Gamebro.biz.id - At one point, the people who made the Switch 2 thought about naming it the Super Nintendo Switch. They opted against it, though, because it could play original Switch games, while the Super NES from 1990 couldn't play games from the NES from 1983. I played with it all weekend and think the Switch Pro is a better moniker. It's more like a modernized and improved version of the original system than a whole new generation. The bigger screen and faster processor are the most visible improvements, but every part of the system is better. The larger Joy-Cons seem stronger and are easier to operate. I like how they magnetically clip onto the console. The user interface is a graceful but somewhat monotonous version of the Switch's, with mild haptic feedback and nice little sounds that make it feel like you're playing. Some people might be upset that the Switch OLED model goes back to a regular LCD screen, but the quality is good and the extra screen spac...
Donkey Kong Bananza review: a crazy destruction derby that breaks all the rules of platforming
Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo
Nintendo's latest 3D platformer has a surreal freeform audacity since its hero can break through any obstacle, which is a lot of fun in and of itself.
Gamebro.biz.id - A lot depends on Donkey Kong Bananza. As Nintendo's first big single-player game for the Switch 2, it will establish the quality standard for the platform, just like Breath of the Wild did when the original Switch came out. Some Nintendo fans are already upset that this is the newest game from the team behind the amazing 3D Mario series. They think it's a waste of time to make Bananza instead of another Super Mario Odyssey. What could be so interesting about a gorilla in a tie?
Donkey Kong puts those worries to rest. He destroys a lot in Bananza. It looks like a Mario 64-style 3D platformer on the outside, with themed landscapes full of gigantic bananas to find and grab, but DK's fists don't care about the playground as it is. Everything can be broken. When you press the buttons, his strong arms smash down hills, turn clean lawns into muddy craters, and break up big stones to use as sledgehammers for even faster landscaping. He is more of a potassium-powered level editor than a platforming mascot.
That's almost enough to keep your interest on a basic level. It's easy and fun to throw a punch this skillfully programmed: the pause when your knuckles hit rock, the rumble of Joy-Con 2, and the way surfaces break before another impact knocks down the whole wall. I can imagine Bananza becoming a stress reliever for executives, like a virtual rage chamber where you throw exploding boulders at cliffs to turn them into pockmarked Swiss cheese. You may also bring a friend from the co-op to shoot things from DK's back and make things extra crazier (or be a diabolical tag along to someone attempting to escape any devastation).
There is a reason behind the chaos. The current Kong clan (which includes some fun cameos that capture the humorous spirit of Rare's Donkey Kong Country games) is joined by evil mining Kongs who want to steal a treasure from the planet's core. On the way, they kidnap Pauline, the young singer who Donkey Kong first took in his arcade debut. But Kong and Pauline get along better here. She gets him to use his animal powers by singing tremendous earworms right into his head. I can't remember much of my narrative because her Latin pop song about how great it is to be a zebra has taken its place in my memory.
This is a weird environment, and the platforming idea is equally more. How do you make things hard for a hero who can dig beneath laser fences or break down doors with a jackhammer that would have stopped Mario in his tracks? To be honest, it takes a beat to get the answers. At first, planets that can be dug up from any angle are mushy. Sometimes you naively dig for rewards that are meant for challenges you haven't found or figured out yet. The randomness of these unearned riches makes you wonder, for a moment, if the game's freeform bravado is as empty as the caves you're hammering into existence.
But no. Later, undulating plains and cheerful lagoons give way to more dangerous places where solid ground keeps you safe from poison swamps, ice lakes, and lava. Here, land is life, therefore you handle it with more care and your strikes are more precise. You instantly understand Nintendo's method in their morphable craziness when metal caterpillars eat a wooden life raft or a pogoing danger punches through a platform you made into a tiny sliver. Boss encounters make great use of weak terrain, making arenas more and more uneven as conflicts go on so that DK can't smash off pieces of their huge bodies.
The only mistake in these later stages is that the Bananzas are too strong. These animal transformations provide DK speed, flight, strength, and other powers. When they are in the challenges or levels made for them, they sing. You remember the things Mario had in Odyssey and how well each of those bodily feelings was done. But when you remove them out of that context, as when you go back to previous levels to acquire items, they become immediate victory buttons, which makes Nintendo's platforming designs less creative.
I don't think Bananza will last as long as Mario Odyssey. That game had a deep, post-credit conclusion, but DK is more in the moment: he keeps pushing forward, chewing through fresh ideas, and never stops to crush the roses. At the game's spectacular climax, he has broken through concrete, rubber, watermelon, ostrich eggs, whole Donkey Kong Country homages, glitter balls, and even the NPCs he is trying to defend. If Switch 2's weight is on his shoulders, that's just one more thing he can use to break a hole in the universe. His desire to destroy is contagious.
Comments