Donkey Kong Bananza impressed a lot of people last year when it premiered and eventually released in the summer for the Nintendo Switch 2. I was one of many people who had a lot of interest in it, although I did not actually get it until Christmas. I also waited until I finished Metroid Prime 4, which I also got for Christmas, before starting it. This is the first fully 3D Donkey Kong game since 1999, and I will say right now that it is 20 times better than Donkey Kong 64.

Granted, it does share a lot of similarities with Donkey Kong 64, but this time it was Nintendo’s main development team making the game, since Rare has been owned by Microsoft for about a quarter of a century now. This is also the latest game to give Donkey Kong a soft reboot of sorts, which was hinted at early through his new design in Mario Kart World.

Nintendo spoiled pretty early on that Donkey Kong teams up with Pauline in the game. At first, I assumed she was around six years old and that this was some kind of grand prequel set between the SNES game Yoshi’s Island and the original Donkey Kong arcade game. But apparently she is 13 years old, and the more I paid attention to the story, the less the timeline made sense, even compared to the nonsense that The Legend of Zelda series sometimes pulls off.

I will say right away that this is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played. I mainly stick to Nintendo systems these days because of time and money, and while this was originally intended for the original Nintendo Switch, you can absolutely tell the finished product was built with the Switch 2 in mind. It goes far beyond what the older system could realistically handle. The game encourages you to destroy almost everything around you, including large chunks of terrain, and that is one of the main reasons Donkey Kong Bananza ended up being exclusive to Nintendo’s newer platform.

Instead of having one giant connected world, the game is divided into layers, which confused me quite a bit at first. But some of those layers and sublayers are enormous, and there are secrets hidden almost everywhere you can imagine. Collectibles, power-ups, health items, secret levels, and special challenges are constantly rewarding exploration. If you start digging around, you are eventually going to find something worthwhile. Honestly, I would hate to be a completionist for this game because I spent a huge amount of time searching every corner I could find, and I still doubt I even reached 50 percent completion.

I was also a little surprised by the challenge level. It is not brutally difficult, and compared to some retro-era games, it is definitely manageable for most players, especially if they pick up the upgrades they need. I really liked the upgraded transformation forms, each themed around a different animal. They make the gameplay feel fresh once you unlock them, and one form you receive later in the game completely changes how you approach terrain and exploration.

Even though Nintendo handled development this time instead of Rare or Retro Studios, the game never forgets its roots. It remembers why Donkey Kong mattered in the arcades, why he stood out on the Game Boy, and why Donkey Kong Country became one of the biggest games of its era. The developers do an excellent job balancing retro nostalgia with a completely new direction.

While the game feels fairly linear at first, it opens up a lot as you progress. There is a teleportation system that makes it easy to revisit old areas, and that really expands how much time you can sink into the game. I will admit I was not a huge fan of the map system itself, and some of the camera angles can get frustrating at times.

My brother actually borrowed a copy from his local library last year and ended up disliking it, which completely shocked me. Judging only from the first hour or two of Donkey Kong Bananza, I can sort of understand why. But once Pauline joins your side and the main antagonists are introduced, the game quickly becomes one of the best adventures the Nintendo Switch 2 is probably ever going to get. I am not exactly sure how many hours I put into it, but I would guess somewhere around 25. Donkey Kong and Pauline are genuinely adorable together, and if Nintendo ever makes a sequel, I will buy it immediately.