I definitely understand the a-peel of DK Bananza

[waltzoid]

On my birthday (this past Sunday), almost one month since I bought my Nintendo Switch 2, my parents gave me Donkey Kong Bananza as a gift. It was one of the reasons I wanted to buy the console in the first place - I saw it on the dedicated Nintendo Direct back in June 2025 and thought it looked like a lot of fun.

And you know what? It is! (At least for the first two hours that I've played so far.)

Yes, I know it's essentially "What if Super Mario Odyssey starred Donkey Kong instead of Mario? And you can also rip up the terrain to your heart's content?" But sometimes that's all you want from a game - something with an easy-to-digest pitch that executes on it well.

Right now, I've reached the point where DK frees Pauline from that weird rock form she'd been in since the beginning of the game (how did she get that way, anyway?). It's not surprising that as the only human character I've run into so far, she's the only one who gets full voice acting while the animal characters get animal noises. And after obtaining the Kong Bananza transformation, I can make DK strong enough to punch concrete walls without having to throw bomb blocks at them.

The only thing I don't understand is the purpose of gold. I've collected a lot of it since the start of the game, but I haven't been able to spend it on anything, unlike the fossils I've traded in for new fur colors and boxers. Maybe its purpose will become clearer once I pass the Lagoon Layer.