It’s obvious Nintendo isn’t monkeying around with the story elements of Donkey Kong Bananza…well, like literally they are, but…you get what I’m saying

That is indeed the state of things in our collective primate world, but what is one to do but the best they can in the face of such wild insanity? To that point, Nintendo’s recent direct was the first in-depth look at Donkey Kong Bananza, and it most definitely felt like I was having a stroke at times trying to follow the nonsensical story elements and absurdist language being thrown around. I know we are talking about a company that has delivered us surrealist nonsense involving a plumber who kart races successfully against dinosaurs using mushrooms, but it seemed like Nintendo just said screw it to all sense and logic when approaching the core aspects of Bananza in it’s entirety.

Like going super saiyan, apparently.

In a move that I think shocked absolutely no one, Nintendo is once again drawing heavily from their Breath of the Wild formula and imbuing elements of it to yet another franchise, cause I guess that is basically what they do now in terms of “redesigning” their series. I guess in a fairness, Donkey Kong Bananza, being more of a follow up on Mario Odyssey, draws quite heavily from it in a myriad of waysl, making this approach more of a “Breath of the Odyssey” type scenario, so all of the ways one can imagine mashing together both games seem clear and present here, which obviously has a great potential for satisfying hybridized design formula.


Not that Nintendo has completely forgotten or left behind the old ways…gotta have “dat minecart” present, or else is it really a DK game?

There was quite a focus on terrain manipulation at play, in showcasing how they’ve been able to push the game engine to incorporate so many more dynamic elements at play on screen at the same time, as one can dig deep underground, destroy what looks like most parts of the environment on a whim, and even slowly destroy entire mountain sides given the time. One can also do things like use pieces of ground to gain extra elevation by jumping off of them, throw them around to harm enemies, surf on debris to get around faster, and even use “softer terrain” elements ala sand to build off of, creating any number of structures. It remains to be seen if these dynamic elements will play out in similarly satisfying manners like they do in Breath of the Wild, in the way that players will be pleasantly surprised by the emergent systems at play they didn’t even realize they could utilize in such ways to surmount challenges, but the potential is certainly there, which hold intense promise.


This is all Peter Jackson’s fault, somehow

DK has a new companion this time around: a hunk of rock who is apparently also a younger version of Pauline? Not quite sure how thoroughly (see also: rationally) that connection was explained, but Pauline in child format is seemingly the Cappy to DK’s Mario this time around, and the games focus on her vocal abilities is clear and present, as you can utilize Pauline’s voice to help attack enemies, interact with the world, and be of general assistance to DK on your journey. There is also the added bonus of co-op play available, as player two can control Pauline in a variety of simplistic ways to help player one out, albeit within limited pretense. The plot seems to heavily revolve around what kind of looks to be a a Disney-esque themed story about Pauline’s singing ability, with the whole thing coming off as Nintendo going in hard for that Frozen crowd. I mean, thematically speaking the production values seem to be there, but it does feel as if it is coming out of left field pretty hard all things considered.

Looks like Kid Pauline is having trouble letting go of something…

Which, to that point, I think the only thing to me that seems positively more wild than Nintendo focusing so much on a story for a game that seems like some kind of non-sensical fever dream is just how much more so many people seem to be taking seriously the “lore” background of the Donkey Kong franchise? I know the jokes always existed about the intense interest involving the backstory of the series, especially with fans going wild involving the ridiculous extrapolation of “The Great Ape War” which has endless amounts of speculation fueling the fandom’s bullshit about the conflated notion of importance involving a story Nintendo never seemed to ever care about, but that’s what I always thought it was: just some dumb joke about chimpanzees going wild on each other. The more people go on about “where this game falls on the timeline” or the “authentic chronology” of the canon involved has me just ever so slightly fucking worried that the metaphorical cheese has slipped off of the collective rational cracker of many of DK’s most batshit insane fans. It’s moments like these I’m reminded of the scene from Portlandia where the actor who plays Adama from Battlestar Galactica, Edward James Olmos, has to warn fans to be “safe…psychologically” when everyone is taking the show a little too seriously…

This man has never been in space….ever.

There was a lot more I wanted to say about this game, and I know I only covered a mere portion of the original direct, but I’m sadly out of time. Till next time.

-Pashford