Donkey Kong Bananza

Analysis and Review
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Not sure how many gamers we have here, but I’m almost done with DK: Bananza, which is being hailed for, among other things, its compelling story (compared to typical Nintendo, which isn’t a very high bar). Spoilers ahead !

Here’s a stab at some basics of the Storyform:

MC (Steadfast, Situation)–Donkey Kong finds himself caring for Pauline and hungry for more Bananas

IC (Changed, Fixed Attitude)–Pauline has a fixed belief that she can’t sing in front of people

OS (Activity)–Everyone is trying to get the Banandium Root

RS (Psychology)–DK and Pauline become best friends, allowing Pauline to overcome her fear and….DK to be a little less focused on bananas

Pauline is afraid of singing, and has to learn to believe in herself to unlock her true power (Start). DK is relentlessly supportive of her. His initial drive is purely the pursuit of bananas, but cuts that out (Stop), evolving into being Pauline’s hype man, essentially, realizing that her singing power is critical to the OS Goal (obtaining the Banandium Root and getting a wish).

There’s a funny moment at the beginning the story’s climax where the first Antagonist (Void Kong) tries to get her to sing, but she emphatically resists him. It’s a little awkward, I think, because her Driver is Start, and it doesn’t make much sense that she would suddenly decide to help him. That resolves quickly enough, and she is lucky faced with a much more sensible choice: sing to save DK, imprisoned in Stone, which will at the same time advance Void Kong’s desire to wake the Banandium Root. It turns out that this is a false dilemma–what they think is the Banandium Root is really a dormant King K. Rool. She chooses to sing, which both frees DK and sets the stage for the final conflict with K. Rool.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten–I imagine there will be a bit more story to wrap things up as the game ends. It’s definitely a cute tale, and they do a good (if basic) job of illustrating Pauline’s increasing confidence as the adventure progresses.

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Heard this was already game of the year! I know there are other gamers around here, so hopefully someone will chime back in.

1 Like
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WOW. Finished the story last night—what a finale.

With complete context now, there’s a couple interesting things to note. I had presumed that DK would somehow give up his wish in favor of Pauline’s—they only get one wish from the Banandium Root, so it was going to come down to DK’s “More bananas” and Pauline’s “To sing in front of everybody.” Because Pauline is the change character, I assumed the wish would go to her, as a reward/confirmation of her growth. But they do a very nice storytelling twist: she sees how much DK loves bananas at the end, and cedes the wish to him. This is a nice flourish because it actually does confirm her growth (she is self-confident now, secure in the knowledge she’ll have a chance to sing in the future) and confirms DK’s steadfast love of bananas. A very cute ending if ever there was one, to say nothing of the gameplay leading up to it.