Donkey Kong's first new game since 2014 has revitalized one of Nintendo's most recognizable characters with a new installment.

In fact, that last part might be the most exciting thing about Donkey Kong Bananza. Nintendo is extremely character-focused in the way it understands its games, crafts their controls, and designs their environments,

Upon firing up Donkey Kong Bananza for the first time with early 2000s bongos in hand, I was expecting to run into compatibility issues. Yet, against all odds, I was able to punch through the adventure's intro rock wall using nothing but a funky beat, and the controller's button pads were already assigned to inputs.