We all had a great time with Donkey Kong Bananza last year, didn't we? The 3D platformer marked a great return for Nintendo's great ape, and the developers haven't been shy about the work that went into it — we got a three-part Ask the Developer interview on it shortly after launch, let's not forget — but that doesn't mean that the Odyssey team doesn't still have a story or two to tell.
In a new interview with Game Informer, producer Kenta Motokura and programmer Tatsuya Kurihara did just that. While the pair reiterated tales about the game's Switch 1 origins and its fancy voxel tech, they also confessed that the destructive power of one Bananza transformation in particular is perhaps a little bit overpowered.
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"I think we can agree the most destructive transformation is the Elephant Bananza, and honestly speaking, it probably went too far," Kurihara told GI, "But at the same time, it's fun, it feels good. And that's what matters most."
That balance between overpowered and fun to play sums the Elephant Bananza up nicely, we'd say. As anyone who has sampled its inhaling powers will know, this transformation is a complete game-changer when it comes to destruction — something particularly important in the post-credits game — and arguably makes digging up chunks of rock a little too easy as a consequence.
That said, it is undeniably fun (and has a banging theme tune to boot). "Our goal is to make playful destruction possible within the game," Motokura added, explaining that this is why DK has his transformation tools in his arsenal at all times, compared to something like a traditional Mario format, "where you have to encounter or have in your possession items to be able to transform."
And as for the elephant in the room, yes, the Bananza devs also noticed the animal's back-to-back appearances in Wonder and Bananza, though it was apparently "a complete coincidence". Motokura was never too worried about any gameplay overlap after seeing that the transformations were being used for very different purposes across both titles. "However, if they were vacuuming out blocks in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, I would have been a little bit worried," he added.
Overpowered or not, we couldn't deny how gosh-darn great DK and his Bananza transformations felt to play. "Whether it's smashing through the scenery with a Bananza Transformation or carefully planning a route to a hidden Banandium Gem," we said in our review, "you'll have trouble finding more originality and, crucially, more enjoyment from a platformer in recent years."