I completely agree. It is one of the greatest games ever made. Just because it is not Mario along with Run and Jump it will be robbed of a number of game awards including best game design, direction, technical achievement and game of the year. I am happy that the game exists and can't wait for the next 3D Mario game from this team. Given how great Bananza is, I can't imagine what the team will do with the Switch 2 power for the next Mario game.
by sakahn
41 Comments
I’ll have to go back to it. It felt kind of mindless and I lost interest pretty quickly.
I’ve just made it to sub layer 500 (I think) and _finally_ this game doesn’t feel like “smash your way through everything without thinking and you’ll progress”… I very nearly gave up thinking I’d never enjoy it, except on the urging of my kid who wanted to see more. IMO a game shouldn’t take that long to gel.
It’s wild to me people love this game so much. I got bored after a few hours and found it mind numbingly repetitive.
Also placed around 60h in this game, this is splatoon might be my fav Nintendo games in last decade “just a bit more…”
A game that takes this long to stop being a boring smashing simulator and actually turn into a good game, is not one of the greatest platformers in Nintendo history to me. The second half of the game is PHENOMENAL, but the first half really bored me out of my mind. But I’m glad there are people who had a blast with it. I just hope the next DK game gives us more of the second half and less of the braindead smashing.
I absolutely fell in love with this game, I adored the gameplay loop, the sound design, the soundtrack was insanely charming, the worlds were for the most part pretty cool, really great atmosphere. I found the mechanics super satisfying and I love how you can utilise the game’s tools and physics to tackle a big chunk of its challenges in any way you deem fit.
Sunk about 50 hours into it overall which is very very rare for me, I usually tap out at about 20-30 hours before moving on from a game. This, Cyberpunk and LaD Infinite Wealth are the only games I’ve put that much time into since I properly got back into gaming in 2022. Definitely one of my favourite games of the last decade or so and I’m genuinely shocked at how lukewarm the reception is in this thread.
It’s inappropriate to call this game a platformer. And yes, I find Bananza pretty overrated game.
It’s definitely not. There’s only so much smashing you can do before it becomes tiring. Struggling to get back into the game and finish off the campaign.
I didn’t need to spend 60 hours on Kirby: Air Riders for it to be my game of the year, but I’m convinced it’s one of the best racing games in Nintendo history
I really enjoyed it, it is a great platformer. But when I compare it to Astro Bot it is just not on the same level.
I loved it but it’s way too easy.
I envy people who love it in a way. I thought the character work, personality, sound and graphics were all top tier. But those levels were really really let down quickly by their openness for me. I found myself racing through because each area whilst conceptually inventive didn’t have enough gameplay chops for me.
What ended up happening was that the final very very linear section was by far my favourite part of the game but was also woefully short. I would honestly love a Bananza that featured hubs with linear levels. Unfortunatley all I’ll remember is loving that first area with the water and the last goldrush area but ultimately just coming out the end glad It was over and selling it on to someone who would hopefully enjoy it more.
Playing Mario Galaxy over the last month or so is a real eye opener to just how samey Bananza felt over it’s runtime because of the player freedom it offers.
Eh, it was okay.
In terms of PLATFORMERS, it’s extremely weak. There’s very little platforming, but it goes for its own style with the breaking through terrain and puzzles and working around the terrain to do basic platforming. That doesn’t mean it isn’t an amazing game but i would describe this game as a platformer to someone
Besides getting sea sick as hell, my complaint about this game is that after that first level where you unplug those things, the levels have no real challenge to them.
You just run through level after level with a bare minimum of a job to do.
Fetch this, fetch that.
You get some awesome transformations, that the game immediately forgets all about, and you only ever _need_ to use each of them once or twice.
I found the environments/level design lacking identity/personality and the gameplay to be repetitive in terms of action and possibilities.
It has nothing to do with the « it‘s not Mario so bad », DK country and tropical freeze for instance sold really well and were super well received because it felt very well designed and the DK artistic identity was really well integrated.
The game was just ok for me,but nothing like Odyssey, if people want to depict Bananza as this perfect game unfairly received because it’s not mario…fine but I won’t do that.
I can however 100% see why some loved it, I was just not convinced
I felt pretty bored with it, but I hope those destruction mechanics have a comback in other games or in a more interesting sequel.
I didnt enjoy it at all, found it extremely annoying to play. Basically, if you dont enjoy the digging mechanic, this game falls flat
This game gets a bit repetitive after a bit.. I haven’t tried the dlc yet, I heard it’s quite a different gameplay loop
Wat….
Its not even really a platformer more of a beat em up game
Wish it were a more platformimg focused dkc 3d game
Music is just unmemorable background noise except the few good music which are the pauline transformation songs and maybe the few dkc remixes
Characters are bad just rocks that have eyes
The level design apart from final two and the canyon one are not good imo, even odyssey had better level design and that game already isnt great level design compared to galaxy or sunshine or 64
The one good thing is the final boss and the 3D versions of the OG DKC characters especially the final areas wish the rest of the game was like that
I respect your love for the game, but I dont share it. To me Mario Wonder is 2x times better than bananza as plataformer and as a game.
It’s not for me. I think it is made for younger audience, that is looking for short immediat stuff, pretty much like how mobile game are designed. I, for one, don’t see the point of getting rewards out of… basically nothing, and it doesnt get me going. My exp with the game is… doing stuff, getting rewarded for practically nothing, and you get something every 2 minute or so. I rather prefer getting rewarded for more, like how Mario 64 was designed for example.
The design they chose for this DK is almost the same they did for MK World, and the reason i didnt like both. Which mean, some like it, some don’t. And it’s better if you are on the team who liked it. But i seriously hope they will still do normal DK game because i loved these. Real patformers, with some real difficulty which are really rewarding.
I was surprised how much fun the smashing mechanic was. On paper it sounds like something that would get too repetitive. I guess for some people it did. But for me it never got old. Even after 100%ing it, I still pop it in sometimes and mindlessly smash stuff for the hell of it.
I am loving the game so far, it is really fun. But with all honesty, it isnt goty material and it gets far away from the 3D mario games.
Again, I am loving the game, it is really fun. But one must be realistic and objective.
I loved it, but I couldn’t get passed Void Kong in the Forbidden Sublayer. Great game though.
Each to their own of course but I thought it wasn’t a patch on Odyssey.
I find it really hard to believe that anyone would consider this a good platformer or one of the best games ever made. How low do your standards need to be to have this opinion lmao
I think Mario Odyssey tops it personally. It’s just so much fun to move around. Pleasing physics and mechanics is so fundamental to a good platformer, and although DKB is fun, I enjoy Mario’s agility more.
I can’t even play the game because of the damn camera… made me too nauseous. did they ever patch it?
I personally didn’t enjoy it, glad I tried it, but it got too repetitive and lacked much of a challenge for me. I had to force myself to finish it.
I adored this game, it was a blast. I’m a huge DK fan and it just really stuck the landing for me. I get why some folks didn’t like it though.
I really, really don’t understand the praise this game gets. I tried the demo and managed for about 10 minutes. Is this considered a platformer? Surely smashing the ground apart in search of bananas is not a platformer? Can anyone explain to me what the game does outside of the demo? Because all the demo showed me was reasons not to buy the full game
It’s one of the best platformers exclusive to switch 2 in Nintendo history
There you go
Ehh no. Very little of the game has much design. Many of the bananas involve you doing a clap, finding the banana, and then just making a bee-line right to it, circumventing any actual level design that would have been more interesting and engaging. Its very fun, but eventually it becomes dull and monotonous. The destructable environments mean that the spaces are less interesting and less detailed as well, and they don’t stick in your mind as well. I can’t help but compare to the impeccably designed kingdoms of mario odyssey, and how great it felt to just be in a space there. How iconic and unique every corner of the world is.
I couldn’t even finish the game. Got down to the 3rd or 4th sub level. I did not enjoy it. It was very repetitive. To each their own.
I fell in love with odyssey back when it came out, bananza was a little underwhelming
Opinions are weird sometimes. I definitely had strong concerns from trailers that the level design wouldn’t be very good because of the game’s destruction mechanics, but those concerns evaporated once I got my hands on the full game.
SL100 – SL300 are definitely on the simplistic side, though I found that fine because the gameplay mechanics were so novel I enjoyed dicking around with them, and finding ways to skip chunks of the level design. The game’s complexity quickly escalates once you reach the Freezer Layer. I can think of several moments where the game requires you dig or use abilities more intentionally, like all the ice cube puzzles or Zebra Bananza sections. Every layer from there on is fantastic, and just keeps building & building on the mechanics, culminating in the incredible Feast Layer level. The mechanics can be abused for sure, but the brilliant thing about Bananza to me is how you can control a lot of those factors via the Skill Tree. Want to be forced to dig more intelligently? Then don’t upgrade the Terrain Strength nodes. Want enemies to have more bite? Don’t upgrade your health (which I did in my playthrough). Don’t want to become overreliant on the Bananza Abilities? Then don’t upgrade those nodes in the Skill Tree. I can picture so many challenge runs to do in the future, with different limitations on Skill Tree upgrades or use of Bananza abilities.
I had to force myself to finish it and right now I’m trying to force myself to do the 5 post game challenge things but have only done one so far and trying to force myself to do the rest. Mentally I keep saying I really liked the game but for some reason I was always reluctant to play it and had to force myself. Idk what it is.
My issue was that it just didn’t feel like a Donkey Kong game to me. Maybe its my love of Donkey Kong Country and DKC returns that’s biasing me, but Bananaza just felt like a reskinned version of Mario Odyssey with DK and some other elements of the lore slapped over top. I beat the game and did enjoy it in some parts but it just felt a bit devoid of charm and got repetitive. While some level designs were cool (particularly enjoyed the food theme park), they never really wowed me. Also, the music was not nearly funky enough! Basically just thought they made some odd creative choices and didn’t leverage what made the early games so great (again, I’m biased). But, I’m really glad it’s getting love and others enjoyed it! Hopefully this leads to more DK games.
It took me 60min to get bored and move on. Love that people love it. Not the game for me
I thought the game was boring as hell but that’s just me.