Donkey Kong Bananza Feels Like Zelda: Tears of the…

As Nintendo continues to produce fresh takes on some of its most iconic franchises, the influence that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have had on its approach to game design is increasingly obvious. The industry in general has undoubtedly been impacted by these particular Zelda games, but Nintendo itself has continued to utilize its ground-breaking open-world formula in its games, with Donkey Kong Bananza now being the most recent example. The main difference with it, though, is how it takes the grace and calm of Tears of the Kingdom's design and goes utterly bonkers with it for one of the most chaotic yet fulfilling open-world adventures yet.

The heart of Donkey Kong Bananza's gameplay is in its name, as it fully expects players to go bananas with its intuitive and rewarding mechanics. It's highly unique in its design, and yet it clearly has its roots deep in Tears of the Kingdom's design philosophy. Much like how Tears of the Kingdom encourages experimentation and creative problem-solving, Donkey Kong Bananza lets players unleash mayhem in similar, if hilarious, ways. However, whereas Tears of the Kingdom invites players to create the door to discovery, Donkey Kong Bananza dares players to break it down.

Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong Bananza looking at Link from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Donkey Kong Bananza Looks a Lot Like Donkey Kong: Tears of the Kingdom

More details about Donkey Kong Bananza have come out, and it's starting to feel reminiscent of Link's latest adventure across Hyrule.

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By Devin Friend

Donkey Kong Bananza Channels Zelda: TotK's Exploration Philosophy, Then Tears It to Pieces

Both Games Embrace Open-Ended Discovery Through Creative Tools and Traversal

If there's one thing that is clear when it comes to Tears of the Kingdom's design, it's that it's meant to make players feel like the sky's the limit. If that's not quite literally evident in its increased verticality over its predecessor, it certainly manifests itself in the open-ended, curiosity-driven, more personal approach it takes to exploration and progression in the open-world genre. This especially comes into play with Tears of the Kingdom's Ultrahand ability, which allows players to approach solving problems from a number of different angles. Many of the problems players encounter in the game have an undefined number of solutions, as players often use Ultrahand to create those solutions.

Donkey Kong Bananza takes a similar approach with its own open world, in that it drops players into the game and presents them with one simple instruction: Press Y to Punch. From here, some players might simply move forward in pursuit of the main objective, but there's a massive part of Donkey Kong Bananza that doesn't want that. Instead, it piques the curiosity of players by presenting them with a world that is almost entirely destructible. As players tear into the world using Donkey Kong's massive indestructible fists, secrets reveal themselves that aren't otherwise shown on the map unless players manage to find maps leading to those secrets within the terrain. In that way, it borrows Tears of the Kingdom's core design philosophy of open-ended, curiosity-driven discovery.

Much like how Tears of the Kingdom encourages experimentation and creative problem-solving, Donkey Kong Bananza lets players unleash mayhem in similar, if hilarious, ways.

That's not all either, as Donkey Kong Bananza's transformations allow players to approach problems in their own way, much like Tears of the Kingdom's Ultrahand allows. These "Bananza" transformations grant Donkey Kong unprecedented strength and unique traversal abilities that he doesn't have organically, but their main appeal comes from their resistance to the fixed problem-solving of traditional platformers. Instead, Donkey Kong Bananza encourages players to approach problems with flexibility and thoughtfulness, just as they might in Tears of the Kingdom.

Donkey Kong Bananza Trades TotK's Grace for Pure Destructive Freedom

There is a noticeable difference between these two open-world games, though, and that's in how their creative freedom is executed. Where Tears of the Kingdom invites players to be slower and more intentional in their approach, Donkey Kong Bananza tells them to go bananas and see what they can find. In a manner of speaking, Donkey Kong Bananza is the chaotic rage room to Tears of the Kingdom's meticulously designed, pristine mansion. "Spam Y" is essentially the name of the game here, and it's almost never an effort wasted.

It's a welcome change of pace, and somehow, it still feels like the laid-back cozy game that Tears of the Kingdom proves to be at times. Donkey Kong Bananza refrains from putting pressure on its players in the same way that Tears of the Kingdom does, so even when they're repeatedly hitting the same chaos-inducing button, it's still a stress-free time. In short, Donkey Kong Bananza is clearly unhinged by comparison, but it's for the better in the end.

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