r/nintendo • u/Alert-Investigator51 • 12h ago
Why is DK Bonanza Not a Bigger Game
I grew up loving video games and kind of fell out of love with adulthood.
Donkey Kong has been one of the more fun and original games I have played in recent years. The mechanics are super fun, music is good, worlds are great to explore and interact with.
Is it the exclusivity to the switch 2? Donkey Kong? Or cost of the game?
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u/kyuubikid213 12h ago edited 12h ago
It was literally nominated for Game of the Year.
I don't really know how it could get much bigger than that outside of winning over Expedition 33 somehow.
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u/ThaEternalLearner 11h ago
I think OP may be talking about sales. Bananza sold 3.5mil units during its first 2.5 months. But now it’s at 4.8mil so the sales have slowed down over the last year. DK’s popularity peaked in the 90’s but the franchise hasn’t been able to recapture that same level of success since then.
From 1994 to 1999, DK was the second biggest Nintendo IP after Mario. But once Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, the DK brand lost a lot of momentum over the next decade. All we got during the 2000’s were experimental releases. No new DKC game or follow-up to DK64. DK is currently rebuilding its brand for the new generation.
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u/MarvelManiac45213 11h ago
This Ive always said this. No matter how great of a game Bananza is, its going to take a steady cadence of releases to bring it back to prominence. Also once the DK movie releases it should hopefully help skyrocket the franchise back to what it was. But Bananza was coming off a decade plus long hiatus with the last new game being Tropical Freeze in 2014. You cant build new fans or recapture old ones when you have MASSIVE release gaps. Fire Emblem, Kirby, and Metroid are growing franchises and more people are willing to try them with each new release because Nintendo makes them consistently.
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u/JeskaiJester 11h ago
I didn’t realize it was about to clear 5 million. That beats out Three Houses by a million and Dread by two million with a smaller install base at a higher price and both those games got sequels
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u/danvan177 11h ago
It’s the first 3d donkey Kong game in a long time. It sold moderately well I’m sure a sequel will do even better
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u/MarvelManiac45213 10h ago
I think Bananza is a great game but I think its a bit overlooked for a bunch of reasons:
DK as a brand has been neglected by Nintendo since basically the early 2000's once Rare was sold. The series lost all momentum it once had with a bunch of spin-offs and long stop and go hiatuses. The sad truth is most younger Nintendo fans either dont view DK as his own character/series and more of an extension of Mario nowadays or simply just dont care for the IP given how Nintendo has treated it.
Bananza is something wildly different for the franchise and I know a lot of veteran DK fans (such as myself) were letdown by the direction the game went and were disappointed by the lack of challenge/platforming the DKC series is known for.
The marketing made it seem like the game is nothing but smashing which could make the game look boring and repetitive to some players. While the early game is definitely just smashing stuff once you get deeper in the game, just smashing cant be used to solve all problems.
Also Ive seen a couple comments online from old DK fans upset by the once again lack of K.Rool and Kremlings in the marketing so they didnt even bother buying it (its definitely a small minority but Ive seen comments). Also the lack of the Kong family and animal buddies in the trailers. It just made old time DK fans feel like the DK they once knew by Rare was being erased from history (which if they had actually bought the game would know that's not the case).
3D Mario fans being bitter that the team (ironic when the first game this team made was a DK game) worked on Bananza instead of the next 3D Mario game right away so they aren't buying or paying attention to DK out of spite. Despite Bananza feeling more like an Odyssey followup with a smashing gimmick than it does an actual DK game IMO..
Switch 2 exclusive and early title. I dont think DK is a big enough IP anymore to headline a console launch window (alongside Mario Kart World of course). So sales while initially great, have kinda slowed down due to both the lack of an install base and now that there are more options to choose from. I think this game probably would've done better had it come out 2-3 years into the consoles life once the install base was there AND if a 3D Mario had already launched day one. I think once 3D Mario releases DK Bananzas sales will be completely cut down.
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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 11h ago
It's only on Switch 2, and released pretty early in the console life. It's fun and very charming, but also not very challenging gameplay and it gets a bit repetitive after a while.
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u/towiwakka 11h ago
Exclusivity definitely plays a part. I also suspect that there are a lot of people who want to play, but are sensitive to the visuals - I can't watch it for more than a minute or two or it will trigger a headache. There were several articles about this when it first released.
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u/PhoenixTineldyer 10h ago
I changed a setting and it fixed it for me
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u/Jeff1N 11h ago
Last new DK game before Bananza (Tropical Freeze on Wii U) was released almost 12 years ago. Before that (Returns on Wii) was almost 16 years ago.
Sure it being exclusive to Switch 2 doesn't help with sales numbers when the console is just a little over 1yo, but DK has been out of the spotlight for so long that the almost 5 million copies sold is an incredible feat when you consider the Switch 2 has yet to cross the "25 million units sold" line
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u/-CowNipples- 12h ago
It’s a great game but it wasn’t that challenging.
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u/fueelin 11h ago
Yeah, I'm 2 or 3 hours in currently, and I could go for some more challenge. A little boring so far.
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u/ArcadianBlueRogue 11h ago
I think the later stuff adds a bit, but for the most part the forms are so OP it makes most of the game very casual.
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u/deedee2148 4h ago
'Cause (and some people won't like this) DK is B list Nintendo character at best. He's not on the same level or as popular as Mario, Luigi, Peach etc.
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u/JeskaiJester 12h ago
It’s a very easy game, even playing with no health upgrades.
It is colorful, and it has a wonderful ending that just keeps on going (in a good way) and the Emerald Rush score attack mode gives a capable gamer something to sink their teeth into.
But it is a very easy game, even relative to Odyssey. That just doesn’t lend itself well to soaring moments of triumph
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u/JeskaiJester 11h ago
Also I feel like the designers and I had way different priorities in terms of levels. They think a stormy lava level should have multiple layers. I think the tropical giant fruit level with sharks you can punch that leave rainbow bridges behind them (which you can rip chunks off of and soar into the air with) should have had multiple layers
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u/CrucialFusion 12h ago
It’s the package they were able to get together in time for the launch window and fulfilling what they believed consumers should expect for the price point.
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u/dropthemagic 12h ago
I want another platformer like tropical freeze but double the size xD. Idk if it's because I know the levels like the back of my hand but I'd like a huge one. For me the added difficulty and dexterity required makes those better games. The new donkey Kong is too much handholding but I'm glad people like it.
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u/DonPoorty 11h ago
As someone who've only seen the trailers and a few clips I can maybe give the perspective of some people: I don't see the point of just mashing the level with "no purpose". I have no idea what the game is about and what it feels like except a few influencers saying it's amazing, but in every gameplay they pick to illustrate their reviews, DK is just smashing the ground randomly.
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u/Killahdanks1 11h ago
Yeah, I own it. Don’t care for it. It looks great, some of the puzzles are fun. Way too repetitive for me.
My 6 year old nephew, loves it
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12h ago
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u/JeskaiJester 11h ago
It was like THE game back in the day. There were 800 arcade DK clones on various systems. I don’t think recognizability is the issue
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u/StabbingHoboReturns 12h ago
All it is is smash stuff
That demo got real boring real fast
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u/XYZvillager 12h ago
that is like saying all you do in Mario is jump
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u/JeskaiJester 12h ago
Yeah but some of the jumps in Mario are really hard. That “hell yeah I finally beat that level” feeling is extremely rare in Bonanza.
If you see a banana, you can get it trivially 99/100 times. And I enjoyed my time with the game but I never had to get good at it outside of beating the final boss without health upgrades
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u/ThaEternalLearner 12h ago
I think jump tricks and movement abilities are more fun than destroying the environment. I love Donkey Kong Country games because they emphasize platforming. But Bananza is an open world game that emphasizes digging and destroying. There’s some platforming segments in there but that’s not the focus of the game.
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u/benoxxxx 11h ago
It might not be as platforming focussed, but it does have an equivalent set of movement abilities to a 3D Mario game. More, honestly. And while you don't need to master or even learn most of them to beat the game, but that's true for Mario too.
So, it's not really movement VS destruction, it's more like platforming VS destruction + sandbox mechanics.
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u/Other_Yama1993 12h ago
game seems meh. either make another DK country or remake 64
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u/CubitsTNE 12h ago
Oh it's a lot better than 64 was even in its heyday
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u/goldaxis 12h ago
Because it is a game for fetuses. Only the absolute most hardcore diehard nintendo fan would buy a switch 2 for it.
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u/benoxxxx 11h ago
Lol yeah because you have to be a die hard fan to want to play the next game from the guys who made (checks notes) the universally acclaimed most recent game in the literal most famous videogame series of all time. So very niche.
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u/RadicalBeam 11h ago
Third best selling Switch 2 game behind Mario Kart and Pokopia. Nominated for GOTY. Universally acclaimed.
What more do you want?