Wow. When Nintendo announced Donkey Kong Bananza on April 2nd 2025, we knew it was going to be a great game. When more details emerged a few weeks ago, excitement in the gaming community went up further.
Then the title launched on 17th July 2025 and went beyond all of our expectations, becoming an instant masterpiece and one that definitively confirms the Switch 2’s importance as a console.
Bananza is a phenomenal platformer with relentless charm, creativity, and imagination across its sprawling worlds. Here’s a 2025 game of the year contender, then, and one that welcomes in a new era of Nintendo classics.
Destruction, Mayhem, and Fun in the Glorious Donkey Kong Bananza
Bananza is the spiritual successor to Nintendo’s 2017 masterpiece Super Mario Odyssey. That was the last 3D Mario game (for now), with Nintendo taking the bold choice to lead the Switch 2’s initial launch games with a new Donkey Kong concept.
The last full DK game we had was with the fantastic Donkey Kong Country: Topical Freeze (2014). That was on the Wii U. Retro Studios developed that for Nintendo, also porting it to the Switch in 2018.
The Switch 2 hasn’t even been out for two months, but its Nintendo exclusives are highly impressive. For all the abuse the rather marvellous Mario Kart World got for being £10 more expensive than gamers were expecting, it’s a brilliant title and a heaping bag of escapist fun.
But the arrival of Bananza is something else.
It’s the equivalent of the Switch’s Breath of the Wild launch moment. This 3D platformer is right up there with BOTW, which is one of the best games of all time. And we’re not exaggerating! The fact the notoriously picky IGN gave Bananza a 10/10 says it all.
The game is wildly destructive, fun, engaging, and beautiful to behold. Graphically a stunner, with a wonderful soundtrack, all backed by gameplay mechanics that are addictive and compelling from the get-go.
Right from the off, the game’s first sees you romping around the beautiful Lagoon Layer stage.
That’s your first location in the game and sets the foundation for everything ahead. And, cripes, the game piles on its charm offensive with an enthralling relentlessness that soon overwhelms your existence.
Bananza’s Compelling Gameplay Loop
The level of freedom in Bananza is amazing—Nintendo has worked wonders here again. We’ve been playing games for going on 40 years, but the remarkable level of creativity and imagination is stunning.
No matter how far you go into the game, there’s always some charming new gameplay feature to discover.
Deep into Bananza at the Resort Layer there’s a giant watermelon dominating the screen. You soon find out you can grab a certain enemy and this skyrockets you high up into the air, helping you reach the top of the watermelon.
And that level is only brief, lasting around 30 minutes before you’re off into another immersive later. It’s relentless from start to finish with its ideas and they’re always brilliant.
Nintendo’s capacity for this creative genius is alarming. It makes other major games developers look positively lame in comparison and it’s why we’ve been a lifelong fan of the Japanese gaming behemoth.
From the off at the colourful Lagoon Layer, you go off and can destroy everything around you with DK’s mighty ape fists, smashing into the ground and digging deep into it. This uncovers all sorts of secrets and helps you discover bananas, as well as solve the game’s many, many puzzles.
As for the plot, it involves players taking control of Donkey Kong and heading off to recover his stolen banana stash. He’s joined by Pauline, a sidekick who grants him special abilities. The game’s antagonist has sent the world crashing into the Earth’s core, which leads you further underground to new layers to find more bananas.
It’s what we want from our games (as our preference). Minimal plot interference, no long and tedious cutscenes, just straight into the fun. It’s endlessly satisfying and the urge to explore never lets up.
Plus, with the Switch 2’s extra power, the game has a considerable performance overhaul. If this had been on the original Switch, it just wouldn’t have been as technically impressive. The game just looks amazing and is enormous.
Bananza’s magnificent soundtrack, headed by lead composer Naoto Kubo, is also a joy. It nods to the series’ 30+ year history, whilst also carving a new direction.
The music nods to the series’ lore, taking inspiration from original composer David Wise, but forges its own path. And that encapsulates the Bananza experience in a nutshell.
Its aware of its long and impressive history. But this new experience is something dramatically new and exciting in itself and shows Nintendo’s limitless capacity for 3D platforming excellence.
The Bananza is Real: Donkey Kong-Clusion
This is the the Switch 2’s first masterpiece. We consider it a landmark moment in gaming—certainly within its genre. Its range of innovative gameplay features, charm, atmospherics, and outright joy to play make it a modern marvel.
Yes, then, Bananza is an instant game of the year contender. More importantly, its existence so soon into the Switch 2’s life justifies the system in its entirety.
This is the reason to buy a Switch 2 and revel in a new era of Nintendo’s exclusives.
Its complexity, yet simplicity, is a stunning technical achievement. How any player can get whatever they want from it, whether that’s racing through the game, or taking 100+ hours to explore every little secret. It’s been designed from the ground up to offer something for everyone—no matter their skill level. It’s inclusive for all.
And for all the toxic gamer bro and gaming press bias toward Nintendo over the last few months, this is a reminder of why fans flock to their new products. As what it creates is so often phenomenal.
