Donkey Kong Bananza Hands-on Preview – Hands-on Preview
Picking bananas from the skill tree. Or rather skill column.
Yesterday’s Donkey Kong Bananza Direct revealed a great deal of the mechanics and story of Nintendo’s upcoming shakeup to the DK franchise. One specific mechanic of note was the inclusion of skill points that can be allocated to expand and improve DK’s moves and capabilities. Thanks to a demo available at my local Walmart, I was able to get a taste of the game and snap some quick photos of the initial options available in the skills menu.
Skills are accrued by collecting the main Golden Banana collectibles. Once enough of them are obtained, you gain skill points that can be spent on any skill available. It seems that this is not quite a branching skill tree, but rather skill columns in which any skill can be freely chosen. At least that’s the case in this isolated demo; time will tell to see how skills will be unlocked in the full game.
The skills seem to be segmented by columns corresponding to different categories. The first leftmost column expands DK’s meters and capacity for consumables, increasing things like health and the bananergy timer for longer-lasting bananza transformations. That bananergy upgrade is of special note since it is tagged specifically as a recommended upgrade.
The second column enhances the efficacy of DK’s base moveset by improving punching power and the range of the slap and sonar as well as providing new moves like a charge slap and spin jump.
Chunk-related moves make up the third column, such as chunk throwing and turf surfing. The last remaining available column enhances the Kong Bananza transformation’s capabilities.
Four locked columns make up the rest of the skill menu, presumably, at least two of them will enhance the Zebra Bananza and Ostrich Bananza transformations.
The last two however, still remain a mystery. Do these imply more Bananza transformations? Will Pauline get her own set of tools? Or does Donkey Kong Bananza have yet another trick up its sleeve? We’ll just have to wait till launch on July 17th to find out.
