Donkey Kong Bananza is the best exhibition for Nintendo Switch 2's Muse so far

In recent decades, Nintendo's consoles have had at least one badger that separates them from the competition. Gamecube had a carrying handle and used mini discs, Wii had movement checks, DS had a touch screen, Wii U had a gamepad and the switch was a home console hand-held hybrid. Nintendo Switch 2 gives another lot of new gimmicks to the table, of which some Donkey Kong Bananza Dip the toes in.

One of Nintendo Switch 2's most prominent Gimmicks is its played social function, which had a major role in the console's first disclosure and marketing push. While GameChat is a fantastic feature for multiplayer -titles that Mario Kart Worldit does not have much relevance in a mostly solo adventure that Donkey Kong Bananza. Instead, Donkey Kong Bananza Experiment with Nintendo Switch 2's mouse functionality, and it can only be the best exhibition of the function so far.

Family

How Donkey Kong Bananza honors the mascot's 44-year-old history

Donkey Kong made his arcade debut back in 1981, and Donkey Kong Bananza goes out of his way of celebrating the entire four decades of history of the mascot.

Donkey Kong Bananza may be the best use of Switch 2's mouse so far

Nintendo Switch 2's mouse mode is hard underutilized right now

Rumors strongly during the months until its official disclosure, Nintendo Switch 2's Joy-Cons can be rotated on their side at any time and switch them seamlessly to a mouse mode that lets players pull their Joy-Con over a surface to move a marker across the screen. At the launch, only a handful of games were compatible with Switch 2's mouse mode.

The most robust muscularly titles were FortniteThe Cyberpunk 2077and Civilization 7. Although the entrances did not feel perfect out of the gate, Switch 2's mouse functions worked pretty well with these titles after some manual tweaks in each game's setting menu. That said, muscular controls still felt like a inferior way to play these Nintendo Switch 2 launch games.

Donkey Kong Bananza exploits Switch 2's mouse mode

Under Solo mode, Musk Controls never come into the equation in Donkey Kong Bananza. Instead, Joy-Con's new mouse functionality plays in games in Donkey Kong BananzaLocal co-op mode, where one player uses a single joy-con to check DK as usual while the other transforms a Joy-Con aside and uses it as a mouse, aims for terrain, absorbs material and shoots them into the environment via the cursor on the screen.

It is far from a groundbreaking feature, but it is a fun way to play Donkey Kong Bananzaat least for an hour or two. It is also good to see Nintendo find an innovative way to implement one of Switch 2's new features without forcing it into the nuclear play experience.

Donkey Kong Bananza Is also home for a “DK artist” mode. Strongly inspired by Super Mario 64menu screen that lets players move with a 3D model of the mascot's face, Donkey Kong BananzaDK artist mode allows players to use Switch 2's mouse functionality to carve, sculpt and paint a variety of models in the game. Again this feature is far from Donkey Kong BananzaMain sales site, but it is a really nice inclusion and a fantastic exhibition of Switch 2's muscular controller.

Upcoming Switch 2 games with mouse functionality

Thankfully, there are some more mouse compatible games on the horizon for Nintendo Switch 2, and hopefully they will offer an even better showcase of the feature than Donkey Kong Bananza:

  • Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV – July 24 2025
  • No Sleep for Caname Date – From AI: Somnium files – July 25 2025
  • Drag X Drive – August 14 2025
  • Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road – August 21, 2025
  • Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – TBA 2025
  • Mouse work – TBA 2025


Donkey Kong Bananza Tag Page Cover Art

Donkey Kong Bananza

System

Super Greyscale 8-bit logo

Published

July 17, 2025

ESRB

All 10+ // Fantasy Violence

Developer

Nintendo

Publisher

Nintendo

Number of players

One -player



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