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DONKEY KONG BANANZA
Edge UK
|July 2025
While he’s technically the oldest headliner in Nintendo's roster, you do sometimes get the sense that Donkey Kong's maker hasn’t always been sure what to do with him.
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Here's a character who has often been farmed out to western studios, and hasn’t had a new title to call his own for over a decade. As Bananza brings him back into the fold at last, it's worth paying attention to the way Nintendo chooses to reintroduce the big ape.
The screen is black but for a few cracks letting through the light, and a simple instruction: Press Y to punch. We do as instructed and the cracks grow, revealing a dusty silhouette, before DK steps forward to show off his new look, a goofily expressive take on the character that rounds off his sharper edges. But note that first interaction - because Bananza feels like a game designed from the fists outwards.
This story is from the July 2025 edition of Edge UK.
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