For Nintendo, freedom means more than an open world

The Verge

20 hours ago

In past Donkey Kong games, like Tropical Freeze or DKC Returns, I would often find myself stuck against a particularly challenging platforming sequence. And there wasn't much I could do. If I wanted to progress, I had to nail those jumps or avoid those spikes to move on. Donkey Kong Bananza, on the other hand, offers a different tactic: smash some shit up. While the game is a 3D platformer, it also introduces destructive gameplay that lets you find new solutions or pathways just by smashing up the world around you. It perfectly suits the character, and also builds on a design trend Nintendo has steadily been pushing on for years now. In some way or another, all of its biggest franchises are opening up and becoming more exciting as a result.
The most obvious example of this is Breath of the Wild. Before it, the Legend of Zelda adventures were comparatively linear, pushing players along a preordained path. But Breath of the Wild featured a true open world, letting you explore in any direction you chose. Its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, took things a step further with underground areas and gameplay built around combining objects to build something new, which players took in all sorts of creative directions. Even Echoes of Wisdom, which was a return to the top-down structure of classic Zelda games, introduced a mechanic that turned everyday objects into useful tools, creating all kinds of opportunities for creative problem solving.
A similar ethos was infused into many of the Switch's biggest games. But instead of simply adding an open world, Nintendo opened these games up in a way that makes sense for each franchise. Animal Crossing: New Horizons let players both craft their own items and customize the island landscape around them, making their spaces feel more personal; Super Mario Odyssey may not have been open-world, but it introduced levels that were both bigger and denser than its predecessors, offering more opportunities for exploration and discovery.
Now we're seeing the same thing play out with the first few tentpole releases for the Switch 2, starting with Mario Kart World at launch. Instead of simply adding more tracks than Mario Kart 8, which was already massive, World introduced a new structure, putting all of the courses on a single landmass that can also be explored outside of racing. The idea was to create a sense of a cohesive whole, so that there was a progression as you made your way from one end of the continent to the other. There's even a 'free roam' mode where you can simply explore, either solo or online with friends, driving around in search of fun details or extra challenges to complete. These ideas expand on the idea of Mario Kart without getting in the way of what the series is about.
Donkey Kong Bananza does something similar. Like Super Mario Odyssey before it, Bananza is not an open-world game (the similarities shouldn't be too surprising given the games were developed by largely the same teams). But it does feature large, dense areas to explore, which are big enough that there's a musical tool that points you in the right direction if you get lost. More importantly, the game changes things up by giving you a new way to interact with the world around you. For me at least, being able to smash things required a new way of thinking, as I often had to remember to explore three-dimensionally, using DK's brute force to open up hidden pathways above and below me. Sometimes this helped me find a way forward, or avoid challenging obstacles. Other times I discovered some kind of secret. Plus, in those moments when I do get frustrated or stuck, it's a great way to let off steam. Sometimes you just gotta break stuff.
Both World and Bananza started life on the original Switch, but were able to fully explore their ideas — in one case an open world, in the other a destructible one — by utilizing the added horsepower of the Switch 2. As producer Kenta Motokura said in a recent interview, the shift in platform 'increased the amount of things players could destroy, which amplified the exhilaration of being able to demolish anything and everything.'
Which means that we're likely to see this trend continue as Nintendo brings more of its franchises to the new console, including announced titles like Splatoon Raiders and Kirby Air Riders. They may be familiar favorites, but the exciting part is seeing which way Nintendo decides to expand them.