Get Played - We Play, You Play: Donkey Kong Bananza

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Oh, Banana! Heather, Nick and Matt discuss the Nintendo Switch 2 3D platformer Donkey Kong Bananza!Check out our brand new merch at kinshipgoods.com/getplayed Follow us on social media @getplayedpod Music by Ben Prunty benpruntymusic.com Art by Duck Brigade duckbrigade.com For ad-free main feed episodes, our complete back catalogue including How Did This Get Played? and our Premium DLC episodes and our exclusive show Get Anime'd where we're currently watching Redline go to patreon.com/getplayed Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Advertise on Get Played via Gumball.fmAll of our links can be found at linktree.com/getplayedpodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a Headgum podcast. Sometimes it's that simple We take naps and shelters and oh banana As we play, you play GOTY candidate Donkey Kong Bonanza This week on Get Played This week on Get Played

Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between, it's time to get played. I'm your host, HAC, along with my fellow host, Tiger Weiger. That's me, Tiger Weiger, along with our third host, Mr. Games himself, Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premier video game podcast for this week. We're getting right to it. The game. The legend.

the myth the man the monkey himself DK Donkey Kong DK Donkey Kong is here I have a quote

from him I'd like to read real quick Yeah please Ooh uh Ah Pretty good I mean

You know I can't sit up ever myself Stage words I've also got a quote from him Is that The rate in which he does consume I think he's eating the peel.

I think he's eating the peel. Does that hurt? To eat the peel? Does that hurt you? Is it like an orange rind? I've eaten a peel. Oh, no. It's all starting to make sense.

I was playing a character and a sketch, and I ate a whole banana. At least you did it in the name of comedy. Someone had to me a banana. I was kind of like a feral creature and just ate the whole thing about feeling it. How did it go over in the room? People liked it. In the room, this was a pitch in your mind. Yeah, I don't think we're going to do that.

I don't know if you should do it. No, but I'm halfway done eating it. I'm getting to the stick part. It's the stick. The feel is actually really good for you. Is it really? It contains fiber, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium. Only people who should avoid them are those with latex allergies.

Wow, okay. Interesting. What the hell? Yeah, I mean, I've got one of those. Yeah, uh, yeah, trust me, me neither, brother. I'm producer, Michelle Chan, Ranch. Uh, yeah, where do you, where do bananas go in your fruit tier list? They're pretty low unless they're like, in something.

Wow. Whoa! Like a smoothie. Wow. You're talking like a C tier, maybe? I think a C tier. Wow. I don't grab a banana if I see one.

What the fuck? Like a day, I mean, this is heresy on the, the Donkey Kong bananas episode, but I, I, yeah, maybe we should, maybe we should cut this. You can come after ranch. Just free to speak her mind. I'm like a daily banana guy. Me too. Like, I'm usually like bringing one of them things. Like, I can practically use a holster for it.

I'm, man. Thank, if somebody saw a holster on your hip and then saw it was a banana in there, they'd be like, thank God. But then also be like, somehow he's still going to do a shit. there would be three stages it would be like holy shit oh thank god what the fuck it's like very clearly a gun holster that means there's a gun somewhere you have to buy them put together I'm aspirationally a banana a day guy I feel like I get a bunch of bananas and then I'll eat a few of them and then I'll probably do like three days in a row and be like I'm killing it with this banana a day thing.

And then the other bananas in the bunch will become spoiled because I'll have neglected them after some time. Right. I love metrics. You know, I've got both the aura ring and the Apple Watch on me 24-7. And I have, like, the data to prove

that eating a banana before bedtime helps me receive, on average, 15 more minutes of sleep per night. That's wild. So I'm eating a banana at 8 p.m. for it to be in my digestive system and processing by the time I go to bed. Now, so are you eating

are you eating the banana in bed and then just like tossing the peel on the floor? Because I'd be really careful. I'm not getting in bed at 8 p.m. I'm eating the banana at 8 p.m. What's the latest you'll eat something? I try not to ever eat anything after 9 p.m. Okay.

Because I'm like, if I had not eaten dinner by like 8, I start to get really cranky actually And it becomes a bit of a problem. I get a little mad. I like to eat pretty early. I also try to have a cut off. I definitely can't eat after a midnight because then I transform. Yeah, that's tough.

That's really tough too. And it's important also. Yeah. And I know this for now knowing you for so long that you cannot get wet either. No, yes, yeah, definitely. That's why every clip you see, he's bone dry. I think they could do a Gremlin's three that was just a negotiation of the rules. I think you could take the existing rules and all of the Internet-style conversation that has happened about Gremlin's and what Midnight is, for example, and you could do a Gremlin's reboot or a Gremlin's 3 where you've got Gizmo and there's like a bunch of smarmy college kids with him.

And it's like, well, if we just keep driving, doesn't midnight change? Can't we feed him at like, if we cross state lines, does that mean that midnight hasn't happened? All right, and then I just feel like you're being pedantic. I mean, I just like, we know intellectually what after midnight means, even though after midnight does mean all of time, after midnight, in this context, means before dawn. Oh, before dawn? That's your.

It also means that it cannot guest on the panel show after midnight. It could not, it's not eligible to receive points whatsoever. I'm saying that that could be the movie. Yeah, I was being a guy in the movie. Oh, you were being a guy in the movie. Okay, great. I was outside of the movie. I was not part of it.

You're just watching and enjoying it. Here's the thing. You're a test audience. I'm seated and I'm ready to laugh my ass off because I'm going to see what these guys are getting into. I think this movie is that a gremlin never happens, but Gizmo gets so pissed off about like the constant negotiation of his personal terms that he eventually takes up arms against these college kids. That's fun. I have one pitch for the movie. And it's going to be, it's going to seem like sacrilege to the whole franchise.

I think you should speak. English. I think he should speak. I think he should say fuck. I fucking hate you. I hate you guys. I think you should be a guy with a salty little attitude. I fucking hate you guys. Yeah, it'd be kind of funny. You're hurting me. Stop. Just let me get wet and let me eat something after being my police. They're really cute. You know? I don't know how that song goes. Something like that. I've not seen the second one. I've only seen the sketch that you're featured in. Well, let me tell you. The second one is, fucking bad shit crazy. Yeah.

Second one's a lot of fun. Yeah. And it's absolutely nonsense. Yeah. I feel like the 80s sequels, I didn't really do. I've never seen Ghostbusters 2. Never seen Gremlins 2. And I think those are it.

So I had a... Poltergeist 2? I had not seen their original polter guys. Oh, wow. Too scared, I think. I'd watch it now. I definitely watched a lot of those sequels. And my heretical opinion I had for a while was that Ghostbusters 2

was better than the original, just because I watched it so many times as a kid it just kind of became my Ghostbusters Obviously that doesn't make any You watch both movies are like Oh Ghostbusters one is like a perfect You know sci-fi action comedy Ghostbusters 2 It's kind of a fucking mess

Even though it's got some fun stuff you know I have to I guess I'm gonna say You know what's crazy? I've seen every other Ghostbusters movie Except Ghostbusters too I haven't seen the Frozen one Frozen Empire Yeah I haven't seen Frozen Empire

Good thing they're not taking that seriously at all I'm glad they went to treat Frozen Empire. It is like it I mean like look we're talking Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze was like a yeah that that game was a triumph

and also like just the idea of a freeze being a premise is fun it is good but but in like I don't know I just feel like there was something about that that made it feel less like this is a this is a big Ghostbusters franchise movie if that makes any sense and I ever actually saw the fucking thing

so why am I saying this but I also heard it was just so so overstuffed with characters, which always happens. I mean, this is the whole thing with the Despicable Me franchise. Here we go. Now we've got the point where we've got, like, yes, so many minions. We've got Gru, but then we've also got Gru's family, and then we introduce a new grew baby, and it's just like, like, already Agnes has nothing to do in any of these movies.

Like, like, the, the kids in the Despicable Me family are so underserved, and they're adding additional kids. And then we're going to be like, instead of being like, hey, the kids should go off to summer camp and we'll just focus on the minions. We'll focus on grew in the minions because then we at least have a story justification for getting out of the picture or, you know, like, whatever. The kids are, the family is getting kidnapped and, you know, now they're like that they at least have, are tied into the central story. But instead they're trying to give them all these like ABCD and E stories. And it's just so jam-packed that it just feels like a series

of sketches, not at a coherent movie. You go. Well, I was going to ask, chef, do you need me to turn up the temperature on this pot or should I keep stirring? Because it seems like you're cooking. Let him cook. Here's what I think, and I think maybe they're trying to do this. And it would be crazy. I think it's crazy. Because there's two franchises at this point.

Yeah, there's the Minions timeline. Yeah, there's the Minions timeline, which is like a prequel timeline, and the Dispiquably franchise, which is contemporary. And because of the existence, the Minions franchise, they have focused Dispiquable Me less on Minions, which is, to me, that's like, dance with the one that brought you. You know what I mean? Whatever, made a billion dollars the fuck do I know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you need me to turn this? Like, do I keep stirring or do you want to do I add the chop? Yeah, great. Yes, chef. I can't wait to go to this restaurant where they just stir. Stir and turn up to eat. That's good.

That's good stuff. I like it. I was going to say, like, I think you got to just, like, they got to just take one foot off the gas and just like, I think maybe take the minions out of Dispicable Me entirely. If they're going to not do anything with them, just take them out. Who gives a shit? The minions got their own thing going. Matt, can we talk after the podcast? Nick's going to kill me.

He's going to beat the shit out of you on the... He's like, actually, minions should be in more movies than just these ones, actually. Dispigwin movie 4 did have the fun thing of the mega minions, the minions with superpowers. That's really fun. I forgot. The thrust of their marketing campaign was the mega minions.

And then you get in there, and it's like, you know, three or four seamlets. They kind of tie into the climax, but not really. When do I add the seasoning? Just dump the whole fucking thing. Yeah, yeah, chef. I forgot, I forgot all about the mega minions and too. I will be issuing you a note tap apology at the end of the show.

Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, you're welcome. Sorry. I'm fucking sorry, man. It would be great if minions did show up in other movies. Why not? I've had this thought for a long time, and I may have said it on the show. I think one minion should be allowed to be in Mario Kart.

One minion. I think, here's what I think. The future of cinema is that everybody has gotten, like, the things that pop now are have to be, like, pretty different. Like even the Marvel Like success spreadsheet isn't functioning anymore And so it's got to be stuff like You know weapons where it's like

Oh that's a totally new thing Right well I'll go see everybody goes and sees weapons And it has barely any drop off on its second weekend I think shit's going to have to start getting weirder In order to both combat the That the fact that you'll be able to push an AI button And generate your own content pretty soon Yeah

I think it'll be stuff where it's like A fucking Matthew McConaughey romantic comedy and a fucking minion walks in. And his date is the minion. Yeah, like two, two full hours into the movie a minion walks in. You're just,

you're trying to outmaneuver AI at that point. It's like, what is something that's so like bat shit, so off the wall, so unexpected that it would not be just like generated by a user? Yeah. I like that gambit. See what it happens.

That's what I think people are going to have to do. Do you think anybody would be mad though? If there was a minion in a Mario car, I don't think so. I don't think it's like fine. Yeah, minions look like a Mario card. And especially because they got the universal. I mean, some people would complain about it.

Because it's the, I think Smash Brothers would maybe be the more natural fit because first off, you could have like a fun, you could have like a fun mechanic like the Pokemon trainer where you've got like multiple minions you're swapping in and at different abilities or maybe like a trio of minions and maybe Bob Stewart and Kevin are all controlled together. They do fun gimmicks with the characters when they implement them. But also that there are already a bunch of third-party characters within, you know, Smash Brothers, whereas I feel like that's less of a thing in Mario Card. It's more, more Nintendo IP.

Yeah, definitely. I just like, I kind of just want to drive around a minion. There's also a natural fit because they have, the minions are obviously, you know, the Nintendo has a presence in the universal theme parks. So that seems like a natural time. Link isn't in Mario Kart, but he was once, right? He was at a certain point. He's in Mario Kart 8 deluxe as are. um isabel from um from animal crossing and then there's villager characters i think there's an inkling

from splatoon gosh will i ever investigate splatoon i don't know you gotta just have except some blind spots at a certain point yeah i can't get to everything it's a whole alarm section on my alarmo is splatoon alarms and i'm like i have no connection to this right yeah i would just be disoriented waking up to these sounds there are listeners to this show that splatoon is like their number one Oh, yeah, for sure. People love Splatoon. People love it. Don't.

I was surprised I knew inkling. And that might be wrong. I think that's right. That's right. Oh, man. Thank God. Here's the thing, guys. I have been traveling recently.

I went over to the UK and I'll admit the Wi-Fi speed, the Internet speed when you're traveling abroad, those roaming data cap shit. Like, you have to buy like a. 50 quid, I don't know. It's tough. It's tough when you're abroad and you've badly needed an internet connection with no Wi-Fi spot and site. So you understand what a difference a local SIM card can make. An ESIM provides an internet connection wherever you travel and saves you money on roaming fees. That's where Saley comes in. Saly is a new ESIM service app brought to you by the creators of NordVPN. Here you can choose from several affordable ESIM plans in over 190

countries and eight regions. With a Saly e-Sim, you'll always have a connection when needed. Download Saly once and you won't have to install a new E-Sim for each country. You can avoid scammers selling fake SIM cards outside train stations and airports, and there are a lot of those guys, believe me. There's no more wandering around looking for a public Wi-Fi spot with a Sali. You're always connected. They provide 24-7 support and you get a full refund if your device isn't ESIM compatible.

Download the Saly app and your app. store. Use code get played at checkout to get 15% off your first purchase or go to saley.com slash get played. That's S-A-I-L-Y dot com slash get played. I should talk about gamescom at all? Gamescom? Yeah. Yeah, I mean. The handheld unit from, oh, that's game.com. No, the games come the

2025, which just had its opening night reveal, which may be partly as of this record, Heather may be why it's not on your radar. Yeah, you know, at Ranch as a hollow night enthusiast and Matt you as well, there's some new Silk Song footage or have you got to check out any of that? Not just footage,

a release date, my dear. September 4th. Fourth, yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's coming. Silk Song is real. It's happening. I'm excited. I got to wrap it up. Rochelle, you're going to dig into Silk Song?

I have to I have no choice Jason Shrier had an article out as of today that was basically like why it took so long

for it to make why Silk Song took seven years and a good chunk of it was that they were just having fun making it which is awesome

they had no stress at all they were like well we didn't have a deadline we were just like we were just making it and making it sure it was good

which is awesome awesome. I hope it lives up to everything that everybody wants from a sequel to the Hollow Night. I know I'm greatly looking forward to it as well. There was some other stuff from Gamescom though, too. The more, you know, gosh, the more I see of Resident Evil Requiem. Yeah. It looks cool. It looks really fucking cool. And I kind of, I think I might go through a Resident Evil tear. I kind of of some of the ones

I haven't played like two and three the remakes and stuff okay I did see footage from the Resident Evil it's like two it's like a daughter

and a mom running through a house and running away from like a sick fuck yeah they're running away from nasty guy I did see that

and I was like these women this woman does not look like this other woman's mother they look like they are

sisters at best in terms of like the age difference But, you know, maybe she's aging well. The thing I will eat some crow on is that I thought that there was no way that Vampire the Masquerade's bloodlines, too, was going to actually come out this year. But it looks like it's coming out October 21st. It has a date.

Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'd say, I'm arm's length excited about that game. I still, I hope it comes out and is and lives up to, you know, it's, promise but I also know that it's just like it's a been a long time since the first one came out or the last one came out I should say and I'm just interested to see what a 2025 version of it is I'll have to just like I think I'm just interested in seeing what that game is like because I've never played that franchise before so I'm just interested in checking it out there were a couple other things I wanted to flag they had there was a Nintendo

direct this week that was just about Kirby Air Riders and it was like because it was at Gamescom it was playable at a Nintendo booth there and Kirby Air Riders looks fucking awesome it looks really good. It does look cool and I was kind of I was a little on the fence about it because I

already have Mario Kart already have a racing game so like the third big game that's coming to Switch to is another racing game but it looks completely different and it looks and it looks rad as hell looks really really cool so I'll be looking forward to check that out and people have got their hands on Pokemon ZA also, which is pretty

exciting. I'm sorry, there was a Bubsy game announced. That's right. Bubsy 40 was officially announced. Should we play the trailer? What the... I haven't seen it. Let's watch it. I brought up the YouTube and the top comment is, how is he still alive?

All right, let's watch this Bubzy 40 trailer. Ranch, if you will. Yo, remember me? Your old pal, bubsy? From all those classic games you loved. He has, like, more of a cell-shaded look these days in 3D. Forget about that.

Let's talk about the new one. Bubsie 4D. I'm really glad that he still looks like shit. Yeah, I mean, it's not a super appealing character design is the thing. It's kind of just baked down. into Bubsy. He is inherently abrasive. And also, this game, I know, looks like it's a low-budget game. Uh, yeah, I mean, the environments seem pretty simple and pretty linear.

I mean, it's, boy, this is a, I, I, hey, God bless him. Um, I, I never thought we'd see a new, a new mainline bubsy game, but here we are, Bubzy 40. And it's, yeah, you could wish list it now, it looks like. which is, I mean, I broke my wishless button, smacking it so hard. I'm speechless that we just watched that game. That announced, like.

Yeah, they didn't announce when it would be coming to the Sega Dreamcast. It looks like a fucking Dreamcast game. It's pretty rough, man. It's in rough shape. Well, I mean, like, who knows how early of a build that is. But, yeah, I mean, certainly I would not be shocked if the developer Fabra was not given the most resources to bring a new Bubsy to life. Also, the fact that so much of that trailer relies on the knowledge that

Bubsy 3D was bad means that they're appealing to a very, very, very small slice of the pie that's like, I remember Bubsy was bummed out that 3D was not a good game, but I've been waiting for him to return. That seems like I'm going to be honest. That seems like 2,000 people took. on planet Earth And that It's very possible

That might be high I do think I like you know The Bubsy character design aside I do think he animated pretty well The player character Some nice bits of animation It's just the environment

Seemed a little bit Yeah yeah Seemed a little bit simplified I'm reading the wiki here The game story follows Bubsy and his struggles Against series antagonists The Woolies

Similar to the first Bubsy game Where they were stealing Earth's yarn balls the game sees the woolly's attempting to steal sheep to obtain the golden fleece. However, when the planet sheep revolt and fight back, creating weapons called ba-bots to steal the golden fleece for themselves, Bubsy has to obtain it from them. I mean, look, that's just good to lure. I mean, I was joking about wish-listing it. Now I got to get, I got to get in there.

That sounded like somebody just clicked the next auto-correct over and over it until finished the sense. it's kind of interesting that as the as the as the man with cats yeah or a cat currently you'd imagine that I'd be a little more interested in bubsy and I just I can't get there I just kind of an annoying guy yeah that's kind of his whole thing yeah it's like this fucking guy yeah because he came from an era where he was trying to like out like out edge lord sonic you know he was like gonna be like like you know fuck you sonic and and it's the same sort a thing with like they had some of those other

character mascots of that era like the you know Duke Nukem Duke Nukem yeah but but also like specifically like I mean I'm thinking of like crock or like Arrow the acrobat you know Restar yes yeah yeah yeah so a lot of them were trying to just be like more Sonic than Sonic but they pushed it too far

Sonic's already plenty enough yeah Sonic got a fucking cool it too you better watch his ass Sonic became a little too Sonic as he was going there started kissing ladies what the fuck of that yeah well that's that's exactly where I draw the lot everything after that

not so sure about Heather did you see there's a Sekiro anime I did but I didn't watch the trailer yet I thought it looked pretty cool oh okay great as a as someone as someone who finished Sekiro Shadow's Day twice thank you

I really I love that game and I'm I'm I'm cautiously optimistic about an animated adaptation yeah what if the main character of the anime dies at the end of the first episode and then the second episode it's the first episode again

they gotta do it again they gotta just keep doing it I saw meme I'm on the Sekiro subreddit is one of my subscribed subreddicts because typically I'll subscribe and then I'll never unsubscribe and the memes were not

kind to the trailer so I didn't watch it oh yeah it was a lot of look how they massacred my boy interesting I can't believe I don't know I was I was I was I guess I had a less cynical reaction. You can't believe that the active Sekiro players this long after the game's release would be curmudgeonly about the release of the anime?

On of all places, Reddit.com, the front page of the internet? It also, it also legit might suck. So we'll see. If it's, I mean, like, whatever. But, you know, and I guess, oh, I guess there's some accusations of AI usage. That's part of it. Okay. All right.

All of that. All right. Well, never mind. Ranch delete what I said about being cautiously. And go back and delete the thing that I said. Delete all. I mean, just delete all this so far.

A lot of the people who are commenting on the accusations of the AI are like, you don't understand how animation works. These aren't actually that like the criticism is like, why would anybody draw a hand this way? And it's like because it's an in-between frame. Right. It's not supposed to be a perfect hand. Yeah, it's not supposed to be a seen as a still.

Yes. So, like, there is, it's unclear whether or not those accusations have any foundation. Yeah. The other thing that I saw that was sort of like a bigger announcement at Gamescom was the release date for the Xbox Rog ally handheld collaboration thing that's coming out. It's coming out in October. And the crazier thing about it is there's been no price announced for it. Well, as of this week, the price of the PlayStation went up. Yes.

Yeah, everything across the board, as far as their products go, I think went up like 50 bucks on the console side. Yeah. Yeah. Can you imagine if I bought another handheld just so that I could reinstall Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and start again? On the way here, I was listening to the CD soundtrack, which is an up-resed MIDI. It's like, hey, what if instead of running on the Game Boy Advance, this soundtrack had been pumped out by like the top of the line

MIDI engine that is possible It's a gorgeous soundtrack as a result And then I was like What am I doing? Why am I not finishing this game? You were driving a car I gotta finish this game Yeah

Hey It's never the question It's never the question We ask every week get played what are you playing what are you playing what are you playing it's the time who you ask and you answer it what are you playing what are you playing hey it's me the resident evil merchant now is my drop of my latest single oh what are you playing and I'm here to ask my friends what they're playing so what are you playing

Matt up a dog Where are you playing? Move over REM. There's a new REM in town The Resident Evil merchant That's right Holy shit

Uh Chef do you want me To turn the burners down It's too hot It's too hot in here And I gotta turn the burners down Losing my religion It's

I also To just comment on this This Sioux Chef or, you know, line cook character that we're all kind of doing. Yeah. If this person was asking this many questions

in the kitchen, they'd be fucking out of there. They'd be out of there. Too many questions. Too many questions in the kitchen. Don't go in the questions. Don't go in the kitchen uninvited. That's also true. They don't want you back there.

Hey, you hate it. There's a system back there. Look, I'll tell you what I'm playing. I write my name and does that. What do you blame? I'm playing Death Stranding. Yes. I'm in the spot

where the orders the main orders are becoming fewer. So like, because they're wanting the story to move along, right? Yep. So like in the earlier part of the game, you'll have like some maybe some sections, some chapters that have like

like more orders and stuff, but now I feel like I'm in a spot where it's like, this is like one order and it's, this, but this is going to take a couple, this is going to take a while. Okay. I'm in the middle of a, of, of a, of a, of a, of a, of a trek. Yeah. That even the guy, tar man, when he was like, hey, just so you know,

this one's going to be a bitch and a half. This is tough. So it's hard. And he was like, you could basically go three different ways. And one of them is faster and two of them are longer. And, not easier. It's like, okay. And so I'm like, I'm doing that right now, but I'm just having such a good time with it still.

Yeah. And now that, I mean, we'll talk about the game at length today. With Bonanza, now that that's sort of out of my rear view for right now. The chapter is closed. I have this itched and it's a disease. It's a sickness, isn't it? I'm playing a big game. But, I kind of want to dig into something.

I kind of want another thing going, too. I like having a couple, I like having a couple pots on some burners. Yeah, this is the, you know, this is the struggle inherent to Mr. Games is that you got a big game. You don't want to wrangle just that game. You want to get another game as well. Yeah. You're always big game hunting. But here's the thing.

Oh, man, oh, that's good. The big game hunter, Mr. Games? That's pretty good. I don't know if he should stick. I wouldn't add it to the notes, necessarily. My grandpa would love it, certainly. He's a small game hunter. He's not a big game hunter.

Or a big game hunter. I find something else to do, you creep. What is a small game hunter? Like armadillos? I'd be like deer. Oh, okay. I guess like normal game. I don't know.

Game. Game. Okay, game. But I kind of have, like, look. I think Geter's coming out, but I'm kind of like, I'm holding back on Snakey. okay because it kind of feels like it kind of feels nuts to want to pick that up while I'm playing yeah his his other game yeah you know what I mean and one where he is intimately involved

and one where he was removed from the process yeah yeah one where he was like please play death stranding two and one where they were like are you going to play the metal gear reboot and he was like fuck no yeah it would be like going back to like your dad's house on dad's weekend and telling him all about how cool your stepdad is right right that's yeah but so I'm

and also like I actually don't know if it's going to be good like I kind of go back and forth every other time I see something about the snake eater delta I'm like that looks kind of good and then I see something and I'm like

I don't know they could fuck it up big time yeah they really could they could so I'm waiting to hear about that but as I mentioned earlier with Resident Evil 9 coming out and I know

at Ranch, did you finish Resident Evil 2? I didn't finish 2, but I finished 4 and 7. Okay. I'm kind of, I'm kind of feeling like I want to get a little spooky with it. Okay. I might want to play a little Resident Evil 2 or something. We'll see. So I got some prospects.

I mean, here's the thing. I got to finish Hollow Night before a Silk Song comes out. I got to finish it. So I honestly, that's what I will be picking up. Yeah, don't start another big game. No, no, no, no. I just realized, Snake Eater's probably. Snake Eater is probably not going to start with a Hideo Kojima game.

Like, it's not going to come up on the screen. Will they excise that? I bet they will. Interesting. It would be really crazy. But I also, I think it might be crazy if they left it in, too. It's kind of nuts. Yeah.

But anyway, I'm still really enjoying Death Stranding, too, and then I guess getting back into Hollow Night. I'd love to hear it. Nick, what are you playing? Matt, thanks so much for asking. You know, time constrained, which no one ever wants. to hear among our audience. Sorry, that's the reality of what my life and schedule had been.

But I have been playing some balacho when I got some free time for non-bananza gaming. And, you know, I mentioned I was going for gold stakes to every deck. The thing is that is like a really labor-intensive process. It takes a long time. You've got to just grind and grind and grind.

I think the, you know, it says something like 200 hours expected to eventually do that to get all the way to the top level of each of the individual curated decks. So just chipping away at other achievements, I've been making my way through the challenge decks. The challenge decks have changing rules.

They also have changing rules that are different than the house rules for Balacho. They also have some individual decks that have their own attributes, not just the way that the different bonuses are applied, but things like it will have, you know, more face cards than a typical deck or whatever. And then they will have, you know, some sort of, like overall sort of premise to the run that will impose some restrictions and, you know, make it a challenge, thus the name. One thing I do like is the invocation of eternal perishable and rental jokers, which are something that start to happen as you ascend through the different stakes in Balacho, those start to become more of a presence. Eternal jokers, once you get them, they cannot leave your stash.

Perishable jokers only last a certain number of turns. And rental jokers cost a certain amount of money every turn. So like, and they come, I think, I believe in that sequence in terms of how they arrive. So it's just a matter of like, are you playing for the long term, the short term. But they are ultimately drawbacks because, you know, they impose restrictions that don't exist on regular jokers. Just to talk about one of these from a design perspective, one of the challenge runs on a knife's edge gives you a joker that is an eternal pinned ceremonial dagger. Pinned is not a typical mechanic they have in the standard runs, but it's in this challenge run. The pinned joker is always in the leftmost position.

And the way the pin ceremonial dagger joker is, when blind is selected, destroy joker to the right and permanently add double its cell value to this molt. So whether you play Balacho or not, I can say that the way, I guess I'll take a different deck. I'll explain it for people who are maybe less familiar with Balacho. You're accumulating jokers, and then jokers you can have typically up to five add bonuses to your deck that allow you to go deeper into your run. So this is a joker that you cannot get rid of that will keep eating any joker you put next to it. So you kind of have to perpetually be like, what is my least useful joker? What is a sacrificial lamb I can put next to it? And, you know, also what am I going to use to replace it?

And sometimes it actually makes sense for you to buy a joker that's not particularly useful just because you can preserve some of the other jokers. Anyway, I thought it was really fun. I thought it was a really cool design. And I felt a good sense of satisfaction when I completed it. But yeah, I really enjoyed the challenge decks. I'm excited to knock them out. There's so much.

You could just play that game forever. There's an insane amount of content in Bellatro. It is wild. Yeah. And it's all like fun and interesting. And like just like it's just the design of that game is staggering. Impeccable design. Yeah.

It's really, really great. Yeah. Heather, what are you playing? Well, I feel like I'm the marriage between both of the things that you guys are playing. I am playing Pokemon the card game pocket continuing through this season's ranked matches. I'm at Ultra 4 trying to hit Master Bowl for the first time since I've started playing the game. It is still eluding me.

I'm running for those of you who play at home. I'm running a Charzard Silvian deck. Just doing my best to hit those big damage numbers and keep myself alive. I've experimented with a few other builds this season. And when I have an intention that I want to try, I'll build my own deck. and try it out in like unranked mode. And I was trying so hard to get a, um,

a Poregon deck to work because he changes up the energy that is either on, uh, no, that's coming out of, uh, out of the other care, or the other player's, uh,

energy pool or he can also slow, uh, the abilities on the active Pokemon that you are up against. Um, and I paired him with a, uh, a smigel, uh,

who changes the energy that is, on the card that they have already put out couldn't get it to work so I'm back on Charzard since I don't know wish me luck out there good luck thank you

that speed and then I'm also playing death straining too I went back to Mexico got to go you gotta go back to Mexico I went back to Mexico because I'm really

I really want to five star everything I'm having problems with one of the missions and I keep wondering if it's bugged It's a mission where you have to retrieve six pieces of cargo, right? And only three of them, I can only ever find three of them. I go straight to that location, scan everything in the area, circle the area a million times.

It's an early mission. It's a standard order, right? It's a standard order, and only three of them ever show up. I have the same problem with a different Mexico mission where you have to destroy six pieces of cargo. It's at an enemy camp. I execute everybody on the camp. I find the first three and detonate them. I can't find the other three anywhere.

Oh, man, what a bummer. And I don't feel, like, I don't have this problem. And I've run those standard orders multiple times. And I haven't had this kind of problem on any other level, any other order in the entire game. Interesting. And I feel like either there's something very obvious that I'm getting wrong. or it's just a glitch. But I don't, that feels like, oh, it's a controller.

I don't, I, you know, maybe it was a controller. Like, it's really frustrating. And I guess I could just look it up and be like, does anyone else have a problem with these three boxes not showing up? Yeah. But, um, yeah, I, uh, I had some significant story progress and I was like, well, slow down. Got to slow down.

Yeah, that's what, that's sort of where I'm getting to also, where I'm sort of like I don't want to be done with it but I know that I mean here's the thing I'll have a lot more free time when I'm done with it I'll have a lot of time

to get to some other stuff but I don't want to necessarily wrap it up because I'm enjoying it so much yeah I've also gotten to a place where I'm like I've built an enormous highway network I've built out

an enormous monorail network I don't know why you don't know why yeah I don't know why Because it's satisfying. The monorail, the thing about the monorail is, it takes too fucking long. It takes a really long time to use the monorail for like four minutes. Yeah, it's, it's, the monorail takes a long time, and I don't find that the highway services the areas that I need it to.

Yeah. Like, it's not that great highway network. Yeah, yeah. It's weird, because I feel like the only reason I'm building the highways is because the highways need to be built, not. because they'll help me. Right. Does it make sense? I'm on foot right now for what I'm doing and I haven't been on foot in a while.

And let me tell you something. I wish I was in the goddamn truck. I missed the truck. But truck is good. But now I have new gloves that I can pick stuff up while I'm in the truck from the ground. I, I, I, I, I, which is huge. That's huge. That's to get chiral crystals from the ground.

That's incredible. Yeah. I spent a significant part of the weekend on my gaming day, my free day, building a zipline network so that I could triple L pizza delivery. Nice. Only to unlock the mission and find out that it was impossible for me to physically carry all of the pizzas. Oh, no. Oh, wow. And I had to put them in the truck, still got the triple L.

But I had not clicked through to see what the mission requirements were. I had just assumed, oh, this is a time-based thing. It's really far away. What they want me to do is build a zipline network. And I built a zipline network ahead of time. So I could go from one side of the map all the way to the other side of the map with the fucking pizzas and then triggered the mission. And it was like, you can't physically carry even with the.

Even with the carrier, you can't physically carry all these pizzas on the zipline. You don't get it. It's a lot of pizzas. Who's that guy? It's the guy. He's in the game. It's a guy made up. The guy is that it's a lot of pizzas guy.

And his whole thing is that he's like, oh, yeah, you want all these pizzas? You don't know how many I'm going to fucking give me. It's like a punishment kind of. I got to get deeper in this game. I will say that there's so much. pizza in the game that when I play the game I need pizza I've been thinking about pizza yeah yeah yeah yeah there's a lot of pizza in that game yeah yeah but that's what I've been playing Nick we could get pizza I'm so we have I'm just I'm gonna say we have to I'm gonna

obligate anyone we have people have their own dare plans I'm just like we could like it's just I'm you don't want the pizza I want I only want you want you want you want you want punishment pizza you want you want you want damaging pizza you want you want a deep dish and we got it one time and it was so goddamn good but I'm I'm gonna speak for I'm gonna speak for everybody I'm gonna speak for me my tummy hurt uh night ruiner and a next day ruiner but worth it welcome to Masa of aqua park we don't have we don't have to do this yeah I can do whatever I want from my dinner uh let's get into our let's pivot from death stranding to to another goatee candidate uh donkey Kong bonanza to headgum

For our We Play You Play was released on July 17th of 2025 for Switch 2, developed by Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo, directed by Wataru Tanaka and Kazuya Takahashi. And apparently the original concept came from Yoshiaka Kuizumi, who directed Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a game that is absolutely singular. It's a platformer that uses the Donkey Kong bongos to control. And this is the first Donkey Kong game developed by Nintendo since that one, which is incredible also. It's also the first Donkey Kong, original Donkey Kong game since Tropical Freeze in 2014 and the first 3D platform Donkey Kong since Donkey Kong 64.

If I ordered a large, would you guys have some? Look, I'd eat some. Yeah, I'd eat a piece of pizza. All right, Rochelle is nodding. Okay, well, great, great. I'll have a slice of pizza. the I mean

look what a fucking video game I said it already yeah Duncan Gunganza is fucking great it's it's so fun I've had you know friends who love games

who have just said that it's their favorite game of the year and I think there's a strong case for it I'll say as somebody who rolled credits on it last night wow wow I went on a bit of a journey

with this game where at a certain point I had a bit of a crisis of faith. Oh my God. Where I was like, because I've been high on this game. I've been like, this is an incredible,

incredible game. I think it overstates this welcome just a little bit. Ooh. I think, and I have, because look, I have it right here. It has basically 16 levels.

Like 16 areas. And some of these levels, some of these areas have sub-levels also. Right. So like you'll be like, in layer 500 and they'll have like you know sub layer 501 502 503 not every single one of them has one but some of them will have a couple layers to the layers

my thought is if this had 10 if it had you know a thousand layers because it goes by the 100 right if it had 10 levels and then those had sub levels too I don't know that I'd I don't I'm telling them if anybody would miss the other six. They're all good.

And the thing about it, though, is that they're all great, and they're all extremely fun and satisfying. But if you just shaved, like, six of them off, I don't think anybody would miss anything. It's still an all-time great Donkey Kong game. And as far as 3D platformers go, I think it's in the conversation to be one of the greats as well. I think I like Odyssey a little bit more. It's the same team, but I think this is still, it's just a little, it's a little, it's a little

bloated for me. Matt? Yeah. Man, I never thought I would agree with you about a game being overstuffed. Yeah. But I do think this game is overstuffed. It's practically a freaking deep dish pizza. I enjoy every part of the, I haven't finished it. Yeah. I enjoy every part of the game that I have experienced. But when I log in and start playing it, I'm a little bit like, oh, right, more of this. Yes. Right. It's not like what else is going to happen? What, where? We're is Mario going to be next? Yeah. And it's in part to me that the biomes, though they are visually different, are kind of

samey. Yeah. I think let's get back to this and just go back a little bit to like just even what the game is about, first of all, right? So like the game starts off. Donkey Kong's looking for bananas. He's digging for banana gems. Benandium gems

But then there's this Evil Mining Company Voidco led by the evil president Void Kong Which by the way The fact that the game has There's a president

That's bothering everybody In the game kind of fun That's what I want Everything I want in a video game Evil president Evil guy It's bothering everybody I also love anytime

A company tells us That a company is bad Yes right A Nintendo company is being like, can you imagine this evil company? Yeah. Good thing. We're a good company because it's possible for a company to be bad. We are the Donkey Kong in this story about another company.

Yeah. I also really like Void Kong, the president's character design. He is kind of gremliny. He's a bit of a gremlin. He got a little bit wet, didn't he? Wait, wet makes more. Wet makes more. Yeah.

And then food makes yucky. Yeah, food makes yucky, wet makes more And sunlight burns, right? Man Being a gremlin, fucking hard There's too many rules Just hazards all over the place Yeah, catching strays left and right

Yeah Go outside You completed a night You didn't get wet, you didn't eat too late You just want to see the sun come up And then what happens? Fucking tough Right, it is sunlight, right?

Yeah Yeah Fucking brutal Dracula rules he does rule yeah you're right he's fucking awesome actually I know what you man

I was just kidding so basically Void Kong is after he wants to get to the planetary core the very center of the earth and this earth in the Donkey Kong world is like a hollow earth type thing

yep not just Donkey Kong world Mario World also. Mario World also. And then I think probably Our World, too, actually. It's possible if the, you know, latest Kong movie is to be believed. Is Donkey Kong? Is New Donk City Our World?

Um, yes. I think so. What was that Kong movie that had the, there was like a... Kong got, listen it. With the Beast Glove? What the fuck was the subtitle? Yeah, wait. Wait, the Beast Gloves in Godzilla,

X-Kong. Godzilla-X-Kong, but it's called like, a new dawn or something. Yes, yeah, it has some subtitle. Yeah. That's what I meant by late's Kong movie. I realized I just said Kong movie,

but I meant that one. New Empire. New Empire. New Empire. New Empire. I read what I said was confusing because we're talking about Donkey Kong. Yeah.

It's still, hey, aren't we blessed to have some great Kong as people who have always been fascinated by apes? You all, but mankind has always been fascinated by apes. The, the, but you, you know this, you know the story, but I mean, maybe our listeners aren't as familiar with the, some of our listeners maybe have not heard the story that there was a lawsuit involving Donkey Kong. A Nintendo was sued by the rights holders of King Kong and Nintendo was triumphant in that lawsuit by able, being able to show, you know, prove parity fair use.

The lawyer in that lawsuit, John Kirby, the namesake of Kirby. Wow. Yeah. And so, and the reason Donkey Kong wears a tie is that he had to appear in court. He had to go, yeah, he had to testify. He was deposed. They had to make the little box that you got to go sit in. They had to make it really big for him.

They put his hand out. They put a Bible out for him to swear on. And he took one of his leg hands and did it, put his hand on it. But he still did it because he respects the Bible. He's read the Bible. Leg hands? Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, apes have leg hands?

You, so apes have no feet. I think of his leg hands. Because, yeah, because they can do so much with them. Yeah. That's fine. They can do more regular than regular feet. You know, they can't do is walk up right for long stretches. That's true.

That fatigues them. I just wanted to know what we were talking about. You know what's interesting, actually? What? While apes do have leg hands? I think they might have hand feet actually, too. They can do stuff with the hand still, but they run with them also. Yeah, maybe it's more hand feet than leg hands.

We'll figure out the right taxonomy for it. Because I guess leg is the long part. Yeah, I get it. I'll concede the point. I'm not trying to be right. I'm just saying. I'm lost and I was trying. I have no idea what you guys were talking about.

So Void Kong is after the Banandium route, which by the way, I love how banana is just crammed into so many different words in this, and it rocks. Bonanza is a triumph of a portmanteau. Yeah. Bananergy, really good. Banergy is really fucking good. Oh, there is a name in here that I wrote down. And I, because I have a lot of the characters' names in front of me here.

So let me just get, I'll just get through this part real quick. Yeah. The reason Void Kong wants the Banandium route is that it grants wishes. to whoever has it. And I'm just like, yeah, great. I don't care. And he wants it to become like, you know, it's like a rich businessman.

He wants to be rich president. Yeah. The president wants to be rich. Yep. And so then Donkey Kong, he goes underground and he meets this odd rock, this sort of like purple rock. Yep.

But then is revealed to be Pauline. I don't know if we've talked about that moment. I mean, I alluded to it, but tried not to spoil it when I gave my first impressions when I did my solo. episode, but the, like, I did not know that was coming. Maybe that was in one of the trailers. I didn't know. It's coming either. I had no idea. When that was the emergence of Pauline,

the origin of Pauline, that she was encrusted with rocks. Yeah. I was shocked. And I honestly, I loved it. It's really, really fun. And let me just tell you about Pauline real quick. Pauline is the Pauline we know and love from New Dong City, but she's a little kid. She's 12, I think, or something like that in this. And she just wants to be a singer. Yeah. Which I think is really fun. And then in Noondock City In Odyssey we see she is a singer She achieved her dream

So in many ways this is a prequel To Odyssey Do you think she was like Kind of a celebrity candidate Like she parlayed her singing ability Into becoming the mayor Becoming the leader of municipality Or was it more that

I have the platform now Because I'm mayor Now I get to sing Kind of like how you know Like John Ashcroft When he was Attorney General Like make everyone listen to his voice I think it's a secret third option

And they're like, you're so good at singing, you have to be the mayor. You're so good at it. Like, we just love you so much. You've got to be the mayor. Yeah, I wonder if she did. Like, I would love to see. It was like, hey, you got to vote for me. I sing really good.

Do you remember John Ashcroft? This is, this is a Bush era, George W. Bush era, a reference, but he had an original composition, let the eagle soar. and he like performed it at like a press conference or something like that or some sort of event so he's just making everyone

and he had a fine voice but it was just like man this is so self-indulgent you're singing your own song yeah if I was in a position like that I would never want anyone to have any ammunition or a reason to call me corny

it's like a really too late it's like it's tough have you guys seen the question of whether or not the fractones are in Donkey Kong country Wow. I have not seen that. So, yeah, there's an image from Donkey Kong Country 3 featuring a rock in the background that's on the Donkey Kong Country Country.

Or Donkey Kong Bonanza subreddit and perhaps has crossed over to the games subreddit that shows what looks to be a fractone in the background of DK Country 3. That's really cool. The fractones are these like crystalline sort of life forms that you encounter in an early sublayer. Yeah, and they're ever present throughout the entire thing. They persist, but you first encounter than that. And you can use them, you can punch them, and then they break into a bunch of rocks and they reform. It is. Do you feel bad doing that?

I felt bad doing that. It doesn't seem like it would feel good. Yeah. Your entire physiology was punched out of existence and then... Reconstituted? It's a little unpleasant. It's horrible. It's inevitable with the way that I played the game, which was...

talk about later. Yeah, okay. So yeah, basically Donkey Kong and Pauline, they team up. They're on a quest from the Elder Kong. They're all these animal elders in the game that then give you different powers, which then we'll talk about. But they're on a quest to get the Benandium route before Void Kong can get it. And so that Pauline could also then go home, return home. and, you know, become a singer. A singer and a mayor. A singer and then a mayor. And then so on their way, they discover some more underground layers,

and they fight a bunch of different Voidco minions and the like. And then they meet other animal tribe elders who give, yeah, D.K. Various transformations. And so the way the transformations work is that D.K. has to pound his chest, and Pauline has to learn a song. Pauline, who wants to be a singer, actually not so. confident and like kind of scared of singing not he's a little shy with the singing sometimes i thought the first time in encountering the record i was i was so tickled i was so tickled by that for that

sequence of events it happens so much like not so much you get i think there's ultimately um there's five uh five bananza forms you have con bananza which grants you a super strength you have zebra bonanza which is fat makes you really fast running around fast uh you have ostrich, which then is like flying and projectiles, and then you have elephant, which I think elephant is O.P. actually. Because you can suck up the terrain, so you can easily mine resources, like Benandium and gold and stuff and chips and the like. But you could also then

throw things too, which is very useful. And then Snake Bonanza, which gives you big jump. But I think Snake Bonanza is my least favorite of the Benanza games. Yeah, it's interesting. because I get the case for the elephant but I mean like I kind of almost just feel like the you know the straight up con bananza the first one you get

it's kind of like how like it's just such a great and there's just such a great feeling like from a power fantasy standpoint to be able to smash the shit out of things and then just feel so potent and also just because it's just like a more powered version of your standard move set it just kind of seems to have the most utility

and I also I think I have a take about this as well that it's maybe going to make some people mad. Okay. I think Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong shouldn't turn into other animals. I think he should have just been different Kongs. Different big Kongs where like this one is fast,

this one can fly for some reason, this one can suck, and then this one can do big jump. I'm torn because these are abilities that are, you know, provided by elders that represent these different animals, right? And it does have a mystical, magical quality to it. So you do have the leeway to change.

But yeah, I think I agree with you. I got to just miss him when he's mad. Nobody wants to play snake country or snake bonanza. No. Snake banana. Zebra country. It's just like. It might partly be that the design doesn't quite look Donkey Kong enough.

You know, I wonder if it was. more like they just is a little bit more simian um you know the snake one was maybe a little bit less reptilian and i maybe there's a way they could have split the difference a little bit but yeah i i get what you're saying there is a speed runner who has already found out that there is a way to hold a rock and fly without ever getting the ostrich uh form whoa and uh this is significantly reduced the overall footprint of the outrage of the game for a speed run wow uh it is a two frame uh

like button press that will allow you to just fly with Donkey Kong with a rock in his hand that's crazy yeah because like speed runners are the best of us I mean God I love them yeah but so like with the

with these with these banana powers you're also you have a skill tree that when you find bananas throughout the world and so that's like kind of the main thing that you're doing where in um in Odyssey it's moons right but in this game it's bananas

but I feel like in Odyssey and honestly they're like on the overworld tune you can like find them in like secret little places and stuff but in typical games like this you're like earning them as as reward for completing like a challenge level or something like that this they're just kind of like sometimes they're just in the dirt

and like or like they're like up really high and you have to figure out how to get to like a different place or there there are these challenge levels that are scattered throughout the the various maps that then you can get like three at a time for doing them and then you have different skills per each bonanza and then also like dk gets skills too that then you can upgrade along the way yeah i like the skill tree i mean i'm i've got so much skill tree fatigue but i think it's like it's simplified and straightforward enough and um yeah it it's my big my big issue

with skill tree is is a lot of times it feels like you're getting like these incremental sort of advances that don't really feel like they're doing much to your character you know what I mean but here it feels like they're pretty tangible

I have a take on this game yeah I don't think everything needs to be open world you know the areas well I think well I agree with you 100%

the areas themselves because they're so destructible have to have they have to sort of I guess they can't be linear is what I'm thinking because they have to be like you have to be able to just go anywhere

in this whole thing. Yeah, it's more of a playground more of a play space. And each place is so contained. You can only go like you can't go from the 800 layer to the 700 layer so easily. You have to like actually go to a pipe or whatever. Yeah. I do I do kind of wish it was a 2D plan.

I kind of like, I like that more. Like, that's, like, my favorite version of Donkey Kong is in 2D. I didn't play 64, so I had no experience with him in a 3D space. And I liked, I loved, I loved this game. So I feel like I'm just, like, thinking from what I would like best, is when we were doing, there's some, uh, 2D, like, Donkey Kong country style levels in here. Now some of my favorite stuff in the game. I agree.

I love those 2D levels. I think they're super fun. Yeah. There's just no way they're going to make. this, you know, I mean, like, it's just like, if they're going to have a flagship sort of, like, a system seller sort of game, I think it kind of has to be a 3D game at the, at this point. Yeah. And I also do, I do like them taking on the challenge of like, hey, let's do a 3D Donkey Kong platformer. Um, and let's, we've done the 2D thing over and over and over again.

We've done a bunch of iterations of that. Let's see what it's like. I also feel like it's, it's like the Mario Odyssey thing, right? Of like, you get a mostly 3D game, but you get those little sort of, uh, fun sub levels where you're getting to get in a mess around and 2D a little bit and those feel like a nice little vacation so I don't know I honestly do not have any sort of like the like I was not even thinking of as an issue with this game with it being a 3D platform I think that I think it's part of the joy of it I but like to Heather's point like it is I think we wouldn't mind so much if there was maybe six less areas like there's so much there's it it sounds like such a crazy thing to complain about no there's an excess of biomes yeah it's also like

the first time I played it, I played it for eight hours straight without a break. Like, it's not like I didn't like the game. Yeah. But there was like, I expect there to be some sort of transformative element. And I know that you get new powers also. Yes. But there's, it felt like I was waiting to turn a corner a lot in the game. And instead I was just given more of what I was enjoying, which eventually was like too much chocolate cake.

There was, I mean, let's talk about some of these Bynum was really. quick actually because like there I'll just read off the layers um there's one that I won't say okay there's one that I won't say because I don't want to spoil it because when I because here's the thing I while while I was sort of thinking toward the end of this game when is this going to be over I'm kind of done with this at this point not that I'm not having fun anymore but I'm just kind of like you're just kind of ready for it I'm just ready for it to be done when I got into the end game I was like this is a staggering achievement this is unbelievable. This game is so fucking good.

And the ending is so much fun and so worth getting to, I think. Yeah, I have not to finish the game, but I have had the end game spoiled for me, unfortunately. And, um, it, uh, hey, look, I'm looking forward to it. I'll say, I also had it spoiled for me.

And yet, my mouth hung open. I was so, I was like, I was like, so, it's great. The ending of it is so fucking good and like the, it's just like a gauntlet. It's just, it's fucking great. It rules. Um, you have, like the lagoon layer the hilltop layer the canyon layer the divide which is like a sort of fork in the road type place uh then you have the freezer the forest the junction the resort the tempest the landfill which i was kind of like heather likes this one this one's the trash area i love trash you have the

racing layer which i think is my least favorite of the entire one sure um because like the only thing there to do is a race and it doesn't play like the rest of the game at all, and it's actually genuinely frustrating to me. There is a similar moment in death straining, too. Okay, great, yeah. The radiance layer, the groove layer, which was one of my favorites.

I loved the groove layer. The groove layer is fucking good. It's really, really good. The feast layer, which reminded me of you, Nick, because it's a bunch of burgers everywhere, a big burgers, a bunch of big, juicy burgers.

Yeah, I mean, look, I haven't gotten to the feast. Slayer yet, but I imagine I'll move in and live there. Where's Nick? Oh, he lives in a big burger now. He lives in the game. Yeah, he lives in the feast layer. He's never been happier.

He taped his switch to his face. He just has a conveyor belt like Homer Simpson feeding him burgers all day. Oh, man. Pretty good, actually. Yeah. Then you have the forbidden layer. Then you have the planet core. That's 16 levels.

That's a lot of... It's just a lot. It's a lot of stuff. And I've heard, you know, I get, I've heard the same criticism from other people who finish the game. So I don't think, I mean, like, I think you can say it's great, but it's maybe too much of a good thing and could be some addition by subtraction. Whereas then like, and I'll say too, I was not looking for a challenge with this game. I was actually delighted that it was very easy. And I think dangerously close to being for babies.

Because up until the end game. There was like, it almost posed no challenge for me at all. Yeah. I had enough resources for like buying the extra, like hair dyes and in different little outfits. By the way, yeah, you can get outfits in this game and some of them are real cute. Some of they're really, really fun. Yeah.

And they give you, some of them have different boons, I guess, where it's, you know, like this one charges your bananae faster or whatever. This one makes you impervious to the poison goo or whatever. And the outfits are not just for D.K., they're also for, Pauline, so you can make the two of you look stupid as fuck. You can look really stupid, break the immersion. I love getting the Pauline outfits. The Apolline outfits are great.

And if you have the amoebo, let's just say you get a familiar looking outfit that you might have seen. Wow. I, um, my amoeuvos are currently in storage. And, uh, boy, oh, boy, am I frustrated not being able to tap my amoeboes to my switch to right now. If you bring your switch two next time, I'll bring my amoebo and you can get it right away. That was like yes and no. you can do that kind of stuff there's like oh

I know we talked about smashing stuff but you can also make stuff within the game so like there's some there was like some the game wants you to figure out how to get to certain things and how to achieve certain goals so there was one early on where I could see a banana in the distance but I didn't really quite know how to get over there

and I knew there was probably like something else I could do later right but I there was a lot of mud by me and if you throw mud at mud it kind of sticks to it so I just like made a bridge and like walked over there yeah and was kind of like I don't think this was like correct yeah sure but you can do it but that's kind of like what's cool about this it's part of what's cool about this game is you've got you've got problems not puzzles right like there is a correct way to solve it but you can also sort of you know use the engine to sort of to do an end around and that's satisfying in its own way and the game is very um and this is even in the Wikipedia it's very um please

with sequence breaking. It's not like you never punished for it. It's always a little bit like, good for you. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. It's like when you get, you figure out how to roll the ball in a Zelda shrine.

That's completely not what was intended. Yeah. You end up getting, you know, completing it anyway. And back to the difficulty. It's not a challenging game by any means, but there was something towards the end where I needed,

without spoiling it too much, you have to pay a toll a couple of times and the toll gets higher and higher and I was running out of gold and I was basically gated out of getting to like the final area because I had to go back and then like mine for gold

which by the way if you have to do it the big trophy in the racing area is the way to go and suck it up with the banana because it was with the elephant trunk because it took a long time because you needed I needed like 10,000 gold pieces to get to this final area and it was like

nobody's walking around with this kind of change I'm buying pink hair dye for Donkey Kong. Those are, of course, you actually know you don't use the money for that. Use that for fossils. Yeah. And like, but there are these like trees that then sprout bananas that you can give gold to and I've been doing those a lot too. So I'm spending gold left and right, basically.

I'm buying, I'm making little homes in the little areas to like rest, which is really fun. We talked about this in a previous episode. Yeah. But the little shelters you can make, very satisfying. Really fun. It gives you a real, clear, you know. a straight ahead boost in terms of getting some extra, you know, notches on your health bar. But then also it's just like these these moments of connection between, you know, D.K. and Pauline, which are really nice.

I think the amount of nostalgia in this game is like not overstuffed. No. I think that the game itself is overstuffed. But the philosophy with which they handled nostalgia is perfect. It is a light but satisfying touch. Yes. I really enjoyed that part. And I say that because in the houses

you can listen to music and some of that music are old tunes. Let me come on. That's pretty good. I only had the D.K. rap going the whole time. Yeah, me too. I found other discs and was like, I'm only listening to DK rap.

DK. I, I, I, I, this game, unlike, say, a Mario Sunshine or a Mario 64, how dare you I didn't even say it I don't even know what you're saying but to put those two games

next to each other to make a point in those games you need to get certain things to progress okay yes where like you uh what is it in you need like what is it shines to unlock like oh the next level or like the boss level

or ours this is a really standard I mean that the rare you know platformers Banjo Cazui these are these are this is like a very standard sort of platformer convention. In this one, you don't need to do that. You just, you could plow forward and not get bananas. Like, you could just, like, straight up, not get them. Your skills would be horrible. Yeah. You would have only base skills, but you don't need, the bananas don't give you any value besides, um, increasing the levels of your various skills. And I actually do have a complaint

about the, well, there's the intangible benefit of getting to hear, oh, banana. Well, yeah, that's priceless. Like, yeah, you can't. You'd be missing out on one of the great features, one of the more iconic features of any game to come out in the last decade. Yeah, good drop. I'm saying that you don't need to get bananas to tell you how many bananas I got, which was near 500 in my play-through. Oh, bananas.

Yes. There are a thousand in the game. Yep. Will I go and do this? I don't think so. Yeah. I know that there's post-game stuff that I'm interested. in checking out but I you know I never went and got all of the moons in Odyssey I never

or did all the the cat shines or whatever they're called in the in 3D world I was I'm not I don't play these like that what if what if you paid me a million dollars sure I'll do it no what if this game is okay what if this game is not for us and what I mean by that is imagine a kid getting a Switch 2 in Donkey Kong Bonanza. Yeah. And there's not a lot of other games that are coming out for Switch 2 proper and they have this big, big, big, big game

that they can keep going into and keep digging into. And that's the game that's going to tide them over for the next major Nintendo release. Yes, not for us, not as in, not our taste. Right. Not for us that they designed it so that, yeah, like, you know, a kid could get

this one $70 game and have it for a couple of years probably. Especially with the increased price of games, the increased price of the Switch 2. Maybe it's like better that we made this game big and too thick than that we appealed

to gamers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Yeah, well yeah, when you're kidding, you have nothing but time, it's like, yeah, the more is more, right? It's just like, it's like podcast listeners. They're like, give me the longest episode you got. you know you got you got nothing but time and so I feel like the you freaks know what I mean

you like them long yeah oh yeah you like them long anyway the you're adult it's just like I welcome a four to six hour game yeah a sub 10 hour game I was like this is great this is perfect I can play this and I can play something else when these games start to really dominate your your time it's just like I don't know and I'm someone who doesn't have kids like if if you did, it's just like, and it's not a kid, like you're not playing with them. You want some solo gamer time. This might,

this might take you a couple of months to get through. If you have kids, you probably have to put the kid in time out, face the corner until I'm done playing my game. It's ridiculous. But, but, I mean,

just like, like, and the kid died there. And just as an adult with a job. Yeah. Like, that's like, and I don't mean this job.

Like, as an adult with a job, it's like, you just have, you don't have as much time for gaming. And it, And it is like a little bit frustrating when something is so, makes such an unreasonable demand on time.

All that said, I don't really have a complaint. I like, I get that, but like, I love this game. I think it's so fucking awesome. I think it's such a masterpiece. Yeah. I hate to have, I feel like maybe the most complaints about it that I, like, at least here on the show. Because, like, I didn't, I didn't not enjoy any second of me,

playing the game at all. I loved it. I thought it was so much fun. And even last night when I was cramming to, like, to, because I knew I was close. Right. And I just was like, I got to just like see this to the end, like at least to the credits so I can be here today and say that I at least rolled credits on it. And I went to bed past my bedtime last night.

Wow. Because I knew what today was going to be like for me. I was like, I have time to, I'm just going to knock this out now. And, you know, I went to bed at. 12.15. Wow. That's late for me. It's a late time.

I'm usually in bed by 10. Yeah. I'm usually in bed by 10 o'clock. But I was still, I was having so much fun. And here's the thing, I kind of felt like I was being bad too. So then I was like, this is kind of, I'm actually having a little more fun than I thought. But I was like, I couldn't put it down because the last, the last section of the game is so fucking fun. Yeah.

And like all of it, even the bloat in the middle, you know, the before that was worth getting to the end. Because it's just so satisfying and just becomes, I don't know, it just becomes a really, really fun game. I do, I don't want to be somebody that overrates Astrobot. Right? Because, like, we talk about Astrobot and we talk about how that game. I had the same thought, Matt. That game does nostalgia in a very specific way and does 3D platforming in a very specific way, too.

And I kind of think it's going to take a lot to take Astrobot. down and I don't know if I don't think this is it. Astrobot was a masterpiece and it really like how how did that happen? I don't know and it's it's it's gonna take a lot and I think this game does a lot of things great that Astrobot doesn't do I think this game does uh just it's it's a it's a well executed 3D platform I just think that like right now Astrobot's the king of this type of game and everybody else is on notice they got it like got to fucking figure it out if they want to do something bigger and better than that you you've uh you've actually finished the game so i'll i'll let you uh you know make that claim i i'm i would not i i put it within the realm of

possibility that when i roll credits on this some bitch i will like it more than astrobot i do think it's super fun a lot of that is my affinity for uh just you know dk yeah just donkey k yeah just donkey kong himself but also just like the the like astrobot there's such different vibes, right? Like, Astrobot is like kind of like this like, you know, cool sort of breezy sort of feel and here this is just such like, it's such chaos it's such demolition

and I just, I'm just really find myself responding to that more. But both games are incredible. You're a banana a day guy too, so you have a lot of that's true, yeah, that's right. With the big man. Anybody, oh, I'll say too, I rolled credits at 35 hours. That's a, that's a chunky. It's a big game.

It's a big game. It is a big game for a big boy. But I mean, it's just, I think the thing about this game, because right now the Switch 2, the Switch 2 just came out a couple months ago. Yep. It's got your entire Switch library, and then the main games for it right now

are Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bonanza are like the two big ones, right? And Bonanza, if Mario Kart World was not a reason for you to get a Switch 2, I think Bonanza is it. Like, Bonanza is fucking stellar. I still stand by what I said. for my first impressions, which is, I think if you're going to get a switch to anyway at some point, if you're like, like, I'm thinking to get a switch to, uh, I, yeah, and, and one's available. My understanding is that stock is, is fairly, like, is, is readily available.

Yeah. I shouldn't say readily. I, but that, but that, that you're more likely to see a switch to like a target, uh, than you might expect. Right. They're not as supply constrained. Um, I think if you were like, I'm going to buy a switch to at some point, this game is good enough to justify that purchase

but I'm not sure if I would be like I wasn't sure if I was going to buy a Switch 2 I wasn't sold on it I don't know if I'd say you buy it just for Bonanza unless you really really like 3D platformers in which case you're probably buying Nintendo first party piece of hardware anyway but it is a fucking awesome game

yeah we'll see what happens when Kirby Airwriters comes out and then all these Switch 2s start flying off the shelves um any of the thoughts Matt I mean, I just, I loved it. I'm excited to, I'm excited to put it to bed for now. Yeah.

I'm going to get to the post game at some point. But it was nice to spend a lot of time with it. And, and look, Donkey Kong, for me, I think at least top three Nintendo guys, right? Like, he's fucking, he's fucking awesome. Top three Nintendo guys. I mean, it's got to be Mario and Link. Mario and Link. Then who's three?

Yeah. I think D.K. It could be Samus. I guess D.K. has more iconography and more connection to, or I'm sorry, it's just been, is more of an icon because it's been with the company since it's very early days. She gave me a modus first game. But I think, because I was just thinking, Donkey Kong, to me, is part of the Mario sort of, you know, extended universe.

So I'm like, is that a slot you want to throw in like a Samus or a Kirby or something, you know? There's somebody who's top three are an inkling, Dr. Olomar, and the hand guy from. Master Hand from Spathorers. I mean, there's also people who would be like Mario, Wario, Wa, Luigi. Yeah, that's true. It's true. Hey, this is an episode four. What do we do?

Matt, Matt, Matt, how, how did, was this an oversight? It's Pikachu. Is Pikachu Nintendo? I think so. Isn't he game freak? Isn't he Pokemon company? But is Nintendo. People associated with Nintendo.

I think it's got to be Pikachu. I'm about to say something so insane. Yeah. To me, Pokemon is its own thing. And I know that it's only on the Nintendo platform. I completely agree with you. I think it's its own thing. I completely agree with you and I don't have any, like any, you could put a gun to my head and I wouldn't be able to defend that.

It doesn't make sense even. But for some reason, it's its own thing. thing. Like, I don't know. Like, I could see, I could see an Nintendo theme park without any Pokemon representation and a completely separate Pokemon theme park. See, I can see a Pokemon theme park, a separate Pokemon theme park, and hey, that's, it's, it's, it's, you're printing money if you did that. But I don't think Nintendo would have no presence of Pokemon. And they're, like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's so, it's such a, it's so tied to their, Their brand.

And then it's Pikachu number one. It's Mario 2 and then it's Waluigi 3. But is in Super Nintendo Land is, is Pikachu there? I'm sure there's a Pikachu walk around or something, right? Because there is a, there is a Ramby, there is DK, there is Mario. I don't know if they're doing Pikachu because I know that I, the rumor is that they're going to take. They want to turn the Simpsons area into a Pokemon area. Oh, okay.

This is what I've heard. All right. So maybe they're saving it. They're saving it. But yeah, great. I withdraw what I said. Donkey Kong Bonanzo on speedrun.com right now, the any percentage number one ranking Tyron 18 at one hour, nine minutes, 25 seconds. That was clocked one day ago as of this record.

And for true ending, Fabs has four hours, 35 minutes, 39 seconds. I forgot to say the name earlier that I really liked of one of the bad guys. What was it? Abra Cajabia. Yeah, that's a fucking great name. I wrote it down. I was like, this is the best name

of the villain. It's really good. Abrakejabia is really good. It's a home run. It's kind of like how you could butcher my last name even. Matt Abraga jabba. I want to talk about

the way we played the game, which is what I liked about this game is that you can button mash. Basically, you can create an intention. internal combo that's constantly refillable that will allow you to just blindly dig effectively camera free like unable to even see what you're doing and the game doesn't punish you for it and I found it such a satisfying form of locomotion of like don't have to fucking look at anything

don't have to talk constantly running into gems and and fossils that I didn't even see and continuing to barrel forward and it felt even though it wasn't fast, it gave me, I complain all the time about games not being fast enough. And I think what I'm complaining about is being punished when I want to do something.

Yeah, right. And speed is usually the only barrier to the thing that I want to do. In DK, he doesn't move particularly fast, but I never felt punished by his locomotion. Yeah, because you're at least always doing Yeah, you're constantly doing something. Yeah.

And I really appreciated that about the game and loved it. I loved using the vacuum trunk from the elephant. The elephant vacuum trunk is really fun. Oh, we didn't mention turf surfing. Turf surfing is awesome. Turf surfing's really good. And chunk jumping. Turf surfing's too slow.

I didn't like it. You can traverse goos, poison gooze. Yeah. And lava's in the... Sure, but it's so slow. I wanted him go faster. It can be... You can speed up a little bit, yeah.

You can speed it up, but it's still pretty slow. I didn't have an issue with it. I want Sonic Frontiers running speed when he's turf serving. You want him to be Sonic speed? Yeah. Heather. But also I want Sonic Speed in blueprints.

Yeah, yeah. I can't wait for you guys to see the Banandium route. It's pretty cool. There's a lot of bananas in the game. Vanadium root really cool looking. Really good stuff. Uh, I love the game, and so did.

A lot of you. Yeah, that's right. It's time for the UPlay of our We Play. You Play. It's your review crew, the Riu crew. Hello! Here we go. These are all from our Discord.

Discord.G slash get played. I got ranch. You got Rance. He scared me. This first one's from Sweko Man 444. Hi, Swiko Man. And they write, I put 55 hours in. to it and got all 1,000 bananas.

Oh, shit. Loved every second of it and felt like a continuation of Super Mario Odyssey Formula. That's correct. Sweetco, man, that's alpha as hell. Very alpha. Congratulations. Yeah, congratulations. This next one's from JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ, JJ, and they write, DKB.

I'm glad you exist, but I'd still rather be playing Death Stranding 2. Oh, a take. It's a take, and we'll allow it. Look. Yeah. They're trying different things. They're doing different things. They're different stuff, but sometimes you're always like,

I've got to get back to the other one. This next one, atcho Sid, acosid. Akko Sid. Atchid. We'll find out. Sid? Sid, right.

I just can't get that into it. Feels repetitive and the control scheme remains bizarre. I don't think I'll finish it, but I'll never stop saying, oh, banana. Oh, banana. I agree. The jump button is in a strange place. You can change it, but I played too much of it to then change it.

Yeah. There's not, I, I, it's, it's, it's, it's really cool. I was really smart how they, they map the directional attacks to different buttons instead of having that be tied to an analog stick and one attack button. And I don't know, analog stick, tilt and one, one attack button. You are left with those are the three most natural places to put those directional attacks and putting the jump, it's just, where, where the jump button is, it's a little awkward, but it makes the most sense.

But also it's a little bit less of an aerial platformer, you know, than some others. I don't know. It's something you have to adapt to, but it did not bother me. Every time I turn the game on, the first thing I do is not jump when I try to jump. Yeah, I'm always pounding straight into the ground. Yeah, I got a look for jump. Accidentally destroying a fractone. This next one's from Olivia.

Hi, Olivia. And Olivia writes, kind of wish it was more of a traditional platformer, but it's quite fun to smash stuff. Oh, banana. Oh, by the way, a lot of people for their comment just wrote, oh, banana. Love that. Really good. This next one's from one of our mods, Ted Cord. Hi, Ted.

What's up Ted Gord? This was the perfect game to play with my five-year-old daughter. She was still happy when Pauline appeared and we gleefully said, oh, banana, every time we got a banana. That's awesome. We're working on post-game achievements together right now and still loving every second. Five out of five, great work, Nintendo. Yeah, there is a two-play. Player mode.

Did anyone mess around with that? I did not, but I believe you just control Pauline on D.K.'s back in the same way that you would be cappy in Odyssey. That's fun to do with a kid. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My wife wasn't interested. This next one's from Bronto. Hi, Bronto.

What's up, Bronto? Emily Bronto. Bronto writes, it's addictive, but it never ends. You think you're done and they want more and more bananas. Please, I just want to see my family. And finally, UPN-loaded rights. So far, Duncan Kong Bonanza is the first game

to give Claire Obscure Expedition 33 a challenge for my game of the year. Wow. I've put in about 65 hours. Holy shit. And I had a blast playing it. And for those worried about difficulty, the game offers some significantly

more challenging missions in the post games. See, that's what I'm talking about. I can get in there and get a little. challenge that's pretty good oh banana oh that's to me that's oh banana oh banana we started talking about minions at the beginning and now we're still talking about we're talking about bananas the whole episode wow yeah life is a herald peco that's this sweet skit played our producers rachel chen ranch yard underscore underscore sard what do you stream me these days ranch silent hill too where whereabouts are you in in silent hill two these days i i actually

exited what was like the most bottom floor of the other world and now I'm like back outside okay I think I'm like at least three quarters done with the game yeah sounds like you'll you'll get there you're getting you're getting close yep I feel like I haven't seen pyramid head very much at all well he's he for sure sees you always lurking also Also, people should check out Ranch's podcast, the Defiles, wherever you listen to pods. Our music is been Ben Prenti, Ben Pronti, music.com, our artist by Duck Brigade and Design, Duck Brigade.com. Get paid merch at kinshipgoods.com. And check out Get Animate over on Patreon. That's right. This week we're watching Redline, the anime film Redline, which is about racing.

And to that, I say, vroom, vroom. Vroom. Let me tell you, if you haven't seen Redline treat yourself, whether you're going to listen to the Get Animate episode or not, but we do hope you join us over there at Patreon.com. com slash get played that's right and you know what who got played who oh banana oh banana oh banana oh ben yannia oh benignette that was a hate gum podcast hi i'm alana hope leavenson and i'm dan o solvin and this is the outfit the new podcast from higher ground and headgum you know we're two journalists who are slightly obsessed with the mob and organized crime and other nefarious stuff like that? Every week, we're going to bring you a story about a mobster. Some you've heard of,

some you definitely haven't, but all of them are going to help explain why America is like this. See, the mob explains all sorts of things, from milk expiration dates to why we got into Cuba, to Las Vegas. Gay bars. Who knew? Who knew? The mobs involved. All that and more. Subscribe to the outfit wherever you get your podcasts, and watch video episodes on YouTube. New episodes every Thursday. Thank you.