How Do We Feel About Donkey Kong Bananza So Far?

It’s been about a month since Nintendo released its biggest new title for the Switch 2, and to the surprise of no one, many here at The Punished Backlog have some THOUGHTS about it.

Developed by the same team that worked on 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Bananza — the first brand new game in the Donkey Kong franchise in over a decade — has been met with stellar reviews since its July 17 release date, achieving a 91 score on Metacritic with multiple 10/10 reviews, including from IGN. Most who have played Bananza have praised its terrain-smashing mechanics, Bananza transformations (where DK becomes a super-powered giant animal for a limited time), and 3D platforming challenges, though some have criticized its wonky camera and slow build-up.

So, what do the writers here think?

Q: How hyped/excited/interested were you in Donkey Kong Bananza prior to its release?

David Silbert (DS): I definitely let the hype run wild with Bananza. Though not a massive Donkey Kong fan, I of course love the 3D Mario games developed by Nintendo’s in-house studio, Entertainment Planning & Development (EPD). So, once rumors that EPD was helming Bananza became fact, I started to dream big. It’s been nearly eight years since the release of Super Mario Odyssey, so I imagined the next effort from EPD would be another all-timer.

Sam Martinelli (SM): Obviously, I was fairly excited about the game when it was first announced. As a lifelong Donkey Kong fan, I was ecstatic about another attempt at making a 3D game with him as the protagonist, and I was thoroughly impressed by that first trailer at the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct in April.

That said, I wasn’t convinced at the time that Bananza would be something special, or even the Switch 2’s most notable release this year (I’m holding out hope that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a banger). Part of that is because of my relationship to Donkey Kong as a franchise, which has never had the same group of people working on it for more than three games. I always assumed I would enjoy it, but I was still cautiously optimistic over just how much.

Zack Gulinello (ZG): Immensely! I wouldn’t say because it was Donkey Kong specifically, but I love all things Mario and platformer so it seemed like a perfect game for me. Once I saw the trailer showcasing all the abilities and revealing Pauline as a sidekick, it made for an easy pre-order!

Gary Wilson (GW): Incredibly high! From the first announcement to the final trailer, I was frighteningly excited to go bananas.

Amanda Tien (AT): I loved how excited Sam was!!!! When I saw the trailer come on during that first Switch 2 Nintendo Direct, I screamed out loud with enthusiasm. I knew he would be happy.

Mark Bowers (MB): I was pretty excited, on the one hand because it’s been so long since there’s been a major Donkey Kong release, and on the other because it meant we were finally getting a first party Switch 2 game! Ok, I cheated a little bit. We had Mario Kart World at launch and it’s only been a few weeks. Still, the game looked like a blast and like it had its own unique aesthetic that would separate it from its peers.

Q: What’s your personal history with Donkey Kong games?

DS: I’d played zero Donkey Kong games before Bananza, save for about 60% of Donkey Kong Country as part of a self-imposed backlog challenge in 2024 (and also partially to appease Mr. Martinelli here). I also never had a Nintendo 64, so I sort of missed that era when DK games were top of the platforming heap. Better late to the franchise than never!

SM: Some of my earliest memories playing video games at all were with the first two Donkey Kong Country titles, both of which I have written about extensively for The Punished Backlog. Much like Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Street Fighter, or Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong was synonymous with gaming, at least for me when I was a child.

For most iterations of the character (besides the weird spinoffs like Donkey Konga and King of Swing), I was always more than happy to give it a chance. I played the original whenever I saw an arcade cabinet in the wild. I got Donkey Kong 64 as soon as I could, and defend its honor to this day. There was even one instance where I tried out Donkey Kong Junglebeat — you know, the 2D platformer where you control DK with a bongo controller — and Resident Evil 4 at a GameStop kiosk, and walked out of that store with the damn bongos. This lovable ape with the goofy smile and red tie is just as iconic to me as anyone in the medium.

ZG: A friend of mine had Donkey Kong 64 and I remember playing it a ton as a kid. Since I never owned it, I can’t say I’ve gone through the whole thing, but I have wanted to go back to it for a while. The only DK game I can remember having myself is Donkey Kong Country 2 for the SNES. In some ways, I loved the experience because you get to be Diddy and Dixie and ride Rambi and all sorts of other animal pals. It’s a fun introduction to the DK Crew, except it’s SO HARD. I could never get anywhere when I was younger, but I did make some progress on the virtual console with the generous save states. It still pulls no punches as an adult though, dang!

GW: I adored Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze, even without a lot of time in the old Donkey Kong Country games. Tropical Freeze in particular is one of my favorite games in the past few years, and an absolute highlight of the Wii U era of Nintendo projects. On the 3D side, I HATED Donkey Kong 64 as a kid. When there are great platformers like Mario 64, Spyro, and even Banjo-Kazooie out there, why would you ever want to touch Donkey Kong 64. Game’s awful.

AT: I’ve never played any of them; I didn’t have Nintendo consoles growing up until we got a Wii when I was pretty late into high school so we mostly used it for group entertainment like Rock Band. Sam just won’t stop talking about these damn Donkey Kong games.

MB: My history is very limited, but in my defense, my first Nintendo console was the Wii and, well… the selection has been pretty limited in that time. That being said, a few years back I downloaded Tropical Freeze on my Switch, and that may just be the best 2D platformer I’ve ever played. Everything about it feels precious – the scenery, the music, and the movement. It’s an absolute gem of a game, and you can tell a lot of care went into it.

Q: How do you feel about DK Bananza so far, and what score out of 10 would you give it?

DS: I’d give it a 9.0. Originally, I was a bit lower on the game compared to most here. The early layers of the game, while fun, seemed to fall short of the quality I’d expect from the Nintendo EPD team. Where Super Mario Odyssey offered natural peaks and valleys in its design, Bananza can feel like a constant “Go! Go! Go!” of pummeling rocks, collecting bananas, and smashing the sonar button. In the early hours, there’s little reprieve from one moment to the next, and I often found myself exhausted after a layer. The destructibility felt ambitious, but I wasn’t sure if I was truly vibing with DK’s latest journey.

That all changed for me from Layer 800 onward. At that point (roughly halfway through the adventure), the game just magically got better. The sandbox levels became more colorful and intricate. Fresh mechanics added exciting ways to engage with the environment. The side challenges got cooler, the skill tree got deeper, the bosses became (slightly) more complex, and I didn’t hit a single rut from then on. I still have to factor the slow early game into my final score, but once DK Bananza gets going, it truly feels like peak Nintendo EPD.

SM: After having completed the main story and a lot of the post-game content, I would give Donkey Kong Bananza somewhere between a 9.5/10 and a 10/10. While I’m still weighing the specific number, there’s no doubt in my mind that this game is a classic, both one of the best games in a beloved franchise and a high water-mark for Nintendo over the past decade, which is truly saying something.

There’s so much to love about this game. It’s constantly engaging, with tons of collectibles to find and challenges to complete. It’s gorgeous to look at and a delight for the ears. The ability to punch through and destroy most things is always a joy, yet I don’t always feel like I’m “breaking” the game while doing it. The new power-ups allow for a wide berth of experimentation, and the smooth-yet-weighty platforming mechanics make the simple act of moving from place to place a blast.

Moreover, while the earlier sublayers are fairly simple and exist mostly to get the player acquainted with what’s possible in the game, the later ones are sublime. Areas like the Tempest Layer, Landfill Layer, and Feast Layer consistently challenge the player’s understanding of the mechanics while encouraging them to try things out, just to see what happens. God, what a marvelous experience.

ZG: I’m at Sublevel 400, so definitely just scratching the surface (or at least barely digging into the surface?) and I love it so far. It’s a wide open sandbox with fluid movement, puzzles to solve and so much smashing to do. I’m not sure how Nintendo managed to make the punching as satisfying as it is, but sheesh there’s just something about how crunchy and granular the world around Donkey Kong is. I really feeeeel like Donkey Kong, or something like that. Hard to give a score out of 10 this early into everything, but I expect it to be well on its way to at least a 9. The 3rd and 4th levels haven’t quite spoken to me the way the first couple did, mostly because smashing stuff at the beginning was so awe-inspiring, but there hasn’t been much need for anything else yet. But I’ve been encouraged to press on for the meatier content and I have no intention of stopping now!

GW: 9/10. Just an absolute blast from start to…well, not finish but pretty deep in! I’ve danced a few Bananzas, surfed some turf. Having the time of my life.

AT: 10/10 — I’ve played zero hours but I love that Sam is happy!!!! I assume he is happy!!!!!!!!!

MB: I have hit credits and made it about halfway through the postgame — I’m trying to collect everything before hitting the grand finale. I think early on in the game it felt good but not great, but as I moved into more creative layers and gained more powers, the game really opened up for me in ways I hadn’t seen early on. There is no one way to get to places in this game – you have any number of methods to nab those hard-to-reach bananas, so having more Bananza powers goes a long way. Considering that I’m just about at the very end, I think this is a game that stands tall and deserves a 9/10.

Q: How do you feel about the Bananza transformations in particular?

DS: I’ve enjoyed all of the Bananza abilities. That said, it’s hard not to gravitate toward Kong. Combined with DK’s Treasure Tie, it’s the perfect tool for farming treasure chests. That said, leveling entire landscapes as the Elephant is just plain fun, and gliding around in Ostrich mode is thrilling as well!

SM: Honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan at first, because the Kong Bananza made early boss fights too easy, while the Zebra Bananza seemed (at the time) like it had limited use-cases. Once you start unlocking more transformations later in the game, however, the vision for such a system becomes clear.

Much like finding animal buddies in the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy, the Bananza transformations open up new possibilities for every sublayer, especially when going back to earlier ones after you’ve unlocked all the Bananzas. Not only do some transformations effectively allow for sequence breaking, but they also offer alternative solutions to puzzles that aren’t specifically signaled to the player at any time.

My favorite, you ask? It has to be the Snake. Rattly the Rattlesnake was my favorite animal buddy from DKC2, so obviously there’s some bias here. That said, the ability to spring jump is cool and all, but the glare ability that slows down time for everyone except DK? THAT makes things interesting. Also: the Snake song is the best one by FAR.

ZG: So far I only have Kong Bananza, but I mean, what’s not to like?! It doesn’t serve a ton of purpose beyond the typical punching, though that really is just more of a good thing. Unfortunately I caught a couple of spoilers and Nintendo revealed multiple Bananzas in the trailers, but I am excited to see more because they seem to add a pretty interesting wrinkle to an already delightful experience.

GW: So far I have unlocked Kong, Zebra, and Ostrich Banazas. I’ve spent the most time in the Kong Bananza, as it is just exceptionally satisfying to smash everything. Also, down the upgrade tree is a very good Why-I-Oughta-Wind-Up Punch that’s just fun to do. Least favorite has been Zebra; it feels a little underbaked, even compared to some of the other movement options presented.

AT: Super cool. I love the one where he turns into the CornCob TV skit from ITYSL when Tim Robinson says, “I’m not worried about it!!!”

MB: The transformations are great and don’t feel tacked on. They’re critical parts of the game and the transitions are seamless. That being said, some Bananza powers are far more useful than others, with one in particular more or less breaking the game for me. The Ape Bananza, for example, feels pretty one-dimensional late in the game — it really just serves to break concrete, and even then, there are a lot of ways around that. The Elephant basically eliminates any other need for it and feels like an insanely overpowered version of it.

The Zebra in particular also feels pretty limited outside of its specifically designed use cases. It was definitely the one I used the least. I would have liked a little more creativity in the power-ups that made them more useful than only their specific challenges.

One I’ve really come to enjoy, however, is the Ostrich. It’s been a blast in the postgame using it to reach those hard to find bananas from high points! The gliding feels incredible and it’s visually impressive how it moves across the air.

Q: How did you feel about the inclusion of teenage Pauline?

DS: I love her inclusion. We’ve seen strong video game companions before, from Ellie to Atreus, but we’ve also seen plenty of terrible companions too (I’m looking at you, Navi and Fi). While I haven’t played quite enough of Bananza‘s story to see how Pauline fits into the larger narrative picture, she’s already serving as a terrific counterbalance to DK’s goofy demeanor and playful destruction.

SM: I like Pauline in this game! She’s largely a nondescript bonus character in previous Nintendo titles, so I’m glad she actually has the opportunity to have a real character arc here (even if her naptime conversations are a little annoying). Her relationship to DK is genuinely touching at moments, and I appreciate the lengths Bananza goes to make her the focus of the narrative, with DK (and, by extension, the player) as a helpful assistant.

ZG: It’s a funny inclusion and one I was looking forward to, but so far she isn’t really doing much for me. It seemed like an “odd” choice to have her start out as Oddrock, only to be revealed as Pauline within the first few minutes of the introduction (of course, that also was already spoiled ahead of time). Could’ve maybe let that one build up some steam, Nintendo!

GW: She’s great! Anxious teenage girl is a great compliment to the wide-swinging machismo of DK. Plus, it’s nice to have a voiced companion where most Nintendo games are much more sporadic with their voice acting. As for her mechanics…meh? In single-player there isn’t much to her besides being a helpful map guide.

AT: Sounds cool. I’m imagining a girl gorilla wearing a big tie like DK. Does she have an Avril Lavigne energy? That’s punk. Big fan.

MB: I love that they included Pauline in this game! She (quite literally) gives a voice to DK, and the writers made sure that she was never an annoying sidekick either, which I feel is often a challenge with a young companion character. It’s been really great to see her backstory fleshed out, which is not something I ever thought I needed to see. Watching her grow more confident as the game goes on shows how impactful DK has been to her, and seeing her soften him up a little bit is a nice touch too.

Q: What’s been a highlight?

DS: That first world (the Lagoon Layer) immediately impressed me with its colorful aesthetic and terrific theme music. It’s where players first get to take the training wheels off and enjoy Donkey Kong Bananza in full. I also love the interplay between the main level and its sublayer — something I’ve yet to see mimicked as effectively in future layers.

Other highlights: The Resort Layer (probably the best Nintendo sandbox I’ve played since Super Mario Sunshine), the Feast Layer (such a fun wonderland — reminds me a bit of Final Fantasy VII’s Gold Saucer), and of course a certain mid-game mini-game that I certainly won’t spoil here…

SM: I’ve had so many positive thoughts already, but a big highlight for me has to be the last few hours of the main story. I don’t want to spoil anything here (because I was genuinely surprised by a number of narrative beats), but every single time you think you’ve hit the endgame…there’s MORE. More enemies to fight, more platforming challenges, more (shocking) locations to visit, and more villains than you previously thought. I’ve loved nearly every minute of DK Bananza, but the closing segments of the main game (especially that EXPLOSIVE finale with a genuinely difficult final boss battle) are truly extraordinary.

ZG: Really everything has been a positive, but I would say the freedom of the opening sequence is the most memorable piece so far. Just getting dropped in and let loose was a great introduction to the mechanics and the possibilities of the way you interact with the terrain. I spent about an hour just punching dirt until I finally got the first banana. Worth it!

GW: Smashing. Everything. Possible.

AT: Bananas getting a proper starring role.

MB: I don’t want to spoil too much for anyone who hasn’t gotten very far into the game, but the second half of layers were really special. I particularly enjoyed the “break” level, as I felt like it introduced us to some new mechanics that I hadn’t seen in the first half of my play through, and it was also just a relaxing level. Other layers I really enjoyed included one that you HAVE to virtually break apart to explore, and another that requires you to leverage all of your powers to complete the level. The first few layers were good. The later ones are excellent.

Q: What’s been a lowlight?

DS: The grind, man. I’m a 100% completionist, and Donkey Kong Bananza’s early game really tested my patience. The inclusion of treasure maps is a nice touch, and once you unlock the Elephant Bananza, it’s easy enough to acquire the resources to trivialize the hunt for fossils and bananas. Still, I wish the early layers (particularly Layer 300, the Canyon Layer) were slightly smaller. It just feels like too much game for its own good at times.

SM: Like I mentioned before, it takes a little while before the game REALLY gets going. I had a lot of fun in the opening sublayers, but it took a few hours for me to truly understand how special this game was. Also: the first couple boss fights are so laughably easy I barely even remember what they were. I know this is a game mostly for kids, but come ON.

ZG: Sublevel 300 was laid out in such a convoluted way that navigating it wasn’t particularly enjoyable. I expected the mine carts to offer some variety in gameplay or general excitement, but at least so far they were just a pretty blah way to get from point A to point B. That map was set up as several floating islands close to each other, whereas the first two maps had a lot more room to roam. I much preferred the ability to explore a big surface area as opposed to feeling constrained by the rail system. Teleporting is great and all (and fun to say), but I don’t want to have to rely on it constantly.

GW: The boss fights in general. I could also gripe about the mobility of the camera (weirdly hyper mobile at times), but I am mostly just disappointed in the boss fights. They feel tacked in and easy, where everything else has a certain amount of care. Around layer 700 where I am, every big enemy feels Pop Relevant Banaza+Mash Forward Punch=Success. Little lame!

AT: Not playing it.

MB: I was really hoping for more out of the challenge levels. Most of the battle challenges don’t feel particularly hard, and there weren’t many challenges that felt all that impactful either. Some of them were overly simple, while others were downright frustrating. A few served more as puzzles than traversals, and I liked those best. I would have appreciated more puzzles, less traversals. I get that they’re platforming levels, but it never really felt like a true platforming experience on most of them.

Also, this isn’t really a lowlight, because they’re among my favorite parts of the game, but I really wanted more 2D challenge levels! It felt like a rarity to hit them, and it was a great way to pay homage to Donkey Kong’s history. I feel like it was a swing and a miss not to include more of them.

Q: Do you plan on 100% completing the game at any point?

DS: Early on, I would have said no. Now, after about 25 to 30 hours of play, I’m all in. The later layers are all terrific, and the addition of all five Bananzas makes traversal varied enough to never feel like a grind. I have just over 600 bananas, and though I know I’ve got another 400 or so to go, I look forward to the hunt!

SM: I don’t know about fully completing the game, but I do plan to getting as many Banandium gems as fossils as I can. My general approach to video game completion is that if you’re enjoying a game and want to do more, play until completing it feels like work. So far, after finding 75% of all bananas, I’m not ready to put it down and I’m still having a good time. I also know, eventually, the time will come where the (banana?) juice just isn’t worth the squeeze.

ZG: Uh, absolutely. I couldn’t possibly not 100% it, c’mon. I want to spend as much time with this game as possible and also my brain won’t let me quit unless I do every last thing.

GW: God no. Completing the main stuff for sure, but not 100%. I don’t have that kind of time.

AT: I don’t 100% things so I will not and would not even if I ever played Bananza.

MB: At the point of writing I am slightly more than 100 bananas away from completing the collection, so I feel like I have to finish it. It’s not really a burden though — I want to finish it, and they’re not terribly hard to find. The postgame challenges are fun too (despite my criticisms of the Zebra’s utility, its challenge has stood tall), and if it’s building to the grand finale that I think it is, it’s going to be quite the finish for fans of these characters. I can’t wait.

Q: Since Bananza was made by the Mario Odyssey team, what do think of Odyssey, and how does Bananza compare?

DS: I loved Super Mario Odyssey, as evidenced by my 2017 review for the site. Looking back, I might have been a touch generous with my score (9.6), but I stand by much of what I said then. It’s a sublime platformer — the type we rarely see in a generation, let alone a given year. Everything, from the music to the mechanics, to the clever side diversions, made for an experience I had a hard time putting down.

By and large, Donkey Kong Bananza lives up to its predecessor. Its early game lacks a bit of the classic Nintendo EPD spark, but Bananza more than makes up for it in the back half. If you can get past the initial grind (and some rather forgettable level music on the whole), there’s a lot of charm to love.

SM: Super Mario Odyssey is a fantastic 3D platformer, a great Mario game, and one of the best games of 2017 (as well as, to this day, one of the top five to 10 best Nintendo Switch titles). To be honest, though, I never viewed it as the best 3D Mario game, or even in the top three or four. It’s an excellent collectathon with boatloads of fun, but I don’t think it every reached the highs of either of the Super Mario Galaxy titles or had the impact of a Super Mario 64.

When I heard that Bananza was by the same development team, I wasn’t fully sure what to think. On the one hand, Odyssey is great, so there’s no reason to believe the same group of developers couldn’t bring that same magic to a new mascot. Still, Rare and Retro made such iconic DK games in the past that bear little to no resemblance to a game like Mario Odyssey, so what would happen here?

Obviously, they knocked it out of the park. Frankly, I think that collectathon mentality works better in Bananza than in Odyssey. I think the actual platforming mechanics are more interesting in Bananza, and I’m much more willing to test the limits of my abilities in search of collectibles. I give Bananza the edge over Odyssey, though not by a lot.

ZG: By the time I finished Odyssey, I thought it was the best platformer I’d ever played. The sheer volume of things to see combined with the absurd variety in transformations and abilities made for as joyous of a game as I could remember. The structure did feel somewhat odd to me, however, as there was a slight disconnect between the objectives and the story. Because there was so much to do and a lack of direction in how to do it all, it was easy to get “sidetracked” by moons that had no impact on progressing through the actual narrative. Of course, I use the word “narrative” loosely in the context of a Mario game, yet I recall being stuck in some places because I didn’t collect a specific moon, even though I’d been hard at work nabbing countless others. The fact that the world opened up so much after beating the primary storyline felt like a poor choice at the time given I spent more hours with the “post-game” content than the actual “game-game” content. But it all became more of a footnote than a legitimate critique because of how darn good the whole package proved to be by the (actual) end.

I’m certainly noticing a similar trend with Donkey Kong Bananza so far, but I’m trying to reserve judgement since I know I’m most likely in for a treat the further I get into it. The fact that bananas are tied to skill points is a plus and it makes exploring feel worthwhile, but at the same time I imagine I could get pretty far without collecting any at all. So, what’s the point? Maybe there doesn’t need to be one, I just hope I continue to feel that way.

GW: I loved Odyssey, and still think it is a tighter package than Bananza. That said, they are games with different goals. Odyssey is a relatively linear map package, with segmented challenges throughout. Bananza is a freeform experience with some loose direction, with very few required flagposts. Odyssey is about making the rails entertaining and diversions interesting. Bananza is one big interesting diversion.

AT: Odyssey annoyed me, but I’ll admit I have an unfair relationship with it — a friend at the time loved Odyssey. Occasionally I would play with him since it’s in theory a co-op game, but he would always make be the hat. Being the hat sucked. I’m assuming that if there’s a second player option in Bananza, you get to be something with arms.

MB: Odyssey is absolutely incredible in my book. Everywhere I turned, it felt like there was something new, and by the time it starts to get old, it introduces something else entirely to you. Bananza in a lot of ways has felt like an Odyssey with a DK reskin, which isn’t a bad thing. But it also doesn’t quite introduce things as rapidly as Odyssey does, and I think the game can drag a little early on for that. Odyssey was revolutionary. Bananza has taken what it did and ran with it.

Q: Is DK Bananza a serious Game of the Year contender, in your mind?

DS: It’s certainly one of the best games of 2025. I’ll have to reflect on whether it’s a personal Game of the Year contender for me. As good as the mid- and late-game get, I’d argue that GOTY-caliber experiences shouldn’t have to “get good” after X hours. Between Split Fiction, Blue Prince, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the competition is fierce. Check back with me in December!

SM: DK Bananza is absolutely, 100% a Game of the Year contender for me, and if you asked me right now, it takes the crown. In many ways, Bananza is a game that feels like it was made personally for me: give me the monkey man, give me creative platforming mechanics and challenges, give me mountains of worthwhile postgame activities, and give me a story that has no right being as touching and engaging as it is. It’s entirely possible that I change my mind a few months from now, especially given all the big new releases I know I’ll play (e.g. Metroid Prime 4, Ghost of Yotei, Mina the Hollower). At this very moment, however, it’s Bananza‘s award to lose.

ZG: As someone who is pretty loyal to Nintendo and plays games almost exclusively on Switch, I often feel left out of any Game of the Year conversation. Your Elden Rings and Baldur’s Gate 3s of the world seem to dominate the headlines every year, and while Zelda has inserted itself into the conversation from time to time, Mario doesn’t usually seem to be the type of game to clean up during award season. For that reason, I can’t be sure whether or not Bananza will be taken seriously as a contender.

But if you ask me, it should.

I have this narcissistic theory that all games are made for my generation. Kids who grew up playing collectathon platformers didn’t want to make baby games anymore, so we get all these Souls games and dark, atmospheric action titles instead. But DK Bananza is a reminder that games can and should be bright, colorful, goofy, fun and not just for one demographic. That type of thing should be rewarded and it doesn’t hurt the brand awareness that I’ll never say “banana” normally ever again.

GW: Certainly! It won’t win for me (spoilers for the future) but a clear Top 5 game this year.

AT: Yes because Sam told me so.

MB: I’ve only played a few games this year, so it’s hard for me to say, but given the field at the halfway mark, I do think it’s a contender. The game is massive, addicting, and flat out fun. And, of course, it’s a triumphant return for Donkey Kong to the big stage. A GOTY frontrunner? I don’t know yet. A worthy contender? Absolutely.

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How do you feel about Donkey Kong Bananza? Let us know in the comments!