Hey everyone, Zeon over here from Nintendo Life and today we’re here to share with you our review of Donkey Kong Bonanza on the Switch 2. Now, this review was originally written by Jim Norman for Nintendolife.com, but was reworked into this video by me. [Music] Even though our suspicions have been confirmed, the reveal that Donkey Kong Bonanza was coming to us from the team behind Super Mario Odyssey couldn’t help but strike a little bit of fear into our hearts. We knew that the group within Nintendo EPD is a talented bunch, but how were we ever going to fully throw ourselves into another 3D adventure with the alltimer jump up superstar sequence lurking at the back of our brains? This was the overwhelming thought as we made our way through Bonanza’s opening layer. It was all fantastic, but we couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d seen these slick moves and shiny object hunts before, albeit with a touch more punching this time around. And then it happened. Rather than following the suggested approach, we ripped up a chunk of Earth, solved a puzzle in a way that we never expected to work, and laughed as DK goofily ooed at the reward. On the surface, Donkey Kong Bonanza has more than a little odyssey in its DNA, and the comparisons are on display right from the jump. But once we dug beneath the surface, we realized this is the dev swinging at something more chaotic, more destructive, and dare we say it, at times, more entertaining. Simply put, it’s the most fun that we’ve had with a platformer in years. The story line in Donkey Kong games generally go as deep as big monkey loses big banana horde, and Bonanza doesn’t stray a million miles from that. While mining for Banandium gems on Ingot Isle, old DK has his new banana collection ripped from him before being plunged underground by the void company, a mining operation bent on reaching the planet’s core to have their deepest desire granted. It doesn’t make too much sense, but let’s be honest. Nor did a sentient Cap with eyes, so please stay with us here. Keen to catch up with the terrible trio and get his bananas back in the process, DK stumbles across Pauline, the artist formerly known as Odd Rock, who assumes the position of bat companion, and quickly learns that she can assist DK through the magic of song. Huh. The pair dive through a series of underground worlds, or as they’re known, layers, in pursuit of void co. Collecting any remaining benandium gems, helping out the locals, and picking up shape-shifting bonanza transformations from huge animals along the way, all in the hope of reaching the core first. Sure, it’s a simple, if somewhat ridiculous, setup that only really comes into its own in the game’s later stages, but it provides a strong enough backbone for the gameplay, and that’s the important part. Much like Odyssey’s capthrowing, Bonanza has a big new mechanic to get to grips with in the shape of DK’s fists. Equipped with nothing more than his primate palms, DK can punch, dig, and throw just about anything that he can see through the magic of Nintendo’s Voxil tech experimentation, which you might remember from the cheese digging in Odyssey’s Lunchin Kingdom. Bonanza wastes no time introducing you to this newfound strength. With the opening tunnels of Ingot Isle serving as little more than a demonstration of just how much you can smash. And boy, did we put it to good use. To our own detriment, our first few hours were spent doing just this. Neither Jim or I could bring ourselves to follow the mission marker. Because what if there was something under our feet? Nintendo’s promise of everything being destructible holds true for the most part. And there’s a certain dopamine hit to be had in leveling a cliff face just for the sake of it. But it quickly loses its impact if that’s all you’re doing. And we think Nintendo knows this. We eased up on the punch button, put DK’s smoking fists back in their holsters, and started to see Bonanza differently because yes, everything can be broken, but that doesn’t mean everything should be. Each layer is set up not to be destroyed, but to be explored. And we soon learn that while the odd fossil or treasure chest may be waiting underground, the real attraction lies in the creativity on top. When you put the digging to one side, Bonanza is all about the platforming. DK has a silky smooth move set consisting of three directional punches, a jump, a roll, and a hand slap. Oh, and he can also climb just about any vertical surface in front of him. If that sounds pretty paired back, it is. But there’s a sweetness in that simplicity. You can roll, jump, and roll again to clear more ground. Rip up a chunk of earth and surf on it. then throw that same chunk into the ground to double jump all without pausing for thought. Bonanza has a fast travel system, but we found it much more enjoyable to take the scenic route on foot. Now, that’s not to say that digging and punching don’t have their place. They are absolutely the headline mechanic here. But if you’re like us and you feared Bonanza would be nothing more than a smashathon, you can rest easy knowing that it’s quite the opposite. You see, each layer brings a new idea about how DK should use his surroundings. Whether it’s surfing over slime in the mud-filled hilltop layer, growing paths in the forest layer, or pulling up chunks of floating liftoff or in the resort layer, each level of DK’s early descent demonstrates another way to get around, with none sticking about for long enough to become frustrating. All of these introductions serve their purpose well. The second act feels like Nintendo firing on all cylinders to up the inventiveness, and it uses your base understanding of the game’s rule set to showcase even wackier ideas. Part of the joy here is finding out how these all work yourself. But rest assured that by the end, the uncanny bonanza transformations will feel like old news compared to some of the originality on display. Well, would you look at that? We’ve made it almost halfway through the video before touching on the abomination that is DK’s bonanza forms. In truth, neither Jim or I ever warmed up to the sight of Donkey Kong melded with an ostrich or a zebra, but the devs needed to work in Mario’s power up prowess, and the time limit given to each transformation meant that we didn’t have to look at them for too long. Kong Bonanza is your Hulk-like big hitter and can crush just about any material with ease. Zebra Bonanza is all about speed, and Ostrich Bonanza can momentarily fly through the air when you inevitably see something shiny glimmering in the distance. At first, each form felt a little too overpowered, particularly in the early boss fights, which are proper blink and you’ll miss them affairs if you have the right power up equipped. Fortunately, things calm down in the later game and into the postredit content, where the transformations feel like more of an integral piece of the puzzle than an over-the-top superpower for a quick insta win. Heck, the difficulty of some of the later challenges, particularly the boss fights, had us wishing for that earlier sense of ease. What’s more is that they feel strangely at home in Bonanza’s world. Walking the same path as Odyssey, each layer down to the planet’s core presents a different flavor of off-the-wall weirdness. There are ice cream loving zebras who all talk like frat boys. Googlyed frackton rocks that look like they’ve been swept off the rare cutting room floor. Underground eels will spit you between layers like a slimy tube train. And DK reacts to all of it with such a wonderful range of expression. He and Pauline will shiver in cold areas, sweat in hot ones, and you’ll want to pay particular attention to how DK’s interactions with Pauline shift as their relationship changes. All of this means that each layer is a pleasure to explore, which is a relief because they are packed. We mean packed with things to do. Odyssey’s power moons are succeeded by benandium gems, which can be picked up in main story missions or by exploring your surroundings. Battle and challenge ruins crop up on every corner, too. Shuffling a certain Breath of the Wild shrineesque pit stop into the proceedings and occasionally calling out specific DK Touchstones like Minecart Madness or Bramble Blast to brilliant effect. Which reminds us, Bonanza’s score is wonderful. The atmospheric environmental tunes are one thing, but Pauline’s Bonanza songs are some of the catchiest tunes we’ve heard from a game for a long time, which is a relief because you’ll hear them every time you want to transform. You can turn this off in the settings, though, if it’s not your jam. We dare you to listen to Kong Bonanza without throwing in a little shoulder shimmy whenever you hear the main riff. And much like those affforementioned challenge courses, there are musical cameos of plenty. So, make sure you’ve brushed up on your country music before diving in. And no, before you go in the comments, we don’t mean Dolly Parton. But let’s get back to those bananas, the Banandium gems. They serve their in-game purpose well enough. Collect five to unlock a skill point, which can be used to level up DK’s stats, bonanza transformations, or grant some bonus abilities. But we all know they’re really there to encourage exploration. Nintendo has crafted gorgeously detailed worlds, and it would feel like a waste if all we did with them was dig. Instead, the collectibles encouraged us to scour every corner and speak to every NPC, all while keeping things completely optional for those who’d prefer to storm ahead with the main quest. There’s no collect X amount of bananas to power up DK’s spaceship or something here. We picked up around 600 gems throughout our roughly 35-hour playthrough. And trust us, it would have been much shorter had we not been such fiends for shiny collectibles. And we know that even more are still waiting. That’s not to mention the fossils, smashing stats, and outfits, all of which are calling us back for that sweet, sweet 100% completion. And then there’s the entirely optional sculpting DK artist mode, which gobbled up more of our time than we were honestly expecting. The tools are deeper than we had imagined, and it’s nice to see mouse mode in action, though it doesn’t add much to the overall experience. Still, it’s a nice little addition. Now, we spent the majority of our time playing solo, but you can bring a pal along for the ride to make the collectathon a bit more manageable. The co-op is more Mario Odyssey than 3D World. Player two stays tethered to DK as Pauline and is on hand to dish out attacks and pick up collectibles. It’s a perfectly pleasant time playing with two adults, even if the option to have both players control the camera feels like a mistake, but it really feels designed for a parent child pairing where a less experienced player can still be part of the adventure without having to worry about all the pesky platforming and punching. You can even try this out between Switch 2 and Switch One systems via the magic of GameS Share, though we weren’t able to test this during the review period. Elsewhere, an assist mode accessed through the menu at any time can make DK’s health last a little longer and point you in the right direction. There are also tools for button remapping, language options for Pauline’s dialogue, and subtitle toggles. For the most part, Donkey Kong Bonanza is a prime example of the Switch 2’s beefed up performance. Running at a smooth 60fps for most of the time with some genuinely stunning vistas and a nice touch of that swanky 3D audio thrown in for good measure. You’ll hear the gramophone of a safe getaway and know exactly which direction to head. The destruction left in DK’s wake is permanent until you leave the layer or opt to reset the terrain, that is. And while the environments don’t obey the realworld laws of physics to the letter, some sections see hundreds of objects, each with their own physics realized on screen at once, lifting the lid on a new console generation in style. It’s truly impressive stuff, but there are some hiccups along the way. More intense digging sequences see the camera get a little sluggish as it tries to focus on DK without showing the underground areas around him. Distant textures lose their detail and speeding towards them reveals pop in a plenty. And when you really put the game through its paces in the later layers where new paths are being created, destroyed, and moved all at the same time, the frame rate takes a noticeable dive before springing back. All that being said, it didn’t come close to ruining the experience. This is an ambitious game where you can head in any direction at any time, make or break new routes to your will, and tear up the terrain knowing full well that the damage will still be there next time you come back. So, can we say that Donkey Kong Bonanza is better than Super Mario Odyssey? No, we can’t. And honestly, what is? But if you loved Jumpman’s planet hopping adventure, you’ll have no shortage of smiles on this underground descent. Donkey Kong Bonanza is an almighty reintroduction to the world of 3D platforming for DK and arguably the Switch 2’s first absolute mustplay. The punching and crashing is a passing novelty that once you get your fill quickly becomes just another way of exploring the wonderfully varied and beautifully presented layers. Whether it’s smashing through the scenery with a Bonanza transformation or carefully planning a route to a hidden Bandium gem, you’ll have trouble finding more originality and crucially more enjoyment from a platformer in recent years. As the DK rap so wisely said, Donkey Kong is here. Now, let’s just hope he stays. We here at Nintendo Life give Donkey Kong Bonanza on the Switch 2 a 9 out of 10. Be sure to let us know if you’re planning to pick up Bonanza for yourself and what you’re most looking forward to with this game. And of course, if you enjoyed this video and you want to see more videos like this, then why don’t you dig your way through that subscribe button until you find out if you’re subscribed to us or not, and then ring that notification bell to be notified whenever we put up more videos like this. Thank you all so much for watching, and thank you to Jim for spending all I mean all of the time with Donkey Kong Bonanza for this review. Jim is also working on a huge strategy guide for Donkey Kong Bonanza on Nintendolife.com. So, hop on over if you need some help, too. I’m Zen from Nintendo Life. Stay safe out there, and we will see you all next time.