"Bananza wonderfully balances honoring its star’s various incarnations over the decades – with lovely nods to both Shigeru Miyamoto’s seminal arcade original and Rare’s classic Donkey Kong Country trilogy – while also fearlessly punching through a mountain to forge its own path."

And while Bananza ’s connection to recent Mario games like Super Mario Odyssey are made clear, there are still important unknowns to address — like how does Bananza connect, if at all, to the events of the Donkey Kong Country games and, more importantly, is this even worth expending brainpower on?

While Nintendo platforming fans will eat DK Bananza up, the open-ended nature of the game will appeal to a lot more than just a select niche.