy and Pauline during their adventure.”

Thanks to the destruction in Donkey Kong Bananza, the game will let players skip locations and parts of the story.

That news comes from co-director Kazuya Takahashi. Speaking in an interview that went live today, he spoke about how the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive provides “leeway in terms of progression”. While games often block off sequence breaking, it’s allowed in Donkey Kong Bananza.

Takahashi noted in the interview:

Donkey Kong Bananza concept art

In a new interview, Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura shared that he’s hoping the game leads to separate 2D and 3D branches of the series, similar to what we’ve seen with Mario.

Mario clearly has a subset of 2D and 3D games. With Donkey Kong, however, things are murkier. Part of that is simply due to a lack of games. We’ve seen a good amount of 2D Donkey Kong titles, but 3D has been underrepresented – fans know that Donkey Kong 64 was the last time there’s been something in the 3D space.

In an interview published today, Nintendo went into detail as to how the team behind Donkey Kong Bananza was able to take advantage of Switch 2.

We recently heard that the game was initially in the works for the original Nintendo Switch. However, Kenta Motokura said the team “ran into some challenges” and started thinking about moving to the new console around 2021.

Donkey Kong Bananza frame rate drops

Kazuya Takahashi, the director of Donkey Kong Bananza, has commented on the game’s performance and frame rate drops.

Overall, early impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive have been positive. However, some who have been able to try out the game prior to launch have noticed some frame rate dips. It’s largely stable and tends to hit its target of 60 frames per second, but inconsistencies have been noticed. We should get a better idea about performance following launch, which is happening next Thursday.

It goes without saying that Donkey Kong is the star of Donkey Kong Bananza, but young Pauline – who’s 13 years old in the title – is pretty important as well. Aside from accompanying Donkey Kong on his journey, she plays a role in the gameplay.

Now thanks to an interview with producer Kenta Motokura and director Kazuya Takahashi, we have some information about why Pauline is in the game. Having a character journey with Donkey Kong was always a part of the plan. Eventually concept art for the zebra transformation was made, it was prototyped, music was made, and that music was turned into a song. 

If you’re wondering why we’re finally getting a new 3D Donkey Kong game with the upcoming launch of Donkey Kong Bananza, you can thank Yoshiaki Koizumi.

According to producer Kenta Motokura, it was Koizumi that made the push. Koizumi was most recently the producer of Super Mario Odyssey. He was also the director of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.

Motokura told IGN in a new interview:

Donkey Kong Bananza is continuing the trend we’ve been seeing as of late, which is that while it’s coming to Nintendo Switch 2, it was originally planned for Switch 1.

That news comes from Kenta Motokura, the game’s producer. He said that it was always the plan to use voxel tech and consider “lots of different ideas for applications.” However, when Nintendo Switch 2 started to become a reality, the team “realized that the best implementation of these ideas and technology would be on Nintendo Switch 2.”

Director Kazuya Takahashi chimed in on this as well, telling IGN:

July 2: A lengthy Donkey Kong Bananza overview trailer has just dropped, which clocks in at eight minutes. As is tradition for Nintendo, the video is only available in Japanese – but we should receive an English version soon.

Here’s an overview of the game:


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