Donkey Kong Bananza |OT| Red Faction Gorilla

This is the first Switch 2 game I've bought and it's pretty ugly looking lol. The low resolution mixed with the ugly aesthetics (I've thought the art design was horrible since the first trailer), just not doing it for me. I'm not having a problem with the framerate.

Impressions after 3 hours: The more important thing is the gameplay and I'm also finding that to be a bit "ok", nothing special. I'm always a fan of destructible envelopments so I like that part, but I started to realize pretty quickly to not really explore in the dirt too much. It's overall pointless. The game is too easy too. There's a flood of one hit kill cannon fodder and then you just do some puzzles. Am I having fun? Yeah, it's fine if you like Nintendo style games. But I had to check the difficulty to see if I was playing on assist mode by accident.

The entire loop is similar to the Mario games, which Odyssey is a 10/10 for me and why I bought this. But it feels way too bland to compete with the Mario game, so far. I'll trash my own review if I beat it and it gets a lot better. There's nothing really wrong with it, but its just a very gimmicky game.

I also don't understand at all why DK is super excited about banana gems with a hungry face. Is he eating them for nutritional value or is he a moron that thinks he's eating real bananas?

3.5/5 for me
Im finding this game 10 times more fun than odyssey
 
Its really hard to put this game down. I only stopped because my controllers battery died lol. Whatever my goty will be, this will probably take the crown for the "most fun i had"
 
Last edited:
The scale is awesome and bigger compared to Odyssey and then you are this big as gorilla in this big space owning everything. The only thing that could get better is getting bigger and then there's the bananza to do just that. Only got Kong Bananza so far. The climbing is smooth and fast compared to BOTW but similarly satisfying. GOTY contending with E33 forsho.
 
I feel like there's a lot of Splatoon influence too.

Access to the special stages feel like the kettles. The music is certainly similar. Has the same jarring oddity to it.
 
I can't buy it yet because I have to make sure no one else did for my bday next week first. But these impressions are making it difficult not to run to the store.
 
Why is he eating rocks? Are they gems made out of bananas or bananas that just happened to be shaped like gems? I'm pretty sure he's just eating rocks. Oh well. I guess we're not supposed to think about it.

Tears of the Kingdom reference was pretty hilarious.
 
Last edited:
I enjoyed Oddysey, I didn't love it incredibly much though, felt it was way too easy. Where was the challenge? Is there any kind of challenge in DKB at all or not really?
 
I enjoyed Oddysey, I didn't love it incredibly much though, felt it was way too easy. Where was the challenge? Is there any kind of challenge in DKB at all or not really?
Did you do all the post game in Odyssey? I only scratched the surface of it, but it's my understanding that Odyssey gets much more difficult the further you go in the post game.

The post game is massive in Odyssey
 
Did you do all the post game in Odyssey? I only scratched the surface of it, but it's my understanding that Odyssey gets much more difficult the further you go in the post game.

The post game is massive in Odyssey

Good question, I'm gonna have to check that. I honestly am not even sure I still have it, damn.
 
8uVbW2KYuqLO5Giw.gif



Sweating James Mcavoy GIF
[
 
Ain't reading the whole thread to find out if already mentioned... can someone (spoiler tag if necessary) now explain why Pauline is young or how the timeline fits? If it's explained at all in the game.
 
I think I'm playing the game wrong, maybe I shouldn't go for 100% every area until I move on. you just did what's necessary?
You can always go back to get rest of the Bananas later on, is not like the game locks you out of going to pervious areas.
 
Last edited:
Ain't reading the whole thread to find out if already mentioned... can someone (spoiler tag if necessary) now explain why Pauline is young or how the timeline fits? If it's explained at all in the game.
Its a prequel to Odyssey and its implied from Cranky Kong's dialogue later in the game that he was the OG Donkey Kong from the original Donkey Kong game or some shit and that the woman who he kidnapped in that game was Pauline's grandma or some shit. It still doesn't make sense because that would mean Mario is ageless.
 
I think I'm playing the game wrong, maybe I shouldn't go for 100% every area until I move on. you just did what's necessary?
Yes. I did some challenges but ended up just going for Main Quest progression. Postgame opens up new stuff, altered environments, you can unlock a couple things like Battle Challenge and Boss Rush and since you have all of your abilities barring ones you need to unlock in the skill tree you can start exploring everything Layer by Layer.

I completed the game at 245 Bananas and the total amount is grand total of 777 Bananas

And of course there are all the Music Records and Outfits to unlock.

As for the purpose of Postgame I'll let you figure that one out. I think Postgame will be harder then main game considering it only took me around 8-12 hours(maybe a bit longer?) to get to where I am now.

Very addicting game.

It's much better then Odyssey or the 2 Zelda's due to traversal and the freedom it allows you. Not having to worry about Stamina helps a bit too. And this is all stuff you the player can do on your own and not stuff like Autobuild from TotK.

Probably the closest we will get to a DK64 2. And other then jumping down Chasms being a very clever loading screen or sleeping most of the game is very seamless.
 
I don't think I've ever played a game before this where i felt so much like a fucking god. DK is an absolute force of nature holy crap 😂.
 
Without spoiling, I'll just say that the
retro sections
are fucking awesome
I don't think I've ever played a game before this where i felt so much like a fucking god. DK is an absolute force of nature holy crap 😂.
This game has given me a whole new appreciation for this IP
 
Its a prequel to Odyssey and its implied from Cranky Kong's dialogue later in the game that he was the OG Donkey Kong from the original Donkey Kong game or some shit and that the woman who he kidnapped in that game was Pauline's grandma or some shit. It still doesn't make sense because that would mean Mario is ageless.
I'm just happy (and I think this is safe to say outside a spoiler) that all the galaxy-brained timeline ideas about Pauline's loose clothes or lack of shoes were total nonsense.
 
What's fake HDR?

I noticed that the HDR signal doesn't pop up when the game starts but I could've sworn it was announced to support HDR

It has HDR, but its like 400 nits max. Its basically not HDR. There are no real highlights. MK world looks much better in HDR
 
Last edited:
I feel like there's a lot of Splatoon influence too.

Access to the special stages feel like the kettles. The music is certainly similar. Has the same jarring oddity to it.
There have been a few moments that reminded me of Splatoon, but nothing I could really put my finger on. That's a good one.
 
It's nice that the in-game DK / Pauline models look as good as they do in the cinematics:

7TPAQHFOyFV6ZJWE.jpeg



That's more rare than it should be in games.
Also I'm absolutely in love DK's new design....it was good decision to make DK more expressive especially the fact one very few Nintendo game with proper character as your sidekick instead object with eyes.
 
Got to the desert-type layer now and it's getting a bit overwhelming with the collectibles.

Tried out photo mode abut as well:
S60Qa25M5U7fL0qs.jpeg
VVz1a944d8fFZO9A.jpeg
5jMKXlkrjWuMSMMp.jpeg
 
Last edited:
My copy finally arrived!
 
Top Bottom