With Donkey Kong Bananza now out on Switch 2, it’s been a delight playing this magnificent game. One of the many highlights is with composer Naoto Kubo’s excellent score, which brings the Bananza world to life in so many ways.
Thus, get your earphones ready to have a gander at all this noise.
The Glorious Atmospherics of Donkey Kong Bananza’s Score
Bananza launched in July 2025 as the first entry in the Donkey Kong series since the excellent Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014). Retro Studios handled that game and British composer David Wise delivered an outstanding score.
Wise is synonymous with the SNES’ iconic Donkey Kong Country trilogy between 1994 and 1996. His pioneering musical landscapes mixed ambience with pathos to add real gravitas to the platformer genre.
We were concerned to hear Nintendo didn’t bring Wise into the mix for Bananza, but we needn’t have worried.
In fact, Nintendo has taken full control of its Donkey Kong franchise here and hasn’t involved Retro Studios. This allowed lead composer Naoto Kubo to craft a wonderful new score for the series.
Kubo has done the right thing and channelled the spirit of Wise’s work. The influence from previous games is clear (definitely in the likes of Mossplume Marsh above) and it lends itself well to DK’s destructive new environments.
The range of the score is very impressive. There are so many pieces and it changes constantly, as you’re never in one place for too long.
Helping you keep track of the music you like are collectible in-game discs. You pick these up and can replay your favourite tracks at rest areas. Handy, but we want to have access to them on YouTube, too! Thankfully, some fans have uploaded pieces already.
Nintendo will get round to launching the official OST eventually, but for now we can bask in the joys of the Radiance Layer’s solar control tower composition.
To note, Naoto Kubo was also lead composer on Bananza’s spiritual predecessor Mario Odyssey (2017). This time, he also brought in Daisuke Matsuoka, Reika Nakai, Yuri Goto, and Tsukasa Usui for ideas.
Kubo said in a 15th July 2025 interview Ask the Developer Vol. 19: Donkey Kong Bananza:
“You progress by smashing all kinds of things. Your surroundings change constantly, so we worked hard to create sounds that reflect that change. We measured the sizes of areas such as open spaces and caves, and adjusted the volume and reverberation accordingly. Even for the background music, we split each song into multiple tracks and adjusted the balance according to Donkey Kong’s surroundings and the size of the area. I think it’s an audio experience unique to games that use voxel technology, so I hope players will listen out for those details too as they play.”
Whilst that means this is a totally new score, it does have moments where it can more heavily reflect on the series’ iconic past.
Bananza Also Remixes DKC Trilogy Classics
Bananza has several moments that nod to the Donkey Kong Country trilogy.
One is seen above with the opening level to Donkey Kong Country (1994). It’s given a radical overhaul! With the music drowned out by the mayhem, here it is with a dramatic update of David Wise’s original music.
The other remix is for the gorgeous Stickerbush Symphony from DKC 2 (1995). Another of Wise’s compositions, the whole score to that game is considered one of the best in gaming history.
That’s from DKC 2’s Bramble Blast level, which we have fond memories of blasting around at this point 30 years ago on our SNES. Bananza gives the level a total technical overhaul as a welcome nod to what Rare achieved with the DKC games on the system.
Bananza Embraces the Donkey Kong Country Series’ Pathos
Amongst all the joyous, upbeat music from Bananza it’s clear lead composer Naoto Kubo has paid real attention to the DKC trilogy. In fact, Nintendo has revealed their team replayed all the original games to get a feel for everything.
Key to that is British composer David Wise, whose impact on those games cannot be understated.
His choice of music was to head in a different direction to everything else at the time. No Super Mario style music, instead a focus on dramatic themes and ambience. That added a surprise element of solitude and uplifting melancholia to the DKC trilogy.
Kubo has done the same here, with some moments for refrain in the chaotic Bananza landscape.
In-game, it leads to moments like the below. At the end of the Lagoon Layer there’s this stunning waterfall area with the subdued, melodic music in the background.
A chance to relax and enjoy the calm—it’s meditative.
Donkey Kong games are some of the most unique in Nintendo’s catalogue. We can always tell with people who haven’t played them, as they dismiss them as “kids games” (that lazy argument again).
The reality is from the SNES era to Tropical Freeze and now Bananza, the titles have a strange poignancy to them. That was Wise’s input, adding existential ambience through his electronic soundscapes.
Kubo uses that, and more expressive moments of joy in exploration and chaos, to create one of the most emotionally resonate video games we’ve ever experienced.
