Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Blessing's Donkey Kong Bananza Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Go to http://factormeals.com/kindafunny50off and use code kindafunny50off to get 50 percent off plus FREE shipping on your first box Go to https://mood.com and use code KINDAFUNNY to get 20% off your first order. Thank you for the support! Run of Show - - Start - Housekeeping - Topic of the show: Blessings Donkey Kong Review - Mike’s thoughts - Greg’s thoughts -  Blessing’s thoughts and score - Greg’s score - Roger’s thoughts - Ads - General thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is up, everybody, and welcome back to Kind of Funny Gamescast for Friday, July 25th, 20, 25. I'm Roger Percorny, and today I'm joined by Snow, Bichael, Michael. Roger, I want you to know that Greg won't say it, but you got the stuff. Today you got the stuff today? I got the stuff today? Is it the jacket? What's the vibe? Like, what's going on? Animal Crossing jacket looking great right out of the Supercrossing. Sponscioning at the Nintendo store. It's a little too green. I remember, yeah, you bought it, and you were disappointed.

I am, but I'm just lazy. I think I'm just giving up all. That's great. Just everything I'm wearing. I'll think it's what I'm doing. No, don't do the mic yet. You're not there yet.

I'm giving up. I'm giving up. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I just kind of look in the closet. I say whatever it fits. I haven't done laundry in a week. I don't know what's happening in my life. I don't know what's going on.

I want someone to come to my life and just dress me for two weeks straight. Oh. I will wear anything you give me. Does it have to be like a professional, like, person that dresses people or just a dude? You just want a random guy. I would prefer not you, you know what I mean? I think I'm in the middle of something. I feel like a third wheel right now.

We got to a fight yesterday. It was the whole thing. The whole thing. The whole thing. A whole thing. Nick saw it. I mean, some of those embargoes,

you can't really talk about it. But Mike and I were just uptight with each other, right? Like an old married couple. We spread a lot of good times with each other. We needed to clash one time. You know what I mean? To bring us back together. Yeah,

because honestly, it was a good month or two of like, we're jelling. We're the best of friends. And then, yeah, something has. happened. I looked at him. He didn't like the way I said it. I didn't like the way he said it. And then we're going to we're going with Nick to get his chicken and, uh, and guacamole that he gets from

Chibolet. He only gets chicken and guacamole. And we're in line. And then he's like, what do you guys want? You feel the same way about this, right? That like you and I work here. Yeah. So like, we're like, there's like a whole subculture of like, I would, I don't know why, but I would call him the sophomores. They're just, they're going to lunch. They're doing this. They got to bench. I attach myself to, to, I attach myself to, to Roger and Nick going to Starbucks the other day, I didn't feel more like I couldn't feel more like a third wheel. I don't know what this is. Also,

whatever that was, that's exactly what it usually is. So it's like, yeah, you were perfect. Okay, perfect. Yeah, so we go there and then Nick's like, it's on me, whatever you guys want for lunch. And me and Mike uptight, oh, we don't want anything. We're staring at our phones, staring at our right next to Mike is 20 feet the other way. And then I try to get next to him and try to talk to him and he's uptike,

he's like, hello, Roger, what do you want, Roger? I'm like, ah, shit. But we figured it out. We huged it out. Yeah, we got back. We're back now. But like, I'm willing to have someone dress me. Just not you. Back to the very important. I'm also here with Greg Miller. How you doing, Greg? I'm good. How are you, Roger? I'm doing great. I'm excited to talk about Bonanza. Bonanza. BK.D.K.

Banana. BK. K.BK.D.K. And of course. Brooklyn Kong. Burger King. Burger King. Burger King. Burger King. There we go. I like that. And of course, The Man of the Hour. The Review. It's in the title. Blessings, Deoniki Kong, Bonanza, Review. Blessing Eddie O.e, Jr. Good day, Roger. Oh, all right. It's exciting. You finished the game.

You finished the game. Oh, I did finish the game. You finished the game. I did beat the game. We're going to talk all about that and a lot more because remember, this is the kind of funny games cast where each and every weekday we get together and talk all about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, YouTube, live on YouTube, podcast. To get all of our shows ad free. watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. And I also say, every single time I host, I will say YouTube music is underrated.

You should go check us out over there. Dude, I've been rocking with YouTube music. And it's fire for podcasts because you watch it live. You can do the whole thing. It's what I want Spotify to do. I want to be able to watch my podcast live, kind of funny, specifically live. You get to do that on YouTube music and it works perfectly. Oh, I didn't realize that.

That's really cool. It's pretty fire. I love that. For a chance to be a part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions. As YouTube Chupers chats as we go, we want to hear your reviews of Donkey Kong Bananza, where you're at, how far you're into it. and if you're liking it more than Mario Odyssey. That's the only way.

Wow. I'm the only way to talk about this game. You know what I mean? Why can't I like it more than Star Fox Adventures? I mean, that's everything. That's everything, that's everything.

You just ruined my review, by the way. Oh, we're going to start off with Mario Odyssey. Go on. Oh, yeah. No, I got to figure out another video games to talk about. We're an 11-person business all about live talk shows.

KFGD was all about that dang. Ubisoft about to make Star Wars Outlaw. and they didn't make it, so we're going to talk about that. And then after this, of course, we have Fantastic Four in review, but it's 2025 Fantastic Four. Not FanFourstick or the other Fantastic Four. Fantastic Four! I'm excited to hear your thoughts on it. I've heard a multitude of different people around the office.

Oh, this one doesn't like it. This one likes it this much. I want to hear you all together. I'm excited for it. Is Tim here? He's coming. He's gone straight from the airport. I want to hear it.

Because he's the only person who I don't know what his thoughts are. I'm thinking about this is the only person I care about. He's the only person I care about. And of course, the big one. After this, it's episode two of Game Showdown. Nick Style, all about Ben Affleck. I'm excited about that. Yeah.

You talked to big game, but you also didn't talk a big game at all. I didn't talk a big game at all. He came out with his belt. He came out with his belt. He was not for a lot of energy. He came out with his belt and was like, I'm not putting this up because I'm too scared that I might lose the B'Aflick episode.

Yeah, he did. He said, this is a friendly. We're just getting loose. According to who? There's money on the line. There's money on the line. My money that Mike gave to me and then I gave to Nick. And it's also not money.

It's outbacked Steakhouse. That's okay. That's legal tender. That's going to be the future. That's going to be the gold standard one day. And after, and to round out today, we have a star racer sponsored stream with Nick and Andy. The game looks cool. Excited to see what they think about it.

If you're a kind of funny member, today's Gregway is all about SkillUp's new video game website. The written word lives. And I couldn't read. That's happened. That's because all the video game websites have been going away. Exactly. So you forgot how to read. I've been meaning to bring that up on Games Day.

So I'm happy you did a thing on it because I wanted to like, you know, either have a new story that was by them, which I think I might have had one this week or make it its own new story. The problem is that they're still getting started. And so this is even me, they're one shade at them. I need you out of update quicker because I'll check it. They're a small site. They're trying to do this.

But I've checked this more. I've checked every morning and it's always like last night's news. They're going to get there. They're going to catch up. Remember they're in fucking Australia. I mean, I don't know if all of them are in Australia. Well, skill up is in Australia. Yeah, but he doesn't write for the site.

I'm sure, but he's one of those guys, he opens the door to the CMS and shuts it at night. Fair enough, fair enough. Thank you to our Patreon producers. Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney the Sommetwining. Today, we're brought to you by mood and factor, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's start with what is and forever will be topic of the show. It's Donkey Kong Bonanza time. We've all been playing it.

I want to go around the table really quick and see where we're. are at in terms of game time and how far we're into the game mike how deep are you into it probably six hours roger okay and a lot of those hours are just me punching yes i'm terraforming as a lot of kids would call it oh new word of the day uh created four donkey conkey con my mike said the word trepidious earlier and i was going to call him out on it but i was like you you know what you use it i used it all the time because i gave him i gave him the hand of like it's it's coming blasking yeah it's a good one it comes it comes Um, yeah, I'm on sub level four.

So I just got done with the refinery boss. If you know what that is, jump down. And I'm having a good time. Yeah. I'm having a really good time. And I'm excited to talk more about it. I'm excited too. Greg, how about you?

Uh, I've played a lot across two saves. So Benny's got his save. I've got my save. And so, you know, started off very much as my save. And then I needed to actually have grown up gaming time and I went in there. So I made Benny his save. So we switched him back and forth. But both saves are,

either just about to or just have unlocked the zebra power. Okay. So we're right there. I'm right about there. I just unlocked the zebra power. I don't know how many hours that would be, but again, it's also the very different ways. Benny and I play. Benny is very golden path if he's going to go run and do the thing, whereas I'm like, I am pinging, pinging, banana.

Oh, I'm excited to talk about that because that's the exact opposite of what I thought Benny would be doing. Oh, yeah. No, I'm shocked as well. He is driven by the bosses. He needs it. Every time we get a banana, he goes, banana. Yeah. He's learning.

He's learning. And of course, bless, where are you at with the game? I've beaten the game. I'm in the post game now and I've played over 20 hours or so. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think we should just start with you. Just get it out of the way.

And then we'll kind of start talking about all of our opinions together. Blessing Eddie O'Yea Jr. You have finished Donkey Kong Bonanza. Tell me what you think about it. Tell me your rating and where it stands in the pantheon of Nintendo 3D platformers. Yeah, I loved playing this game and thinking about how I was going to talk about it for this review, because I was going to compare it to Mario. Honestly, no, I'm kidding.

No, because, like, you know, I, when we're reviewing games, I often try my hardest to be hard on video games, right? Because, like, I want a 10 to mean something, right? I want a 9 to mean something. I want my numbers to, like, speak volumes about how I really feel about a game. So, you know, me and Tim recently did a games cast where we gave our Astrobot review a year later with all the updates and stuff. And, like, even then, I was reminded that I gave Astrobot a 9.5 last year.

because I was trying to, I was a little bit resistant. There are things here and there. I was like, I don't know if I can give it the full 10. And like, I think oftentimes I need things to like sit and simmer and like marinate a little bit before I'm like, all right, I feel comfortable with like being able to call this thing a masterpiece. D.K. Bonanza is so good that like I don't, there's no way I couldn't give this game of 10 after finishing this game and now being in the cause game. And I think there's a lot to it. It's funny because me and Roger were joking where when Tim gave his review, He did the thing where he was like, if I had to recommend one game between Mario Odyssey, Mario Galaxy, Galaxy 2, and D.K. Bonanza, it's D.K. Bonanza. And, like, you know, Rodgers is like, I love my reaction of, like, me being like Timothy.

Even as Tim said it, I was like, all right, Tim's putting some extra sauce on it. That's what Tim does. You know, we appreciate that. I agree with them. I like this game. More than Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. It's in contention with Mario Odyssey, but it's tough for me to put anything in Mario Odyssey above this game. Like, that's how good this is. It feels like the sequel to Mario Odyssey in so many regards. We know it's the team. Obviously, like, it's D.K., it's Mario, right? Like, they exist in the same world, for the most part, except for when they are different. It's a whole thing.

But so much of this game, I think, takes so much about what I love about Mario Odyssey, the exploration, the amount of collectibles, the love that it has for its franchise. It takes that and then does something that I love, which is it gets really weird. and really, I don't know if risky is the word, but like experimental with what it can do as far as gameplay. It's so funny going from playing the 20-minute demo that me and Tim did during our Nintendo preview and doing the thing where we're bashing through everything

being like, all right, cool, like, this is a game that's way more based around destruction, all right? Like, how far is that going to go? And actually playing the game now in seeing how far they go with it and also how much it works for what this game is. It's insane because I did not think it would work this well. And not even this well.

I didn't think it would be, I guess, revolutionary in the way that I could experience a Nintendo platformer. Where breaking through everything, pinging things, and the different textures and different types of surfaces

they have for the different types of rocks and services that you're breaking really is additive to the experience. It makes me think about navigating this game in a way unlike any other game that I've thought about navigating. So it does that so well. On the other hand, this game is so celebratory for Donkey Kong.

And obviously, me and Barrett talk about DK64 all the time. And I think sometimes I might understate my love for DK64. During our top Nintendo platformers conversation, you know, Tim was asking me and Barry, he was like, he was like, do you put DK64 above like a Mario 3D World Bowser sphere? And I'm like, yes. Yeah, like, DK64, I put above any Sonic game I've ever played in. And I put it above, like, probably most Mario games. And I understand that that is crazy.

I know that that is crazy, right? But, like, I think this game was a reminder of how much I love this character and how much I love the world of this character. And it's so funny because D.K.'s been passed around, right? It was Nintendo. Then Rare. Don't laugh at that. He's a town bicycle.

Everybody's fucking ride, BK. But, yeah, like, Nintendo made the original Donkey Kong. And then you had Rare making the Dunk Kong country. games in DK 64 and then you had retro making country returns and tropical freeze and stuff, right? Like, DK has been all over the place. And for Nintendo to make Donkey Kong Bonanza and to make something that feels all-encompassing

of every era of DK and bring everything together, but then also breathe new life into it, for Nintendo to make a game that has so much character and personality in Pauline and how much she brings into the story by being this voiced character that is a long, along for the ride along with DK, how much that brings into it? For them to harken back to the music stuff,

for them to have such a great art style and art direction and also like story moments and also like a great finale and all this shit. Donkey Kong Bonanza does it all in a way that I think only Nintendo can do. I think it is them at the peak of their powers. Again, I

think I like it more than Mario Odyssey, which I didn't think was possible for another Nintendo 3D platform, but here we are. I absolutely love this game. That's my review. Greg, I want to hear your thoughts. Sure,

I think he's on the money. Of course, obviously way further than I am in terms of the gameplay. But, you know, I had a similar experience of listening to Tim come out

of the Nintendo demo, right, and come back from that, the 30 minutes you all did. And he'd be, I don't know, blah, blah, and then watching him get more,

progressively more like, oh my God, oh my God, oh, my God. To listen that review and like, all right, it's him coming out of being, it's a 10.

I was like, okay, cool, but am I going to feel like it's a 10. you know, sitting down when I finally got it by myself. That was the thing, right? Because I brought it.

I had it with the first day we had it. Jack and Poe were over and Jack wanted to play that night. I was like, of course. Then the next day we introduced it to Ben, right? We all played together then throughout the entire weekend. And then it was, yeah, Sunday night, you know, Jack and Poe left. And Ben was in bed. And Jen turned to me, she's like, what do you want to do tonight?

And I said, I want to go play Donkey Kong on my big TV. Because I'd only touched it here, put it on the little or TV or whatever, and went down there and played it and again, to be this early in it, my score isn't locked by any stress of the imagination but I can't imagine it not being a 10 because it's a game I'm playing and it's that as I play it, I am

sitting there and it's that rare experience of as I play and I'm sitting there going I'm having so much fun. I am enjoying every moment of this. I am being, what is it? Wowed and amazed, whatever, shocked and all. Surprise. Surprise and delighted.

Surprise and delight. Surprise and delight. It's happening around every moment. corner, let alone that even if it's not just using the mechanics are fun, getting the bananas and the chips and the things to grow the tree to get more bananas to go over there. And now I'm going to go and I'm going to invest in the skill tree. What am I actually saving up for right now to use? Like, I think the game is incredible.

Like, I think I cannot wait to get back to it. I can't wait to play more of it. That's even when I'm playing it. It's one of those games of like, oh, man, I'm going to go to bed in an hour and a half. That sucks. You know what I mean? I would love to keep going with this. Keep playing it.

Let alone then pivoting. to this being the first game we've launched together, I guess, with Ben. So far, a lot of the games I've introduced Ben to are either things I wouldn't have been interested in or things I've played before. So sure, pick up my Astrobot save and I have everybody unlocked to go ahead and do your thing. What do you want to do? Okay, fine. Or you're starting fourth, so which isn't my bag, but let me get you where you are and you go do it,

blah, blah, for this to be like, you know, he was so into it. Like, again, in the lead up to it. And because I've had this conversation so many times, but I guess it's not a content, right? of like Ben watched the switch to reveal event via our reaction. And so like Jen was texting me. She's like, oh my God, he's flipping out for this donkey con game. Like he's going to love this donkey.

And I came home. He's like, Daddy, tell me about Donkey Kong and this, that and the other. And so then since then, there is the question of like, when is Donkey Kong coming? He's talking about, there was a random Tuesday. Jen picked him up from school and he got in the car and he goes, is Donkey Kong out yet? She goes, no, not you. What? Burst into tears.

You know what I mean? So like when we finally got the data, I finally told him like, you know, when Jack and Poe are here and you, you know, graduate year one of preschool. That's when we can play Donkey Kong. And so, like, he was looking forward to that and going to the Nintendo store that Friday morning with Jack and Poe, buying Ben the Amoe, buying him the water bottle. I put it all out on the table with the poster and stuff. And he's like, ah, and then to jump into the game and go. Like, it's been crazy.

But it's crazy that, like, the story goes that we played all, you know, he's playing it mainly. And it's a weird game that we're playing together where so far a lot of the experiences are like Astrobat, whereas he was. play in quotes, but then have to pass me the controller. This is too tough. But as soon as I get past that one thing that was too tough from, he takes the controller back and goes. Whereas Donkey Kong has been the first game, I would say,

where he's as happy watching as he is playing, where he will play for a while. And if he does get stuck or just doesn't understand the puzzle has to me, I'll do it. And I'm like, do you want it back? He's like, no, you keep going. And he'll watch me play, play, play. And then be all right,

I want it back, daddy. And he'll go and play it. So getting that first big night on the big TV by myself, I made the mistake of playing, and I progressed down the level. the boss and I went to the next level. And then I was like, oh, fuck. Like, we're sharing a save.

So he's going to turn this on tomorrow and think he should be there, but it'll be there. And I'm like, I had it, you know, split the save. I made my own save. This was close enough. He'll be fine. You know what I mean? And now he's got a save and I've got my save, which is bizarre. You know what I mean?

To be playing that and having that. It was even weird when I came home and him and Jen had caught up to me. And I was like, oh, okay, cool. Like, that's, that's rad. So it's been quite the experience. But even taking, you know, just the sub stories of me hanging out of my son out of it. like the game's just awesome. And I'm as happy watching him play as I am doing it.

It's also awesome to see him play and do something totally different from how I would. And we had that moment with Jack where he was watching me play because he was ahead of me. And he sees me come up and it was like classic kid thing. Again, the written word being dead where it was when they were teaching you to, you know, grab the rock, jump off the rock and use it to get over stuff. And I came up to the multi-level muddy structure. And he's like, oh man, I hated this part. And just as I did it into the jump.

And he's like, oh, you can do that. I'm like, how did you do it? He's like, oh, I smashed all the mud off of everything. I'm like, holy shit, dude. It was like, that little part of it is so fun, let alone just smashing through the wall and then seeing it you paying and there's something over there. And I'm off to the next adventure. Yeah. Now, Snowback, Mike, of course, you are a father, um, yourself.

Yeah, father of two and I'm happy to say my kids love it as well. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Story similar to Greg. Unfortunately, there's not enough save slots. Yeah. Yeah. We got to really manipulate it.

We're buying different accounts. We've got a lot of N-S. But no, for real, these guys have said it so well. And for me and my experience so far, the best part about this kind of experience for me coming off of Mario Odyssey just a couple weeks ago, these aren't my go-to games, right? You guys all know me.

You know that I'm usually very loud. I love these shared experiences. But there's something special when I go completely nonverbal. I start to heavy breathe a little bit. The jaw drops just a little bit where I'm making the snobes. like Mike O face and every now and then I'll smile, chuckle, and I'll go, damn, this is a really

great time. There's a video game. And that's what Donkey Kong is right now for me. I am lost in the sauce of every level I go to. It has this beautiful, imaginative world that I can get lost in. And I remember being a child, seeing these bright colors, these fun monkey characters that I grew up with Donkey Kong 64, like blessed. And I'm like, I am transported back to this.

And now my goal is to punch every surface on the planet. and I'm going to ping and find every fossil because right now it is the collectathon for me. I am enjoying my time exploring the map, finding treasure chest that lead me to new fossil locations that then go out and get me new customization and cosmetic items. I love seeing Donkey Kong in different colors. I have now found that I am a traditional brown donkey Kong.

That is where I'd like to be. I enjoy the cloud white as well. But for me, I love just seeing Donkey Kong in its true normal state of the red tie. the brown donkey con color. And that's where I like rocking. Nothing. Yep.

I do love that the cosmetic items do have fun, passive abilities that you can kind of dive a little bit deeper into, or they really don't matter. You're going to be just fine, okay? You're not going to notice. And yeah, that's really all I can start off with is this is a really fun time, and I love it. The music sweeps me away.

When I go bonanza mode, that song is now like up there for me as like, when I heard the New Donk City soundtrack for the first time, I thought, man, they can't get any better. And then when that Bonanza mode music starts, something triggers in my brain where I am at another level. I'm on another planet. I'm lost.

Nintendo does music like no one else. It continues to wow me that they have talented artists out there that make such incredible music for, you know, children video games. And I go, this is the best, simply the best. You should be at some orchestra in Australia at the nice opera house doing this, but no, we're making.

in Nintendo music. And you know what? It's just perfect. And I love it. So yeah, this game for me right now is fantastic. I can't wait to beat it. I'm in sub-level four now heading to the Ice Layer where, you know, you'll get the zebra stuff. So I'm right around the corner from you guys.

But I'm loving every moment. What about you, Roger? I'm really enjoying this game. I actually think I was the most hype for the game in the lead-up to everything. I remember when I played the 20-minute demo, I came back and I was looking to you guys like, Tim, you're crazy. Like, this is going to be like, this is going to be the greatest game of all time. I was screaming about it from the rooftops. But I think the game just came,

is coming at it like a weird inopportune time for me in my brain right now where it's like I was excited for it, but also I'm in the middle of my second play-through of death-stranding too. And like, that's all my brain wants to do. And I'm having a great time with Donkey Kong. Don't get me wrong. But it is almost very similar to my trajectory. Maybe that's just where I'm out as an adult now of like with Astrobot. I really loved it. And then it took me a while of like not playing it and then going back for the Christmas levels and being like, oh, it was a masterpiece. Like I don't know what the fuck would I even think that this is an eight or not whatever it's a 10 like there's no way so i think that's the trajectory

here for me where i'm having a great time and there's a lot of fun moments that i'm having but i i don't think that my brain is there yet and then eventually i will get there because i'm smiling every time i'm playing it there's not like there's any issues with it's a i also think big thing i'm gonna i'm gonna throw my fiance under the bus here we're she's a hater you know what i mean she's a hate pauline she hates pauline she every time every time she hears the song unlike you mike Where you're like, this incredible, she's like, this sucks. She's like, she sucks. Yeah, exactly.

Literally, that's what's happening. But no, for real, like, I'm having a great time. I'm having a fun time. I think I also am doing the collect-a-thon thing, but it's getting in the way of my enjoyment because I am so anal retentive about it. Like, I am so focused on, like, slapping the fucking ground and trying to find all the bananas that I'm like, what am I even doing here? Jen was watching my last thing.

She's like, why are you smashing you so much? I got to pick everything up. I see you run over. I'm like, no, no, no, I got to do it. I got to do it. I got to do it. I got to find everything. And then I'm like, oh, wait, I could just progress it.

Every time I remember that, I'm like, oh, I'm having an amazing time. So, yeah, I'm absolutely going to get to that place where it's a nine or a 10. But right now I'm like an 8-8-5, which is not bad at all. I think we need to remember that. Like, 8-8 is a really great score. And I will say, like, I think this was a game that got better the further and further I got into it. And, like, I probably started off as an 8 out of 10 freebie. And then, like, I get maybe a little bit past halfway.

And I'm like, oh, this might be a 9. And then, like, I get to the end. I'm like, oh, this is a 10. Yeah. It's a game that really builds because they, I think they do a really good thing, which is they take it easy in the beginning. There's a lot to kind of take in as you first jump into the game because it's a lot of smashing, right? And like, I think you really have to take in for quite a few levels how to smash. Like, you know, how to break things, how to like get to the collectibles, how to do all that stuff.

And so, like, they kind of like play it chill in the beginning. And then as you go, they start introducing things and complicating things. and I think really interesting ways. And yeah, it only got better as it went. Yeah, for sure. Let's keep on talking about dog. I want to get to the nitty-gritty of everything. But before we do that, I want to tell you about our sponsors.

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Let me tell you what. This thing runs 60 fPS on this fucking thing. It's crazy. It runs well. It's the entire game. Oh, I'm going to code. I only need to jump on that. So I'm playing that last night.

So, yeah, instead of playing Dalcong, I just played WW2. I downloaded it, but I haven't had any chance to jump into it. It's 75 gigabytes. No. It's bigger than cyberpunk. Maybe I don't need that. I had to uninstall two games. Two games.

Martin Car World. Yeah, almost. but, Blessing, let's talk about it. Let's talk about difficulty. Yeah, I wanted to talk about this is I saw some chats earlier

talking about the difficulty. Those Tundraway in chat mentioned, you know, bosses are too easy. There's somebody else that mentioned a lot of people were talking about difficulty, right? And I think the thing for this game, it's like any other Nintendo game where, or any Nintendo platformer,

where you finish the main game and then it's the post game where the difficulty lies, right? So like, the real challenge begins. Yeah, that really is where the real challenge begins. And that also is a thing. uplifting my experience with the game where I'm encountering challenges and shit where I'm like where I'm like damn this shit's tough like this shit's kicking my ass I'm like you know repeatedly

going over and over again on them I like that I want to shout out and then also um I think the main line I view it more is like Disneyland rides where it is more about the experience it is more about like the fanfare it is more about like getting you to point A to point B and then it's the post game where it is like all right we're going to kick your ass kind of thing sure that's how it's working out for me and that I've been enjoying I saw someone and I apologize to our circle of peers on blue sky. I'm sorry, on BS. That's a blue sky, too.

Where I saw someone say something that I thought was a very interesting summation. Of it's interesting to see Donkey Kong Bonanza and Nintendo make a mobile game that isn't a mobile game. And they were like, I don't mean this is disrespectful, but it is a game that is like legitimately this buffet of things to do so that when you're tired of doing something, you move on to the next thing or turn it off and come back. excited to eat again. And I thought that was like such an interesting take on it because I am, you know, the Ubisoft checklist. I like the open world. And I'm not hung up on the like when me and Tim did the,

I got to play my first 45 minutes on air, right? On a stream. And when it was, oh, wait a second, I did this and I unlocked that. So now I know where this thing is hidden. I was like, oh, Tim, like, I'm going to do this every time and then go. And playing the game, it's like there are so many fucking bananas everywhere and so many fossils everywhere. I'm not hurting for it.

So it's not like I need to go and chase the treasure map thing I just got. Instead, it is. I'm smashing and I'm collecting and I'm doing. And then there's something over there. And eventually I'm like, well, I got to get to the thing I was going to when you go to the, but the mobile thing was an interesting take, I thought,

of talking about it. And I've seen, I know Janet has some BS's yesterday about like more critical of Donkey Kong in general, not that she was saying it's bad, but like the levels don't make sense as you go down. Like, you know, there's no narrative thread to like, why isn't it like,

you know, why am I going from one that's hot to, cold, but then back to this way. I was like, ah, you know, the fucking stupid King Kong movies, Tim made me watch. That ruined it for me. The hollow earth theory is all fucked up to begin with. But the mobile thing, for sure, I was like, that's an interesting take on it. Like, you open it up and there's always something to do.

And I think it plays into the difficulty, but I also think it plays into, I'm never frustrated playing this game, which is another one of me playing it, always being into it, excited. Even when I miss a jump, even when I do die, because there are the challenges you drop in and like, all right, it's a little bit of pat your head, rub your head, rub you. you're telling me, right, where I'm like, all right, I'm got to skate, but I got to jump. And so I'm not doing that. I'm like, it was like muscle memory of trying to figure out what they need me to do from piece to piece to get the things together.

And, you know, three or four tries, I had it. But it was like, oh, that was a fun little challenge. Now I'm back to just whatever the fuck I want to do and smash and change my color dog. Yeah. No, I think that's a great point because the times when I was frustrated, I had to remember, oh, this is just a challenge room of many things I did not need to do, right? Like, this is all things that I could just stop doing this, get out of here and find a banana and have the fun.

and you can always find that fun no matter what. So you're not like hurting for things. You're not like stuck on like one level. I can't get past this thing. Yeah. For sure. If you get into the bosses, just back to that attraction deal.

They're fun, they're pocketing up and circumstance. I get in there and I smash him in two hits or whatever and I'm done and I get the key and I do the thing. I'm like, okay, cool. Like I like the production quality put in you, but I'm not looking for a soul's like experience.

I mean, to be fair, and this might, I mean, this might be me grading on a curve of Nintendo games. But like, for me, that I've seen in one of the 3D platforms like I like these guys way more

As far as like the Void Kong or the Void Company I like them way more than the Mario Odyssey The rats Yeah like the marriage rabbits or whatever they're called The Brutles For Tim And then like also a lot of the other boss fights that pop up I think are really really well designed actually

I think the um There's only like a couple of boss fights where I was like Oh this is a dud Like this one like just didn't have enough thought put into it The majority of them I think are really smart They utilize the whole you know take apart your environment and like either throw them at the boss or like take apart chunks of the boss because they're made out of a certain texture. I think the vast majority of them are really smart. And then

even later in the game, there are some of them that are actually pretty involved and some that are even difficult that I thought were really, really good. The early ones go by a little too fast for my liking, right? Because there is this big moment of like the goal of the level was to get to you and that we have this big spectacle of this cutscene, this moment for Donkey Kong. And then, you know, I breeze through it in like less than two minutes. It's like, oh man we are just past you now and i'm sure it will ramp up for me uh you know the difficulty thing for me is always a tough one a ball of wax for me of yeah i want it to be more difficult i wanted to cater to me but i am not the target audience of this i'm not looking at a nintendo game

especially donkey conanagan to be like hey dark soul's mike let's parry perry jump out the window come back roll through it's like i know what i'm getting into and that's like i kind of have to start tuning my brain to like wanting understanding that. I would push back. I would say you are the target audience, right? Like if you're enjoying the full game, yeah. I viewed Nintendo games as being more family games than kids games.

And like, I think you could, I think you could have a game that may be like aimed towards kids in a lot of ways. But like if we're talking about it and enjoying it as an adult, I think you should review it as adult Mike. I love that. Yeah, I guess my mind is having a tough time sometimes of like when we come to

difficulty in Donkey Kong and Mario. Because my mind just goes to, that's a kid's game. It's supposed to be like catered to a kid's experience to have fun, grow, learn the awesome world that is video games and learn and grow off of that where it's like Dark Souls Mike over here, yeah, I would love Don Kong to be parrying. I want Mario Maker levels where I'm like Andy Cortez snapping a controller and half because I can't get the double jump.

But that's not what this is, right? It's like they will have moments like that, which I appreciate and there's fun things. But like, I can't have poor baby Ben over here. It's first experience in a video game with Donkey Kong. It's like, oh, you can't double jump off of a green shell. and then grab the feather and then fly over and Tadukey tail on this guy. Like, you get good, kids.

But there's an in between for me, right? Because going back to the bosses, like, it just goes by a little too fast to the point where I was like, oh, did I do something wrong? Something I'm missing here? Like, it was that type of thing. I'm walking up to the person. They're talking to me.

They're like, oh, you beat the shit out of me. I'm like, really? There's no third thing going on here. But it seems like it does get more complicated to the boss fights. I know we're smack dab in the middle of the game, so I don't want you to spoil anything. Of course.

Yeah, right now it is this interesting. thing where I think it also goes back to like the main idea behind this is that this is basically like a Hulk video game so it's like what is the Hulk going to do with a boss fight is going to beat the shit out of people really fast like that's how this is going to go it's almost like those boss fights when it's like okay well

we're not going to give them a mech suit you're just going to beat up the guy and you're going to beat them up it takes 10 seconds and yeah that's satisfying but it's also really fast so you kind of have to balance it so I'm kind of looking for a little bit more of the interest of like hey I'm fighting a boss and I'm doing the Mario thing where I'm jumping on the

and I have to wait or, but now I'm just kind of throwing things to people and beating them up really fast and it's 20 seconds and I'm like, oh shit. Smashed through them to get to the core. Yeah. I'm like, wow, okay, that's what we were leading towards. For me, I'm less concerned with all the, like, I'm less concerned with difficulty in the sense of difficulty makes this thing more fun. For me, I ask, what are the things that make this more fun, right?

Like, is a, is our, is an early D.K. Bonanza boss made better by me dying more? Or is it made better by having more fun things, fun things that I'm doing, right? Like, I think the role of a boss in D. Canaanza is to get you to rip chunks out the ground and then throw it at him, right? Like I think the goal of a design boss in D.K. Bonanza is to make you go, all right, what's going to take me to the next phase? Like, what's the puzzle that I'm solving in real time? Less so like, oh, man, I'm beating my head against the wall. Because you do, yeah, I think in the second half of the game, you do have a few bosses. Again, none of them get to like Dark Soulsie,

right? I'm right there with you as far as Dark Souls, Mike, right? Like, I have my Eldon Ring Bless or Sekiro Blest, whatever you want to call him, Perry Poppy that's, you know, rooted within me. And like, I'm, this just isn't the game. that, but I think there's still tons of fun to have with the boss fights here. Like, I think they're very well designed, very well, very involved the further you go. And I don't know, I think they're, I think they're very smart boss fights, boss fights. Maybe not as early on where you're like, tearing through something like, I think I'm just not find the puzzles yet, right?

There have been some challenge rooms where I'm like, oh, that's interesting. I had this one challenge room where it was like, uh, there was these enemies that are like super gold-plated and there was nothing around you to beat them up. But there's like this, uh, this turt that's aiming at you. So you kind of have to like get behind the enemy and like kind of like, line it up perfectly and take them out all within 15 seconds. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. That's what I thought you would see in a boss fight instead of literally, you get there

and you're beating them up super fast, which I feel like it's just kind of the core of all of the combat. So it's like, what is even the point of having a special boss fight where it's like, this is the guy, I'm going to beat them up. Okay, cool. Dead immediately. But I know that there's a lot more. This is the interesting thing of doing a review in the middle of the review process, right?

A review so far. Yeah, review so far. But yeah, let's talk about that. And then let's, we're talked about boss fights. Anything else about boss fights before we move on? No, no. They make books. They make books.

Let's talk about upgrades. What did you guys think about the upgrade tree? And I thought that was very interesting when they showed that off in the Nintendo Direct. And I, I'm interested in that. I think finding all of the bananas and every time I get that five banana, I'm excited to like constantly. Oh, yeah.

I want to hear your upgrade paths. Like, what are you prioritizing? Where are you going for? Are you thinking about that? Or you just going for whatever is available? I think about what. when I'm there. I get the skill point. I open it up and if, you know, I'm not already in the know of what I'm doing. I'm usually grinding for something, right? So like for me, it was all

about, I think initially getting my radar and, you know, I want my radar to go as far as possible and my pound to go as far as possible so I could get everything that way, right? I haven't invested, maybe I just started investing in health, but I haven't, since I'm not feeling the penalty of death or, you know, the actual attack, I'm not worrying about it. I'm just doing with the collecting and going out that way for it. Yeah. I follow. what they recommended. I thought that was really cute and fun of like, you know, I'm more in Donkey Kong to not look at a skill tree and get lost in the small moments that are like, will make DK better, but probably moments and moment of me just smashing through rocks is really

not making me any sort of different. I'm just here to collect bananas. So I don't appreciate that. They were like, hey, here's the track that we would put some people on. And I just followed that. My main one was like, I want the sonar to be better because I'm looking for the collectibles. But really, every time this popped up, I would look for what they recommended or I would just move on to the next one, click on that. I'm in it. I don't want to be stuck in the menu reading anything about his small passive skill traits. Blessing, how about you? Yeah, it's funny because I'm somebody who's in hoarder when it comes to skill points.

Like when I'm playing any game that has a skill tree, I'm like, hold off. You know, I want to hit a point like, you know, five hours from now where I finally sit down my skill tree. put everything in and now I feel way more powerful and that's just how I do things. So like, I guess, so stick with the officer. This is a fascinating conversation I know about you. What about if it's like unlocking new moves or a new weapon or something like that?

Do you do the same thing? It would have to be something that would like. It's more like this minutia of like, oh, you can hit, you can see farther, you can hit stronger. Yeah, like if it's like a new ability or something that feels like is going to substantially change my gameplay in the moment,

then I'll spin on it. But if it's like, oh, your punch gets ten, percent stronger than I'm like I don't need that right now I'm going to like hold all this stuff and then wait until I can make it 50 percent stronger so I can feel it you know what I mean sure and so at first I wasn't spending skill points as much the ones that I did do early on were like sonar and stuff that stuff that would make it easier for me to get more resources so it can have more skill points like I love leveling up so I can level up faster um but you don't level up fast you take time but I don't spend the points that I get from leveling up faster I'm

like I'll spend that so I can like really feel the run. I want to feel something when I level up. And so yeah, it was a lot of that. One of the things that really made the game click for me further in was realizing how progression wasn't tied to getting the bananas. That's something that's like not typical of this kind of platform or usually it is a thing of all right,

collect 30 bananas and then move on to the next part or collect, you know, this many bananas. Get enough moons or whatever. Get enough moons or get enough like whatever so you can like actually unlock. the next part of the game. The mainlining this game really has, um, like no barriers, no walls, right? I didn't even think about that because I'm all doing is getting bananas. So I'm like, oh, I didn't even think that it's like, you can mainline the fuck out of this game. Yeah. And just like keep it going and the game will just let you. Um, and the only reason why you would get bananas in

the main game is to upgrade your skill tree, which like didn't click to me until I got later in the game where I started to really want to upgrade my skill tree because then that stuff started matter a little bit more. And I was like, oh, shit. All right, now I got a reason. I thought that gameplay loop, like, variance was very interesting. How many bananas do you have right now, Roger? I can try to pull it up.

If you go to your load for your save. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm talking about it. I got to close, I got to close WW2K25. I was just looking at last night. Mid-matchezing. I have 1201, which I don't think is outrageous. So I was wondering if you're being super crazy about it, how many you have?

Yeah, I mean, I would assume I'm around there. But, yeah. I'm collecting a ton. Yeah. I will say to, again, this is to the credit of great game design. Even knowing that I didn't really have to collect these bananas, I still did the thing where I would stop and be like, all right, now I'm just going to collect a bunch of bananas.

Just for the love of the game. It feels good. It feels good to smash through this world and find that banana. Yeah. You still feel that like when you get somewhere, I'm not there. They didn't expect me to know that I'm over here. So I shouldn't even see that yet, but I'm there. I'm going to get the damn thing.

Like, that's fucking cool. Yeah. Yeah. Mike, what is your, so you're, you're collecting things, you're going around, are you, are you just fully progressing? Like, what is your vibe? Like, I need to know your vibe in terms of like, are you just drilling down as soon as you get to a level? Like, what's your play style type deal? Well, let's explore the beautiful world that they give you on the next level.

Like, I'm really just taking my time exploring it. I like getting all the fossils. I like making sure I clear out the shop. I love putting Pauline in different cool, fun outfits, right? Like, that's what it's all about. Do you switch a lot? Or you, what do you, what stands out as your Pauline outfit right now? Right now, well, I've only unlocked three.

So it's like the one right now that I like is the cowgirl outfit. Yeah, that's what I got her into. The second one. The dark one, I have a black cowgirl outfit and then Donkey Kong's got the smoky fur and then the yellow trousers. That's cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you got to do it. Yeah, you got to have the red fur.

You got to press it all. You're nasty looking. Come on. Come on. Come on. Anytime there's a home purchase, I'm buying a home. Yeah, you got to buy a home. challenge room. I'm going in the challenge room.

I mean, I'm coming hot off of Mario Odyssey where everybody is like, hey, Mike, there's more into there now. And so every time I go in, I'm like, okay, there's three bananas that I'm going to find. I come out and it's like, oh, I'm missing the middle one. That means I'm going back in. I'm going to go find it. Right. So, yeah, I'm just having a blast exploring every single level that they've created. I did just get a banana. I just got a skill point. I'm not going to spend it, though. Trying to break the game like you see some of the speed runners do, right? That first time you see Kanky Kong and the kid is like

well you could just throw the rock at him and he's going to fall down or you could try to like double jump over to him bounce off a rock and then get on top of it with him and it's like okay well that's fun I want to see what I can do there exploring wise and so yeah I'm just taking it as it all comes I am the generic

I'm just having a blast I'm exploring and then I go over and get my boss fight and go to the next zone. 184 yeah 1st4 is pretty solid can I think can we talk about how they got They got some kind of cocaine crack and just in the smash mechanic. Oh, dude.

Yeah. Because I dream, like, I went to bed a couple nights ago. I'm glad you did. Legitimately, like, just dreamt about smashing. Yeah. Like, the Donkey Kong smash. Like, fucking smashing through texture, smash through services kind of thing. And it just, it, it is having the Tetris effect thing on me.

Like, you know, when you play a lot of Tetris and like, the first night I played, I had the exact thing. I woke up in the morning and Lance was like, oh, you look at you, you well rested up. Like, like, I was just thinking about Donkey Kong. I was thinking about Torinas. Yeah, exactly. just destroy it. No, yeah, it's something about the sound effect.

It's the crunchiness. And it's like, it is almost scary when I first booted it up of like, oh, no, all of these, this gold is procedurally generated. So that means that I can't get it all, but I'm going to get it all. If that makes sense. Like, I'm always breaking. I'm always finding the treasure chest. And it's becoming an issue right now where it's like, I'm not progressing, but then I

need to force myself to progress. Playing the game your way. I know. Yeah, I'm going to do it over the next, I think I'm going to finish it in the next two months, three months. Take my time. Take my time. I want to talk bonanzas and the transfer information of it. I was very skeptical of that when they first announced it because I was like, oh, this is a huge new thing for this game and it feels like it changes the entire kind of makeup of what

I thought this game was going to be. I thought it was literally just Don Kong running around getting upgrades, blowing shit up. And that's what it is. But having the zebra effect where you have to go over, you can go over. Run fast. Yeah, run fast and go over ice stuff. having, what is it, the ape of the gorilla one where you can just destroy a bunch of staff. And they showed a few other ones in the direct.

What do you guys think about it? Do you think highly of it? I expected to annoy it isn't the right word, but I expect to be a gimmick that I wouldn't use unless I absolutely had to. And I feel the way they got around that and have made me like it, not worry about it. Don't even think about it.

Again, it's a frictionless game where I'm just playing and having a good time is how fast you fill that meter in. I was expecting it to be one of these You know like What is it? Terrorizing And then Pokemon where I got to build up

Terraforming one fucking shot Terastalizing I know yeah So it's like You get one shot at it in the battle And then you know So everybody's used on the last guy last turn This sucks

This being like Okay cool I can use it just for this one thing And I'm gonna smash so much gold It'll be charged in two seconds Like the fact that it's just ready to go is nice And I'm like That's the perfect usage of it

That's how I had to get over that. I am someone who loves to save my special, similar to how Blessing saves his skill points. I used to be like that. Of like, now whenever I have the special moment to go Bonanza Mode, it's like, just use it all the time. Because you're going to refill it so fast. There's no reason to be sitting on it.

Just go have fun. And plus the music gets me excited. So it's like, I'm Bonanza Mode and all the time. Yeah. I love it. I love all the forums, except for one. I won't say which one, but like, one of them. I don't love.

I think the the way that it refills so quickly but you still have to refill it I think is kind of weird It's like a little yeah a little finicky Like I feel like it's just such an easy like layup though From them of like oh you did something Again the whole game is like oh there's a banana

You can get oh you can do this Oh you filled it in like well yeah I filled it in like But if Dongy Kong just breathes you gets enough gold That's my thing is like oh I just have to collect like three little pieces of gold To fill up this whole bar It's like why not just let me keep it the entire time But then I don't know I understand, but I also am like, was this the most elegant?

But I do love the mechanic. I think it's, I think to, you know, give you a lot of different types of obstacles and different types of puzzles. Like, they do really, really cool things with it throughout the game as far as like, all right. Yeah. Now you have to have this form so you can run over the sand. All right. Oh, now you have to have this form because we've got this really hard rock that you got to

break. Yeah. Um, they do really, really cool things with that stuff. And so I think it's good. No, I think I'm exactly where you're at. Uh, my, my first thought was like, I just want to be collecting the gold as I am in the form. It should continuously be in that form.

So that was a little bit counterintuitive to kind of stop and then immediately go back into it. But yeah, I also, you just want to talk about how caked up he is in every single version. It's crazy. Why is D.K. I mean, the great apes are known for asses like this. Yeah, that's just one is part of the thing.

That's true. You go look at a grill anywhere. Tell me, I think, don't have an ass. Kevin, show me some grill asses. It's like a nightmare seeing both of you look at me. I've been like, you've got to look at a grill's ass, everybody. Go to the zoo. man, San Francisco Zoo.

Whoa. It auto film. Hit auto fill as if guerrilla warfare. One of the things Oh, there it is. But don't be afraid. Put gorilla ass in this.

Yeah. I want to see it from the back. Guerrilla arrested. Gorella. Oh, Jesus Christ. He was arrested. Recently? Yeah.

Oh, I miss this. Yeah. that's accurate Oh yeah Yeah One of the things I do like to Is how that that brings like the different Pipes of characters in the game together

Like both Mario Odyssey and this game do the thing of You're meeting like different races of creatures Throughout the game right And I like how in this game They feel a bit more like sprinkled throughout And also a bit more meaningful Like tied together Maybe it's the word I'm looking for

Because yeah you get like the gorilla bonanza And then you hang out with the zebra people And they're like all right you know, do the thing here. Weird crystal rock people. Yeah. Like they all kind of have their own thing going on, but you need to visit all of them in order to like, you know, get fully, fully upgraded.

I love that. And then also I love how many of like these different types of people I'm seeing in different areas where it does feel, I mean, it feels like it feels like everybody's migrated all around. You know what I mean? Like it's the world now. Like it's modern times. You've opened up.

Yeah. As opposed to in Mario Odyssey. It's like, I'm only going to see this guy. I'm only going to see the polar bear in the cold place. So it was like on to the next one, but I like how everything feels a bit more integrated together here. Yeah. Are y'all using the hideaway beds, the getaway beds? Oh, every single time, yeah.

Every single time. I love that. Yeah. A little conversation with Pauline. Sherry says something fun to say. Yeah, can we talk about that voice acting? We got a lot of it. You know me, Roger.

I love it. I hate reading. Okay. But I love when they, I love these Nintendo games and the worlds and the characters they build. And I love when they bring a voice to it. And I can stop being Valley Girl, Mike, whenever I read these, you know, they're all their writing. And so it's like, I love that Pauline has a voice. I like the void company. And, you know, they're not giving me English voiceover, but it's like,

whatever you're throwing at me, I'm loving this vibe right now. And so yeah, the Pauline talking to me, telling me fun stories every time we rest in bed. She's like up to date and it doesn't seem like I'm just getting the same dialogue over and over. For sure, for sure. I really love that. Yeah. I find it, the Pauline stuff, I've seen criticism online and in my house old, of the Pauline Curtis voice acting about it feels a little bit inconsistent. I like that. I think it's silly,

it's campy. There's nothing about it that that rubs me in the wrong way. If anything, it just makes me laugh, right? Sometimes there's a line delivery. The way that she says,

DK. makes me laugh. Like, it's silly. I just, I don't think it's consistent, but I think it's also part of it. Sometimes she sounds like a girl,

a little girl, but sometimes she just does, it's like, I don't know what that voice direction was, but I like it. It's funny. Like, that is the world that you're creating here.

So I think taking it not so seriously is kind of the way to go, and I've enjoyed that. I think it's an interesting side of it, and that they're focused specifically on Pauline to be the character that has the English voice acting and no one else, but I think it makes sense for what they're building here, for sure. I think the performance is fantastic.

I think it's really charming and really cute. Yeah, every single time where, yeah, you take that break, and then Pauline references something about the world. I think is wonderful. My tinfo hat is that I think this is Nintendo trying, like testing the waters. I think after the Mario movie,

where Mario has a voice in Luigi, has a voice, and all these characters are voiced, and that's becoming a popular way to now see these characters, you know, on the big screen. I wonder if that's them being like, all right, should we start doing that more in our main games? Like, if we have Pauline talk, is it going to feel weird

to people? Like, if we do this with Mario, if Luigi and Mario are talking at every single fucking checkpoint, is that going to be a weird thing? I think they're testing things out. That's my tinful hat. I mean, I would love that. I think that's the future that we should be in. I, I want, everyone to talk. I want everyone to have inconsistent voice acting. I think it's

I love that. I want this weird world where it's like it's not like hey it's a buttoned up movie like Chris Pratt is in. It's just it's just a weird hey everyone speaks English. Yeah and also I just I love the amount of cutscenes and the amount of like story bits that that's in this game right? Like this game did such a great job of introducing us to a cast of characters and introducing us to like you know moments throughout the story where I'm like damn I'm invested to see like where we're going next you know like it's funny because you're playing as a character who's main motivation is bananas. Like all he wants is bananas. But I'm here for like his like relationship with Pauline. I'm here for, you know, Pauline being nervous to seeing and all these things and her like

growing throughout the game and all that stuff. I think it's, I think it's really fun the way that Nintendo is injecting more story into this stuff. And I want to see them do it with more of their franchises. For sure, for sure. Let's talk about how it runs. I've seen a lot of scuttleblut on the internet from some nerds talking about all the games drop in frames. Oh, it's this. Oh, it's that. I want to hear your experiences. I'm a, I'm a frame nerd. So usually that stuff upsets me. I'm sure you're one of the nerds. But it didn't upset me.

It didn't upset me for this game specifically because, first of all, I think some of it is stylistic. There are moments when he's punching and you definitely have a low frame rate moment. And even if it wasn't intentional, it feels intentional and it feels good. It feels like, hey, it's like a hit moment in the game. But there are moments. I'm like, okay, I do notice that we drop some frames here and there. But I don't know. It's not consistent enough for me to actually have any issues with it.

Did you guys notice anything happening in your game or any of that? No, I felt smooth. good to me or I'm not noticing it. I'm having a great time. On the stream Tim tries to point it out to me and I just can't not catch it. I'm just like I for me they did such a thing of like this is the style of the game of the world that like

I there's no like duck dot dot dot dot dot you know what I'm like oh what the fuck is happening so when it's dropping a frame I'm just like he's smashing he's smashing real good. Yeah I thought it'd be worse there was an article from an IGN article where yeah three days before where like they they

had a session where they played it and then yeah somebody asked the developer. Yeah. And he was like, well, we focus on fun. Yeah, yeah. So I thought the frame stuff

would be a lot worse. I think, I think you're right. Roger, as far as, because when you're punching things, they have like little like hit stop where it has the intentional stutter.

So maybe that actually hides. Maybe that's a Nintendo solution, right, of like hiding frame stuff that people would have noticed if they didn't do that. There have been like a couple of times outside of that.

Usually if I'm breaking a lot of gold or something, like I think particularly gold. where I'll know, like gold in like a big environment. If the camera's pulled out and I'm breaking a lot of shit at the same time, then I'll notice some like lower frames, but it's never bad. It's never like, oh, this is like a stutter stutter. Usually it's like a, oh, this dipped down like five frames as opposed to, you know.

Yeah, and I wonder if I'm playing a lot on handheld mode. I know that has a variable refresh rate thing. I don't know if that actually works or if that's how that's built out for this game, but that might be hiding it for me. Last thing, I want to talk about Donkey Kong's design, redesign rather. Do we have thoughts? Do we have feelings any which way? Do we like this more than the OG Donkey Kong design?

I know that's a big question. He gives off a little younger energy, and I like that. I'm liking the Donkey Kong redesign. I have no issues with him. I'm not pointing at the television going back in the day, DK. 64, he looked like this, you know? You're showing your kids. No, like I'm smiling and having fun every time I see Donkey Kong.

Yeah, I have no affinity for Donkey Kong, period, beyond this game, right? I don't fuck with the guy. I've never had an opinion one way or the other. So I like this redesign a lot. And it's interesting, like, again, to watch it become like, again, you've heard me say it before. But it's interesting to be living it where I'm like, I won't let Ben repeat, repeat my mistakes. He's growing up a Nintendo kid. And him, like when, again, the way we did it is we gave him the Nintendo stuff I bought at the store on Friday night.

And we said, Donkey Kong comes out Saturday afternoon when we get back from the museum. That way, like, he just didn't ask about it. So like the amoebo got unboxed, was with him all day, all night on his bookshelf. Then he brought it to the museum Academy Sciences. And they have the big dino exhibit going on. So when he was digging in the dino box to get the bones out, Pauline and Donkey Kong were smashing the bones and moving the sand. And it's like, I love that this is his donkey Kong, right? And this is what it's going to look like to him and how it is.

And I like the design a lot. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing, right? Yeah, the rare Donkey Kong. That means something to me, man. Yeah. That means something to me. But also, this is objectively a better design.

Yeah. This is this design. If you're using this for movies, if you're using this, I mean, as you're making more Donkey Kong games now, this is an easier design to work with because it can be more expressive, right? Look at the amount of emotion, the amount of different, like, types of emotions that Donkey Kong can express because he has a face that can move. Yeah.

Like, the previous D.K. design just was not great for conveying a character that's, like, supposed to be this animated, like, cartoon character. And so this current design we have is objectively better. I'm very fascinated. They have like other characters. Like we've seen in the Nintendo direct, right? They're like, there's Diddy. There's Dixie, right?

Those characters do not look that different. Like they, I think maybe they're slightly redesigned. But for the most part, they kind of look true to what they look like in the rare games. And so I'm almost like, why didn't you redesign more of these characters? I would have been down to see like all of them kind of brought forward a little bit more.

But hey, I also do like having the hint of like, hey, no, but this is, this part of my childhood is retained. That just means you're not getting Diddy Kong ever again. He's going to be in the background of every game. He's going to, you're never going to get a new game with him as a main character. I hope we get more Diddy Kong in like a more central role. No way. I really, I want it.

Yeah, I never liked the way Donkey Kong looked beforehand. I actually hated it. I thought he looked too mean, nasty character did not like the fucker. Nasty character did not like this fucker. A lot of people say that about ditty. A lot of people say that about dinky. Sorry. Oh, sorry, Donkey Kong.

But also Diddy. You know what I mean? But Donkey Young specifically, I did not like the way he looked. So now having this guy here, it's like, yeah, this is a nice, a nice character. I buy that he's friends with, you know, Paul Lee. And he's, sometimes when he smiles, he looks like a completely different character almost, like the way he's chees-in. And I like that. I like that.

What I tell you, previous D.K. design could not smile like that. No, not at all. It could not smile like that. Okay, I think we're wrapping up. How about the Void Company? Do we like the new villain group? Yeah, we said that. I like them.

You like them? I like them. Yeah, I think they're cute. I think they're cool. I like the, you know, they all got a style too. I liked them as characters.

Poppy specifically, her boss fights bad. I heard that, yeah, I won't get into it because I don't want to spoil things, but like they're just too easy. They just weren't thought out that well,

in my opinion. As somebody who's never, and that's a broad statement, maybe there was something else, but I'm pretty sure, unless it was on a kind of funny thing. In my person, personal use of an intended device.

I don't think I've ever used an amoe. I was so let down. What is it do? And I turned it on. I'm like, look, Ben. And he goes,

what's it? I'm like, oh, let's find out. And I tap it. And it just drops. It just drops four big letters, the K-O-N-G.

Like you're collecting an area. Yeah. But they don't like hover in the air. They like, you just come down and land on the ground. That's all then I'd like pick them up. I'm like, all right,

well, Ben, he says, call along. It's this thing from an old game. Yeah. He has more shit to throw or smash. Was he happy about that?

He's like, uh, he doesn't get it. He doesn't, he doesn't get the reference. He didn't play the original. He did something in the game. Also,

Melofellow says bosses are a flub. I'm just talking about that one boss. I think the rest of the bosses are great. Or at least most of the bosses are fantastic. Oh, you don't put words in my mouth. We are wrapping up this review. Any last thoughts,

opinions from the table, from gamers around here. Mike. Still trying to love the map. We didn't, talk about the map. I don't love it. There's something about it, whether it be the quickness of the cursor and how it moves,

trying to get around this big 3D object and really see what I'm wanting to see. Maybe it's just growing pains, but at first it's not love at first sight right now with the map. Interesting. I actually love the map. I like the snappiness of pressing it and it's like, oh wow, this is like an actual full

3D map and it goes back in. I was pretty happy with that. So that's interesting to hear. How about you, Greg? According to Melofellow, Greg, you have to reach a certain point in the game talk to an NPC, there's more to the Amoevos, look it up. That's interesting. I give you a gun. Oh, it gives you a gun.

It's a coconut gun. No, it's real. It's crazy. You ever heard about how rare did that? No. When they're designing DK-664, you know how every character has their own unique gun? But they're like all cool, like fun like Don Kong has a coconut gun, Diddy fires, peanuts and shit?

When they were designing it as a placeholder, they gave DK a real actual shotgun. And one day Miyamoto came in the office. And saw it and was horrified. And so the rare designer had to like mock up like no, no, no, no, like this is what we're actually planning.

But like, Miyamoto apparently was like shocked. Shut it down. Yeah. mock up his resume too immediately. Yeah. Oh my God. That's insane. If he shoots it's going to hurt. Bletting, what's your final thoughts on Doggy Kong? Yeah, I can't believe they did it. Like I can't believe they made a

video game this good. It has honestly one of my favorite finallies in any video game. I'll go that far as to say that. Now, like, yeah, and I'll just leave it at that. Um, I can't wait to see what else they do with D.K., right? Like, I hope we don't have to wait another seven years, eight years. We probably will.

We probably will. Like, I imagine maybe D.K. Bonanza, two, wasn't coming out until the Switch 3 or something like that, right? But, um, you know, I, I absolutely love it. Makes me very fascinated to see, can you make the next Mario? That, like, what ups this now? Pun intended. You've won up this with Mario.

I like that. Very interested to see from the Odyssey team. I'm excited to hear about that, but remember, this has been the kind of funny games. Guys, where each and every weekday we get together and talk about all the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch, podcast services around the globe, and also YouTube music. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad-free, watch us record them live, and get a daily exclusive show. Catch today's KFD that happened previously, and of course, in review that's about to happen now, but, But until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.