Donkey Kong Bananza Receives Rave Reviews as One of 2025's Top Games

The initial wave of reviews is in for Donkey Kong Bananza, and critics love it. The Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive currently sits at an aggregate score of 90 on Metacritic.

That places it as Metacritic's sixth-best-rated game of 2025. If you don't count the Switch 2 re-releases of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, it's the fourth-best-reviewed original game of the year.

Donkey Kong Bananza is the first original game starring the titular character in over a decade, and is a 3D platformer where players can destroy a lot of the environment.

Critics seemed to generally love the game's controls, story, and emphasis on destruction, with the only points of criticism centered around occasional performance issues.

Still, the consensus is that Donkey Kong Bananza is a fantastic game, and it looks like it'll be a must-buy for Switch 2 owners.

Donkey Kong Bananza is one of 2025's best-reviewed games. It ranks between EA's Split Fiction and indie darling Despelote.

Metacritic is a website that aggregates scores from gaming critics around the web, synthesizing and averaging them into a single score.

The review embargo for Donkey Kong Bananza lifted this morning, and with 79 reviews Donkey Kong Bananza is already sitting at a Metascore of 90.

It has yet to receive a mixed or negative review, and even got perfect scores from outlets like IGN, The Washington Post, and Inverse.

Valnet's own Screen Rant awarded Donkey Kong Bananza a 9/10 score, calling the game 'another success story' for Nintendo at the start of this new console generation.

For those curious, these are the top 10 best games of the year currently, according to Metacritic:

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (96)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (95)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (93)
• Blue Prince (92)
• Split Fiction (91)
• Donkey Kong Bananza (90)
• Despelote (89)
• The Talos Principle Remastered (89)
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (89)
• Monster Hunter Wilds (88)

Overall, that top 10 list offers a mix of AAA heavy-hitters and more experimental games, such as Split Fiction and Blue Prince.

While Nintendo technically had the top two spots already, thanks to the Switch 2 Editions of those Zelda games, it's great to see an original Nintendo game from this year rated so highly.

Donkey Kong Bananza is rated even better than Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World, which has a not-too-shabby Metascore of 86.

Hopefully, other Nintendo games launching this year, like Drag X Drive, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A, can keep up the momentum with glowing reviews.

Expect an Android Police review of Donkey Kong Bananza after we have the opportunity to go hands-on with it at launch.