Donkey Kong might have been Nintendo’s first breakout star, however for many years, the character was extra generally related to different builders than he was together with his creators. Whereas quite a few studios have put out Donkey Kong titles through the years, the simian actually got here into his personal beneath the stewardship of Uncommon, who reinvented the character with 1994’s seminal Donkey Kong Country. Although it hasn’t been concerned with the collection because the early 2000s, Uncommon’s work was so beloved that it successfully outlined Donkey Kong for the following two decades–and that affect can nonetheless be felt all through the newly launched Donkey Kong Bananza.
It is stunning how a lot of Uncommon’s DK survived in Bananza. Regardless of some visible references to previous Donkey Kong titles, every part Nintendo had proven off main as much as the sport’s launch prompt it might be an entire reboot of the collection. Even past the lore implications of Donkey Kong teaming up with an inexplicably younger Pauline, Bananza’s freewheeling, harmful gameplay and subterranean setting are a marked departure from the Donkey Kong Nation of outdated, giving the sport a taste and id that is wholly distinct from each DK title earlier than it.
This primary impression isn’t fully off the mark; proper from the outset, Bananza seems like a brand new path not only for the character, however the collection as a complete. Whereas the sport boasts loads of platforming challenges to beat, its core loop revolves round smashing your method by dense environments, utilizing DK’s mighty energy to carve up the terrain and unearth hidden collectibles. It makes for a decidedly totally different gameplay expertise than earlier Donkey Kong titles. And but, regardless of this stark change in path, Bananza nonetheless retains a lot of components that Uncommon’s Donkey Kong video games pioneered.
You may see vestiges of the studio’s affect everywhere in the recreation design. Most of the components which have turn out to be hallmarks of Uncommon’s Donkey Kong reappear in Bananza. Balloons, initially your life counter within the Donkey Kong Nation collection, return in an analogous position, ferrying you again to security once you plummet right into a bottomless abyss. DKC mainstays like Cranky, Diddy, and Dixie Kong make recurring cameos all through the journey, cropping up in surprising locations as you make your strategy to the planet’s core. Even the soundtrack pays homage to Uncommon’s video games, interspersing iconic songs like DK Island Swing and the DK Rap amongst all the brand new tracks.
Uncommon’s lingering affect is much more distinguished in Bananza’s problem ranges. Battle arenas, which activity you with defeating a selected variety of enemies in opposition to a time restrict, take apparent inspiration from comparable challenges in Donkey Kong 64, proper all the way down to their staging. Among the platforming programs that DK encounters on his quest, just like the fittingly named Nostalgia Nation, are much more overt callbacks, taking part in out like conventional side-scrolling ranges with iconic backdrops from DKC. These phases have the identical affect because the 8-bit sections in Super Mario Odyssey, providing a nice, nostalgia-stirring shock for longtime followers that lovingly harkens again to the collection’ roots.
Bananza shares many different similarities with Odyssey, having been developed by the identical workforce, however each video games’ freeform construction was, partially, formed by Uncommon. Although Super Mario 64 established the template that different 3D platformers would observe, Uncommon constructed upon it in novel methods with Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. Whereas Mario 64 divided up its programs into totally different “episodes” that every centered on a selected goal, the degrees in Uncommon’s video games had been correct sandboxes, with all of their collectibles accessible proper from the outset. Not all of them had been instantly obtainable; some might solely be acquired after returning with the suitable ability. However gamers had the liberty to discover a stage and decide up as many collectibles as they may with out instantly being kicked again to the hub space, which essentially modified the experience–and grew to become the strategy Nintendo would finally undertake with Odyssey and Bananza.
Even concepts that originally appear distinctive to Bananza might be traced again to Uncommon’s Donkey Kong video games. Bananza’s emphasis on music particularly owes a debt to Donkey Kong 64, which likewise integrated music as a core part of its gameplay. Partway by the Nintendo 64 journey, every Kong would add a distinct musical instrument to their repertoire of expertise; DK, for example, would get his (soon-to-be signature) pair of bongos, whereas Diddy would purchase an electrical guitar. When the Kongs performed these devices within the applicable spot, they’d ship out a devastating shockwave assault that may destroy close by enemies and activate one thing across the stage, usually resulting in a Golden Banana.
It is simple to attract a throughline from DK64’s devices to Pauline’s highly effective vocal cords, which equally serve a number of functions in Bananza. On prime of triggering the Bananza transformations, Pauline’s singing can disperse Void seals, opening up new elements of the extent to discover. She will be able to additionally launch highly effective vocal blasts in co-op mode, which can destroy any terrain and enemies of their path.
For all of the methods Bananza charts a contemporary new path for the collection, the sport may be very a lot indebted to its previous. In reclaiming the character, Nintendo might very effectively have wiped the slate clear and solid apart all traces of Uncommon’s Donkey Kong, making the character wholly its personal. However by preserving so many hallmarks from Uncommon’s DK video games, Nintendo has tacitly acknowledged that Bananza wouldn’t really feel like a correct Donkey Kong title with out them–that lots of the components Uncommon launched have since turn out to be core to Donkey Kong’s id.
With a rumored Donkey Kong movie on the horizon, Nintendo will seemingly lean closely on the collection transferring ahead. However no matter the place DK goes from right here, there’ll all the time be bits of Uncommon in his DNA.