Donkey Kong Bananza Looks Like The Mario Odyssey Successor No One Expected

Donkey Kong Bananza has so many wild aspects going for it--the terrain deformation, the Kong transformations, the tween Pauline sidekick--that it's easy to overlook the basics. This is a new 3D platformer from the team behind Super Mario Odyssey, arguably one of the best of its genre. It's hard to see how those disparate elements come together from a distance, but an extended hands-on showed me how all the pieces gel together to make a new experience that feels like a next step for the Odyssey team, and even reminiscent in some ways of 3D platforming's earliest roots on the Nintendo 64.

The comparison to N64 platforming roots struck me as I explored the final biome of my hands-on session, a woodland area surrounded by a poison lake. This was one of many sublevels in Bananza, but each layer of the hollow earth that serves as its setting is its own standalone stage. When you jumped into a painting in Super Mario 64 or landed in a new kingdom in Super Mario Odyssey, you were presented with an open world in miniature--each with its own threats and rules and mechanics. There was always a joy to finding the contours of each space and learning it inside and out.

Donkey Kong Bananza looks like it is carrying forward this design philosophy with new layers, in a very literal sense. The story revolves around burrowing deeper into the planet's core as DK and his companion Pauline search for the power to make a wish. Stages are built around deformable terrain that DK can shape by punching his way forward, downward, or upward, digging through solid rock to uncover secrets or open new paths. The stages are built as large, bespoke hubs, and after completing the story objective, you open an entrance to a deeper layer. Each environment is packed with secrets to uncover and elements to explore, and then you burrow deeper into the world's crust and start familiarizing yourself with the next.