Topic: Donkey Kong Bananza

@Hapless
The completionism was mostly enjoyable. I hope you can finish everything, if you want to.

So I had a thought, did anyone else notice that the Bananza transformations seem to be very similar to Animal Buddy abilities? I'm kinda wondering if they initially planned to bring back Animal Buddies for this game and then they decided to change them into Bananzas. I mean three of the Bananzas are the exact same species as past Animal Buddies and the abilities would fit those respective Animal Buddies very well (Ostrich = Expresso, Elephant = Ellie, and Snake = Rattly), and you could say that the abilities used for Kong and Zebra could work for Rambi (i.e. Rambi could break concrete like Kong and dash like Zebra). We really haven't seen Animal Buddies since the original trilogy and it's kind of a shame they had the groundwork but didn't quite bring them back, because the Bananza Transformations are a bit weirder and annoyingly limited. It'd be nice if they could do this in a sequel. We don't quite have an appropriate ability for Enguarde, but that should be easy enough, DK can't swim in this game so they just need to get swimming mechanics working and then Enguarde could also have the advantage of carrying chunks underwater (since DK probably can't do that since he needs both hands to swim), he could have a mechanic where if he charges into terrain, he skewers it onto his horn like a kebab and then he can use the chunk as a shield or charge into terrain or an enemy to attack with it, that would probably work with well with the terrain mechanics. I'd also really like them to bring back Squitter, but I'm not entirely sure how they could make Squitter's abilities work with the terrain mechanics. He could definitely destroy chunks and create terrain platforms with his webs, but I'm not sure how he could use terrain properties in his gameplay. I do like Kong Bananza as a superpowered state for DK's normal gameplay, but the others kinda feel like they would be better if they just brought back Animal Buddies.

im at the tempest layer currently, and i have collected every banana and fossil in previous layers! i think im halfway through! i have a question tho, im trying to 100% it and get the three stars on my on my save file. obviously you have to get every banana, fossil, and disc, but what else? do you have to get every getaway? every skill on the tree? i hate to even suggest it, but do i have to complete are certain amount of Smashin Stats 😨😨😨

I have to say, I’m pleasantly surprised with how much of this game they managed to keep under wraps. Like…. most games these days seem to launch with people already mostly knowing what’s in it one way or another. And they even had the Direct for it.

But I’m pretty close to the end, and I’m still getting surprises in the gameplay and stuff. It’s refreshing!

@rallydefault I remember Odyssey showed off basically every world, so I was concerned this game would t have that many levels based on the trailers and their size, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Y'all finishing off this hundred percent is gonna be brutal lol. But I'm too far in at this point.

@Bigmanfan
I’m almost at the end of the story (I think), but this is definitely gonna be a “loop back later” kinda game for me to 100% lol

Good luck!

@Hapless There are some good YouTube guides on this.

IIRC the approach that worked for me is go ape w/ Kong on the bottom floor, speed through the next floor as quick as possible w/ Zebra, and then smash through the final two walls at the top w/ Kong.

The timing is tight but achievable enough is you know what you're doing.

How do you guys use your skill points? I been focusing almost all on health, leveled up to 8 hearts plus an extra room for the apple health drink. Currently in ice world, 500 layer. I chose to focus on health due to past experiences with DK games although I understand this game is much easier.

@Don
I think I was around layer 500-700, when I had more than 20 extra skill points. There was just no skill I needed, so I saved my points for later. Later I used them for health and health drink.

The game is easy for the most part, but when you fall in lava or something like this and there is no easy way out, more health and drinks can save you. On the other hand it is probably cheaper to die and pay the price. Maybe teleporting helps in these scenarios, never tried it.

Extra health and drinks definitely come in handy in the post-game content.

@Hapless
Nice!

I did elephant on the floors right up until the last one where I went Kong. Took me a few tries, too.

@Hapless
I just rolled credits, too! Such an awesome game. The ending was insane lol

Gonna take a break for a bit, but I’ll be coming back to 100% it for sure.

@rallydefault I just got to the forbidden layer. Ill grab some of the easier bananas and follow the main story for the most part. About how much longer would you say i have?

@NintendoByNature you’re very close to the end. About another hour or maybe two max depending on if you struggle near the end

@SplatRay001 good to know. I may try to power through tonight.

@NintendoByNature
Yea, not long. Though the last fight itself is pretty long, much longer than Odyssey's and anything else in recent memory.

@rallydefault I finished last night. It was wildly long. And I died quite a bit. Only time I had to look up what I was doing wrong and finally beat him.

@NintendoByNature
Yea, it’s a doozy but it’s cool. The part that threw me off a bit was actually the “elevator” section. Couldn’t figure out what to do for a bit lol

@rallydefault surprisingly, I got that in one shot. It was the part just before the elevator section that I died about 8 times on. I was getting so frustrated! Overall, solid 8.5-9/10 game. I just feel like it overstayed a little too long. If it kept itself to a 10-15hr experience it may have been a little better imo and a 10/10. I think i clocked in at 30hrs.

@NintendoByNature
Oh man, I completely agree on the time thing! I feel like it overstays a bit after the eel layer. I was having fun, but honestly after dropping through more layers I started to ask myself "Another one? Really?" lol