Donkey Kong Bananza Review

The Donkey Kong games have always been a fun challenge, and Bananza is the Odyssey team's take on him: a 3D platformer where the level is the weapon. DK punches through terrain, rips chunks out of the earth, surfs on rubble, and digs to the planet's core with Pauline riding shotgun, singing transformations into him. Nearly everything you see can be smashed, and smashing it is never not funny.

The craft is Nintendo at full power: layers of underground worlds, each with its own material logic, collectibles buried in the destruction, and a finale that stands with the company's best.

Now the honest part. Is there something missing from this game to make it great? I think so. I don't know what it is, but it's the difference between my 9.1 and the all-time shelf. The destruction is so total it sometimes eats the challenge, and the camera fights the digging more than it should. A 9.1 with the reservation printed right on it.

Is there something missing from this game to make it great? I think so. I don't know what it is, but...