Donkey Kong Bananza Review - The Everyone Game

DK Bananza Cover Art

This is my most fun game of the year, not because it is the best game of the year or my ideal type of genre, but because it has been the family game to play since coming out. My toddler is in love with the music and the different colors and outfits she can dress DK up in, especially with the addition of Pauline, which gives her a representation in the game world. Even for myself, who has played plenty of Mario as a child (but never beaten) and other core Nintendo games, Donkey Kong 64 was my core N64 game that I actually beat. This is that but so much better, with the collecting, constant increase in powers, interesting puzzles, and added mechanics that seem to take from Zelda TOTK and BOTW.

Gameplay Features

The core game mechanic is exactly what you'd expect if you've watched the trailer: smashing through gold, terrain, and anything else to get around puzzles and the world. The game only has a few buttons that allow you to punch up, down, and forward, but as the game continues, it provides more depth. There are other features, such as slapping the ground to do echolocation to find collectibles and tearing off the terrain to throw, surf, or hit enemies.

Additionally, there is a unique Banana RPG system that isn't really needed, due to the ease of the enemies in the game, but allows you to have a nice reward system each time you get 5 bananas. If you're worried about having to find them all, you don't need to; there are nearly 1,000 banana gems in the game. The game also rewards you for exploring by finding fossils that you can use to buy new outfits or colors, which has been a huge hit in my household. I never imagined my toddler would learn the word "fossil" this quickly or be able to count as quickly as she does by seeing how many bananas we missed.

As an experienced gamer, I never found the game to be difficult for the core game, and no enemies should give you much trouble, but certain challenges and post-game content provide more challenge if you desire. It also respects your time in that if you follow the main path, it would not take very long.

Core Environment

It is set up in an open zone manner with DK and Pauline digging through to the core of the world, with each zone/level having a unique environment and sublayers that switch it up or add new puzzle mechanics. It truly is full of collectible items, in a way that rewards you for every moment of exploration. Ninety percent of the collectibles were easily findable by just taking the time and being curious about the environment. The game encourages taking the time and going off the beaten path and provides nice quality-of-life features, such as the banana collectibles being listed in the order in which you should find them. Many times, I'd have found banana 11 and 9, but 10 was missed, which gave me the needed feedback to look back at the areas DK just dug through.

Audience - The Everyone Game

It may already be obvious, but this game is truly for everyone, and I have found that to be genuinely applicable. I have a toddler who has played only Mario Kart so far and is still learning how to keep the kart on the road. She is in love with this game, and it is a perfect learning environment for her, especially due to the fact the game has an easier difficulty version that helps her play in the manner she can for right now. Additionally, just as much as playing, this is the only game she asks me to play so she can just watch and cheer on DK. The visuals are very pleasing to her and not a concern for me as a parent. Let alone the outfit-changing mechanic, in which she asks me to change my DK colors every 2-3 minutes, with a very wide array of choices. This is the best core memory game a parent could ask for.

This also provides me with a great game where collecting all the things, bananas, and hidden challenges provides a very special time. Traditionally, this is not my type of game, but I've been very pleasantly surprised by how much I've enjoyed my time.

This has even been a game for my spouse, who is a 2D Mario gamer at heart and has not gotten into any new games but has a lot of nostalgia for those old Nintendo games. It is currently a race between my toddler and her to see who can find the most bananas.

Recommendation and Rating

For us at the Gamer-Parent, this is a must-play game and we give it a 10/10. It is one of the best games I've played in a long time in all the ways that it works within the vision of the game and features without becoming something it's not.

This is a masterpiece game that has made getting a Nintendo Switch 2 worth it by itself.