Donkey Kong Bananza is truly innovative in classic Nintendo style

Nintendo isn’t like other game developers or publishers — if nothing else, that’s something we can all agree on. While most expensive triple-A releases in the current generation (and the last) have been open-world action RPG hybrids or FPS games (potentially with open-world and RPG elements), Nintendo has been doing the weird stuff. ARMS was a fighting game, sure, but it was so different that fighting game fans initially wrote it off. Splatoon is an online shooter, sure, but it’s also arguably a single player platformer. In 2025, Donkey Kong Bananza is a 3D platformer, sure, but it’s one where you punch and dig down more than you jump up, and that’s way more innovative than you may realize.

It’s not impossible to compare Bananza to other games. Being able to dig down through almost anything feels very Minecraft, a descending platformer is very Downwell, and the game clearly has heavy inspiration from the studio’s previous game, Super Mario Odyssey. But it’s not quite like any of those games, and as a result, doesn’t leave a powerful first impression.

When you first start playing Bananza, it’s undoubtedly beautiful, dynamic, and interesting, but it’s hard to say whether or not it’s good. You punch through some gold, smash through a few walls, clap some items into your pockets — it’s immediate and satisfying, but it feels as if a spark is missing. It’s only once I’d played hours and hours into the game and was approaching the end that I found that spark.

When I first played through Super Mario Odyssey’s Cascade Kingdom, I took the path around the rocks and cliffs, slowly winding my way around the stage in order to get to the top. When I returned to that level after finishing the game, I did a sweet jump combo – with spin jumps, wall kicks, cap bounces – and skipped most of the walk. The whole moveset is there from the start, but you’ll only learn how to smoothly tie it all together after playing.

Bananza is the same way, except it involves digging and smashing more than jumping. Bananza includes a skill tree that you can complete by collecting Banandium Gems – not the best solution, but it’s fine – and you should absolutely unlock the Jump Shot and Spin Jump moves, but the most worthwhile upgrades are for DK’s smashing abilities. As you progress through the game, you’ll start to understand exactly how these abilities can be used to overcome each challenge. 

Yes, you can smash through walls, duh, but you can also carve upward paths through hills to ascend, or dig around indestructible material to find an entrance — even better, you can throw and connect soft pieces of material together to create a new structure, which can form a bridge or a something to climb for a better jumping position. It might take a while, but with some dedication these techniques can get you basically anywhere.

Combine these options in your mind-brain and you start to think with chunks — like thinking with Portals. Yes, the level layout is given to you, but it’s yours to mold as you see fit to accomplish whatever goal you’re aiming for. Some people have compared the options Bananza presents as being immersive sim-like, and then others have guffawed at that. I understand both points, and suggest that the latter camp analyze things a bit more thoroughly — a game doesn’t need a 0451 code and a gun to be an immersive sim.

Like how Mario’s moveset is ever-present and you need to learn how to use it, Bananza’s voxel-powered chunk technology offers a huge amount of variety and potential that you simply need to figure out for yourself. Each stage is a playground to explore at your own pace, and mastery of the stage – and DK himself – will come naturally as you play. That’s just well-implemented Nintendo magic, but the voxel tech itself is what actually excites me as a Nintendo fan.

There’s no point in a new console generation if it isn’t going to provide anything new. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a little geek that adores fancy graphics, and visuals can elevate gameplay — but only to a point. I use my PS5 Pro almost every day – mostly for YouTube, admittedly – but only with Death Stranding 2: On The Beach did I feel that the PS5 finally had a first-party game that wasn’t possible on the previous generation. God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon: Forbidden West both look incredible, but they’re iterative sequels that are available on PS4. Bananza’s visual bar is high, the game looks clean and sharp, but the voxels are what scream to me “not possible on Nintendo Switch.”

When Nintendo introduced the GameCube to the world, they did so with 128 tiny Mario characters running around dynamically, then later introduced games like Pikmin that used rendering power to show 100 minions, and Animal Crossing that utilized the internal clock to progress gameplay. These are genuine gameplay innovations based on new hardware, and since Nintendo took a step back from the tech race in 2006 we haven’t seen much like this.

It’s no secret that Nintendo struggled with HD game development in the Wii U era, and the Switch’s library was bolstered massively with a suite of ports of Wii U games nobody played but me. Donkey Kong Bananza is a new, internally developed Nintendo game that pushes its proprietary tech in a way we haven’t seen since the GameCube era — the only other game like it in this respect is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is still an iterative sequel to a game built for the prior generation. More than a decade on from the Wii U’s launch, it feels like Nintendo’s dev teams are back on track and on top.

When I see new technology in gaming, I can’t help but ask how this can impact gameplay. Ray tracing is undoubtedly useful technology for replicating realism, but I’m waiting to see how it can be used as a game mechanic, and I only expect to see these kinds of bold, new ideas from Nintendo and indies — and if you want to see those ideas with budget and polish, there’s only one real choice. With Donkey Kong Bananza it feels as if Nintendo’s experimental side is once again being allowed to flourish. I only hope we won’t be waiting an entire console generation for another game like it.