Dk hasn't been fully clicking with me and I think I finally figured out why. I don't care about Bananas.
In the 3D Mario series (setting aside 3D Land/World) collecting stars or moons has been central to progression. Same with BK and DK 64.
Here... I'm pretty sure you don't need Bananas for anything except leveling up your abilities, and so far (I'd estimate I'm about halfway through the main campaign) I've found enough Bananas without looking too hard for them to get all of the key upgrades, and the other ones don't feel super necessary. Nothing has ever threatened me to the point where I feel I need extra health and I basically always have enough bananergy to transform when needed. And I don't really feel like the costumes are worth the effort either.
So, after a couple of hours of "break everything in sight" I've kind of just been going straight for the objective. If I stumble across a banana I'll grab it, but usually the challenges haven't been rewarding enough in and of themselves to make me feel like they're worth seeking out. In Mario Galaxy 1/2, and to a somewhat lesser extent in Odyssey, there are some challenges and sequences where I felt, "man that was really cool", and they were worth doing just for the fun of it. So far in DK there have been a few clever puzzles, but mostly they've been a little basic. There are a lot of Bananas so maybe I just haven't come to the good ones yet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm having fun, but so far this feels like a good game and not a great one.







