Diving deeper into Donkey Kong Bananza – A final preview 

It has been a long time since Donkey Kong’s last full 3D outing, 25 years in fact! We are only weeks away from finally getting to go bonanza with Donkey Kong Bananza. Nintendo invited Vooks to a preview event to check out about three and a half hours of the game. As with any preview, please keep in mind that anything from the preview is based on a disjointed glimpse at the game. 

The first part of the demo was the beginning of the game at Ingot Isle, which serves as the tutorial for the game. Having missed the Switch 2 pre-launch event, it was the first time I’ve had to smash stuff up. The overalled DK is digging and smashing his way to the all-important Banandium Gems, giant crystal bananas that DK is more than happy to gobble up. From the get-go, you’re well equipped to tear it up, with three buttons dedicated to smashing. You can punch up, bash down, or just forward smash your way through almost anything.

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It was hard to remain focused on exploring the mine when I could just smash my way through the environment. Dirt doesn’t stand a chance against the might of Donkey Kong! Although steel is another matter. While you can plow through a lot of the scenery, there is still a limit, with metal barriers usually preventing you from just digging forever.

If you watched the Nintendo Treehouse Direct following the Switch 2 Direct, you might’ve seen a little of the Lagoon Layer. Here DK is still lugging around Oddrock, your little jaggy companion that appeared in the initial Switch 2 Direct. The Lagoon layer is an easygoing, nice-looking area and was a good opportunity to put DK through his paces. It took a little getting used to some of DK’s new moves. The Turf Surf; a move where DK rips up a chunk of the surface he’s on and carries it around like a surfboard/skateboard, can be used to travel across the surface, most notably water and mud.

I discovered quickly that while it felt like surfing around should knock enemies away, it doesn’t. DK’s roll/somersault is still here, it can help get DK around faster, attack enemies and just like the 2D games, it can also give DK a little extra boost forward when jumping. Actually, it’s something I really enjoyed about moving DK around, being able to climb up surfaces easily, punching through the environment and rolling and jumping around just felt smooth (once you adjust to the position of the jump button). 

After working my way through the first layer and into the sub-layer just underneath, DK is needed to help release some water from the top layer. Along the way are plenty of Banadium Gems/Chips, challenges, and a bunch of collectibles in the form of fossils and fossil maps. There are a few different ways to spend your different currencies. The Banadium Chips, which can be traded for a whole Banadium Gem. You can collect fossils, which are potentially unique to that layer. These fossils are used to unlock clothes for DK and Pauline, as well as some nice colours to dye DK’s fur. Some clothing is just for looking stylish, but most appear to have some stats to them, whether it’s faster swimming or better moving through mud or other enhancements.

And that’s not to forget one of the most prevalent collectibles through what I’ve seen of the game so far, and that’s gold! Smashing through the world, DK knocks loose gold, smashes up big deposits of gold, and even enemies made of the stuff. From what I’ve seen, gold is used for multiple purposes; it helps fuel the Bananza modes, it pays for construction/shortcuts, and purchasing real estate.  Given that I died a few times, I also found that you lose a chunk of gold to be brought back to life. To try and avoid this, you can still collect and purchase the familiar red balloons. Instead of just giving you another life to fight off a Game Over screen, the red balloons will save DK and Pauline from a fall by lifting them back up to safety. 

In the Lagoon area, DK finds the Gorilla elder, who asks you to find him a special music record. After you get it from nearby, it leads to the scene seen in the Direct where Pauline bursts out of Oddrock (RIP Oddrock), and together with DK’s chest thumping, generates a beat and tune to awaken the Kong Bananza form. The larger, stronger Kong form is more powerful and has surprisingly more visible buns than any Kong before. It’s cool to be able to activate/deactivate it at any time as long as you have the meter to do it. It keeps DK from just punching through everything, while not making it too hard to get through those tougher materials. 

When you collect enough Banandium, you get a skill point, which can be used to unlock new moves or to boost your current ones. I enjoyed the move that allows DK to get a double jump, while holding some chunk you’ve ripped out of the ground/wall, he jumps off of it for that second jump. 

Donkey Kong also gets to get into the homeowners market, as there are real estate agents no matter how deep into the planet you go. DK can use his gold to unlock a new Getaway, giving DK a bed to rest on, a record player for the many tunes you can collect along the way, and a closet for equipping clothes. There were several Getaway locations across the accessible layers, with the more purchased in the layer, the higher the health boost you get from sleeping on the bed there. These extra hearts stack on top of DK’s usual health amount, making for a nice bonus as I have a feeling it won’t take much to burn through DK’s health. 

Then it was on to the Canyon layer. This layer has a real Western feel to it, with the layer just underneath seemingly containing the heart of the industrial engine. In the Canyon layer, DK and Pauline travel around on minecarts across the larger gaps, while in the secondary layer, adding in throwing bombs at the environment and enemies, while zooming around. 

While the preview has a few brief moments with the Void Co Kongs, in the Canyon is where we finally got pitted against Grumpy Kong, who quickly builds an enemy to send against DK and Pauline. A mini boss seen in the Bananza Direct appears here, an enemy made of stone (or maybe steel, I don’t remember the material), and dirt. In the Kong Bananza form, I could easily punch through the stone/steel legs and the dirt. I don’t know if it should’ve felt as easy as it did; it was still a fun battle and a chance to see one of the new Void Co bosses, albeit briefly.  

Moving down into the Industrial/lower Canyon area, there was a really colourful contrast from the reds and oranges of the Canyon surface. The ground is flecked with glitter as the environment sparkles with the furnace and machinery spewing glitter around.  Amongst the machinery is another Boss, potentially the source of power for the machines. This battle was fought from a minecart circling the furnace boss. It was a section where you loop around the boss, throwing bombs to destroy its shielding to hit the core and put a stop to whatever is going on in this layer. (During a preview that’s not for us to know just yet.) 

While exploring around the layer, I stumbled across an extra shrine/challenge which I could only open with the Kong Bananza form. This challenge is another one glimpsed in the Direct, taking place on a construction site as a destruction site challenge. The goal being to make your way around the building as the larger Kong, smashing every wall you can until you hit 100% and bring the whole site down. There appears to be no shortage of nods and homages to the earlier Donkey Kong titles, especially with these short challenges. I imagine there are many more ways to draw on the Kong’s long gaming history in ways that fit within these challenge shrines.  

Then it was onto the Forest Layer, a layer surrounded by poisonous waters, with thorns blocking DK and Pauline’s progress. This layer we didn’t get to explore as much, but it is of course enjoyable seeing another environment to the many layers to the centre of the world.  

One of the standout ‘retro’ moments of the Direct was the Bramble Blast-inspired side-scrolling challenge. This portion served as a mix of old and new, with sidescrolling through the brambles, blasting from barrel to barrel. At the same time, adding in new elements from this game so DK is still needing to blast through or smash up the environment. 

While we didn’t get to see the Ostrich Elder, there was access to Ostrich Bananza. This mode lets DK glide through the air, getting to previously unreachable areas. This was all the more important because of the poisonous waters surrounding the layer, with some areas only reachable by Ostrich form. I found this out after it wasn’t initially clear that I had the Ostrich form and attempted other ways of working my way across the poison. The form seems alright, I didn’t get used to the limitations on the gliding, but it’ll be helpful for when the old roll n jump isn’t enough to progress.  

A Nintendo rep helped us out with the newly revealed co-op mode. This allows a second player to control Pauline through vocal blasts that manifest in physical form. Holding down the ZR, you can scan any material nearby to adopt its properties, which can lead to some pretty explosive results. The mode would be great for letting someone join in more casually, while also being able to help out quite a bit. Your co-op partner could also become an agent of chaos! We found it’s possible to damage the environment around platforms that could make it much harder to get to some areas, which would explain the need for the reset option to put the layer back to its pristine condition. 

One thing that I had some trouble adjusting to across the entire preview was the controls. DK jumps with the A button, with the surrounding buttons being for the different attacks. I think I get what they were going for with the buttons, with X at the top for punching up, Y for forward, and B for smashing down. I still hope there is an option to switch the Jump button though. Once you do get used to all the different moves you can get DK around, the somersault/roll gives DK some extra momentum forward when used right; you can navigate around the layers with style. 

There has been speculation over the Nintendo studio that worked on Donkey Kong Bananza, and having some hours with the game, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Super Mario Odyssey team is behind this open-world adventure. While there are some things that feel inspired from their previous work, Donkey Kong Bananza very much feels like its own thing, and I am very much looking forward to getting to play the full game on July 17th.  

Vooks travelled to Nintendo Australia at our own expense for this preview.