Donkey Kong Bananza

Retr0gamer

Game starts off slow but it's just to introduce mechanics to you which it does in a really fun way. I'm 74 bananas in. I got them all in the lagoon level so exploring hilltop. Got the first transformation and beat the first proper boss. It's feels a bit like Odyssey but it's way more free form. A bit messy but it also allows a lot of player freedom.

Oh Banana!

johnny_ultimate

The intro level is slow but the first proper level onwards is an utter joy. The smashing is therapeutic on its own, but the sheer volume of stuff the game throws at you is a wonder. Really massive playgrounds to explore, and rarely 30 seconds pass without a fossil, treasure chest or banana. If anything it reminds me of a Nintendo-ified version of something like the agility orbs in Crackdown - always somewhere new to dig and a reward for your efforts. Ironically given Rare’s games - DK64 included - were infamous collectathons, the pace vs dopamine hit here is just right for a game where you’re really just looking for more stuff.

None of it would matter if the game didn’t feel so great to play - but Nintendo again proving they’re the masters of gamefeel. The levels are surprisingly sprawling, but with tonnes of points of genuine interest - well worth exploring as throughly as possible.

The performance drops are there but they really seem to have gone out of their way to ensure the actual gameplay is close to 60 almost all the time - a few very busy scenes aside. It’s only cutscenes, lengthy animations and - oddly - the map screen that seem to have sustained slowdown, at least docked. But generally when playing it is super smooth and responsive, with the performance woes largely limited to where it matters least.

SuperBowserWorld

Sounds good.

It's lovely how Nintendo can animate the most absurd characters and make them feel real to control in their platform games. It must be incredibly precise work between animators and engineers. And they've been iterating on that for 40 years.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123647205#Comment_123647205

There was an interview with Miyazaki and Tezuka and they were talking about how they build games since mario 64. For 64 and every other game they make a basic level and then just iterate on how the character controls. They don't move on to level design until it's fun just moving the character around.

Andrew76

Picked up the game earlier this evening on digital, forgot it was a tenner cheaper than physical. I found the starting tutorial area a bit boring and took too long, and all the different moves DK has are a bit confusing at first. But once you spend some time in the first proper layer then things really start to click - then it becomes brilliant fun!

I didn't notice any performance issues tbh, even when going crazy in bananza mode smashing everything to bits and collecting tons of stuff - thought it ran great (playing docked). A couple of times the camera went a little haywire when I was deep underground but nothing that puts you off.

Anyone that likes collecting things in games will love this too, the fact that most items are hidden inside the terrain and smashing it up is great fun - it makes the collecting exercise a lot of fun. Having said that, I must've spent 40 minutes trying to find the last few fossils in SL100/101, the treasure chests were no longer giving me fossil maps so eventually gave up.

Spoiler Warning

Moved to SL102 and found the last 3 almost immediately. 😁

Got to Hilltop and called it a night. Other than the slow start it's excellent fun, looking forward to seeing how they change things up going forward.

brady12

My nintendo is always my least played console but I think I will be playing a lot my switch 2 for the next week . Bar some camera and fps issues loving the game after about a hour play it . Like Johnny said it's therapeutic going around bashing everything😂. It was a day late too from smyths ..

Retr0gamer

There's definitely frame rate issues but they are more like quick drops when there's a lot going on like the game is CPU limited. My friend who is like a walking version for DF was pointing them out as he played and he is more used to 120+ frame rates on PC. I noticed them myself but it's like really not a big deal at all. I think it's been made a big deal of because Nintendo game performance is usually rock solid, most games these days will drop frames when the game gets busy and it's doesn't even feel that intrusive here.

Gonzo

I've put about 10 hours into DK Bananza and I'm totally loving it, I've only noticed frame rate dips once or twice which only lasted a second and barely noticeable. Certainly nothing like the lag and uneven frame pacing on Switch 1 games. Lag is more noticeable in photo mode but it's a mode I don't really bother with, I just like to play the game and break as much terrain as possible finding all the maps, fossils, banannas and other items.

Retr0gamer

The frame drops are much more preferable to UE5 stutter or traversal stutter.

johnny_ultimate

There are pockets of more sustained slowdown - I just fought the boss at the end of The Junction last night, and one attack immediately seemed to send the frame rate to 30 or lower. It sometimes happens in the gold rush bonus stages as well given all the extra particles. But they seem isolated to those really busy moments, and that they manage to sustain steady frame rate for most of the gameplay is very impressive.

The scale of the game in general is quite staggering. Levels are massive, multi-hour things, and looking at guides it seems I'm only around halfway through the layers at the moment. Granted, I've been taking the time to find as many fossils and bananas as I can, but just a huge amount of game to reckon with. Especially given the depth and imagination of the level design - it's very impressive that so many of the levels hold up and are satisfying despite - or maybe because of - the player being able to brute force their own way to solutions. The suggestions I've seen online of some immersive sim DNA here aren't totally off base.

TitianGerm

Completed the first two worlds and I'm absolutely loving this so far. A bit easy but that's no bad thing either.