Genre: 3d Platformer
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

The neon colored, rolling voxel dirt hills of "No Man's Sky" are about the last sight to be expected in a Donkey Kong game-- yet the terrain destruction, dirt and rock particles flying in a cloud of frenzied ape fist-induced chaos gameplay clearly inspired the art direction in a sort of reverse-osmosis. Sometimes the cluttered surroundings-- made all the more cluttered by a character who smashes ape-sized holes in the ground veritably via mere jumps-- become a bit much. But the menus are immaculate, and the full 4K "DK" and his befreckled sidekick which grace the equipment change menu are CGI-enough to make Pixar bristle with envy.

Modern Nintendo games have "that sound": orchestral, almost too polished for its own good. Lacking the charisma from the personality-fest chip tunes of yore, so far removed from those beckoning memories that they seem like nothing more than distant clouds over a sunset horizon, those days are all but gone. Bananza's music can be microcosm'd by its zebra song: soccer whistles, a little ethnic flair, and a penchant for the self-aware and ironic that's almost too much to be considered as such. There are also some very light prog-synth stuff, again reminiscent of "No Man's Sky". Some good news is that the tag-along sidekick, Pauline, only speaks in tasteful quantities.

Donkey Kong can punch in all directions by pressing the X, Y, and B buttons. A jumps. R causes him to pound his fists, collecting nearby goodies and radar-flash exposing collectibles buried beneath the terrain, like ancient pharaonic artifacts lost to the encroaching desert. Holding L pumps him up, fists wildly thumping his oddly hairless chest, whereafter he transforms into one of several super forms, allowing for more strength, the ability to run faster, to glide, and so forth. The level designs do a good job of sign posting where hidden items might be, so that the player need not dig fruitlessly in random directions.

Made mostly by the same team which previous constructed Super Mario Odyssey, Banaza is of a similar pedigree-- it's even superior to a small degree, in the sense that the designers went ape-crazy coming up with how to incorporate destruction gameplay hooks into a 3D platformer, with a unique button configuration, and with a third-person camera to boot. So much about this concept could have gone wrong, and it's a testament to Nintendo talent that it was pulled off at all. Bananza has an interesting art style, some fun-if-not-derivative aural characteristics, and almost too much content.