Video game – Express test: this is the story of a gorilla that loved bananas too much

After a few weeks with a single big exclusivity to the clock (“Mario Kart World”), the very young Switch 2, enriches its catalog, this Thursday, July 17, with “Donkey Kong Bananza”, a three -dimensional platform game designed by the team behind “Super Mario Odyssee”, one of the flagship titles released on Nintendo Switch, first of the name.

To be honest, the Test code, provided by Nintendo, reached us on the night of Wednesday to Thursday. So here are our first impressions after a small handful of hours of play on the clock.

It all starts on the Lingot Island whose particularity is to be a deposit of giant golden bananas, completely fanciful commodity of which Donkey Kong is crazy. A cataclysm causes the burial of all the playing space underground, in multiple strata that the player will have to explore. The tie gorilla is particularly powerful, the game designers gave it the power to (almost) break everything, dig everything, smash everything. He will quickly find himself a partner, a young girl with a golden voice, named Pauline.

The first shock is graphic. “Bananza” is very rich and very generous on this side. We obviously took advantage of the increased calculation power of the new Mario machine to put your eyes full. This is particularly seen when Donkey explodes everything around him. One cannot help but think, however, that the chosen graphic charter is a little garish or even “gorillasque”, rather rude in its overload. Without reaching the balance or consistency of an “odyssee” or an “astro bot” (a competitor on PS5 which “bananza” makes us think a lot). Tastes and colors, you say.

Where “Donkey Kong Bananza” does not miss, is on the essentials, the gameplay. It is excellent whatever the chosen mode (either exploration with or without guide). The levels that we have been able to explore so far were rich in inventive mechanics and surprises. The good-child aspect specific to Nintendo productions responds to the call. We expected it without being disappointed. In any case, we admire the work.

At this point, we have never been inconvenienced by falls of framerate (i.e. number of images per second). If there were hiccups here and there, we did not notice it.

In summary, lovers of adventure-action-exploration in the world (semi) open will have for their money. We note, without having had the opportunity to experience it, the presence of a cooperation mode which allows a guest player (online or not) to join the epic. Otherwise, it’s solo.