Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

It’s mind boggling to think about because it could’ve easily just been like “Donkey Kong is now the punching rocks game” but all this stuff is In Service of what Donkey Kong has been and could be and it’s just unbelievable they were making *this* through most of the drought of DK content

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

There are so many ways Bananza could have hit a sour note or felt like Nintendo was scrubbing 30 years of franchise evolution to go back to “their” Donkey Kong and I think it’s a testament to the people that made it that it turned out so in-sync with fans desires, even ones they didn’t know they had

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

Nintendo finally found a way to incorporate the very first ability Donkey Kong ever had from the arcade game (throwing things) into the gameplay in a way that feels more substantial since you can grab chunks from anywhere and do more with them than just throw them

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

Giving the Kongs guns was funny but in practice it could often halt the flow of gameplay to hit switches and moving targets. Not only is being able to Pick up a boulder with relative ease and throw it more appropriate for Donkey Kong, but it often saves time collecting stuff rather than wasting it

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

DK64 added a lot of interesting stuff to the mix but given its troubled development and the limitations of making games in those days compared to now, a lot of it could be kind of perfunctory. Bananza takes its best bits and fleshes them out in a way only possible now

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

The bonus stages from the DKC games from 2 onward were these condensed fun little challenges that presented scenarios or enemy patterns you wouldn’t see in normal gameplay. The battle challenges in Bananza scratch that itch in a way the Returns games could not without bespoke bonus rooms

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

The Donkey Kong series since 1994 has always been far more concerned with presenting a cohesive world than Mario where platforms are contextualized and the environments were more atmospheric. Bananza having worlds interconnected via the terrain with caves and alcoves and such makes it feel tangible

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

A significant part of the “wow” factor of Donkey Kong Country was how much stuff it could display on screen at once without impacting performance since they were made of pre-rendered sprites. Bananza showering you with so much gold at a time gives you a similar rush

Expresso’s bonus stage from Donkey Kong Country

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 12h

Donkey Kong Bananza has received such a positive reception from the core fans partially because it synthesizes ideas together rather than reinvent the wheel. They take all these strands of Donkey Kong DNA and tie them together in logical ways that feel correct

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 20h

Gamifying your demise as a console manufacturer is absolutely insane and it just demonstrated so clearly why Sega was different from other players in that space that are far more conservative

plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 20h

I’ve always found that game fascinating because any other publisher would shut that pitch down so hard because they are all so image conscious and private about their internal workings. Sega were cool enough to let it slide no matter how unflattering because they thought it was fun

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

Rare was an infamous crunch hell-hole and while Playtonic in the past was very explicit about Not Being Like That, it’s hard not to see the remaining staff being stretched thin covering for the laid-off team members. I absolutely *loathe* that for the developers

plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

One last thing: it’s fucking Bonkers to be working on three games at once as an indie developer, especially after you lay off a significant chunk of people. If Replaylee as a remake of an existing game came out this rough, god only knows how the other two games are doing

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

I don’t think it says great things about how that company is run that after 6 years of no releases, they drop a remake this technically unpolished. If their executives are expecting/ hoping that this will turn their financial woes around, they are delusional.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

I wanna make it clear that I am not slagging off the dev team, I am slagging off the leadership that most likely made a lot of these decisions and denied them time or resources.
The crashes and bugginess of the game indicate it needed more time in the oven and was pushed out too soon

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

There was a fan competition to submit art to be displayed in the game and Multiple of those pieces are either attributed to the wrong artist or their name is misspelled. What a great way to bring the fan community in closer and immediately piss them off

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

The core fanbase of Playtonic have been extremely forgiving and generous even after blow upon blow to the company’s image and they are rewarded for it with a game that sands down many edges they enjoyed mostly for the benefit of attracting outsiders

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

Some of these changes also alienate the existing core fanbase of Playtonic. A close friend of mine considers it a deal breaker that Trowzer and Dr. Quack have a reduced role with really nothing to compensate. Why would you marginalize some of the few characters people latched onto?

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

This was probably due to the fact that the YouTubers and general public discourse only like Kazooie and it’s like pulling teeth to get people to give Tooie or even DK64 a fair chance rather than write them off using other’s words. So fuck it, throw alllll that stuff away so Vinesauce likes our game

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

It’s very weird to see them make all these unnecessary changes to try and get away from Kazooie’s shadow yet they still treat it like The Only One that matters and they reshaped the gameplay loop to resemble it more.

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

Usually a Rare sequel/ remake would indeed address the original’s problems but they also would tend to double down on some aspects the team felt strongly about even if their reception is mixed. Like they removed the notes system in Tooie but doubled down on minigames and dialogue

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

It feels bizarre to me to see this set of creators basically Completely capitulate to public opinion and change everything, even aspects no one was complaining about like the health display. Theres taking and applying feedback and then there’s just completely rolling over to public whims

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 3d

Yooka-Replaylee scrubbing a lot of the Tooie-esque elements from the game rather than improve them is disappointing to me. It wasn’t even sanding the edges, they just sliced them right off. No move progression, no world expansion, just bin them in service of streamlining

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 4d

Getting perks and stacking up crazy emerald multipliers is also incredibly fun. The terrain will be shedding emeralds so fast by the end the framerate struggles to keep up, it’s beautiful. Making the framerate shit itself from the sheer Power of the gameplay is N64-pilled as hell

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plaztazm.bsky.social @plaztazm.bsky.social · 4d

When you go down to the next sub-layer with the tunnel, that chunk of concrete you usually use to Turf Surf down the tunnel can be used to grab the Banandium Gem hidden behind a concrete wall on a ledge. They really made sure there was a way to do Anything without Bananzas or skill upgrades

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