Category: Video Games

So, I hear you want a new 3D Mario. If that means you’re looking for a console-defining platformer with satisfying, expressive movement, innovative mechanics that constantly grow and evolve, and expertly crafted challenges that unleash the interactive potential between said movement and mechanics, then I’m beyond thrilled to share that Donkey Kong Bananza is all of that and so much more. Bananza is no mere “side project” from the team behind Super Mario Odyssey – it’s a brilliant successor to that masterpiece, a tremendous reinvention for one of Nintendo’s original mascots, and a groundbreaking adventure in every sense of the word.

Every breakable corner of DK’s world (which is most of them) is bursting with timeless Nintendo magic and equally fresh ambition. 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. It also tells a light, sweet story about DK and his spirited sidekick Pauline pursuing an underground legend that will allegedly grant them one wish (Pauline hopes to return home, and DK just wants more bananas, of course), and the deeper the pair dives toward the Planet Core, the deeper the gameplay becomes. Bananza is a constant crescendo across its 20-hour campaign that hits its pinnacle with an unforgettable finale that cements this as one of the best 3D platformers I’ve ever played.

Nintendo builds each new 3D Mario around one big idea: Sunshine’s water pack, Odyssey’s body-snatching hat, and so on. Mario is nowhere to be seen here but, in that same tradition, Bananza’s fully destructible environments suit a hulking, rampaging gorilla far better than the Mushroom Kingdom’s usual leading man, and this exciting concept is truly fit for a Kong. Practically everything in this world is designed for Donkey Kong to punch and break, and the extent to which Bananza commits to letting you tear through its environment is both technically impressive and a ton of fun. It’s refreshing to experience a Nintendo 3D platformer with an almost completely new toolkit, and DK’s set of abilities is endlessly enjoyable and fulfilling to pull off. Donkey Kong is powerful, and that’s regularly reflected across his moves.

The simple action of tearing a chunk from the ground – which you can do almost anywhere – leads to so many dynamic possibilities: DK can hurl it at airborne enemies, swing it to break through walls, bounce off it to double jump, or surf on it to get around faster and safely cross dangerous terrain. When he’s empty-handed he can punch in any direction, slap the ground to instantly gather loose gold and reveal nearby collectibles, and perform a satisfying roll-jump-roll combo cut from the same cloth as Mario throwing Cappy and bouncing off him for distance. Plus, he takes a page out of Link’s book and can climb basically any non-slippery surface, granting an extra sense of freedom to the entire journey.

Crunchy sound effects that change depending on the material DK’s interacting with make it even more entertaining to wreck stuff – like the loud crumble of breaking down a sturdy wall of stone, or the juicy splash of tearing into a watermelon. The controls for doing all of this are so polished, and when you chain together a combo (like tearing a chunk out of the ground, smacking it into an enemy to weaken them, and slamming into it with a roll to finish the job) everything sings together in perfect harmony.

To slightly misquote Shrek, Bananza is like an onion – its levels are called layers, and each one is a sprawling playground constructed to maximize the potential of DK’s destructive abilities. There’s so much to find both on their surfaces and tucked away in hidden caves and tunnels you find by bashing your way through the environment. But Bananza rarely relies on mindless destruction for the sake of it, so you almost never have to stumble onto random discoveries just by beating the snot out of everything. Instead, it excels at rewarding discoveries by way of smart destruction, and it’s remarkable how intentional and well-designed its dense, vertical layers are. Visual cues masterfully draw your eye to areas worth exploring, similar to how veteran Zelda players know to place a bomb in front of any suspicious crack. See a tantalizing gold piece or fossil embedded in the wall? Chuck an explosive Boom Rock at it and there’s a good chance you’ll reveal a new path to explore.

Sure, the open-world nature of these maps means you can occasionally happen upon a collectible by skipping the intended puzzle entirely and just carving a tunnel straight to it. In my experience as I played naturally, though, it didn’t happen that often, and it fits in with modern Nintendo trends seen in games like Tears of the Kingdom where the designers don’t care how you get from point A to point B as long as you have fun doing it. On the other hand, there are limits to that freedom: Bananza smartly walls off most of its main objectives behind terrain the nefarious Void Kong has turned indestructible in order to force you to go through the proper steps of the story, so it’s not like DK can just punch his way straight down to the end credits. That said, I can’t wait to see how speedrunners will find ways to optimize their routes through different levels – I’m sure there are some crazy demolition techniques and shortcuts waiting to be found.

What’s interesting about how the world and objectives are designed is that Bananza isn’t really about destroying everything. Instead, it’s about exploring, platforming, fighting, and collecting in a vast world where you can destroy everything, which is an important distinction. It never feels like a gimmick or the only tool you have to solve every problem, but rather one integral part of Bananza’s larger game design philosophy. I was rarely asked to create random tunnels underground with no guidance like you might in Minecraft, and DK’s upgradeable sonar ability helped me find buried collectibles hidden to the naked eye. And, Pauline helps out with the search, too, as using her singing ability reveals waypoints to collectibles marked on your map, making it easy to pick your next destination. That keeps the hunt for completion focused and fun, even if the camera occasionally struggles with the weird angles you force it into when digging yourself a nice hole. Of course, if you want to rip an entire level down to the studs for the fun of it, you can do that, too.

Romping around the sublevels hunting for treasure is a blast, and the fact that I still felt totally in control of the action even with so much fast-paced chaos unfolding on screen at any given time is an impressive feat. I love how the world crumbles around DK when I’m on a rampage: it makes everything feel more alive and really sells the weight and heft of this character, like the way he leaves a crater when crash landing after a high jump off a cliff (there’s no fall damage, naturally). To some extent, it’s made returning to past Mario games feel less dynamic in comparison – what do you mean Mario’s ground-pound doesn’t shatter the terrain around him?

There was some pre-launch concern that the world’s malleable nature might leave each layer feeling like a palette swap of one big underground region, but fortunately, that’s not the case. Every world has something unique to offer both visually and mechanically, from the Freezer Layer’s icicles you have to knock down to create platforms, to the Resort Layer’s tropical vibes and Liftoff Ore that sends DK soaring into the sky when you grab a chunk of it.

And Bananza never stops pulling fresh ideas right off the vine over its 20+ hours. Without spoiling anything, I was stunned at the ingenuity on display as I dove to some of its deeper, late-game layers. There are tons of different material types that make up the world, and there are set rules to how they all interact with each other. A simple example is how throwing ice onto lava creates a hardened rock platform, but the chemistry and interplay between different elements gets more complex as you progress, and learning these relationships and using your knowledge of them to solve increasingly smart puzzles is supremely gratifying.

Those puzzles are often found in standalone challenge rooms, the entrances to which are scattered across each layer. There’s a nicely curated mix of fights, logic puzzles, and platforming sequences that offer a welcome change of pace from the open-ended, explorable layers themselves, and I was consistently impressed with how the challenges take full advantage of the systems Nintendo built for Bananza. After more than 50 hours, I’m still finding new challenge rooms that mix and match enemies, materials, and abilities in brand-new ways. Some of the best examples are sections of blue and pink slime that are inverses of each other: If the blue slime section is completely full, its pink counterpart is totally empty; destroying part of the blue slime fills in the matching part of the pink slime area. Bananza builds several brilliant puzzles off this one idea, and gets similar mileage out of every toy in its toybox. It’s astonishing how frequently I discovered clever challenges that forced me to think about something I’d already seen before in a new way.

On its own, exploration is gratifying, but it helps that there are great rewards for finding Bananza’s heaps of collectibles as well. Fossils are used to buy region-specific outfits that add different perks to DK and Pauline – like increasing your chances of finding a treasure chest – and it’s also just fun to give them both a fresh look. You’ll also collect mountains of gold, and while I was swimming in cash for the first several hours, I eventually had to pay for some optional content that ran my wallet dry. Trust me when I say collecting as much gold as you can will be worth it in the end.

Of course, the main collectible in Bananza is its Banandium Gems, which are comparable to Odyssey’s Power Moons in that they’re plentifully stashed around the levels in places that are often challenging to reach. Unlike Odyssey, though, Bananza doesn’t require you to gather a certain number of Gems before moving onto the next area. Instead, the main story relies on its own linear set of objectives (which often reward you with Gems anyways), while collecting five earns DK a skill point which can be used to upgrade his health, moves, and Bananza transformations. The skill tree doesn’t have a ton of surprises that’ll radically change your playstyle, but it’s nice knowing that grabbing a Gem is always working toward a specific short-term goal, whereas Odyssey’s Moons didn’t really serve a purpose after the credits rolled other than unlocking the far-off final challenge or for the simple sake of being a completionist.

There are tons of Gems to find. I had found literally hundreds by the time I cleared the main story after 20 hours, I’ve spent 30 additional hours collecting hundreds more, and likely have double-digit hours left to reach 100% completion. Going for 100% is a massive undertaking, but with how enjoyable Bananza is to play, I’m not slowing down until I’ve collected every last one. And, unlike Mario Kart World’s lackluster Free Roam map, it’s easy to track your progress this time with a helpful list of your Gems in each layer and a really cool 3D map that accurately reflects the current state of the terrain you’ve destroyed.

Unfortunately, that map does occasionally suffer from minor framerate drops, as does the rest of Bananza. The action generally stays at a solid 60 fps both while docked on the TV and when playing handheld, but it can briefly dip below that when you’re going crazy with the destruction or when you first drop into a brand new level. It’s not great that we’re already talking about performance issues on Nintendo’s brand new console, but it’s never too noticeable or distracting, either. It’s easier to forgive the occasional dropped frame when it’s because so much beautiful chaos is happening at once, and the ambition of this fully interactable, destructible world is definitely worth that tradeoff.

Bananza really does look great, with amazing, expressive animations for DK himself and colorfully detailed environments, NPCs, and enemies. It also constantly pulls inspiration from DK history, such as the opening level being littered with fallen girders from the original Donkey Kong arcade game and sidescrolling segments that reference classic Donkey Kong Country levels, including a lovely new arrangement of Stickerbush Symphony that’s just one tune in Bananza’s awesome soundtrack. This may be from the 3D Mario team, but Bananza regularly pays respects to all of DK history and, at times, feels like a modern follow-up to Rare’s golden era from the SNES and N64. Even the friendly rocks with googly eyes look as if they were plucked right from Banjo-Kazooie.

Some of the flashiest moments happen during DK’s Bananza transformations: a variety of powered-up, time-limited states that are unlocked as you progress deeper into the planet. Kong Bananza is essentially a souped-up version of DK himself who can disintegrate the harder materials you’d usually need a Boom Rock to break through. Zebra Bananza is all about speed, where you can run over terrain that would crumble underneath DK’s ordinary giant feet, while Ostrich Bananza lets you glide through the air. The character design is hilarious, and each Bananza is accompanied by a catchy tune performed by Pauline, so it’s always fun to mutate into one of these fierce forms. They all feel fleshed out and great to control, and even better, you can instantly swap between the Bananza transformations when you’re in the powered-up state, giving you even more flexibility in how you want to tackle challenges.

If I had to say something critical about the Bananza powers, it’s that sometimes they’re too powerful. You can only enter a Bananza if you have enough Bananergy, which is a meter filled by collecting gold, so in theory, the Bananzas should be somewhat limited. However, gold is so plentiful that you’ll pretty much always earn enough Bananergy to transform almost immediately after spending it. This can sometimes trivialize otherwise interesting puzzles in the overworld – for example, if there’s a Gem surrounded by poison water and the “intended” route involves creating your own path to it using vines, you can instead just skip the whole challenge by gliding to it as Ostrich Bananza. That’s admittedly still a real solution that fits in with Nintendo’s recent love of designing puzzles where any answer that works is a correct one, but having that power so readily available can feel cheap compared to the fun actually figuring an obstacle out. I was usually able to restrain myself from using the most streamlined options Bananzas sometimes provided, but if you’re someone who was unable to resist relying on Tears of the Kingdom’s convenient-but-boring hoverbike, I could see them being a dangerous temptation.

The sheer power of Bananzas also come into play during the boss battles, which are cool but pretty easy for the most part. The decision to give the big bads a traditional health bar instead of using the “expose the weak spot, hit it, and repeat three times” Mario template fits DK’s brawler-focused style perfectly. Still, thanks to the Bananza powers, that meant I defeated some of newcomer Grumpy Kong’s earlier creations in less than 30 seconds. The bosses all have exciting designs and are very fun to look at, like a giant stone squid made up of dozens of smaller squids that feels clearly inspired by Splatoon, so I would have liked if they had been able to take a few more punches before being ground into the dirt. That said, it does eventually right the ship: some of the late-game bosses put up much more of a fight, so I had few complaints on that front by the end.

Even so, it’s fairly simple to reach the end credits of Bananza if that’s all you’re looking to do. As with most Nintendo games, much of the enjoyment comes from surprise, delight, and poking around for secrets rather than white-knuckle difficulty. That’s not a complaint, given how fantastic the mechanics are and how many optional challenges Bananza presents off the beaten path for veteran players. For example, the platform challenge rooms each hold three Gems within. One is usually not that tough to reach, but the other two are often hidden in shrewd places you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled to spot. It strikes a great balance where most people should be able to get to the end of the story (especially since there’s an optional Assist Mode that increases DK’s health if needed, and a two-player mode great for letting younger players help out by firing Pauline’s vocal projectiles using the Switch 2 Joy-Con’s mouse controls) while still offering plenty to keep hardcore fans entertained. And the gloves truly come off during the post-game content, which continues to push the mechanics in more extreme, exciting ways.

Bungie has confirmed it is “actively re-recording” some of the dialogue in Destiny 2 to restore the voices of characters like Vanguard Ikora Rey.

With the launch of The Edge of Fate, the first expansion in the Year of Prophecy content lineup, fans noticed Ikora Rey, originally voiced by Gina Torres, sounded a lot like Savathun from The Witch Queen. That’s because Ikora Rey’s most recent voice actor was replaced by Debra Wilson, who plays Savathun.

In its defense, Bungie did notify players that changes would be coming for the English casting of Orin, Chioma, and Ikora back in May, but yesterday (July 15) confirmed that while the voice cast had initially been “unavailable to record lines for The Edge of Fate,” it was now “actively re-recording lines for affected characters.” There’s no firm date for when this will happen, but Bungie said it was “aiming for a future update.”

Until then, players will continue to bump into unfamiliar “temporary” voices, or even encounter silent characters. In those instances, much like Destiny 2: Heresy, subtitles for story content will be enabled.

Though Bungie didn’t explicitly reference the SAG-AFTRA game performers’ strike, it did acknowledge there had been “conflicts” and these had now “been resolved,” which just-so-happens to coincide with SAG-AFTRA suspending its strike over AI protections. The SAG-AFTRA strike was instigated back in July 2024 after the union and the major game companies — Activision, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions, and WB Games — that sit on the board failed to agree on AI provisions. Over 98% of members subsequently voted to strike.

Bungie recently unveiled what’s coming up in Destiny 2, including two new expansions and major seasonal and core game updates coming for both paying and free players, all badged under the “Year of Prophecy.” Year of Prophecy is the first year to boast four “major content beats,” with two paid expansions and two major updates. The former is paid content while the latter will be available to all players.

Of course, Destiny isn’t the only franchise Bungie is working on. The studio announced its Marathon reboot in May 2023. Trouble arose with the launch of its alpha test, however, along with controversy centered on plagiarized work that had been discovered in Marathon itself. Many have begun to discuss how the impending game launch could impact the future of the studio forever. Last month, however, Bungie said it was delaying Marathon indefinitely due to “strong and clear” feedback from players.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Switch 2 owners will be able to take upcoming Nintendo exclusive Drag x Drive for a test run next month — but only with an active Switch Online subscription.

This morning, Nintendo confirmed a two-day Drag x Drive “Global Jam” event on August 9 and 10, the weekend before the game’s August 14 arrival.

To date, Nintendo has said surprisingly little about Drag x Drive, which is set to follow Donkey Kong Bananza as the company’s next Switch 2 exclusive. A multiplayer sports game with mouse controls, the game has only been briefly glimpsed so far — despite it launching in less than a month.

“Eager to hit the court in Drag x Drive? Get a sneak peek with the Drag x Drive: Global Jam demo event!” Nintendo wrote today, announcing the game’s upcoming public trial. “This event takes place on August 9 and 10, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 for Nintendo Switch Online members.”

If you’re interested, you’ll be able to download and try the game’s Global Jam demo between 3am and 7am Pacific, then 5pm and 9pm Pacific on August 9, plus 9am and 1pm Pacific on August 10.

While Drag x Drive is a multiplayer-focused experience, some fans have said it is surprising to see the game’s demo limited to those with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. There is no local multiplayer option within the game, Nintendo has previously noted, but surely the company would want this demo to be available to as large a Switch 2 audience as possible?

Eager to hit the court in Drag x Drive? Get a sneak peek with the Drag x Drive: Global Jam demo event!

This event takes place on Aug 9 and 10, exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 for Nintendo Switch Online members. pic.twitter.com/1OVNAHdC3u

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) July 16, 2025

A previous demo for the game, available to play as part of the Switch 2’s in-person pre-release events, revealed Drag x Drive to be a three-versus-three sports title with gameplay similar to wheelchair basketball. Players must propel themselves across the game’s neon courts and perform a throwing action in order to pass the ball, or shoot it at a basketball hoop.

Exactly which modes will be available in the full game, or indeed this Global Jam offering, remain to be seen. Nintendo has however said that Drag x Drive will be a budget price release, costing $19.99 / £16.99, and an eShop-only digital title.

Before all that, Nintendo’s blockbuster Donkey Kong Bananza is due to arrive later this week. Yesterday, Nintendo gave fans a rare peek behind its development curtain with a glimpse at how the game would have looked on Switch 1.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Within 20 minutes of implementing unpopular changes to the violence and nudity in VOID Interactive’s shooter Ready or Not, a mod was available to retcon the changes.

Yesterday (July 15), VOID Interactive proceeded with changes introduced to controversial shooter Ready or Not despite widespread condemnation from fans who believe the developer is “censoring” the game’s gore and violence by “appeasing console market regulators.”

VOID said it had to adjust levels of gore, nudity, violence, and the “mistreatment of children” ahead of the July 15 console release, and rather than “maintaining multiple versions with different assets and mechanics” that would “increase the likelihood of bugs,” some aspects of the PC version have also been revised. At the time, VOID insisted the changes were “small enough that most people here wouldn’t notice if we didn’t say anything,” but it “wanted to be transparent” with its players. Players disagreed, and the news caused Ready or Not’s Steam user review rating to plummet to “mostly negative” for recent reviews.

The mod — which says it “reverts (to the best extent we can) the high profile ‘censorship’ changes to [Ready or Not] caused by the Los Sueños Stories/Console update” — restores the ability to dismember dead people, strips clothing from some in-game character, and rolls back other changes made by the developer to satisfy console makers as the game finally jumped from PC to Xbox Series X and S and PS5.

“All ‘Uncensored’ files are either reused files (from the Dark Waters version of the game, and may also be modified slightly) or modified files of the current version, both originally made by VOID Interactive,” mod creator Eman734 wrote.

“We do not claim to be their original authors and do not claim to have legal ownership or IP rights. VOID Interactive retains legal/IP rights to their assets, and we will comply with any takedown request (though they have stated they do not have intention of doing so).”

The mod has been downloaded almost 7,000 times since it launched yesterday, and racked up 78 endorsements.

VOID Interactive responded to player backlash after it made changes to the PC version of its controversial shooter Ready or Not in order to secure a console release, citing “misconceptions and misinformation” about the amendments, but it was not enough to curb player ire.

It’s not the first time VOID Interactive has courted controversy. It parted ways with its original publisher, Team17, one day after the developer shared it would have a school shooting level. Ready or Not was also briefly hauled offline in 2022 after a takedown request was issued due to a trademark dispute. The issue related to a level that depicted a mass shooting at a nightclub called Prysm, which was released on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.