Donkey Kong Bananza Review

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly
video game show. Here Agi Curse.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I am the leader of the bunch, dyl Musk, and
I have with me the Prince of the Darkness, Travis Snell.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
How are you doing tonight, my friend?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Not too bad?

Speaker 4 (00:32):
A long time in the making, and be talking about, uh,
you know, a Donkey Kong game, but yes, very exciting
times as the name alludes to. All Right, Peter Ozzy Osbourne.
I know it's nowhere out, but you know, I don't
know what I'll be on the cast. We like music here,
got some music playing right now, so shout out to
the Prince of Darkness.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
But I'm said to talk about some Donkey Kong.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
You have music playing right now, like in your headphones.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
You're just no you did we did the intro? Okay,
yeah intro?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't know. I mean that could be
a vibe.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
I've never tried that before because I try and really focused,
but I don't know. Maybe maybe you could like energize.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I'm not sure. Try.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
I know some people have the gimmick of the music
with the podcast. I'm not a fan of that, other
than for like the opening plugs. People that have the
whole time. That is fine, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
So yeah, uh well, yeah, today all about this episode's
all about Donkey Kong Bonanza. The as you mentioned, the
newest don Kong game in quite a long time, the
newest three D don Kong game in like what twenty
thirty years.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Thirty years because it was probablysally crazy, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
The n sixty four era, like nineteen ninety seven or something.
I don't know when that game came.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Out nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Or or four years away from being thirty years old,
so nearly a three decade old game.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, but we're still kind of firmly in that launch
window of the switch to so this is kind of
after after Mario Kart World, like the first big Nintendo
launch title game. So it's a very exciting time all
around them. We're just gonna get right into it today.
Let's talk about some Donkey Kong. So I guess, you know,
before we get into the specifics of Bonanza and how

(02:11):
that's going for us. Yeah, take me, just take me
on a journey of your history with I guess Donkey
Kong as a series or don Kong is a character,
what does he mean to you? And like you know
getting into this point like, was this a big deal
for your new Donkey Kong game?

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Take me through it?

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Absolutely, because yes, this was absolutely a big deal because
returning listeners will know. But if anyone news listening, I've
been waiting for a game like this for a while.
And I did get the switch to we've talked abouts
before because yeah, good present for family. That kind of
doubled as like, okay, kid's birthday, president are all in summer.
Emily's a Mario Kart fan. But honestly, when I saw
that direct, you know, I was like, oh, I don't

(02:49):
need you know, I'll get this eventually. That's cool, There'll
be something comes up. When that direct ended with don Kong,
that was I knew. I was pretty solidified, you know,
even then I have had some for a while. I
was like, I'll wait, but that was a tough pill
to swallow away. And that's so much I love don Kong.
Eventually like okay, that directap and say, okay, we got
to pull the trigger here. And yet it's I don't remember.

(03:11):
To me, it's just like in the you know, inside
out core memory thing of learning video games, it was
Mario Sonic, Zelda Donkey Kong. It's not like a specific
memory of Oh I picked this up, that's what I
started playing. I just remember being whenever I started playing
playing video games, So probably a bit more cognizant of
like I feel like, maybe people this is a question

(03:33):
for everybody. I feel like my memories are mostly from
like grade one and on. I feelk I somewhat remember
this stuff, but grade one on. That's why I think, Okay,
I can actually call back stuff. So at that point, oh,
I remember when I played like Army Soldiers on n
sixty four or like booting up Mario sixty four. That
was a big deal, right because just seeing those grasses
back then, it's like whoa.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
So the same thing had with don Koon.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
But yeah, I just remember me and my dad because
that was one of those few games that had it
was the two player, but just actually was it don
Kong one or dun Kong Country or was it the
second the follow up where you could switch off between
Donkey and Diddy.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, yeah, the.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Way it worked is like when you were playing is
don Kong, you got like hit like Diddy Kong would
take it.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, but that was always on the first game that
was the first game.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
The second game was Diddy's Conquest where you played his
Dicky and then we got hit you.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, I thought it worked as like it. Maybe I'm wrong,
but I thought so either.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
I thought it worked like a Mario where it's just
like player two is Luigi or me and my dad
just traded off. Then I remember many hours of me
and my dad playing Don Kong Country, just trading off,
going back and forth, and yeah, that was a fun time.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
And then again it got revolutionized.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
You and I've talked about this many times, and maybe
I don't know where my love for Duncan goes. You know,
there's there's there's some people out there. They're coming back,
you know. I know you're one of them, Hansy, She's
one of them. You know, we're part of the DK crew.
And maybe it's justiz I love monkeys, but I think
same with Mario sixty four. I think my sixty four
memories are Mario sixty four, Star Fucks and Banjo and

(05:01):
then Donkey Kong Donkin Six's four. We've talked about many times.
I won't get into it, but for anyone who loved
that game, of so many memories, I feel like It's
one that I just played.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Over and over. I loved the whole kind of.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
Like branching out to the other realms of Donkey Kong
is for it's not only the world but the characters
playing with the entire family.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
So that was a game that I just go to.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
Spanned a bunch and I was always waiting for something
like that. And then obviously Donkin's and many great franches.
I love, right, Mario Karr, he's usual in all sports games.
He wasn't Mario Party until four, so I liked him
being there. Shame they took a he was in two.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
I remember him being in two. Actually no, so.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
He was there till four.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Oh so yeah, I think they added I can't remember
if he was in the first one, but I think
they added him in two. Yeah, he was in two, three,
and then the first one in the game cube. For
some reason after that they ditched him.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I don't know why.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Don Kong great character, but and yeah, he's I'm not
gonna say one of my favorites and Smash but like,
actually I would, I'd says he's somebody that when I
get uh Smash, it's usually now it's little Mac. But
it's always Bowser and dunk as well as I pick
up a love the charge thing, so uh you never
got the dunkon drums game. And then Tropical Freeze I enjoyed,

(06:14):
which I I.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Get what they're trying to do.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
They're trying to call back I think the Country, but
a little kind of re upt you know, kind of
what they do at the Mario three D games where
it's all those you know, two D platformers you love,
but huge fresh code.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Of paint right.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
And I just I don't know why me and Emily
got it. I just never loved Tropical Freez. Would never
say it's a bad game, nothing like that. I just
I don't know why. I don't know if it just
I didn't love the level design.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
There's sometimes too where I felt like it was hard
and not like a fun sense, just like in an
annoying sense, not like I'm a bad gamer.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
But who knows, maybe I'm a bad gamer. Couldn't do it,
but we played it being I remember I traded it
in and EB games because like, I never need to
play it a skain because I've been I like dun
Kung Country, but my love is sixty four, So I've
been waiting long for this and then here we are,
and uh yeah, am I saying able the game now?
Or I'm thrown to you for your overall? No, yeah,
the car.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
We'll circle a little a bit more.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
But yeah, I have a in some ways similar but
also quite a different route where you know, my first
console back in the day was the NESH and then
I didn't get an SMEs. I got went straight ten
sixty four. Of course, I was born in ninety five,
which was like, you know, ten fifteen years after the
nes came out, so it's not like that was a
contemporary console at the time. But I just always growing
up had like you know, pawn shop consoles or like

(07:26):
hand me down consoles or consoles that came from a
random ant from somewhere no one knows, like where this
console came from. And I feel like my memory is that,
like on the NES, I just didn't have the concept
of like new games being a thing. Like my nes
came with like six or seven games or something, yeah, which.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Was like you know, the Mario Bros.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Trilogy and then like Alien three, a sesame street game,
like a racing game, like just kind of random things.
Other than Mario, and it's like, oh, yeah, those are
just the games that exist, and there wasn't this. I
don't think we ever got like a new game at
any point. And then the N sixty four's next console
I got, and that one is like, oh, now I'm
like seeing things that Blockbuster and like renting them in

(08:03):
the case in that like v vhs case that they
would come in at, like Blockbuster and all that, and yeah,
I feel like Donkey Kong. It's weird thinking back on it, because,
like I guess, the first Donkey Kong game I played
was sixty four, so for me, it was like always
he was a three D character, and it felt weird
to go back to a two D realm. But then
even kind of what you were saying there, like on
the N sixty four, it's like, you know, I was

(08:25):
playing Don Kong sixty four and then I'd go play
Smash and he was in there. I'd go play Mario Party,
he was, you know, bumping around with the crew in there.
I'd go Mario Kart Racing and he'd be in the
crew there. So I feel like he was just always
around and I never necessarily knew like the history of
it or whatnot, but he always just he was a
very formative character there in that like three D Era,
which you know, kind of cemented everything for me to

(08:45):
some extent. And it's really not until more recently that
I've actually gone back and like played some of the
other like two D don Yong games, Like maybe I
played them for a couple of minutes here or there.
But within the Nintendo Switch Online, of course, they have
all the Don Kong Country games on there. The dun
Kong Land games are just like the game Boy ports,
so I haven't really checked out those, but yeah, I've
played like a couple hours of each of the dun

(09:06):
Kong Country games, and honestly, no, no one throw pitchfork
at me. I don't really like those games very much.
Like I'm not a big fan of like the platforming
in them and the gameplay. They're really hard, at least
for me, and I don't have like the nostalgia form
the ninth. They have great visuals and the music of
course fantastic, but it wasn't there as a kid playing them,
and then even I think it was last year. You know,

(09:26):
it'd be pretty quick if anyone wants to scroll back
in the feed I talked about U don Kount Returns.
I picked that up on three DS and finally played
through about half of that.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
And also it's fine. It was it was okay, decent.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
Platformers, had some good like cinematic stuff to it, but
like just not really my cup of tea. So I
guess what I've realized is like I'm not really a
fan of the formula of like the Don Kong Country games,
and I do really want to try a Tropical Freeze
because it seems like there's some good additions in there
and things that I would like, so I want to
try at some point, But that game just never goes
on sale, even on the switch, even though it was
like a port from the EU, and it's like, yeah,

(09:59):
this hell, but like they still don't put it on sales.
So someday I'll play that game, and then yeah for
the spinoffs, Like I don't think I've ever really played,
like I've used the bongos before, but I don't think
I've ever actually played like Jungle Beat or whatever. Those
games are never played like DK King of Swing, did
Hey Kong Racing. I guess I just say that not
the don Knk's in there, necessarily, but like that was
always a game, Yes, playing a lot on the n

(10:21):
sixty four as you were as well, so you know,
nostalgic for that that whole crew outside of just Donkey Kong.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
I'm more racing guy than a Mario Kart guy back
in the sixty four A you know, I played that
one way more so.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
So yeah, it's like he's always been around and like
obviously being a big Smash fan and always playing these
party and sports anso as you mentioned that, Yeah, don
Kong's always mostly always there, and so he's always just
kind of been a character. So it's funny to be like, oh,
I love don Kong. I care about this guy even
though like his games have never had a story and
his personality has always been just like I like to
eat bananas, Like that's as deep as even in this

(10:55):
game Bonanza.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
That was his story.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yes, as he just wants to collect and he's probably
pretty much a capitalist, so I probably shouldn't shouldn't like him,
Like I feel like he.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Was bold bit more.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
I feel like other than the sixty four game, he
feels like how Thor is to you and the Avengers
where the.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Soul movies you know, he could take him or leave him.
You don't really care.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Too much about him, but you like him in the squad,
you know, like he's part of the team. But yeah,
but you know, sometimes I respect a simple man. He's
just like he's looking for a simple ape. He's just
he's just looking forward to food.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
You know, he likes his banana, se his expressions. He
has a lot of personality. I think that's another reason why.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
But yeah, downcoun Helps four is a game that I
played a ton as a kid. I loved it, and
it's probably been like a ten years ago now, but
I remember doing another play through the friend so in
my adulthood I was a little bit older now, and
I still appreciated the game. Because I know people a
lot of people should on that game and don't like
it and say it's a really bad platform and it's
really bloated. Maybe some of that stuff is true, but
I still love that game, and I think that's really great,

(11:50):
and yes, there's a lot of bloat in it, but
I think having like a three D platform like that
where you can switch between all these different characters and
they have different move sets, I think it's like a
pretty novel like, like, there's not a lot of games
that do that even today, really, so I think it's
pretty cool that they were able to do that back
then and always added a lot of personality. I always
always loved Lanky Kong. That was my guy, and I
feel like he's another one too that I have.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
He's right, he's like the arrangement. Yeah, because there's him,
there's Dixie, there's Chunky and that.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, well it wasn't Dixie was tiny, remember it was
a different small call, not DIXI for some reason.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, well, hopefully see them more.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
I don't even know if Dixie was in sixty four
at all. I feel like she probably just wasn't.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
I guess I bet she's somewhere of like, hey, donkey,
like here's a banana, you know.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Maybe yeah, But then I guess. Another thing I wanted
to mention before we talk about this game itself is,
you know, there's been a lot of chatter recently about
like who is developing this game because it was very
not there. They really hold their cards close to the
vest when it comes to that kind of thing. Like
I remember last year when Peach Showtime came out, people

(12:59):
didn't know until like the game was that when people
could beat it and look at the credits to see
like who actually made this game, which is which is
crazy and weird, but like I see why they do it.
I think me and you did a discussion on that
on side Quest sometime, talking about like the different studios
with the Nintendo and what those things mean and what
they could be working on.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
And I think we even theorize like we're hope, we
hope the.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Audiency team is making a Donkey Yong three D game,
and it's cool that that ends up being the case here,
but that was kind of a two sided thing to me.
One is like it would be really cool if and
so I guess for people who didn't see this yet
that yes, this is in fact the Odyssey team, or
at least mostly partly whatever, maybe not the same director,
but it is the Odyssey team, which is obviously a
great sign for me in the sense that like, okay,

(13:36):
that's like to me, like an ab like that, and
like the main Zelda team are kind of like the
Two Head haun show, like big studios with the Nintendo.
So to give that to Donkey Kong is like a
big thing. That means it's gonna have like a big budget,
and it's probably gonna have a bunch of big ideas
and it's gonna take a long time to make that
kind of game. And I know this game has been
development a long time, and it was originally supposed to
be switched one game and then it like wasn't running

(13:58):
super duper well and switched one, so they kind of
kicked it down the road, which I think has worked
out nicely for them to have another good like launch title,
launch window game for this new console. But then the
other side of that coin is like I don't really
like Mario Odyssey. I I've beaten that game, and I
just I just don't think the movement of it feels
very good. Like the comboing of moves like throwing the

(14:20):
hat and like dash into the hat and bouncing off
doesn't feel great. I think it feels quite stiff. And
I think the game is just like it just puts
moons everywhere. Moon's equivalent of stars, and they just don't
feel super meaningful after a certain while. And I think
this game suffers from like maybe a little bit of
that as well, but there's some other ways that they
incentivise it. But yeah, I'm just not like really a

(14:40):
big fan of Odyssey. I think there's a lot of
great things that does, and the levels are really cool,
but the transformations they're just kind of there's so many
of them, but none of them are really that interesting, and.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
I don't know, just isn't really my cup of tea.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
So I not that I was worried about what this
game was going to be because of that, but I
guess I just kind of had like two ways of
thinking of this before coming into it.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
I think you have not played yet, right, No?

Speaker 4 (15:01):
I never played Odyssey. Was there one in between the
because it went from.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Galaxy Galaxies and then yeah planned I guessed, yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Three d Plana played.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
I played Galaxy one, Galaxy two. Iys out because of
the motion, But yeah, Odyssey's on the list that came
out because that was a launch switch game, right and
I didn't get the switch Yeah launch here, okay, Yeah,
And I didn't get to switch midway till the life
Cycle and I.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Had Marvel Alliance and then Luigi. So I've always been busy.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
It's the plan someday, and who knows, Maybe if I
liked or didn't like this game will depend my opinion
on if I'm gonna be where it places in the backlog,
but it will be scratched at some point.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Nice, So yeah, let's let's get into bonanza. Then where
are you at in the game? And uh, what do
you think about it?

Speaker 3 (15:43):
So I did.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
I just looked on YouTube just to confirm where I am.
I'm roughly about for the main story, which you know,
main campaign. It's seven hours, so we're not telling like
death Stranding here where it's like I'm.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Our sixteen of forty five.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
No, it's because also when I pull out, I'm like, oh,
I should have beat this game before, but this one,
unlike Desk Stranding, been very busy people know, like podcast schedule,
but just life schedule. It's just been like there's not
been a day even stuff like on Sunday. But I'm
gonna get some game time in. My dad came to
drop you know, very nice. My dad and some mother
brought my daughter a piano.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
And then when they.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
Drop it off, I just see them whip out some
lawn chairs. I'm like, oh, and that's fine, love my
dad he lives here now. But I'm like oh, and
then four hours later and they were there, right, So
there goes that down content. So I will say I've
not had much time, but I feel like because looking
where I am, I feel like I could have got
there a lot quicker.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
I've not been mainlining this at all.

Speaker 4 (16:31):
Dylan knows this, and maybe some other people out there
can feel my heart strings. There is a way around it.
But so I'm playing. I don't know if I mentioned
this on cast, I know I was gonna get. I
said I was getting it, but I fictially got the
GameCube Pro controller, which I love. It's I love it
more than the actual you know, just like the sticks
in like the plastic thing, and it's just nostalgia. It's

(16:53):
just like it's great firing up a current day console
and I look down the gamecare controller, it just feels
like home, you know. To me, it's like that, Like, no,
I think that is the number one, Like to me,
if we' ranking one day that maybe that's a cast
to do and day rank controlers just by look and feel.
But so I got that that has no map option.
So that's where I'm a little.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Lost with extremely weird decision.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
And they have the chat ben on there, the sea button,
and it's weird because with the GameCube they have like
the two you know silver you know, like your triggers
or whatever they call now, like ZLZ or whatever. And
then you have the classic you know, purple nubbin on
the on the right left, yeah, the Z button. But
then they have the Sea button, so the chat button.
And then they added another left bumper, so they've added

(17:37):
it's not like, oh, well, you know what, we really
want to be specific to the GameCube. We're not adding stuff.
They added three buttons to this thing, but they wouldn't
add even a button that masks that right, So I
have no map option. Luckily, Paulinea she if you hold
the you know, the right or the left trigger, she
will sing and get you there.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
But I'm not really mapping out.

Speaker 4 (17:56):
I'm playing like the Most Wild Way, and then not
just because there's that one level, I feel like I
am Mad Max where I'm just getting I'm just dropping
to spot to spot. There's times where Pauline has said, oh,
go this way, and I'll crash through a surface and
it's like, well, I'm gonna explore down here so far,
so yeah, main give me. I'm about two hours in bananas.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
I think I'm like eighty nine collected that's where I
am roughly so, and no.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
I've been having a great time with it. It's I'm
excited to get more into it. I don't know if
it's like the home run I was.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
It's tough because, like I was, had expectations for a
long time, and I feel like it's not like Luigi's
Mansion too, where I had expectation for a long time
and that game actively disappoint me. I'm not disappointed at
all by this game. Maybe it just didn't go above
my expectations for most stuff. But I've, like I said,
only about two hours for the main story, but I've

(18:54):
been exploring a lot. I do love that the it's
not choice like a bread wild, but there is choice
that you can just mess around for hours doing whatever,
breaking stuff, and most of the time when you're breaking stuff,
you're gonna find the same stuff over and over. A
few tokens, the coins and the chests, but just the
landscapes and everything. Especially when I first did it, when

(19:16):
they give you like the ground and pound option and
you go a little down below the ground and you're
covered by surface, I'm.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Like, how far can I keep going? And you keep
going you keep going.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
That's the best thing too, because sometimes you do find
a random banana that's not a part of a mission
because people, if you don't know, they give you these
bands to update your skill tree. But sometimes you just
find a random one and that's really cool. Or you
find a different area, you find a different kind of
what were they called, And I guess they are kind
of their dungeons, but they're very like, very minor like

(19:46):
like I don't know. That's one thing I will say
for people to have kids. My kids have not tried
yet because they've been very busy. I'm happy there's three
save files. I feel like that's where maybe the whole
back is so far where it feels very just easy,
like there's no much of a challenge yet. And that's
not a bad thing because they want this game to
sell someone not saying oh like, don't get me wrong,
there's that times where I don't I can't remember the

(20:08):
last time a platformer and I haven't played Astro, but
a platform has brought me back to times where I
did feel like a kid.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
I was like, man, I'm having a good time.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
I plug in play for a couple hours and I'm
just going wherever, great music, great scenery, even though I
think some things are a little too bright, and it
has like all like.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
A almost like big sorry field time.

Speaker 4 (20:28):
So I do miss like kind of the grittiness of
the sixty four style, Like I liked some of that stuff.
So really enjoying it for the most part, having a
good time. I can't even say I'm loving it, like
I'm having a really fun time. But it also didn't
blows me away other than the the terrain stuff that
everything you can smash like Marvel hire this team or
hire something this team and give me a whole game

(20:49):
like this, you know, like the terrain stuff just very incredible.
Everything you can do in an area, how much you
can just pretty you can destroy seventy five percent of
this map. And it's not like a oh, you gotta
go this way, you gotta go this way, like you
can get lost, you can end up going down a
hole and go to a whole different area. It's fantastic.
So no, I'm having tons of fun with it. But
I don't think it's like I've seen lots of people say, oh,

(21:11):
this is a game in the year contender. I don't
get me wrong. I can see why someone could pitch
me that is their game of the year. It just
personally wouldn't even I don't think be mine, Like, not
even counting Destranting. I just don't think I hit those heights.
But at the same time, maybe when I finish it,
and that's because all I'm gonna be playing the summer
is this in dest Stranding, maybe my tune will change.
I think there's some fun boss battles, but most of
the boss battles so far are they'll give you like

(21:33):
a oh, you should do this, but really you can
just punch your way through anything. So having a fun
time though, even though it might sound more negative, it's
not that just you know, just maybe didn't reach the heights,
but absolutely still having a fun, fun time.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, I'm really curious to see how your thoughts kind
of evolve as you get through it. So I think
you're probably I think you're on side Quest next week,
so we'll do a check and then what even might
take a couple of weeks before your roll credits or
anything like that. But I also I would love if
you had a chance to play the co op. Throw
Gwy in there, throw one of your daughters in there,
because I think i'd be really curious to hear what
they think of it. Do you remember what like how

(22:08):
that works from the director?

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Isn't it just one of those Pauline and then I
throwing stuff?

Speaker 2 (22:11):
So yeah, which is super lame, but like they're throwing
out words like singing words and stuff, which I don't know.
I feel like they would find that fun, but I'm curious.
I might be way off base. I don't know what
kids actually find fun.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
But I think the problem is they'd want to be
Donkey Kong though. I think that's the thing where I
think Pauline would be fun.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
If they want to be the cute little girl who's singing.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
No like I think for a moment, But I think
the problem is.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
When they come on wrestling in superheroes, they just want
to be the big guy who destroys everything.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
I think it's just literally the idea of and that's
why I'm excited for the girls to try it.

Speaker 3 (22:41):
I think just seeing don kon that he can go
punch an entire mountain and go through it, I think
they want to.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
Do that, where like I just want to destroy stuff,
you know. So I'll definitely try that with them. But
and I will probably try and let them play with
the Donkey Kong is because I think other than some
of the direction of the map, I think they and
there's I'm playing on.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
I think there's like normal, and they're like, is it
easier at something else?

Speaker 1 (23:01):
So it's like I'm gonna persist, I think, is what
they game?

Speaker 4 (23:03):
Yeah, and I'm gonna put them on assist. I think
this game's gonna be like a breeze, you know.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
I had a very different weekend because I was very sick,
so I wasn't going anywhere or doing anything, so all
I did was sit on the couch and play shit
ten Dot Kong.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
So I have rolled credits.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
On the game, I have beat it now, and then
I've gone back and doing some other like bonus things.
I don't think there's any any worlds that open up
after you rolled credits on it, but there's like another
pretty big quest that requires you to get click a lot.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Of bananas and things to see through.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
I don't know what the reward or end point of
that is, but definitely some good incentive to go back
through there. I don't know how long it took me.
I think maybe fifteen twenty hours. I don't really know
how many hours it took me. It's hard to say.
It was very a feverish weekend of just being sick
and just gaming all day long, so it's kind of
hard to tell how long I was sitting there for.

(23:57):
But yeah, I think I I don't know how to
talk about this one in the sense because I think
almost every second of this game is fun, because like
the like major improvement for me in terms of the
fun movement feel from Odyssey in terms of just like
the locomotion in this game is crazy. You're just flying
across like anything. Every almost every action of this game

(24:18):
is like cancelable into other ones. You can just like
spam buttons and things will be happening, and it will
be like very responsive of those things, and.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
You're just flying off.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
You start rolling like a huge barrel and just smashing
into a wall, and then you keep just plowing through it,
as you say, and you start digging down. You just
dig down for five minutes straight if you want to
go find some random stuff. And then as you you know,
check your sonar and oh there's bananas in all directions.
You just keep smashing through the wall. Uh, Like just
picking up these different blocks, riding them across the realms,
picking up all these different crazy things flying across you

(24:48):
get these transformations. You're transform forming all these crazy things,
and there's really like the usually the cool down for
something like that in these games is pretty big. In
this game, you can pretty much like constantly have those
transformations active, like those big ultimate abilities, Like you can
you much have them on all the time if you
just keep collecting a little bit of gold as you're
going through it. So like the game is just every

(25:11):
second is a lot of fun with the you know,
maybe a couple exceptions of like an annoying boss fight
or something that like takes too long or something like that,
but everything is fun. But I do feel like the
game is incredibly shallow. I don't think there is a
whole lot of depth to it. And it's funny in
some of this post game stuff. There's like these certain
challenge levels that are like asking you to pick up
like very specific materials of blocks and then like interact

(25:35):
with other very specific blocks in ways that like I'd
never encountered before. And it's like a lot of these
things don't make sense, but they are kind of interesting
where it's like, oh, this bouncy green rock interacts with
lava blocks in this very specific way to like solve
this puzzle. And it's like, Okay, it's a cool idea there,
but I feel like these things don't really make a
lot of sense, and the game's not really using these

(25:55):
things until now, until like the post game, where it's
like actually like making you think.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
I just feel like this game.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Never really asked me to use my brain. I died
a lot, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's
just like a walk in the park. I still died
a lot, but it was never really because I was like,
I don't know, not able to solve something in a
certain way. It's just because sometimes you just get you
get dealton insane amount of damage for like walking into
a piece of lava or somethinghere, you just fall off
a cliff or something like that, which happens a lot

(26:22):
for me. So I definitely died a lot, but I
never really felt challenging in that way, which you know,
I don't really need it to. And I think for
a game where you're playing a monkey who's just destroying
everything and just trying to collect bananas, like you know,
I don't need it to be like a super intellectual game,
but I just feel like in some of the post
game stuff, it's kind of opening up the door of like, oh,
there actually is a lot of interesting cool mechanics under
the surface that I didn't really think about. But I

(26:46):
feel like there are structures there, There's there's the bones
there of what could have been like some really interesting
mechanics that I just feel like aren't really utilized. And
so I don't know, I feel like maybe I'll discover
some of those things more as I'm trying to get
like specific and is in the end game, whereas I'm
completing more of.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
These challenge level things.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
But I don't know, I just feel like the game
is maybe a bit too shallow at times, but it's
still like, hey, every second I'm playing this game, I'm
having a good time because it's just fun to fly
around and smash into things and it's like hard to
complain about that. And I think from the tech side
of things, I think this is like a perfect like
launch thing for a specifically a sequel console to the Switch,
a console that people have been begging on for years

(27:24):
for like bad frame.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Rates you get look like dog shit.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's like this is like the perfect way to be like,
oh yeah, this game is there's particles everywhere, things are exploding.
It feels like Astrobot in that way. But the game
never drops the frame rate at all. And it's not
like the most gorgeous game by any means, but it's
certainly got like a good style too, and it's fun
smashing through these blocks, and the sound effects are great,
like just the glass shattering effect when you're hitting the
banandium gems is satisfying.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
You know.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
After I've collected five hundred of these bananas, it is
still increasing, Like it always makes me happy when I
collect these things. And so I think super testament there
until like the game feel of every thing, and the music,
as you mentioned, is fantastic. Uh, And yeah, I think
it's it's just fun game to like fly around in
and smash into things. And so I'm having a really,
uh a good time with it. But I don't think
this is one I'm gonna come back to frequently. I

(28:13):
don't think it's one that I'm going to try to
get a hundred percent completion. And I think once I've
done these like side quest things, maybe I'll go like,
do one more lap as some of these levels, see
if there's anything cool or interesting that like I didn't
do before. But I don't think there's really gonna be
a whole lot of that. Like there'sn't really like side
quests in this game or anything deeper than that. There
are like little challenge levels that you go into, so
I guess that's kind of it. But also a lot

(28:33):
of those are kind of like on the quality of
Brought the Wild for me, which is like really bad.
Or they're just like a little battle arena that takes
you five seconds and was like, what a waste of time.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
I did not need to do this.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
I thought, thirty seconds destroy the enemies and there's three
of them, and they're just there's just punches, you know,
like that's just.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
That's at a time. But at least it's quick to go.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Through some of those things.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
Yeah, Like I said that, that's what's odd where when
I'm playing this game, that's where sometimes it feels like
I am playing the kid mode, you know, like this
would be the mode that I'd watch It's say, oh,
like I'd be sitting my couch watching Gwen and Logan
do this time we'll go Okay, that makes sense. They would,
you know, in my mode be like defeat fifteen twenty
enemies in thirty seconds, where it's like okay for three enemies. Yeah,

(29:12):
that would be the kids MoES. But it's like there's
lots of that and funny enough, other than me falling
off something, I haven't died yet.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
So for me, I have had that issue. And I
think your shallow, like it's hard because like I am
having tons of fun. That's so like shall feels harsh.
But I think you're right in a sense because even
stuff where there's one night or everyone's sleep broll, I'm
gonna play. I'm gonna play this, get some more hours in.
And I think the problem is the best part about
this game is sometimes it's not the worst part. That

(29:40):
sounds hyperbolic, but for me, I got very tired because
I was just doing the same thing for like half
an hour and I was I was going down. It's
not like and again I should have a.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Compare when I'm playing.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
So even when like over the weekend when I was
six just playing and let's see, I I would like
play for a couple hours, like go for a walk
or play for a couple hours, I go deliver some
packages and Death Straining that's like what I do to
break up the monotony sometimes.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
But that's exactly what I was gonna say. And that's
where it's like, I'm not comparing it to death Straining.
I'm just saying Death Straining is a game where Okay,
I make a delivery and then you're given all these
options or.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
There's a story beat.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
Like with a game like that, there's tons of those options, right,
And I would say, even as somebody that like, again,
I still really enjoyed Breadtha Wade, I don't, like I said,
I the claim it got to me was crazy for
that level. But even that game that that had a
sense of the second I would do something, it was okay,
what else is over there?

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Or I want to go back there?

Speaker 4 (30:33):
There's places like I want to go back, but it's
almost more like this is just a completion just where again,
the gameplay style is fun. It's fun to destroy stuff
and just like dig and see what can I find here?
How much it's fun to you look over you dig
and you see like that shining gold and you hit
it and just like it's a very cool game, don't
get me wrong. And that's why I almost wonder too,

(30:53):
Like again, this is my bias going in here. I
feel like this game, and maybe in a sequel, would
be primed for introducing more characters than just Donkey Kong,
because I think that's what would really mix it up.
Even if you just had Diddy and Dixie. It's like
there would be different play styles, you could do different challenges,
something where it's like, oh, you can't come back, or
maybe you can still play them as Donkey Kong, but
they're harder like X.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
Y and Z.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
So it is a good foundation game. I could see
a sequel coming out, Like you're talking about all the
different things you could do, and maybe they should have
cut some of those and just really strengthen some on
the other ones. But I could see kind of what
we've talked about before where a sequel could be really
good because of foundations there and add some stuff, whether
it's characters or new modes. But I always have fun,
but yeah, there's there's twice where I tried to play

(31:35):
at nighttime and I was dozing off just because sometimes
it is just like, hey, you got to destroy a
bunch of stuff to get to point at a point
B fun time. But when it's just x x X
and you're punching over it, I'm like, okay, it's I
one night fell asleep in my stomach with the controller.
Oh and Donkle was just in there staring at me.
So that's why I would agree with you on the
shallow part where you know it feels bad to say,

(31:57):
but there's aspects of that that I agree with.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yeah, I'm one thing I'm really curious to because I
haven't listened any of the reviews or read any reviews
or anything yet. I'm I'm curious to see how people
think about this who are like big platforming fans, because
I feel like a lot of this game doesn't really
feel like a platformer, which is gonna sound weird because
you're constantly jumping and climbing things and like you know,
knocking over structures so you can climb things in different ways.
But in terms of like a structured platformer, I just

(32:22):
feel like this game is so freeform because you can
kind of blast through things and go around ways and
stuff like other than like boss fights, which are like
pretty specific in terms of what it gives you and
the only way to defeat it. Like you can really
get around things in so many different ways, and I
definitely especially going back to earlier areas with powers that
I'm not supposed to have until I get later in
the game, and it's like, oh, I can just break
this completely, and now this thing that this designed to

(32:43):
challenge is not even that anymore because I can kind
of just like get around it with this other power
that I got. And I feel like a lot of
the game is like that. But I also don't feel
like there's too many. I don't think there's been really
maybe even a single time where I've been like, damn,
I really solved that in a super creative way, Like
it's always been just like oh yeah, I kind of
cheese that, or I don't think that was how I
was supposed to do that, but I guess I found

(33:04):
another way to do it, Whereas I don't know, I
just think that even like I frequently make fun of
or not make fun of, but just breath the wildeers,
kiding them, the shrines there, and like how just so
few of them are are interesting, but a few of
them have had those you know, big click moments for me,
like oh I definitely did not didn't do it any
intentional way, but damn it felt good to like do
it in this cheesy way, which is not really the

(33:25):
case here.

Speaker 4 (33:26):
Well, and even even with that game, I'd say, in comparison,
not even the shrines, but other stuff in the world.
You co'd see so many videos of people the way
they take down a boss or what they built.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
Were either all definitely peers with the building mckaya like
that stuff's crazy.

Speaker 4 (33:39):
And then just even I think with Breath, there's just
like certain situations or just the path people went where
it's just the tough thing with this is the I
think the answer before baking. Let's say there's a something, shrine, mission, whatever,
and me and Dale might be like, oh, I tackled
this way. I tackled that way with don Consai, like, well,
you do it the challenge the way it's meant or
you just smash the way through. There's not gonna be

(34:00):
a situation where mean to like, what did you do well?
I broke the wall?

Speaker 3 (34:03):
What do you do? Try to well, I also broke
the wall, you know, and like, and don't get wrong,
at first that was cool because it's like, Okay, there's
this thing or how do you get there?

Speaker 4 (34:11):
And it's like, oh, I could literally take a rite
smash way through, like make a whole kind of you
turn around and get there. That's awesome, and so I'm
designed that way, but I was kind of hoping for
more situations where you would do that and then it'd
be like, Aha, no, you can't do it here. You
gotta find like a different way. I thought, Okay, this
is and maybe it will, but it sounds like from
you and I. The more I've played, I've never got
that where it's like that was the first half an hour,

(34:32):
and again I'm two hours in for the main story,
you know, the main campaign. I've played a lot of
the action just bumming around, just going around, and there's
been no situation where it's like, oh, this is a
big challenge. I think the most challenge I had one
time was there's this I can't remember if it's a
mission or a challenge where it's a wheel that spins
and you have to break part of it and then
climb it and then time it so you can come

(34:55):
out of the top and you fall on a platform
and get there. There's many times I was falling off
but and not even dying, just like falling off. But
other than that, I've never felt like, man, I'm really
head scratching. The The only time I pulled up a
YouTube video was I did when the shrines or the challenges,
and it's like, all right, do your turf and surfing,
like I haven't learned this, Like I got there before.
I hadn't learned this, and luckily you can still do it.
But I was like I because it was with spikes

(35:17):
and then green like shrubs that like have the pointy stuff,
and I'm like, how do I get across? At one point,
I'm I'm throwing all the ground to like break the
green like this can't be rund them, like oh, And
then literally probably about ten minutes later, I got to
and I'm.

Speaker 3 (35:30):
Like, hey, have you ever surfing turf before? You know?
I was like, oh damn it. So uh that was one.
But yeah, I haven't had that where those those type
of moments.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
So I'll take back my previous statement because there's one exception.
There's one time where I do feel like I really
I was smart. The game was like one very late
in the game, like the you know, last couple of
sections whatever, when there you get to like this really
mysterious era and these characters who are like, pay us
a huge fine if you want us to open up
like the bridge pretty much in this area. And it's
like there were ones a thousand. I'm like, okay, fine, easy.

(35:58):
Next one's like two thousand, and it was like five
thousand or something. I'm like, okay, I'm like out of
gold at this point, and the next guy's like and
ninety nine. I'm like, I don't have that kind of money,
and so I like found a very kind of cheesy
way using a transformation, using like small little platforms off
the side to like find a way to get past
that area without that.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
And I don't think that was intentional. So there's one time.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Where I do feel like I was pretty smartly creative
in that way. But yeah, it's pretty far and few
between where you get like a feeling like that.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Clay asked us three questions.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
I want to answer one of them now and then
we can go to an abriak and we can talk
about a bunch of other stuff after. But it was actually
his third question we're gonna answer first. Is it worth
getting to switch to for it if? Returns and Tropical
Freeze are some of my favorite games. Of all time,
but I had a hard time sticking with Odyssey after
beating the main story. So obviously a few different ways
to answer this one, like the Odyssey thing, as I mentioned, like,

(36:51):
I don't like Odyssey, but I really enjoyed this game
just in terms of that basic game feel. So I
think if, maybe, if you'd feel similarly in that way,
I think I can't imagine anyone thinking the movement in
this game feels bad. Like this game is just super fast,
super fun, super flowy, super responsive, and as I mentioneding
like cancel all your actions so it feels great returns.
You know, I've only played a bit Tropic Freeze obviously

(37:12):
haven't really played, but I think, yeah, if you're a
big don Kong guy, I'm curious, Clay if you are
a dun Kong sixty four fan as well, not that
this game is anything like that other than the fact
that it's the only other like three D Donkey Kong game.
But yeah, for me, the answer is easily no. Like
a switch to is an expensive console, in this game's expensive.
This game cost me in Canadian dollars one hundred and

(37:33):
eleven dollars and ninety nine cents and it is, you know,
way overpriced in my opinion for what it is. For
that being the price, that's just where game prices are
these days.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Obviously me and you we have a much bigger incentive
to get a console like this that launch because we
do a weekly video game podcast, so it's like good
for us to have that kind of stuff. But if
it weren't for having a podcast, I wouldn't have gone
to switch to yet, even though I'm really happy with
World and I'm really happy with this game, but they're
not like quite consoles for me. It's always like Smash Bros.
Is the one that like pushes me over the edge

(38:02):
to finally get these consoles. And yeah, so for me,
the answer would be no. But obviously there will be
other games in the future. You just don't really know
what those are yet. Like if you're really excited for
Prime four, heck, maybe this is a good time to
pick up the console. Then if you're really excited for
this and Prime for you know, I'm very much banking
on the fact that the Smash Bros. Is gonna come
to this console, which I'm sure it will, but I'll

(38:24):
you know, so I kind of accepted my faith that
know what I'm gonna buy a switch to at some
point in my life. But the answer for me right
now would be no, I think you can wait on this.
That you'll probably get spoiled on some interesting things that
happened in this game, but that's you know, it's a
donk Can game.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Whatever. It's not the end the world if you get
spoiled on some things. But I would say.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
You can wait for it.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
I would say you can wait. Clay had this point
in time. I don't know if you have a different answer, Travis.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
No, here's the thing I think, Yeah, absolutely not. I
don't think it's because here's somebody that I am that
I bought the console.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
Pretty much for that.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
But at the same time, I don't regret the purchase
because I've had a good time. But that's the same
thing where I think what Dylan said though it would
be up to sixty four and where you are there
if you haven't played it, then that stuff. Because I
think if you are a fan of Country and Freeze,
it's not that they do. There is a couple levels
like that which are fantastic. Some of these challenge we

(39:16):
talked about. It's like nostalgia Country and it's literally there's
many levels that are like you're playing a don Kong
Country game, but with the soundtrack with this, that's great,
like you get a little inch scratch there. When that happened,
I was like, that's that boosted some review score points
up for me because like that's just great. But yeah,
I don't I think it's worth it for if you're
don konng fan, Like Dyl said, if it's kind of
like exactly what I did where I bought the switch

(39:38):
with Marvel Alliance and then Luigi's Mansion was just around
the corner. I think it's like that where if you
have two games, I think I don't think anyone would
not have fun with Donkey Kong. And I think the
good thing that also helps with me is because I'm
a Donkey Kong fan, like like in you know, the
DK crew.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
I enjoy it. In fact, you know, it's still worth it.

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Happy I got the switch to where if you're kind
of you know, you go like you like don Kong,
but it's not like one of your main ones, you
might not have as much fun. Right, So like for me,
it's like you know, hour and a halfway why I
bump into cranky com like, oh there he is, you know, like.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
I have a good Yeah, I have a nostalgie about
So that's what it's like.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Even at times where it's not game near material, I'm
having a great time with this so and I feel
like it's you know, it's funny, it goes and as
the flows. But even Clay like a good comparison, and
this is different trokes for different folks where it's just like,
how did you feel about the Mario movie? Because the
same way when we did the review and you three
liked it a lot more than me, but I said, ah,

(40:32):
it's just like I was like that where this is
just too shallow for me to really get in, even
though I love Mario. That's where I'd say, like the
discal this game is kind of like that where that
movie like Hits on the Beats, has a nostalgia. It
looks really good, sounds really good, but there's just something
missing for me. So if you that's what I'm saying,
if you don't like love Donkey Kong, that might be
missing for you a little bit. If you do, then
I think you're gonna have a good time. I don't

(40:53):
think you would buy the switch them by the game
and be disappointed. But I don't think it's a I
don't think it's a half to you know, because even
some of the they showed on the and you referred
back that I wanted to circle back to that when
they showed that direct there was so much more stuff
than we thought. I think one sometimes I wish it
didn't happen, But stuff like you talked about where it's
like the Bananza mode and you know this big monkey,

(41:14):
I thought that has some congents ques, don't get me wrong,
very cool. It's great that you get this bar, you
get these golden I don't know, are they nuggets bananas?

Speaker 3 (41:22):
What are they?

Speaker 4 (41:23):
Like?

Speaker 3 (41:23):
This is the gold Like it's.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Just gold, I guess right, there's gold chunks, there's like
yeah chips, banana chips, and then yeah yeah full on
banandium gyms and then also like oars or like false yes.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
Right, So in your left corner you gotta circle and
you get those and when you fill it up, you
can hold the triggers pounds the chest and that's when
you get massive, right, and you can just everything goes up,
your speed, your stats, you're destroyed, and that's the best thing.
When you get and that's what I said, this is
some of the fun stuff. There's one time where I
finished a boss battle and it was like everything was
very sparkly, like just to show like, oh, there's lots
of gold here, so I.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Just banans it up and just destroy that area.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
And I had so much money by the end that
are you know what, because it collects to that's what's great.
So I had so much and it was just like,
oh yeah, I was just like froffing enough, like I'm
gonna destroy this area. This is gonna be tons of fun.
But like Dylan said, you can be in that mode
like all the time, and there's pros and cons to that.
Because the pro is oh cool, like I can have
fun destroying everything as a big you know, I'll say

(42:17):
super powered monkey. But at the same time, like the
consequence is kind of gone because you can do it
at any point. Doesn't feel special. And that's what I mean.
Like this game at times to me feels like the
old school when you used to get the cheat code
for God Mode. Sometimes this game feels like that, where
whether it's the challenges, the bosses, the battles, or even
stuff like that, Like even the skill tree like very

(42:39):
easy to update, Like you get so many bananas thrown
at you because, like I said, these main bananas, the
crystal ones, you get them in the main story, but
you can just find them anywhere. You can literally see
a wall, have a feeling about it, you know, and
even then you can actually hit a trigger to show
if there's something there. But still there's many times where
I've just been randomly digging and I found one, and
now I'm already standing up, and I don't know, you

(42:59):
feel about that skill tree is like I don't think
they even needed it in there. You know that we'll
get back to that. But yeah, so for me, that's
where that mo. There's there's certain things where it just
feels too easy, you know, like maybe I could have
been punished a bit more.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
So.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, fair enough. Let's take a quick break think our
Patreon producers Aaron Braden, April of Darkness, Jack Grant, Sam Superbad,
Mike t gg LM six y nine, Jeremy Renner, Charlie Rendell,
Clay and John with no h uh new freshly minted
edition in there. Thank you John for joining the DK
crew and Clay there for you know, sending in these

(43:36):
these questions. Thank you everyone for keeping the lights on
so we can continue to smash deep into the ground
and click nandium gyms and share them with you, you
here on the airwaves. We're gonna take a quick ad
break and we'll be right back. Okay, we are back.
So you just teased it there, so let's let's just
talk right about that. So, Yeah, as you mentioned, there
is a skill tree for maybe the first time, like

(43:59):
a Donkey Kong game. I can't think of another one
that like has had a skilter like this. You know,
sixty four had like unlocks of sorts, but this is
like a different kind of more modern skill tree thing
that you'd expect from many games like this, and the
way it works with every I guess maybe i'll say
this too, we maybe get like a little bit more
spoilery now. Travis is obviously pretty early on in the game,
so we're not gonna spoil much, but like now we're

(44:20):
gonna talk like some more specific details if you don't
want to about some of these things, so you know,
be warned, and I'm not.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
You don't gotta worry that much though I'm not worried
about this game.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Like my story thing is that I cannot wait for
you to see, like there's some crazy shit that ha.
The last three hours of this game is fucking wild.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
Really okay, okay see, and that's where I'm excited next
week is like when I saw Now that I've seen
that the main thing seven hours, I probably will try
my best to streamline a bit and then go so
we can talk about a little more next week, because.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
Yeah, seven I honestly thought there would be no like
from the two hours I played, it's very like, hey,
this is Grimy Colon beat him.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Oh he's back. It's very yeah, like Kitty in.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
A sense is I think this is I think I
hope it comes a trend because Kirby and the Forgotten
Land as well as like it's a Kirby game, the story,
you know, it's as weird and whacky as a anything.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
You expect for Kirby.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
But the last like two or three hours of that
game is like you're driving a truck into space and
fighting God and all this insane shit is happening. It's like,
you know what, we don't take any of this seriously.
This is a Nintendo game that like barely has a story.
Attached to it whatsoever, we might as well go absolutely
bonkers in the final you know, a couple hours and
I feel like Forgotten landed that I think this game
really does that, and I that's you know, really it

(45:30):
really stuck the landing at the end, you know. And
as I mentioned, I've always had fun with this game
start to finish. There were like two or three worlds
that I could not stand at all, but you know,
you kind of can breeze past them and you don't
have to really go back to them if you don't
want to. But yeah, there's definitely some some good nuggets
of gold to be found there when you make your
way towards the planet core and all that. But yeah,

(45:51):
the skill tree, So this is a thing that every
five banandium gems you pick up and stumbs, you'll be
given three or five at a time, so you get
like an immediate level ups. Yeah, every five bananas you
get a level up which gives you one skill point
which you can put into all sorts of things, you know,
just your raw smash power, your HP, how much you
can carry of like the collectible healing things, and then

(46:11):
you can put into them all the different transformations can
get different upgrades in there too, little things like a
spinning jump super jump thing, you know, increase your surf
and turf as you mentioned in that kind of thing.
What uh, what are you doing so far with your
skill points? Like how are you building? How are you
building your Donkey Kong?

Speaker 3 (46:30):
Right now, he's all just strength. So I'm just literally
picked that middle section goal all the way down.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
I maxed out a strike so as powerful so like
the terrain.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
It's funny. I did not do that until like the
last world.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
I don't think oh really, yeah, yeah I was. I
was taking my time. I kind of forgot it was
a thing, to be honest, But.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
I did that.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
And the next one I'm working on is opening up
my radius of the hand collaps I can get more.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Yeah, Like I think the first thing I level, Okay,
I'm like I like this. I think this is gonna
pay off in the long run if I get this.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
Early, especially because there's one up in until literally yesterday,
Like I just get all this gold and I think
I was like at twenty one, like foul maybe yeah,
I think it styles and I was like this is yeah,
oh yeah that's it.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:11):
No, I was doing many areas of Like, now I'm
down to seventeen because I bumped into one of those
trees that you can spend a lot of money on,
but up unto that point, I.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Was like, can I cut you off to that tree?
By the way. I love that that.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
I don't know if you remember this, but back in
don Kunk sixty four, whenever you'd go in one of
the levels, you'd be collecting bananas with all the different monkeys,
and then you'd go up to like the gate area
and there'd be like a pig guy, a blue or
pink pig or something like that, and they'd be like
on a scale, and so say, fatten up one of
them to like scale. Yeah, and it's this exact same
animation where dun Kunk stands there and like throws them

(47:45):
in the exact same way. I was so happy with
that little reference to sixty four there.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
That's cool. Nintendo just put sixty four on the gate
like the whatever their game.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
The rumors recently, I hope that rumor is or there
was like a leak, like a leaked image of it,
so hopefully it happened.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
I think it's gonna happen.

Speaker 4 (48:02):
I just want to happen soon rend later, because there's
some stuff that like I've forgot, like that the second
you talk I would have never mentioned, but the second
you touple the pigs, and feeling like oh right.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Downright until I saw the animation that I was like,
this looks so familiar, and I was like, oh yeah, so, but.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
That's why I up that one, because that at this
point I had so much. There's a twin one thousand
doing nothing and I'm buying everything. I'm buying getaways and
every time they want me to buy something, I'm buying
it because I got money. But then eventually what happens
is you bump in this tree and it's like, hey,
if you feed me, I'll give you the crystal bananas.
And I had what he wanted was still like like
three grand, but it's like I had it just in
the back pocket through there got them all. So then

(48:36):
when I saw that, I'm like, Okay, I imagine we
gonna start bumping into more of these trees.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
I don't want to be a situation where all I'm
gonna have to come back, So yeah, I'm real. My
skill tree is very much focused on collecting the gold.
I'm a very you know, well off monkey, so I
can buy everything even though I don't like even even the.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Stuff they give you.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
You get like there's like the cherries, the balloon, and
then there's some boosting where it's like if you're down
to a heart and a half or something, it like
boosts you all the way up. These are things where
it's just again where it's just like, I don't know
if any of this was neat. The only one I'm
happy about is the balloon, because there was a balloon
I've accidentally fall or there's times literally I've pounded through
the ground that's.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Bought up to like have fifty balloons now. So IM like,
I'll never ever think about this again and I'll never
fall off a cliff in.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
My life because I so once it happened to me once.
Then I got more cautious of where I was pounding
but that stuff. And I haven't bought much attire because
I I've seen that those attires have stats. Maybe I'll
dip into it, but I like, I like my Olgie
Donkey Kong, you know, so I haven't done that.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Yet, so that's fair.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Yeah, I think for me, the the like the effects
on the clothing are weak enough, which is like you know,
it's it's it's if you want to play for like
the optimal strategies, go for it. And usually there's like
the one you're buying, Like, oh, if you buy this
one in the ice world, it makes you take a
less damage from ice blocks.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Okay, cool, that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
So you can play that way if you're like struggling,
I suppose, But for me it's like those those effects
are usually so minimal that I like that you can
kind of just go for more like how you want
your Donkey Kong to look instead of having to worry
about the stats of it. And so yeah, I'm definitely
going for more style over substance on on my clothing.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
There.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
For a while I had black fur Donkey Kong with
like the yellow yellow pants. I really like that look.
I thought it looked really cool. Get like some really
bright like cotton candy colored fur, and right now I
have like pants that are like the the girders of
like the original Donkey Kong game. They're like black with
like the ladders and the and the platforms, and then
I have like gold fur. So I'm just full swagged

(50:33):
out and Pauline's got like a miner's outfit on, so
it's a it's a great I don't think I'll change it,
like this is just my outfit now at this point.
But yeah, as far as the skill tree, I think
I kind of went a different route than you, where like, yeah,
I first got like the sonar things. I just felt
like maybe I should get all these scanning things first.
That'll probably be good things to get early on, and
then honestly after not too long because I was like,

(50:54):
I just found like some of the bosses are random
blocks will do like sometimes they'll just deal like.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
All three of your hearts if you only have three.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
So I'm like, I'm just gonna spend all my points
and get literally the entire health upgrade. And I just
got that. And obviously as you're going through the levels
and you're unlocking like the little houses that can like
overflow you as well, and so I was like, Okay,
now I have so many hearts, so I'll be to
go there and then it kind of just I think
the other thing I did early on was like get
the Indo like the unique abilities like that twist, and
then you can jump do like the super jump I'm like, oh,

(51:22):
that's only one point or two points in there, that's
definitely worth getting. So yeah, that kind of thing, And
then I came back for like this smash power sort
of thing.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
But yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
I to me, it is a good addition in there,
because you know, there might be points later in the
game where I I know, I need like four skill
points to upgrade the thing I want, but at least
there's always been Even now I have like over five
hundred bananas, now there's still always something I want to
put those points into, and so it does feel like
valuable and like a good reward. And I feel like
for me, that's a big issue I had with Mario Odyssey.

(51:53):
There's like nine hundred moons in that game, but I
just feel like they're just giving you, giving them to
you all the time. They don't really mean anything other
and like just getting the arbitrary number up, and so
I feel like having them like tying to like the
skill tree like this, even though the other rest of
it feels very similar, is.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Like a good reward for me.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
Uh So, yeah, I'm I I think it was a
nice addition, Like mixing that with the clothing just to
have a little bit more dynamic. They're a little bit
more to think about in the way you customize your characters.
It's cool and I just like having Donk on all
these weird different costumes and for colors because always in
Smash Bros.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
Too, I'm always switching his color around.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, I have ever changed his clothing, of course, but like, oh,
I love like the green, like broccoli calls, Like I
like all these different ones, right.

Speaker 4 (52:32):
I love that they put that in there that I
enjoy a lot. That's where to me, it's like I'm
doing it because I'm in the bananas And you.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Know, like I said, I haven't changed outfits. I probably
will eventually, just like the original look right now. Maybe
I want change.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
Up later on, but that the costume stuff wouldn't say
take out like the stats keep in, the hair color
keep in. But I wondered to me, it's like if
I were to, I legitimbly feel you could easily play
this game and never update any your stats and it's
not gonna make a massive difference.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
Like am I a little But.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
I think there's gonna be harder areas that you're gonna
feel differently about I think I think that'll happen.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
I'm waiting.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
I hope to report next week that that that is
the kid right now. Just got to so there's a
point where I'm a little bit past where you can
there's a left and a right.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
There's like the forest.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
World and the what okay, the divide, Yeah, I was
gonna say that, I'm gonna be more specific. Yeah, and
as the jelly like the pink and ballue and you
could beat it and then either it's the forest world
of Tropical or sorry, the frozen world of the Tropical.
I went to the left to the frozen because you know,
I'm a big snow guy there, so that's right. Yeah,
I'm a little bit into that because I was watching

(53:37):
the YouTube videos like, okay, now I've got past that.
I think I literally saved at there's like the big void.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Thing I have to break into the next one. So
that's where I am right now. So okay, yeah, up
until that, I haven't felt much. It's been a breeze.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
So yeah, I don't think there's I think their next
two or three worlds are maybe some trickier ones. I
think I found that exciting easy, but the Jungle one
was a little bit a little bit harder, and then yeah,
some boss fights near the end, I guess, but like
mostly I would say it was like I don't know.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
There's just certain like have you.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Done any of those challenge mission things where you have
to like break down the building in time?

Speaker 3 (54:14):
Break down the building.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Like essentially you're putting too Like there's just just giant
cube but very much looks like the girders from like
the original Donkey Column. So there's a big building. You
have like smash specific blocks to make the whole building
topple down. Have you done any of those yet?

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Do you? Oh maake it top down?

Speaker 4 (54:28):
No, I've done the ones where you have a percentage
where it's like destroy this amount of percentage before the
time runs out.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Yeah, not quite those, okay, which I didn't one which
I did appreciate. It acquired me a few attempts, like
I kind of have to strategize and play my route
and all that.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
Okay, No, I've not done any of those. So No,
that one I was for too. I like that because
it popped about nowhere. You just jumped up and you
got triggered into it. But no, I've not done that.
So I'm excited, you're gonna be excited about you. You're
pushing me to you know, streamline some of that stuff
a bit more instead of just.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
Making my money.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
That I guess I've been I've been having a good time.
I've been just to mining for a goal. But no,
that's that's exciting then. So okay, and do you get
to turn into bonanza or you just say this donkey Kong?

Speaker 1 (55:09):
I think it.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
I think for all of those ones you can, yeah,
go into your different transformation.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
And that's another thing that surprises me.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
You have like.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
DK Banana or you have like the Gorilla bonanza and
you have do you have any other one?

Speaker 4 (55:24):
One? No?

Speaker 3 (55:24):
I feel like, do you get do you get a cebra?

Speaker 1 (55:27):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (55:28):
Okay, because I think I'm right there because the guy
who was sending me.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Up like okay, yeah, because he's like yeah, he's like,
oh too bad. It'd be a shame here. It's not
like a zebra could just run across. It's like, okay,
zebra is about to come right now. So I think
that's where I am story wise, is about just to
get the zebra.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
And what's cool about those transformations is once you go
bonanza mode, you can just like switch between them, like
on the fly, So you while you're still mid transformations
here from a secret punched some stuff, switch to donkey
fly across this platform, switching to I'll not spoil, but
the other ones and like do things, and sometimes you

(56:04):
do have to do those things in like a pretty
short amount of time. I mean, you can obviously do
various upgrades to your character to increase how long that lasts.
But yeah, and like some of those destruction missions, you'll
be like switching between and stuff, and so that can
be kind of interesting strategy wise a little bit the
I think for them. There's two transformations you haven't seen,
Like the Zebra one I'm not really big fan of. Honestly,

(56:25):
I won't say why, just because you haven't used it yet.
That's the only one I don't really like, though the
other ones are fine. The last there's there's two other
ones though that I love and I think are super
fun and add a lot to the game. The last
one you get, in particular, is like the most fun
for me, like the sound effect with it. So we'll
come back to that once you've unlocked all of those.

(56:45):
Let's see, I guess yeah, other gameplay things like I
just love the role like you you just hit the
left trigger and you just, oh yeah, barrel roll across
the screen feels great. And as I mentioned, like I
just want to highlight again. I think the fact that
you can cancel seemly any single action at any point,
even noever where. Like a lot of games, you know,
you start a punch and you're locked into that punch

(57:07):
into like the punch animation is done, but it seems
like in this game everything can just be canceled into
anything else that you're able to do. So if like
you're if you just jumped in there, you can immediately
barrow out of that. If you're like charging a punch,
you can immediately cancel that into like jumping in a
different direction.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
And that works for like everything.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Everything game just be canceled in anything, and I think
that it makes the game like super frenetic and fun,
and it really works well with like just smashing into
random stuff like like a babe lady.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
You know, just bouncing off the Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
I think one thing that well, there's a couple of
things with the with the physics and smashing stuff. One
thing that I kind of wish was true is that
when you go back to previous areas that it like
preserves how much you've destroyed that world. I understand why
they regenerate it, because obviously you could make it like
impossible to get to certain bananas. But like, at any
point you can just go on the map and say

(58:01):
like reset the terrain, and it'll like regenerate the level
if you've done that. But I kind of wish I'd
go back to a level and be like, oh, I
remember when I spent seven minutes burrowing through the wall
here and created like this crazy tunnels had some character, Yeah,
and then it kind of it will regenerate all like
the bananas and fossils, Like you don't get another banana.
If you smash that one again, you can it's like
a different color. You can tell, oh, I've already collected

(58:22):
that one. But it does make like I guess, just
like me leaving an impact on the world is something
that feels great about this. When you're done a level,
after you spend an hour there and you look back,
you know, before you're about to leave, and just look
at all this stuff you've destroyed, it's a little disappointing
that when you go back to those levels, all that
stuff kind of comes back to life. But you know,
at the same time, people live in this world, so
maybe it's a good thing that I'm going to just

(58:43):
destroy their whole town by just being a crazy guy
just going around destroying everything. And the other thing is like,
I maybe I'd be curious what this game would look
like that there was more physics to it, in the
sense that like if there is like a rock and
you smash out the base layer of the rock, the
rock will just like continue to float there, right, It's
not like it'll start to fall over and then like topple.

(59:04):
The game doesn't really have that level of physics. And
I think I could even imagine that stuff on the
switch to like crashing the console, like dropping the frame rate,
because that requires a lot more with how many just
little particles there is and some many interactions the would
have to be. But it is something that I expected
to happen, and I was like, oh, I can't wait
to see I've smashed all this rock out. I can't
wait to see this mountain fall over. And then it

(59:25):
just like nothing happens.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
It's like, Okay, well, I not too mad about it.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
But it was something I would have liked to have
seen Pauline. This is kind of a new new Pauline,
new revised version of Pauline. Any any thoughts on this
this kid here, this new.

Speaker 4 (59:44):
Edition give me because I've seen some people when it
was like she's younger, and I thought, I saw some
people go, oh, this kind of goes against some stuff
that happens in Odyssey or her story set me up?

Speaker 3 (59:57):
What is just elevitor pitch? What is her story in Odyssey?

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
I think her story and Odyssey is that Pauline is
like a singing dancer lady who works in New Donk City,
which is like the first level in Odyssey, and she's
just kind of there, and I mean it's I don't
think it's it's not really about her. She just kind
of exists there, but it's New Donc City and it's Pauline.
So they're kind of working side inside or hand in hand,

(01:00:23):
and like going all the way back to the original
Donkey Kong, right, and it wasn't like Peach that was
the one. It was like Pauline was the one. So
there's like some you know, ancient history there between these characters.
But I think that's been a lot of the debate
people have had is like, well, is this a prequel
to Odyssey then, or the.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Very first Mario game that was not Peach was Pauline.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
I think so right, hmm, okay, I think.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
That's interesting, and then maybe that's why kidnapp her because
they were friends. Yeah. For me, I don't dislike it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
But also I think that to go deep in the lord,
which I don't understand. The Donk Kung lore I just
read things online is that that Donkey Kong from the
original Donkey Kunk is actually Cranky Kong, and then Donk
Kong Junior was a character. Oh, it's now become like
mainline Donkey Kong, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
But don't quote.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
There's a YouTube video that covered that one hundred times
better than I can. There's a lot of deep lore
here that people seem to get really into, and a
lot of people were like, you know, the game, like
there were some leaks or spoilers, and people really frustrated
by that. And I get if you're totally into the
Donk Kung lore, I get it, but for me, it's like,
I don't really care.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
I find some of these videos because I feel like
I am. I'm a big DK Fanily there's some stuff
like I didn't even know about that, so I feel
like I gotta brush up and you know, go deeper
in the family.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
It's like assumptions by players because I don't know if
they really spell it out, if Nintendo spells it out.
It's just like people put in context clues together.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
I think Pauline is I have no care like pros
or consition is in there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
I think you didn't really need in there. I think
she's just in there because Nintendo's like, we want to
keep this character around.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
She's in Mario Kart.

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
I bet if there's another Smash one day, you're gonna
get Pauline in that. Like I think that they're trying
to make. I think Nintendo is trying, like even right now,
bring don Kan up a level as a character again.
But I think there's still in the process of making
new characters, right And that's to me what it feels
like is, well, don Khin's kind of tied to her,
and let's keep her in the zeitgeist because maybe one
day we can do a Pauline game, and which is

(01:02:27):
great for them because they can sell and hopefully it's great.
But that's why I haven't as of now felt any
you know, Okay, cute little story that right now she's
shy as singing in front of certain people and she's
building that up. But and I'm sure the girls will up,
but it did nothing for me where and even then,
it's just like, I feel like, right now you got
the co op, so who knows, But I.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
Feel like I could be wrong. You could have just
made that ditty or Dixie and they throw something else,
and I would have preferred that in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
So right, yeah, yeah, I don't think I've to ease
super deep thoughts on the character. I think she's a
fun companion for DK. I'm glad that it is actually her,
not that like Purple Rock that you know, it's like
the egg that was like at the start of the game.
We will hinted that the first time we saw the game,
because I think she has some fun personal She doesn't

(01:03:15):
have a ton of personnalit, but we just got like
more than DK.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
I guess she's just like an ARC to some extent
in this game. So I like her. I think she's
a cool companion.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
I'd be down to see like this version of Pauline
stick around or appear somewhere else, or like put this
Pauline in Mario Kart. I would be super down for that,
because right now we only have like the adult woman Pauline,
but I'd be down to put this kid or teenager
power role she is in there. I like her outfit
that she has in this game, like the kind of
scrappier version of what Pauline like regularly wears.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
As far as the other characters, I really like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
Grumpy Kong as a New Kong addition, but like Poppy
Kong and Void Kong complete zeros for me in terms
of like interesting Kong or like Mario type villains. I
just don't like their design. I just think it's weird.
I just think it's really lazy. Like Poppy Kong's personality
as like the Woman of the Evil Crew is like
she has perfume and that's like her personality. I just

(01:04:08):
think that's like, that's the best you could do, guys,
come home.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
And even then, I feel like the way she moves
is very like she's the hair and she's not like
a sexualized character, but just very like look at me,
like it's.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
It's very that feels dated, it feels like funny.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
I remember seeing like a meme a couple of years
ago that has just proved to be true over and
over again, which is like, why is every super villain
team like this? And it's like you have like the
main like leader, generic guy. You have like the creepy
small one, which would be like void Kong in this analogy.
You have like this sexy woman, which would be like
Poppycong in this one. And then you have like the
big dumb guy, which would be like grumpy Kong in

(01:04:41):
this analogy. So we're not we're missing like obviously it's
a team of three, so that doesn't quite have the
same thing. But it's like when I think about like
any villain team, it's like, oh, yeah, they're always like that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
They always like Superman the movie, Likeman has that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Yeah, it's like.

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
Yeah, it's like it's a fun it's the architype right, So.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Yeah, yeah, and then what I just don't think you've
seen much else that I want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
So is there anything else from.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Your side of the side of the fence there that
we haven't mentioned yet?

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
No, so far, I've like the boss Bells have been fun,
nothing challenging. I really liked that first boss battle Kim
or what the name was. But he's just like oozing
the little guys. And there's one point where you have
to like knock him down and he climbs up some
sort of hill and you gonna get under it and
like dig your way through it and then you can
punch him. But the visuals of your on top of

(01:05:36):
this hill punching the bad guy and all those little
like bartacle guys are like climbing up the hill after
him very cool.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
And at one point they're just dropping.

Speaker 4 (01:05:43):
Like again you talked about the frame rate, imagine you know,
Marble to them Alliance.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
There's dozens and dozens of these little guys everywhere, and
I love that. It's something where it's like we talk
about all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:05:53):
It's like that moment in Findy War with thor Lands,
like give me Thantos that's just powered up Thwor versus
a bunch of just like weak, you know nothing characters.
That's what this Don Kong game gives you. You get
to be a god level hero. And she's like, oh,
there's like I won't say a hundred, but let's say
fifty these little guys, I'm gonna miss it out. And
don't get me wrong, they do like a little damage,

(01:06:14):
but just it's great to be just throwing stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
So there's that. There was the one I played where you.

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
Are in the carts and you're just going around the
circle throwing stuff, not challenging at all, Like all you
have to do is just jump and miss a laser,
you know, like that's that's it, and that's where it's like, Okay,
this feels very paint by numbers.

Speaker 3 (01:06:33):
And then there was the other, uh.

Speaker 4 (01:06:35):
The other grumpy Kong when he comes back I can't remember,
he's like bigger and you have to like avoid his
stomp and do something that was fun. But I think
the boss battles playing wise haven't been satisfying, but look
and kind of cinematic field been satisfying, like lost, like oh,
if they make the Don Kong movie, they should put
this in that movie. You know that type of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Yeah, there's a couple you get later on where you
kind of have to like swap ateen your bonanza's transformations
like on the fly for like certain phases, and I
think those ones become more interesting just because mechanically there's
a lot more there, but I agree with you, like
all those earlier ones, kind of style over substance and
whether or not you agree with they they have styles.
It kind of up to you as well, and some
of them do, some of them don't.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
But yeah, I definitely hear where you're coming from. So yeah,
there's a lot. I think maybe the last thing I'll
show out here is I think maybe my favorite world
in the whole game is the Lagoon world, which is
the one that you've already played and are well passed
at this point, but I just feel like, to me
is like four or five layers I found myself out
of like go back up to higher layers to like
find other ways to like burrow down and like drop

(01:07:37):
onto other or like previously floating platforms in other different areas.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
I like the visuals of it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
I think in general like the art style in this game,
or I guess I should say more specifically, the color
palette in this game is super weird, where it just
takes like two really not contrasting colors, but two colors
I'm not used to seeing next to each other and
like mixes them, and I feel like the color palette
of all the worlds kind of or most of the
worlds has that going on. But yeah, I really like
Lagoon World. I think that was maybe my favorite so

(01:08:03):
far and definitely had fun going back there and crushing
some more like secret things that I hadn't seen the
first time around. And then yeah, we can talk about
some other specific worlds kind of next next week or
whatever you you've gotten to them, because some other other
good ones later on that I'm excited to, uh to
break down a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
Okay, so.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
Let's see one one that last mini thought here is like, well,
obviously we talked about this with Marcotte World, that like
why do don Kyong and Pauline only have one costume?
Hoping the theory for that is that like they want
to add like a bonanza DLC thing to Marcott World
where we get like young Pauline get some new costumes
for those characters inspired by all the costumes that exist

(01:08:43):
in this game.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
That would be great. So I hope we get to
see that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
I also would love and I want to do this
if you'd be interested in doing this cast with me.
At some point, I want to take a look at
like some smash characters who have like been around for
a while and be like, who needs like a fresh
move set, who needs like an update, Who's like been
just through the emotions? And I feel like don Kong
is a character they're like, man, I want to see
him get like a full new move set with the
next Smash Pros game, like inspired by all the crazy

(01:09:08):
new shit he can do in this game, because I
think that would be like make for a really fun
move set.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
So maybe we can do that sometime down the road.
But I hope we see that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:15):
Yeah, I would very much like especially with the ground
pound and everything, Like I don't know how you can
make it, but I think you could easily if people
have bone arrows and bombs and guns, make it that
don Con just picks up a piece of the ground.
Maybe does it even like an animation where the grounds
up being destroyed, but just like, okay, he picks up
something and throat like tons that stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
And I think his ultimate should be like the ape
binance for sure, you know, Like, so I agree that
he'd be a good one other than don't take away
the charge fists. That's a favorite of mine, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Yeah, yeah, And then let's close it out with them
with Clay's last two questions. So number one here, Where
does it rank for you in terms of DK games
at large? So, as I mentioned at the top of
the episode, like I'm not actually super storied with this franchise,
I guess I'm more as you know, I Dkay for

(01:10:07):
me is always more of a character in the crossover stuff.
I think for my personal ranking it would be don't
come sixty four and then this game and then like
I don't know, just throw the countries in there. Like
I it's I really unfortunately have like a very good
ranking for you play unfortunately as like a DK guy.
But I will say after finishing it rolling credits, sixty

(01:10:27):
four is still my preferred game between the two. Now,
which one do I want to like boot up more
and play right now today in this moment, that's probably
Bonanza's because it's new and fresh and all that probably
controls better too.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Like you know, I guarantee you played sixty four. Now
you're like, oh my got frame rate all this kind
of rage.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
I still think, you know, obviously it's hard to battle
twenty years of nostalgia, but I do. I think overall
is a game I'll especially even months from now, looking
back on in retrospect, I still think sixty four will
still be my number one at that point in time,
which is which is cool though, but I still really
enjoy this game.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
Uh. And then, well do you want to answer yeah,
I don't wait until you beat the game.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Maybe yeah, I'll wait till I beat the game. But
even then I don't know. My thing is play.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
And that's where I feel bad when you answer too.
For me, I would have.

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
To do a playthrough again of sixty four and I
will do that if, which I'm not gonna say if
when they put it on the switch whatever library, because
it could be something where I have tons of nostalgia
and it's still fun. But then when I play, oh
you know what, that that a lot of this was
a lot of the kids stuff coming in there now,
you know, granted, you know, is it fair compare a

(01:11:30):
thirty year old game?

Speaker 3 (01:11:31):
No, but you can still go, you know what.

Speaker 4 (01:11:33):
Sixty four is great for its time, but because of X,
Y and Z, maybe I can't enjoy it as much
as I thought. Right where, I feel like we still
games where you go back, Oh no, this still holds
up like I had that recently where I think it's
tons of funds. But once I got switched to I
played Star Fuks A man. Is that a rickety game?
And I don't get me wrong, I still love that game.
And I think that's a tough thing to compare them

(01:11:53):
because Country is a lot different. Even Freeze is I think,
not a lot different than Country, but different enough. And
then obviously sixty four is different. And then this because,
like you said, other than being a three D Donkon game,
I don't think sixty four and this are pretty similar.
And then there's games that you mentioned that I've either
played little over or not played all. Like again, he's

(01:12:15):
a fucking drums don Kong game. He's a wide variety
of different genres. So to me, I could never I
don't think I could do a ranking on best because
I think the don Khon franchise really comes down to
personal taste, right like with at least with Mario, it's like, well,
you've got a bunch of two D platformers. You could
rank that right like same thing. It's like platform versus

(01:12:35):
three D world versus RPG. You can have a favorite,
but is in a best that's very very subjective. So
for this, I have to finish this, and then I
do have to do sixty four. So I think when
sixty four and Neville does release, I think we should
cycle back. I don't know if we'll remember, but we'll
try and remember your question, Clay, because I know we'll
talk about that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
And I'm with my Okay, I'm with Dylan right now
where I just.

Speaker 4 (01:12:57):
Feel comfortably from what I remember and the few times
I did play game and when I was older and
boon Updan sixty four sixty four, so there because even then,
like I said, I love the the variety of characters,
and I just liked that world. There's something I will
say about this world that is very pretty, very very colorful,
very poppy like in the score, but sometimes it feels
like too clean for me, you know, it feels just

(01:13:18):
too almost polished, and I wish there was a little
and even then Luigi's imagined too me and to talk
about that, it was like missing some grit.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
And it's the thing of like is it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Yes, and it's a great like is that just.

Speaker 4 (01:13:31):
Their animation style or is it kind of like well,
it's you know, we don't want to be as dark
as we were back then, so right now, say sixty
four and I would I don't know, it's a pretty
nick and like neck and neck with a country because
I think I prefer playing this, but I still that's
way more challenging. Like if I want to have a
challenge and sit down and play a game where I'm
locked in, that's gonna be country.

Speaker 3 (01:13:52):
But if I just want to.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
Breathe through, have some fun with some good music, maybe
put in a podcast, you know, just destroy some stuff.
This is it so along rands, but just a mix
of variety for this.

Speaker 2 (01:14:03):
So yeah, And then his other question was where does
it fall in ranking two D and three D platformers
or the twenty first century doesn't have to be an
exact number, can be a tier. So that's I mean,
that's a huge question, and I think i'd be a
fun discussion to do sometimes because I feel like most
times I see people ranking platformers, it's always like three
D platformers, two D platforms. Like really segregating those two

(01:14:25):
things into different categories, different tiers. I think that would
be fun at some point to like just mix platformers
at large together and see what where the overall rankings
would square out. I think without having a huge list
in front of me, because that's like, you know, how
many games do I played that are two D and
three D platformers this century? That's like probably at least
one hundred games. But I'll say in terms of like

(01:14:46):
some things off the top of my head, obviously, as
I mentioned, like for me, this would be kind of
below a Dun Kong sixty four. It'd be below Super
Mario sixty four. It'd be Blow like the Galaxy games,
but it'd be above Odyssey.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
It'd be above.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
Super Mario Thunder for example, remember the two D Mario
from a couple of years ago. I'd put it, I'd
put it above that. I put it below probably Kirby
in the Forgotten Land.

Speaker 3 (01:15:12):
I think we're Sunshine. We're Sunshine on this.

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
Oh, it's definitely above Sunshine. What you know? You know
I'm not a Sunshine fan. You guys surprise you? No,
Taylor like the only Sunshine Defenders In the first.

Speaker 4 (01:15:26):
Of all, that's a lie. When they remade it. Lots
of love for people. They put a Sunshine costume in Kart,
so you know they know the love's there for me.
I'm just surprised because the way you talked about this
game felt similar in the Sunshine, but it felt like
still like lower than that, So I'm I'm surprised.

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
But yeah, when I think at the end of the day,
like just this game is super fun to move around in,
and so for me, it's gonna trump any game like
a Sunshine which like I don't really love the movement of,
or like a game like Odesty that I don't look
like that say, ultimately, at the end of the day,
that's the most important thing for me in a platform,
or is how fun is it to just fly around
the screen in this game?

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
It's a barrel over a lot of other games.

Speaker 2 (01:16:01):
For for that that reason, what are some other platforms?

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
Well? Even when I looked up though, then you start
going to all these.

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
Different like people I'll say that.

Speaker 4 (01:16:12):
I would imagine, but people bring up like Cuphead and
Hollow Night and Limbo like that's.

Speaker 1 (01:16:16):
A problem we're getting into like other genre subgenres.

Speaker 4 (01:16:19):
No, I agree, But that's the thing of like what
you said, Like even Spy wrote like what.

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
It's blow Celeste, it's blowplonkey.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
Yeah, that that for me is tough.

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
Like I'll I'll just say it's this sounds bad, Like
in the top fifty. But the reason I'm saying that
is because you start looking into it looks like there's
a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
But as far as some the.

Speaker 2 (01:16:38):
One regalia, I'm just anytime one comes to my mind,
I'm just gonna say yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:42):
But let's let's say I'm just making like a just
like a closed eyes, closed hide dartboard throw without knowing
every exact game, some of the ones you listen off there,
I feel like it's.

Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
A lower B tier that's where it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
It's definitely on S tier and definitely on A tier,
and I couldn't even say it's top of the B
tier because I feel like you get those B tier platformers.
I feel like, yeah, that's a bubbet because of this,
that's a bubble because of that, because I feel like
there's ones that might have some better modes or they
might even have a bit more of a story put
into it, which.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
I will see because Dylan, we're talking about that.

Speaker 4 (01:17:13):
So I'm interested, do you kill Spelunky's platform because I'm
seeing this on the list as well too.

Speaker 2 (01:17:19):
It's seems it is it's like that's the core loop
of it, but it's more of a roguelike.

Speaker 4 (01:17:24):
Yeah, Ukulele, which I still never played I want to,
but have.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
You played that?

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Oh? Where would I rank that?

Speaker 2 (01:17:30):
I haven't played a Spiral or Crash recently enough, I
haven't played Ukulele.

Speaker 4 (01:17:34):
I definitely would put Crash above I still have the
Spiral Reunited trilogy and I've not played it. I bought
off somebody on Facebook for fifteen bucks. Still send there
Clayton Dust. But I would put Spiral above this. Like again,
that's why I think it's a lower B.

Speaker 3 (01:17:49):
Tier for me. That's where I'm kind of I would
feel comfortable.

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
I just I feel like as right now, though we'll
see next week, because you did say something's got me
excited if it were to crack the A tier. I
don't know if it could with what it is, so
I think it could be higher B tier, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
I think you've laid that out well, and I like
the B for Bonanza tiers, so I'm gonna go. I'm
gonna go with a B tier as well. I don't
know if I have a plus or minus of it.
I think I don't think I have much more to
discover in this game. Like obviously there's a bunch of
bananas I haven't collected, but like in terms of genuinely
like new surprising things. I don't think I have much
more of that, but I could be wrong, so I
could always kind of revisit this.

Speaker 4 (01:18:24):
But also were as you're ranking like on a quality
or an enjoyment level, kind of like we talk about
like the quality of a movie, favorite movie, like that
sort of thing. Because for me, if we're making.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
Just a fun list, this game would definitely be a
tier because I can this is a game that I
can just sit down have a good time, you know,
But when you bring in everything else that that makes
it a little more tricky for me, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
Yeah, I mean I think if it's funny if we
put it in this specific context of like ranking it
against other platformers and not even in like looking at it,
like judging it on its platformings and not even like
its overall package, I actually think this game it like
loses a bit of its life in the platform in secrets,
But it also is kind of like a sub genre
with like a destruction kind of game, which is like

(01:19:05):
we haven't really talked about that, but like that's a
pretty like there's a lot of games about building at
games about destruction in like a truly Sandbox way like this,
but like I love Red Faction Gorilla. That's one of
my favorite games from the three sixty and like just
the fun of destroying buildings and watching them topple over
rampage things like this, Like that's like a fun subgenre.

(01:19:26):
And in terms of like destruction games that I've played,
like this is one of the best. Uh So, I
don't know, I think it's just tricky, right because this
is to me, like in terms of just straight up
being a platforming game, it maybe misses the mark a
little bit, but it's also trying to achieve a bunch
of other things on top of that, So it's tricky.

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
You need like a like a I think maybe you
already said this, but almost like a subgenre of platform,
Like yeah, it's a platform, but it's this specific type
of platform.

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
Is a very niche one to be fair as well.

Speaker 2 (01:19:52):
So it's hard to also compare it to other things
like other you know, don Conca for It's really hard
for me to compare it to that game because that's like, yeah,
again that has all these different playable characters and has
like much more intentionally designed It's hard to like go
from one rope swing to another in that game. In
this game, you're never gonna find anything quite like that. No,
like it, it's very different.

Speaker 4 (01:20:11):
It's funny as we're talking about it now, because I
was when I was talking about the favorite versus best
lists and stuff I've seen with like movie genres and stuff,
and this feels like a weird comparison to walk with me.
I feel like platformers are like the movie equivalent of
a horror genre, where okay, there is a genre is horror,
but there's so many different variations of horror, whether it's
like the body torture, whether it's a slash, or whether

(01:20:32):
it's psychological, whether it's a monster movie. Like with most of them,
it's like if it's Western, it's cowboys, right. If it's
sci fi, most time it's something with space or something
trippy like an inception.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
But with horror, it's like, yeah, it's horror.

Speaker 4 (01:20:44):
But it's like, like that's like comparing. Some people might say, oh,
Fria thirteenth, my fair horror movie, Midsommar my fairit horror movie,
but it's like those are two very different things. They're
still designed to do the same thing of like scary
or make you feel unease. And say platformers, they're still
design of You're in a world and there's you know,
not always colorful levels, but just like levels, you're doing
lots of jumping, you're transporting one place to another, you're

(01:21:06):
locking a lot of stuff. But like you said, to
compare Donkey Kong to even some of the few things
like the past that you throw up.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
The primary verb of this game is not jump on
two platform. It's like nosh shit, you know. So it
definitely differentiates.

Speaker 4 (01:21:18):
Yeah, but it fit's nowhere else right in a genre
other than like, like you said, let's say in the
next five years, the destruction dramre popped off, like hey,
well it's a destruction game, you know, but like we
get few and four Yeah, exactly so. But yeah, that's
an interesting conversation. And even though it's funny because I
looked up that lit like I looked at just get
some ideas, and like you said, there's people that have
there's so many ones that come up. It's like they've

(01:21:40):
made lists like top one hundred and top fifty, but
it's always three D platform or two platform. Like they said,
people really different, Like nope, they're not not to be
talked about in the same breath.

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
So yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's a huge one.

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
I'm excited to go read and listen to some reviews
because like, I've seen a ton of praise for this game,
and nine it's like a little over stated for for
what I think the quality of the game is. But
like maybe I'm missing something or maybe there's just something
I didn't considered here too. But I also think a
lot of people are just happy to have a new
Don Kong game, and specifically a new three D Don
Kong game.

Speaker 1 (01:22:10):
I'm one of those people.

Speaker 2 (01:22:11):
I think I love my boy DK, and I I'm
glad that he's getting like a big triple triple a
like expensive ass game. I think it's great, and yeah,
like inherently makes me like the game more than like
if it was like someone else, of course who is
like the but if it was the exact same game.
But like, you know, that's a big thing with Nintendo
is like our nostalgia for these characters in this world,

(01:22:31):
and it feels like don Kong is due in some way,
even that.

Speaker 1 (01:22:34):
It's like and he's a nobody, you know, Well.

Speaker 4 (01:22:37):
Yeah, and that's like what you're talking about, Like this
feels like no matter how we feel the game, it
feels like they are giving him a main platform to
rise up. And that's something where again the Switch is
a family console, and I guarantee you this game is
going to be meant and I'll see it happens with
my kids.

Speaker 3 (01:22:53):
I feel like this is.

Speaker 4 (01:22:54):
Gonna be many kids as don Ky Kong sixty four
because they're gonna think about like kids that have played
only so few games and they play this game and
they can already destroy like all this stuff. Like that's
where that's one of those games where you play it
and even though maybe other games have similar things, you're
gonna continue to play other games as you're growing up,
and it's gonna be ah, but nothing matched that, you know,

(01:23:17):
nothing had that type of situation. That's where it's like,
I think from that perspective again, the ease I think
of the game and that's all.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
Try to make sure my kids play it before the
next report back.

Speaker 4 (01:23:26):
But I feel like on that spectrum it's a ten
out ten no notes, Like I think this is gonna
be a killer for like kids and families. I think
this is like a ton fun like a fun thing,
like I think anyone can pick it up and have a.

Speaker 3 (01:23:39):
Good time with it.

Speaker 4 (01:23:39):
So yeah, we'll have to see and I do think too,
but I have not even listened and read a four
of you have just seen clips of it. I feel
like the biggest thing that's getting praised for is the
just terrain and physics, Like I feel like that is
boosting it up where I think even people think it's
a fun game. I think people are so impressed by
that and the versatility of it, they're like, hey, Hasco.
It's kind of like if we talk about a movie
where it's like, eh, story act, you know, the grace,

(01:24:00):
but it looks screous, like it feels like it's that
where this is like a purely esthetic thing that people go,
you know what. The fact that you can do this,
this and this with the landscape really cool. So I
ain't going below an eight, you know, which is fine,
you know, And like I said on Meta credits, a ninety,
none of us drafted because it came down in July,
which i'll see in August, will be refreshing this list.

Speaker 3 (01:24:20):
But yeah, that's and that's good. I hope that it's
reviewed well.

Speaker 4 (01:24:23):
I hope that sells well, because same thing for all
my critiques for us maybe sounding sometimes disappointment with the game.
I absolutely, which sounds weird, would still just buy a
second one because I'd love to see what they do
with it and the more worlds they would add to it,
because I've still had tons of fun with it.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
So yeah, definitely could not agree more. Thank you for
joining me, Travis, Thank you everyone for listening. Like I said,
next week, we'll probably have an update on this game.
If Travis hasn't been it yet, we'll do another update
because we definitely got to talk about the ending and
things like that at some point, but yeah, we can
do it. This will be a fun game to check
in on a week to week. Thank you everyone for listening.

(01:25:00):
We'll see you again next time.

Speaker 3 (01:25:01):
Bye mm hmm

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