Donkey Kong Bananza

winstein

winstein

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winstein
It's the new Donkey Kong game for the Nintendo Switch 2!


Thank you for reading.
 
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Thought this a new Wario game when it showed up! This looks awesome, and that new redesign for DK has really grown on me.

Nice to see the game embracing the Rareware days of collect-a-thons it looks like!
 
This new Donkey Kong design is quite good, actually! He's very expressive here, I kind of wonder if this is the current DK or a different iteration of Donkey Kong. I don't mind either way.

Thank you for reading.
 
Koopa con Carne said:
Super hype and it saved the Direct for me. Insta-buy. But are they phasing out the Kong family or something? Mario Kart didn't even have any of them besides DK.
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I feel that at least Diddy Kong would still be around (not sure about this game, we do not know much about it yet), at least because one of the new art has Donkey Kong (w/ updated design) interacting with him.
Donkey_Diddy_Clap_New.png


If it them phasing out the other Kongs were true... it would be interesting to see how we would receive yet another Donkey Kong where he's the only returning character (one previous game like this was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat).

Thank you for reading.
 
winstein said:
I feel that at least Diddy Kong would still be around (not sure about this game, we do not know much about it yet), at least because one of the new art has Donkey Kong (w/ updated design) interacting with him.
Donkey_Diddy_Clap_New.png


If it them phasing out the other Kongs were true... it would be interesting to see how we would receive yet another Donkey Kong where he's the only returning character (one previous game like this was Donkey Kong Jungle Beat).

Thank you for reading.
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There was a female Expresso at least 😆
 
I'm sure it'll play excellent but the style doesn't feel Donkey Kong. The faces, rounder designs, less naturalistic backgrounds, brighter palette, etc.
 
I got a good feeling about this game. It combines multiple previous Mario and Donkey Kong games (DKC2, DKJB, SMO) as well as redesigning Donkey Kong to resemble a hybrid between Donkey "Cranky" Kong Sr. from the original 1981 arcade and his first 90s redesign when Rare first started making Donkey Kong games, while also adding a new couple of cartoony elements such as a pair of overalls resembling those Lanky Kong wore in DK64. Overall, this looks like it could be an interesting game to kick off the advent of the Switch 2.
 
I have been hankering for a 3D Mario for a while, so seeing this during the direct got me down, but after another look.. okay, fine. It's peak. Surprisingly a fan of the new DK model, I really like how he looks in the game. Wonder how the whole breaking things gimmick's gonna turn out because that looks funny lol
 
If not Diddy Kong, then who's P2 for co-op? I mean, this is assuming there is co-op, but that tends to be a given for Nintendo platformers. Some other Nintendo Direct I suppose?

My big concern is how the camera's going to look when we're underground and digging forward. There seems to be stuff in there to collect so just showing DK's shadow might not offer enough clarity.

I like the overalls and the shapeshifting crystal npcs. Shapeshifting characters tend to be the most fun designs because secretly they're like 10 designs and just seeing what comes next is fun.
 
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Monkey Odyssey; you can destroy things too.

I think it's too early to say Diddy won't show up, but at the same time I definitely don't think he'll be playable. The whole game is about destroying everything and taking max advantage of DK's strength, that's not something Diddy can really do lol.

Also keep in mind this game's clearly being made by the 3D Mario team, and their mentality is that characters are functions more than anything else; even Luigi is low priority if they can't find a role for him in a game.
 
The Treehouse stream showed them go through a load zone, then return to the main map with the destruction done in the main map still being saved. This is the kind of thing that sells me on extra processing power.

I could see Diddy in co-op being unable to break things but using the Barrel Jet as a vacuum to make collecting items more efficient. There were a lot of baubles in the Treehouse stream. Also I didn't like the solution to the underground camera issue, though I guess a few cases of the game incorrectly assuming the player is about to enter a tunnel and fading the wider environment out where it shouldn't isn't too bad.
 
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The King said:
Call it a hunch, but maybe that's the Odd Rock's true form?
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Correct!

I would rather have had Odd Rock for the whole game, and assuming the acquisition of Bananza transformations roughly divide the game into thirds, we're spending at best only the first third of the game with Odd Rock. (It's probably less, It would be poor pacing to only gain a major game feature a third of the way into the game.) I like Odd Rock's design more, I liked the idea of teaming up with something that seems to be from Void Co but doesn't quite know. And I like the set up of Odd Rock being a terrible partner for an action-adventure logistically. It's super skittish and somehow heavy enough to bother DK, two properties that get in the way of a quest. It's like the awkwardness of Kiawe's partner Pokémon being a giant fire turtle when everyone else has small mammals, in that its a great set up for comedy and shenanigans. I concede that using Pauline does make DK's companion character more distinct compared to other Nintendo characters of the same category, as she is an established character, a human, and does not float, but personally I still would rather have the rock.

Also if I were in charge this would be Baby Pauline. Nintendo has established by now that every major human character has a Baby counterpart, might as well check Pauline off the list early. I'm not convinced her lines in the Direct opposing VoidCo. are even from a 13-year old. I'd expect fictional swears.

Oh and Odd Rock/Pauline is confirmed player 2, Diddy is an NPC who we know is at least an opponent in a rhino racining minigame. He's paired with Dixie Kong, if anyone was wondering where she is.
 
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The precise question is when is the story taken and what's everyone's age around the time?

Using Pauline as the focus and bar, if this story is around her teenage era, so DK is assumed to be a teenage as well?

Cranky's look actually explains since he does look younger in this game.

But DIddy and Dixie are very strange here since they would definitely look younger decade ago. I mean it feels like when Pauline and DK are teenagers, Diddy is supposed to be..... Baby Diddy? I do think it would make much better sense if Diddy was a baby so that he couldn't accompany DK.
 

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