Don’t name it a comeback. Whereas Nintendo has stored DK’s barrel within the air since his debut in 1981 — reissuing his trendy classics, making him playable in multiplayer video games, throwing him a supporting position within the Mario film — his 2025 is extra of a Kongaissance ripped from the Matthew McConaughey playbook. Donkey Kong acquired the last main launch of the Change period. He’s poised to land his personal spinoff blockbuster. He acquired a theme park! And now he’s again main his personal 3D journey sport, Donkey Kong Bananza, a real take a look at of the Change 2’s capabilities.
Nintendo didn’t grant Polygon entry to an early copy of Donkey Kong Bananza, so we’ll be taking part in proper alongside the early Change 2 adopters when it arrives on July 17. I couldn’t get too Cranky about it as a result of (1) I’m extra of a Funky and (2) by the point we heard the information, I used to be deep right into a replay of the place DK’s trendy lineage actually begins: 1994’s Donkey Kong Nation, an amazing reminder that Donkey Kong has at all times been a star.
With little or no to do on my Change 2 apart from getting owned in Mario Kart World Knockout Tour races by drivers coasting in nineteenth place, I turned to the Nintendo Change On-line service for fast Kong gratification within the annals of SNES historical past. It had been eons since I sat down to finish Donkey Kong Nation, a sport that Nintendo and its third-party companions have iterated on for 30 years. With roaming enemies, collectible hunts, destructible environments (hiding secrets and techniques, little question), Bananza stands to construct on the method that has outlined Donkey Kong over these three many years. However I used to be thrilled to find that the madcap 2D side-scroller developed by Uncommon, again when Nintendo had no clue what to do with the character, was a lean, imply take a look at of platforming skillz. Solid within the fires of crude 3D modeling, the sport performs smoother than ever — although relentless waves of obstacles shielded by imperfect hitboxes make it eternally irritating. (In… a great way? I’d say sure, so long as you don’t hurl your Change 2 right into a wall.)
The Donkey Kong Nation port on the SNES on NSO is the stripped unique launch with none of the mini-games or further narrative beats packed into the Recreation Boy Advance port. From a narrative stage, it’s whole platforming nonsense — and higher for it. Within the opening seconds of Donkey Kong Nation, our furry hero drops into the Kongo Jungle’s “Jungle Hijinxs” and instantly will get to work, bopping Kremlings sans context. Diddy Kong finally pops out of a barrel and joins the fray, with Cranky, Funky, and Sweet Kong displaying up between phases to quip and save progress. King Okay. Rool and his military of crocodiles are barely established — they’re simply there to stomp to the curb. It’s a sport missing plot, neither is it in want of any. In the event you ever meet anybody who says they needed extra Sweet Kong in Donkey Kong Nation, alert your native authorities.
Followers of Uncommon’s Donkey Kong Nation video games know simply how expansive the motion grew to become because the sequence advanced; Donkey Kong Nation 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest is likely to be the top of working and leaping in each course to unlock the total array of collectibles and secrets and techniques. The unique Donkey Kong Nation is way more rudimentary, and in a means, extra primal. The options to getting from level A to B are clear, only a ache within the ass with restricted lives. It appears like Uncommon being true to each Nintendo’s Mario methodology and providing stiff competitors to Genesis breakouts like Aladdin — Donkey Kong Nation can go from breezy to mind-bogglingly tough in a single tire bounce. Impatience is punished.
Perhaps it’s a symptom of each different sport I play at this time being a Metroidvania, however the hell of Donkey Kong Nation acrobatic left-to-right programs was a welcome various to directional freedom. My objectives have been very clear and the equation to resolve them required lives I typically didn’t have. Treetop ranges the place you barely have sufficient runway to dash soar to security. Minecart rides the place being a micro-second off means plummeting to your demise. Transferring platform phases that require both dodging enemies that drop from the sky or knocking them out with barrels despite the fact that you possibly can’t fairly see them forward of you. The sheer quantity of monkeys who can throw shit at you, mixed with Uncommon’s one-hit-kill method, imply there are extra soar scares in Donkey Kong Nation than the latest Resident Evil. (I’ll be sincere, I don’t know if I might have completed Donkey Kong Nation with out the posh of the NSO “Droop Level” operate — I’m weak.)
Donkey Kong Nation was lauded for its use of pre-rendered sprite and background graphics — resulting in people who acquired waaaay connected to the Uncommon model of DK — however this time round, I used to be struck extra by the lighting and texture Uncommon layered over the degrees. A sundown would possibly dim the eye-popping colours of the tropical landscapes. Blizzard circumstances make you squint within the already frenzied barrel-blasting of Gorilla Glacier. “Torchlight Bother” solely provides you the slim beam of a flashlight, carried by a parrot companion, through which to take out Klumps. Evil is at all times lurking within the shadows. It’s nuts.
Finishing Donkey Kong Nation isn’t ending Donkey Kong Nation. On a run the place I merely needed to outlive each stage and defeat King Okay. Rool, I netted about 55% completion. That’s as a result of Donkey Kong Nation is for secret-hunting sickos. As those that have thrown themselves off each bridge to find hidden-level barrels will let you know, reaching 101% (not a typo) within the sport requires dedication and exercised reflexes. Some ranges lead you proper to the secrets and techniques with a path of bananas. Others can be categorised as merciless and strange punishment in a number of states. In the event you actually need these Ks, Os, Ns, and Gs, you need to work.
After the Donkey Kong video games of the Eighties, Uncommon discovered a method to redefine simplicity with Donkey Kong Nation. The corporate’s subsequent 2D video games all needed to beef up talents and complicate the enemies because the side-scrolling opened up. Its solely actual 3D Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong 64 sport, veered nearer to a collect-a-thon to fill expansive maps — and Nintendo’s personal Bananza ought to share plenty of its DNA (however hopefully be way more profitable).
Donkey Kong Nation is the fundamentals — elaborate, vicious fundamentals. Zig right here, zag there, duck, roll, soar. A speedrunner’s dream, a comfy gamer’s nervousness assault. Enjoying it in 2025 is nearer to navigating a motion-triggered tripwire grid than a platformer. A Donkey Kong sport as that scene from Entrapment the place Catherine Zeta-Jones narrowly avoids letting her butt contact a laser. (Please, no Sweet Kong jokes). If Bananza can seize an oz of DK’s actual legacy, testing your penchant for urgent A at precisely proper time, it might need an opportunity at residing as much as certainly one of Change 2’s present greatest video games, even when that sport is over 30 years outdated.
