General Information
Release date: July 17, 2025
Supported Platform(s): Nintendo Switch 2
No. of players: Single System (1-2)
Genre: Adventure, Action
Publisher: Nintendo
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Supported play modes: TV mode, Tabletop mode, Handheld mode
Game file size: 8.2 GB
Supported languages: Japanese, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional)
GameShare: Supported (Local users, Users in a GameChat Session)
Official website: https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/featured-games/donkey-kong-bananza
Overview (from Nintendo eShop Page)
The Big Guy is Back—And He's Not Alone! Explore a vast underground world with Donkey Kong and Pauline—by smashing your way through it! Bash through just about anything with the raw power of Donkey Kong! Crash through walls, carve tunnels with your fists, punch straigyht down into the ground, and even tear off chunks of terrain to swing around and throw in groundbreaking exploration—the more you smash, the more areas open up for you to move through.
Join DK and his companion, Pauline, as they delve deep underground—and discover that this subterranean world is a lot more than it seems on the surface. Uncover a variety of environments such as arid canyons, lush forests, and frigid tundra as you peel back the world's layers!
Reviews
Aggregators
- Metacritic – 91
- OpenCritic – 91
Articles
- Areajugones – Spanish – 9.5 / 10
- Atomix – Spanish – 96 / 100
- CGMagazine – 9 / 10
- CNET – Unscored
- COGconnected – 100 / 100
- Cerealkillerz – German – 9.1 / 10
- Checkpoint Gaming – 9 / 10
- Console Creatures – 10 / 10
- Dexerto – 4 / 5
- Digitally Downloaded – 4.5 / 5
- Digitec Magazine – German – 5 / 5
- Enternity.gr – Greek – 8.5 / 10
- Eurogamer – 4 / 5
- Eurogamer.pt – Portuguese – 5 / 5
- Everyeye.it – Italian – 9 / 10
- GAMES.CH – German – 90%
- GRYOnline.pl – Polish – 8.5 / 10
- Game8 – 94 / 100
- GamePro – German – 95 / 100
- GameSpot – 9 / 10
- Gameblog – French – 9 / 10
- GamesRadar+ – 4.5 / 5
- Gfinity – 10 / 10
- Glitched Africa – 10 / 10
- HCL.hr – Unknown – 92 / 100
- Hobby Consolas – Spanish – 93 / 100
- IGN – 10 / 10
- IGN Italy – Italian – 9 / 10
- IGN Spain – Spanish – 9 / 10
- LevelUp – Spanish – 9 / 10
- Multiplayer.it – Italian – 9.5 / 10
- Nintendo Blast – Portuguese – 9.5 / 10
- Nintendo Life – 9 / 10
- Press Start – 10 / 10
- Quest Daily – 9 / 10
- SECTOR.sk – Slovak – 9 / 10
- Saudi Gamer – Arabic – 8 / 10
- Shacknews – 9 / 10
- Siliconera – 10 / 10
- Spaziogames – Italian – 8.9 / 10
- Stevivor – 9 / 10
- The Games Machine – Italian – 9 / 10
- TheGamer – 4 / 5
- TheSixthAxis – 8 / 10
- Tom's Guide – 4.5 / 5
- Video Chums – 9.1 / 10
- WellPlayed – 9.5 / 10
- XGN.nl – Dutch – 9 / 10
Cheers,
The r/NintendoSwitch mod team
by NintendoSwitchMods
36 Comments
weird that this comes out a month after the release of the Switch. I mean, I guess it didn’t hurt the sales, and I doubt anything could have improved them…. but to have such a massive hit and not release it the same time as the new system is just odd.
EDIT: good points, everyone. I guess I didn’t think that way since I have very little interest in Mario Kart (I know it’s a HUGE seller), and was/am very excited for DK:B
Kinda Funny also gave this game a 10/10. Not sure if their reviews actually count in the metacritic, but my hype levels are seriously out of control.
Meta critic up to 91 now 💪
I went from….. looks OK… too must buy. Maybe it was me but the marketing felt poor. Glad brought switch 2 now… got a tad worried what to buy next after Mariokart. Just a shame we don’t have a new Mario, I guess early 2027
I’ve been telling myself I’m not buying it at launch, and will wait for a sale or used copy (doesn’t even have to be a huge discount). Just because I have other games I could play, so spending $10+ extra to play it right away isn’t *necessary*. But this is making it *very* difficult.
What official time does it actually release?
Curious to hear from those that have played this… As someone who LOVED odyssey- (and didn’t care for tropical freeze) is this an immediate buy or should I just wait to beat my current catalog first?
Game looks fun, but we’re just gonna ignore the performance and graphical issues for a console that costs more than a ps5 and Xbox? Nintendo W?
Been playing for 3 hours now. As an adult, it’s just a midnless collect-a-thon. The mini-games are easy. I feel like it’s trying to waste my time.
Very Odyssey coded with a tooooon (like 400% more) of mini-games everywhere on the maps.
Story is dogshit compared to Odyssey. Edit: Oh and the music sucks too. There is none? Give me some melodies.
Wow I’ve never seen so many people try to ruin a game for people excited for it sheesh
Seems like this is probably a very good game
How’s the co-op element?
Fantastic game. Playing it for 4 hours straight. So much fun. 😁
When the game was announced and people were calling it a successor to Odyssey, I didn’t understand why. I just played it for about an hour. I get it now. I just really hope it’s not an actual successor and we get Odyssey 2.
I can’t stop smashing. It’s insanely addicting
Are there any language options in the settings like Mario Odyssey has?
Honestly, this is better than Odyssey in my opinion. 11/10 kongs
Any word on how long the game is?
id love a Hulk game like this
Been playing and enjoying it, though I must admit it feels like there’s not much downside to just destroying everything and spamming the hand slap radar lol
Anyone tried the coop yet? How much is there to do for the second player? Only thing I found is the footage from 4 weeks ago from the Direct.
My daughter loves Pauline since Mario Kart World, but hasn’t quite grasped the controls of 3D platformers yet.
The voice acting is honestly amazing, I was expecting it to be worse the zelda but im surprised and kinda pissed BOTW didnt have voice acting like this. Each of Paulines line reads seem good besides the “Im going with dk” one.
Games fun, not hard but I dont mind.
5 hours in, this feels like it might be among the all-timers for me. Strangely enough I really didn’t like the first 30 minutes.
Fantastic game.nintendo have done it again.ypu really don’t know how good it is until you play it
Game’s good but performance is horrible. I mean switch 2 hardware was outdated at release but considering how simple the graphics are it still doesn’t have the right to be this laggy. I hope they fix in future updates
I never owned the Switch and dove in with Switch 2.
I picked-up MKW, Odyssey, and Bananza, played Odyssey last weekend for the first time. I had seen speed runners and was familiar with it a bit. I did enjoy Odyssey, but so far Bananza just feels better and is more fun. It has it’s flaws for sure, but it’s just more fun.
Oh, Banana!
Motion controls are inverted for me when using handheld mode and not inverted when using controller. I do not see an option to adjust that serparately from regular camera controls. Seems like a bug to me since controller behaves exactly opposite to console itself.
I’ve just gotten up to hilltop layer – took a break as the kid was asleep and took advantage to get a nap in.
So far? It’s absolutely fantastic. It nails down that Mario Odyssey formula of dumping you into a large enough play area that never feels too overwhelming, yet still having so much to do and explore. The controls are *perfect*, too.
The performance tends to dip a little more than I thought it would. But nothing I would consider unplayable or a dealbreaker. It’s just straight up fun and no matter where I go on a map, my time is more often rewarded than not.
So far it’s a 9/10 for me – could rise as I play it more. I’ll see how it really compares to Odyssey when I finish it.
It’s gooooooood stuff. I’ve only barely just gotten out of the tutorial area since I had a short time to play before another obligation, but this is shaping up to be a damn good game. I love how satisfying the punching physics/sound design are.
I’ve got a few hours in the game now and while I have to say it’s quite good overall it’s way too hectic and stressful for me. Also the performance issues are very noticeable.
I’m curious if it runs better as a digital or cart?
10/10 for me! I don’t even want to play it because I don’t want it to end. Way more fun than Mario odyssey right out of the gate.
This game is really fun so far and I really wish I could play it longer, but it is hard to because it is REALLY visually overstimulating. And this is from a lifelong gamer.
I can only take a little bit a time before I feel overloaded. Jumping from TOTK to this was a bit of a shock to be honest. I want to love the game more but it is hard on my brain lol
Played it for 3 hours last night and had an absolute blast. Can’t wait to get back into it.
An entire generation’s dopamine receptors will be absolutely decimated by this game! It is quite a rush!