Donkey Kong Bananza Players Surprised by “Unbelievable” Detail

Donkey Kong Bananza has officially been out for almost a month, and gamers everywhere are enjoying it. It’s quickly become a really good reason to buy a Nintendo Switch 2 and is cementing itself as one of the best 3D platformers available. It’s already gaining steam as a potential 2025 Game of the Year contender, too.

Amongst all of this, Bananza is also proving to be a quality game that’s well-made. Players have taken notice of some impressive details, with one in particular catching the eye of several on the Nintendo Switch 2 subreddit.

The attention to detail in Donkey Kong Bananza is pretty incredible, especially for a game designed around destroying literally everything. Developers didn’t have to bother putting in little details that might be ignored since whatever it is will almost assuredly be broken by Donkey Kong and Pauline, especially gold, since it’s useful as a weapon and for in-game currency. They did anyway.

u/MindPrize120 posted on Reddit, “It’s unbelievable how detailed [Donkey Kong Bananza] is. Gold is a soft material, so DK leaves his footprints on it.” While this does not add anything to the actual gameplay, it does add a layer of realism, which is helpful even if the game isn’t realistic whatsoever. Donkey Kong is huge, so it makes perfect sense that he’d leave prints in softer material.

The post got over 600 upvotes and over 100 comments, but many of the comments went in a different direction to uncover why gold is explosive aside from gold being weird in Nintendo games (floating in Mario titles, for example). That’s a key part of the game, and as it turns out, it’s also fairly realistic.

For one thing, u/GL_original said, “Because it’s not regular gold, it’s Banandium Gold. I believe a loading screen text explains this at some point.” There is also a real-world explanation, though. “Upon googling, apparently gold is reactive through certain processes and can explode!” u/surrealmirror revealed.

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As for the gold footprints, u/ConflictPotential204 commented, “Pure gold is very soft/malleable. It’s neat because most games/media don’t represent gold this way.” On the other side of this conversation, though, were gamers who were surprised that this was of note.

They pointed out how old games, even old Nintendo games, have had footprints on softer materials. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and Metal Gear Solid were a couple of notable examples. u/BloodyTearsz said, “If all you ever and only play is Nintendo games/consoles, sure, but this has been around for so very long.”

Regardless, the general sentiment is that this level of attention to detail to showcase how big and heavy Donkey Kong actually is is fairly positive. The developers didn’t have to add that feature, as so many players probably never even noticed it while playing, but they did anyway.