Donkey Kong Bananza

So, I decided to play Bananza. I’ve bought a Switch 2 and somehow only have Mario Kart World on it and I don’t play it much. I’ve found Bananza for 65€. I have very precise opinions on Nintendo’s price policy and none of them are positive. But hey, at least it is “only” 65.

I am very torn about Bananza. Very much torn. I do not understand what Nintendo wants to do with their licenses, but it is something I’m not happy with. Gameplaywise, the game is absolutely fine. Nintendo games always are. They are polished, almost without bugs and well thought out. Do you want to go crazy and destroy a whole level? Go for it. The game must have been a technical nightmare to put together, but you can destroy a whole level if you so desire. From a technical point of view surely impressive, as is Tears of the Kingdom’s Ultrahand.

But also, why do I play Donkey Kong mining his way through the world to its centre? Why couldn’t it be Bowser? Wario? Heck, even the Ice Climbers make more sense to me. The game is absolutely a delight, the different levels are weird, the different tribes are grotesque, I love it. What do you mean, there is a zebra tribe on some layer in an ice cream and chocolate world and they give me the power to run superfast? Yes, please give me more, I beg you. The fractones are a delight too, a nice throwback to Rare. There is even a puzzle-shaped one in every level that you need to put together again. The game was made with a lot of love and Easter eggs and references to the other Donkey Kong games. Some of them really work well and are embedded in the overall everything. But also, there are the sub-levels, the shrines, or how you want to call them. The Mario Sunshine hard plateforming challenges, the Mario Odyssey plateforming challenges. Here comes the Donkey Kong plateforming challenges. Everything’s fine, they are enjoyable. And then they gave me a recreation of the first level of Donkey Kong Country. And this was the moment, I stopped and thought, “you know what game, you are right, why am I playing you instead of Donkey Kong Country? That was a freaking good game” and by extension, Bananza kind of was not. It failed. If I want DK Country, I’ll go play DK Country. I’ve had too much nostalgia in my games to care anymore at this point. Everybody wants me to be nostalgic about something. Movies, series, music. I’ve a nostalgia burn out. Bananza utterly broke my capacity of tolerating this nonsense.

I am very much extremely tired of nostalgia bait. I can enjoy a fractone tree that I have to nourish like I did feed the hippo in Donkey Kong 64 to access each level boss. I cannot enjoy if you throw me a whole level which ist just Donkey Kong Country 1. Same with the sub-level bases on Country 2. Like, yes, that game was great. The ideas in that game were great. The music was a delight. Why should I bother with you, bananza, if you so heavily relay on their past greatness? What do you give me besides the chaotic destroy-it-all gameplay? Oh yeah, a story. But also, oh no, a story.

I was interested in where it was going. The wacky world is fun. I like the elephants with their umbrellas. The ostriches in their hotel. Going down to the centre of the world to find some big banana power which grants wishes is enjoyable. I was actually interested in the villains and what they were up to. Poppy Kong was cliché but nice, helping you out in the end, and I liked grumpy kong who just wants to build some stuff and will build things for you in postgame. So, hey, at least I will remember them, on the contrary to the enemies in Donkey Kong Country returns. Nice of you, Nintendo, to give the children of today new villains to remember fondly! So give me Void King! Will he finally be a contender to King K. Rool? No! Because why would he? Why should he? And this is the saddest thing about Bananza. You go to the end and everything is thrown out of the window. Everything. Void Kong is disposed off as the two-dimensional placeholder he was and King K. Rool is back. You know, he wasn’t in Country Returns and Tropical Freeze because he also wanted the cool Bananza power and got to the centre of the earth and… felt asleep. With all his minions. Because somehow it was important that we explained his absence?

So, why would I ever care about new stories and characters, because they will be thrown away for nostalgia instead. And you know what? It is Nintendo. It is freaking good nostalgia. And I hate it so much that I even slightly enjoyed how perfectly well they pulled it off. From the boxing ring (DK64) to the fake credits from Country 1 it was all in there. But, I don’t know. If I had to create a whole story and in the end have to throw it all away for something older, I would be pissed as a creator. So, Bananza-Team, you did a freaking great job with everything there. They love the DK games, and I respect that.

We do not need to explain everything. Country Returns and Tropical Freeze can exist without some big meta and lore on where King K. Rool is. I do not care. I care about having fun plateforming with barrels and bananas and animal companions. I want Cranky Kong to insult me, but even Cranky Kong has only become a mere shadow of himself. The game goes even further by tying Bananza to the Odyssey World. Ok. So King K. Rool never saw a human city? How? He really just camped all the time in front of D.K Island for the bananas and never thought to maybe go somewhere else looking for bananas? Now there is also a large hole in the Odyssey World, from the mining island (far far away from D.K. Island) to the other side, to Pauline’s Human City. Which isn’t New Donk City if I’m not mistaken. So how are human cities placed in this world? Where is DK Island on this freaking map? How far away is far far away so that it makes sense that King K. Rool with all his technology did never see a human city? Where is the Mushroom Kingdom then? What is happening? My brain cannot cope with this, it needs to go all in these extended “we need to explain everything” universes. Like, build the freaking world, make it solid or let it be. If we have to explain the absence of King K.Rool in 2 games, we have to go all in and to the craziest wackiest worldbuilding in the DK and Mario Universe, but they did not. So why even bother? Everyone was happy (well I guess the fans not that much as Nintendo thought it necessary to explain King K. Rool’s absence in the Return games), just playing Mario and Donkey Kong. We do not need Donkey’s lineage, if Pauline is Lady or not, a DK timeline and whatever. It’s Donkey Kong, for crying out loud. I disliked the Zelda timeline, but I do hate this even more. It is my personal nightmare of being unable to not overthink everything. When have we stopped doing nice fun games which are kinda tied together but not really? Why does everything have to be this big extended universe where everything is over-explained? Why couldn’t we have a nice villain in Void Kong? I guess, the name is fitting at least. Void king was only void. Is it Marvel’s fault? I do not know, but I do not like it.

Why couldn’t bananza be a fun game with wacky levels and songs and new villains? Why does everything have to tie back to when I was eight? It’s alright guys, I’ll enjoy your games without you telling me how great my childhood games were. Believe me, I know. I’ll play them again and not bother anymore with your games if you throw away a whole story with its characters for nostalgia bait. It has been half a year, but I’m still confused on why Bananza did what it did.

The game is great. It is solid. It could have been so much more, a new IP, anything. But it’s just Mario Odyssey with Donkey Kong in the end. Because nostalgia, I guess. Rest in peace, Void Kong.