The Game Awards 2025 will be held on December 11th, the gala where the best games of the year will be awarded. AND, At Hobby Consolas we have prepared the best preview possible to explain the pros and cons of the six candidates to win the most desired prize: the GOTY.
And I, to paraphrase Francisco Umbral, came here to talk about my Donkey Kong Bananza, after having done the same with another of the nominees, Kingdom Come Deliverance II.
Certainly, It was an atypical year and could represent a turning point in the medium and long term for the sector. Not surprisingly, the three candidates considered favorites are not the classic blockbusters from large companies, but more focused projects from small studios, such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades II.
It will be interesting to see if, in the future, this means a greater preponderance of indies and AA compared to those AAA that are so expensive to produce and difficult to make profitable, as demonstrated by the thousands of layoffs that have occurred in recent times or the more or less veiled commitment to artificial intelligence.
But there will be other moments of regret and rumination: here we come to talk about the highlights of 2025.
Switch 2, new exclusive stronghold
Generational leaps are no longer as noticeable as before, and there are the examples of the PS5 and Xbox Series After all, the hardware no longer marks the technical differences it used to have and the former are not interested in giving up the tens of millions of users of their previous consoles.
However, Nintendo has once again broken the deck with the Switch 2, a console that is selling like hotcakes, with 10.36 million units in just six months. Without a doubt, it is a continuous successor, one of the least risky in the Big N’s trajectory, as its numerical denomination directly demonstrates.
It’s more powerful, it’s bigger and it has more functions (GameShare, Gamechat…), but the concept is the same as the first Nintendo Switch: a hybrid machine that you can take anywhere.
Now, Since day one, Nintendo has provided you with countless exclusive games that have started to form quite a wardrobe. In half a year, Kirby Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Banishment or, above all, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza came together. And that’s without forgetting the intergenerational complements that have been the hypervitaminized versions of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Pokémon Legends: ZA.
This combination of quantity and quality contrasts with the trend of Sony and Microsoft in recent years. The first, sometimes lost with the failure to commit to games as a service, has significantly reduced its volume of exclusive releases, to which we must add that some of them also end up being released for PC over time.
As for the second, it radically changed its strategy and became a de facto third party. Based on the premise that Xbox users can access these games ‘at a reduced cost’ through a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, almost all of its games are now also released on PS5, to make them as profitable as possible. And will they do this on Switch 2 in the future?
In other words, Nintendo is the only first party that remains true to the long-standing philosophy that if a company releases a console, it is to provide you with specific games that invite your purchase, knowing that they will not be on PC or consoles which, in principle, should be competitors.
The video game King Kong
I must admit that although it was an absolute success, with 9.57 million copies sold (almost one copy per console), my Mario Kart World It didn’t drive me crazy. I’m a racing game enthusiast and I like the open world concept with all the integrated circuits, but the new gameplay supported by jumping turbos didn’t convince me. Sometimes it feels like a skateboarding game.
However, This relative disappointment contrasts with how much I enjoyed Donkey Kong Bananza, a game full of intrinsic and extrinsic benefits. Regardless of commercial numbers (goes to 3.49 million copies), No one can doubt that it’s the best game in the Switch 2’s initial batch of releases, as demonstrated, simply and simply, by the fact that he was nominated for GOTY 2025.
Curiously, In 2024, the award went to a highly nostalgic three-dimensional platformer like Astro Bot. And, a year later, he repeats another very similar game. I don’t think it can beat Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight: Silksong, to be honest, but it’s a wonderful game.
To begin with, Bananza highlights the oldest video game saga, such as Donkey Kong, with which Nintendo began its journey in the video game industry. with the arcade and one of the first Game & Watch, several years before the creation of the NES. This King Kong alter ego represented a radical departure from Nintendo’s entire early stage as a hanafuda card maker.
Then Jumpman would change his name to Mario and become Nintendo’s mascot, leaving the monkey in a secondary role. The Gorilla would have his own games, but, sharing the platform genre with the Plumber, it’s not that he was especially lavish. In fact, instead of dealing with it directly, Nintendo put it in the hands of Western teams like Rare (on the SNES, Game Boy and N64) and Retro Studios (on the Wii and Wii U).
In that regard, DK hasn’t starred in a new game since 2014, when Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was released. But even worse was the ostracism of the three-dimensional aspect limited to a single game Donkey Kong 64, released in 1999 alongside the N64 Expansion Pak, which fixed a critical bug.
A banana odyssey
But it’s never too late if happiness is good, and twenty-six years later, The team that signed Super Mario Odyssey has created a new 3D gorilla platformer, whose look has been updated for the occasion. And the best thing is that it perfectly amalgamates the ‘brutality’ of the character with the open and experimental philosophy of the 2017 plumber’s adventure.
In the Jules Verne style, Donkey Kong Bananza proposes a journey to the center of the earth, with the protagonist hunting banana thieves: the Void Co. Thus, the game’s successive worlds, known as substrates, are connected through vertical tunnels. And, of course, each substrate is unique in its setting, with mountains, forests, glaciers, volcanoes…
Like in Super Mario Odyssey, The levels are full of collectible items, especially the 777 banandium gems that must be recovered. As with the power moons, each one is a small challenge, which translates into development that is pure fun at the controls.
In relation to this, The cornerstone of the game is an all-out stage destruction system, courtesy of the power of the Switch 2. DK can open tunnels with his punches in almost any direction, both vertically and horizontally, as if he were an archaeologist or a bricklayer without control, only, contrary to Juan Cuesta (president of our community), without a pickaxe or sledgehammer.
At the same time, another key element are the notes that give the game its name. It’s about animalistic transformations that transform the protagonist into a zebra, ostrich or elephantwith their consequent special abilities. In turn, this connects to the origins of the saga itself. Because bananas are associated with Pauline, the girl that DK kidnapped from the arcade in 1981, who, here, is a girl who accompanies and helps him.
And the winks also extend to the gorilla’s console games, with some side-advanced sections reminiscent of Donkey Kong Country, without losing classic elements in the form of barrels, carts, rhinos… The adventure is a perfect fusion between modernity and antiquity, with a traditional level design that, at the same time, looks very fresh.
Finally, it should be noted that It’s a game that doesn’t understand ages. It can be enjoyed by both a young child and an adult who has played the original Donkey Kong in the arcade. In fact, it has a cooperative mode so that someone without much skill can control Pauline and interact with the environments, throwing ‘stones’ to contribute to the destruction of the environments.
It’s true that it can be a very easy game, something that is especially noticeable in the bosses, who feel a little lost. But that immediate, uncomplicated fun is a small oasis in this age of punishing soulslikes and roguelikes which often represent an impossible barrier for many players to overcome. Nintendo remains faithful to its tradition of making games for all audiences.
Reasons in favor of Donkey Kong Bananza being GOTY 2025
- It brought back the Donkey Kong saga, which had been suspended since 2014. Furthermore, it did so with a three-dimensional proposal, something that had only been chosen… on the Nintendo 64 in 1999.
- Remember how important exclusive games can and should be in justifying the purchase of a new console (in this case, the Switch 2).
- It’s a festival of immediate, hassle-free fun, with countless challenges in the form of 777 Banandium Gems to find.
- The design of the levels and substrates supported by the almost total destruction of the environments is spectacular.
- It’s full of references to the past: especially to the original 1981 arcade game (with Pauline as co-star) and Rare games from the 90s.
- Any user can enjoy it, regardless of age and ability.
Reasons against Donkey Kong Bananza being GOTY 2025
- It lacks a story or narrative that gives it packaging.
- The difficulty is particularly low, in line with contemporary Nintendo platformers.
- Just two months after launch it received DK Island + Emerald Hunt, a DLC that was quite expensive (20 euros) due to its lack of substance.
- While it depends on the power of the Switch 2, the scale of the destruction leads to some slowdowns from time to time.
- It doesn’t help that 2024 GOTY was already a 3D platformer like Astro Bot, due to ‘voter fatigue’.
Being honest and realistic, I think GOTY 2025 will go to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or, failing that, Hollow Knight: Silksong, but Donkey Kong Bananza is deservedly in the conversation. It’s by far the best game in the Switch 2’s initial batch, a perfect blend of past and present and a reminder of how fun video games can be.