Donkey Kong Bananza vs. Super Mario Odyssey vs. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Donkey Kong Bananza has dropped on the Nintendo Switch 2, and many have been praising it as one of Nintendo’s great 3D-platformers of all time. Well, platforming games (especially 3D) are my favorite types of games and these are the style games that I’ve been playing since I got into playing video games. So, I decided to match Donkey Kong Bananza against two of my personal favorite 3D platforming games: Super Mario Odyssey and Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

For this versus, I have 9 general categories that act as a main aspect of these types of games. Of the three games, whichever I think excels the best in a category gets 2 points for that match, with the runner-up getting 1 point. After going through all 9 matches, the game with the most points will be crowned my favorite 3D platformer. So, with all that, let’s-a-go!

*Some spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza.

 

Match 1: Controls

Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Bananza take DK into a 3D world for the first time since Donkey Kong 64, and it feels great controlling him in the game’s vast open worlds. DK also has a robust moveset, including smashing upward, to the side, and downward, as well as a hand slap, making music, and tons of other tricks that can be performed.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Like Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a 3D game featuring a character that’s been running left and right for decades — only Kirby has never had a mainline 3D adventure ever. His first time in 3D is nice, even if the controls are as accurate as the other two games (which they aren’t meant to be). Plus, outside of inhaling and floating, Kirby has very little moves outside of his copy abilities.

Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is one the most accurate 3D platformers Nintendo has ever produced. The game’s controls feel incredible, making any mistakes unlikely to be anything but made by the player. Mario’s moves are fairly simple, but throwing Cappy offers tons of other things to do, making just jumping around and leaping off Cappy a joy.

Final Verdict:
Super Mario Odyssey has the most accurate controls with a diverse and easy to get used to moveset, which is why it is getting the 2 points for this category. Behind it is Donkey Kong Bananza, which while not quite as accurate still has a large moveset that offers lots of different control options.

Match 2: Worlds

Donkey Kong Bananza
The worlds in Donkey Kong Bananza are the layers of an underground world from the surface to the planet core. Most of the 17 layers are massive, but there are some that feel underdone and too small. Most of the layers are themed to a standard theme notable to Mario games, but each mixed with a unique concept to spice up the theme.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Unlike Donkey Kong Bananza and Super Mario Odyssey, Kirby and the Forgotten Land isn’t open-world, structured more like Super Mario 3D World. However, the level in each world all connect together different parts of a unique world brimming with creativity, detail, and imagination — making each area feel distinct and fun.

Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey, similar to Donkey Kong Bananza, includes multiple worlds that each have a unique theme and provide open-world gameplay in a vast landscape. Unlike Bananza, however, Odyssey’s kingdoms are each packed with immense detail and things to discover, making them much more memorable than Bananza’s layers.

Final Verdict:
Super Mario Odyssey‘s kingdoms are vast, open worlds filled with detail and creativity, giving the game the 2 points for this category. While Donkey Kong Bananza and Kirby and the Forgotten Land both have similarly rich worlds to explore, Kirby barely takes the runner-up spot with its incredible detail and amazing visual styles.

Match 3: Bosses

Donkey Kong Bananza
Most of the boss encounters in Donkey Kong Bananza, especially in the first half of the game, are either super easy or are finished way too quickly. There are tons of bosses that once you do something to stop them, you can just beat them up completely rather than do that thing multiple times. While the bosses become more like this the deeper into the game you get, there’s no standouts overall except for basically just the final boss.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Kirby and the Forgotten Land has some of the most epic, fun, and creative boss fights of any 3D Nintendo platformer. Each one has a unique concept, memorable design, and can be fairly difficult. Plus, each fight is packed with some bombastic and exhilerating music.

Super Mario Odyssey
While the majority of the boss encounters in Super Mario Odyssey won’t make you sweat, they’re all still pretty fun to tackle. Many of the fights, like previous Mario adventures, take advantage of some of the gimmicks of that kingdom, specifically with the use of each kingdom’s main capture. Each fight is fun, but again, none are too hard, and the final boss is a bit underwhelming.

Final Verdict:
Almost every boss in Kirby and the Forgotten Land feels epic and is super fun to fight, giving the game the 2 points for this category. Super Mario Odyssey is close behind with its massive list of great fights that do a great job taking advantage of their worlds’ main concepts and Mario’s robust moveset.

Match 4: Narrative

Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Bananza provides more than just fun gameplay and unique worlds, especially with its inclusion of a young Pauline. Pauline adds tons of charm to the adventure, and this all leads to some neat narrative-based events, especially towards the end. While the game doesn’t quite have a huge story, it still has a sweet narrative built around the bond between DK and Pauline. Plus, the game has some huge twists, especially with things like King K. Rool’s reveal.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Most of Kirby and the Forgotten Land doesn’t have much story. Like most Kirby games, Kirby gets sucked into a mysterious vortex and ends up in a massive new world. However, by the game’s final world, there are some cool story-based events, especially with the idea behind Lab Discovera, its relation to Elfilin, and Leongar in the post-game.

Super Mario Odyssey
Like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Super Mario Odyssey doesn’t have much of a story. Bowser simply takes Peach and Mario has to go after them to rescue her. There’s not a lot of narrative-based events that really impact the game, and even things like the fight on Cloud Kingdom just feel like filler or at least a way to have Bowser fight Mario before the end of the game.

Final Verdict:
Donkey Kong Bananza is one of the few Nintendo platformers to offer sweet narrative-based events, especially with great bond between DK and Pauline and the big twists later in the adventure, giving the game the 2 points for this category. Kirby and the Forgotten Land‘s develops a unique story behind its villains as the game progresses, leading to an unexpected final segment.

Match 5: Gameplay Features

Donkey Kong Bananza
One of the main features in Donkey Kong Bananza is the skill-point system. For every five banandium gems DK eats, he gains a skill point, and skill points can unlock a range of different kinds of skills or upgrades. There’s tons of different things to upgrade. There’s also lots of shops around the game’s worlds where DK can buy things that range from helpful health items or outfits that all change DK’s stats.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Of the three games, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is the only one with a true hub world. Waddle Dee Town is full of things to do from minigames to small challenge to boss encounters, all of which offer rewards. There’s also copy abilities, which can be upgraded using rare stones that can be collected by completing challenge stages on the world map. These upgrades thoroughly improve and strengthen Kirby’s abilities.

Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey doesn’t have a ton of services or systems that can improve his stats. Every world does have a Crazy Cap store which is where you can buy both health items or outfits (the outfits are only for decoration purposes) for normal coins and region-specific purple coins respectively. The game offers no way to improve stats, make Mario stronger, or affect captures.

Final Verdict:
Kirby and the Forgotten Land offers tons of neat things to do and ways to upgrade abilities in fun and robust ways, especially with the amount of things to do in Waddle Dee Town, giving the game the 2 points for this category. Donkey Kong Bananza is right behind with its skill upgrades and tons of collectibes and shops to use them.

Match 6: Music

Donkey Kong Bananza
For a game all about music, Donkey Kong Bananza doesn’t have the most memorable soundtrack. Most of the music isn’t very catchy. It almost feels like it’s going more for a background-music-for-studying score than a traditional score with memorable area themes. All of Pauline’s songs are cool, especially Breaking Through!, but the score itself isn’t as memorable.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Kirby games always have some fun music with a distinct sound, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land is no exception. There’s tons of great tracks to pick from throughout the game, from big-band, bombastic songs to more mellow but still catchy pieces. The game is full of memorable music that makes the adventure so addicting and fun.

Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is right there with Kirby and the Forgotten Land with its music. The game is full of amazing music, ranging from beautiful and sweet to epic and outstanding. From the exciting Fossil Falls theme to the beautifully relaxing Bubblaine theme, it’s all super memorable. Oh yeah, and there’s Jump Up, Super Star! too. Not much I have to say about that.

Final Verdict:
Super Mario Odyssey is filled with exciting music that correlates perfectly to the regions where they play, which is why the game gets the 2 points for this category. Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a close 2nd, similarly filled with memorable tracks that only broaden the game’s fun and charm.

Match 7: Exploration

Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Bananza encourages so much explorations with its vast worlds and tons of secrets, from collectible banadium gems to each layer’s many ruins. Even the smaller layers can be fun to explore thanks to the ability to smash into the ground and explore what’s underneath.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Every level in Kirby and the Forgotten Land has several missions to complete in order to save every captured Waddle Dee. The multitude of unique missions can be fun to complete, especially since the game doesn’t reveal every mission at first, forcing you to replay levels to complete every mission. There’s also other fun things to complete, including a compelling postgame and challenge stages to upgrade copy abilities.

Super Mario Odyssey
The amount of things to find in Super Mario Odyssey is insane. Beating Bowser’s is nowhere close to the 100% end of the game, as there are 880 moons (more than Bananza’s banandium gems) and 1000 purple coins to find across the game’s many kingdoms. The game forces you to explore every little alcove and crevasse all over each kingdom, which is fun to do.

Final Verdict:
Super Mario Odyssey encourages immense exploration with is vast worlds and wild amount of secrets, giving the game the 2 points for this category. Donkey Kong Bananza is very much the same in many aspects to this with its tons of secrets and massive worlds.

Match 8: Replayability

Donkey Kong Bananza
With the incredible amount of things to find and collect, as well as the game’s immense charm and highly memorable moments, it’s hard to leave Donkey Kong Bananza after finishing. Each world has so many different ways of being explored in order to finish each mission, and it makes for a fun adventure you’ll want to replay over and over again.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is fun and charming adventure through and through, making it an enjoyable journey even after several playthroughs. While the game is linear and doesn’t offer many opportunities to clear levels in different ways, there’s still a lot of fun to be had with the game that makes it a fun one every time you start it up.

Super Mario Odyssey
Like Bananza, the worlds in Super Mario Odyssey are so massive and offer so many different ways to explore them in order to make it through. Odyssey even gives players more freedom with its power moons, which are the main mission instead the actual missions in each kingdom. You can complete as many missions as possible or all of them, offering tons of unique ways to play each time.

Final Verdict:
Super Mario Odyssey has so much to find, so many things to collect, and so many missions to complete that it makes the game a hard one to put down even after finishing the final boss, which is why the game gets the 2 points for this category. Donkey Kong Bananza follows for very similar reasons, including tons of secrets to uncover that make replaying a joy.

Match 9: Final Boss/Section

Donkey Kong Bananza
Nothing quite compares to the final couple of hours in Donkey Kong Bananza. Once you reach the Banandium Root, every goes nuts as King K. Rool is revealed and you even get to explore a K. Rool-ified New Donk City above the surface. The game has so many surprises packed into its final moments, and the final battle against the King is challenging, unique, and ambitious, making for an insane yet satisfying conclusion.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Lab Discovera is a unique yet exciting and mysterious final area that closes out Kirby and the Forgotten Land with some epic set pieces and ambitious boss battles. From the first fight with Leongar to the Fecto Forgo to the final brawl against Fecto Elfilis, it’s all a challenging and incredibly epic way to end the game.

Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey does have a great ending, even if its wow-factor doesn’t quite match the other two games. After landing on the Moon and exploring the Moon Cave, you’ll face off against Bowser in a decent but overall simple brawl. What comes next, however, is nothing short of epic, with Mario capturing Bowser in order to escape the Moon. Mix that with the epic Break Free playing is an incredible way to end the game.

Final Verdict:
With it’s amazing surprised and incredibly unexpected and epic final section and final boss, Donkey Kong Bananza smashes forward to receive the 2 points for this category. Kirby and the Forgotten Land also includes a unqiue and epic final area with a fantastic final boss.

WINNERS:

In third place is Kirby and the Forgotten Land with 7 points.
In second place is Donkey Kong Bananza with 9 points
In third place is Super Mario Odyssey with 11 points.

Which of these games is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

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