Opinion: Honestly, I’m So Glad We Had To Wait For Donkey Kong Bananza

Friends, I’ve engaged in so much Mario Kart World.

I’ve completed all the Grands Prix (on three stars, of course), and the Knockout Tours (not on three stars, life is fleeting). I’ve been in a continual rivalry with friends on Mario Bros. Circuit Time Trial, where you go to sleep triumphant and awaken to a blurred image of someone surpassing you by 0.003 seconds.

I’ve accomplished over 200 P-Switches and taken (I just verified) about 211 snapshots in Free Roam, so now hitting minus is incorporated into my typical driving routine and I share snaps most days on our WhatsApp gaming group. Yesterday, Ibby remarked, “Great shots, bro.”

I’m currently at a stage of obsession where one attempts to achieve the perfect bounce on a Toad’s head indefinitely like a trampoline. Challenging!

It contributes that the game is all about exuberant movement; every trick is a bouncing, squashing, sparkling laugh in the karting universe. Additionally, the new maneuvers transform it into a kind of momentum platformer, satisfying some of the craving for not having a true single-player Nintendo adventure at launch (and by ‘momentum platformer’, I mean you urgently attempt to fling your kart close to a cliff edge with coins, overshoot, then strive to rewind just right to end up on top anyway).

However, I wouldn’t have mained this game so intensely if Bananza had also launched concurrently. And I appreciate that, along with the other ways the Switch 2 launch phase has evoked a bit of retro Nintendo fandom. I recognize this sensation.

There’s Mario Kart, and how the Free Roam mode carries that unstructured (or unfinished har har) sense of self-directed play that appeared so naturally in youth; acquiring new games during birthdays and Christmas, spending weeks savoring every aspect, then searching for inventive ways to play a game upside down and backwards (now spinning the plate?). Recently, I was literally wandering around Mario Kart World in reverse with ‘X’ held – it diverts your attention from the track to better appreciate the cool tire size transitions!

Then there’s the strong, economical, thorough energy in revisiting all the upgraded Switch 1 games, too. You gain that 20/20 new glasses wow-ness of starting up Tears of the Kingdom, for instance — simultaneously relishing what you’re playing, how you remember it, and enjoying the differences — then using the Zelda Notes app (with annoying GPS disabled) to finally complete the main side quests. I was pleased to have played the one involving the mushroom-hunting gals, and it feels like a brief respite from the onslaught of constant gaming newness, to dot some Is and cross some Ts and dive back into the depths at 60fps and without a hitch.

I suspect there’s also an aspect of Launch Period Grace, an unseen dividing line where ‘the new things’ commence – as unreal-yet-real as a boundary on a map. I’ve obtained a new console and feel the urge to be playing it. That’s new-new items like Welcome Tour — a game I somehow continue to revisit in small increments despite not recognizing my TV as 4K, in which you can gather one piece of museum litter at a time — and new-old things like Cyberpunk.

I’m aware some third-party titles have seemingly underwhelmed, but I’ve still felt that hunger-is-the-best-spice tug that suggests games like Fast Fusion receive some affection in a way that harkens back to when I first powered up my new Game Boy Advance at my dad’s place, with F-Zero Maximum Velocity (and a barely visible display). Or all those 4-star, mid-80s-scoring classics-to-my-family, like Fighters Destiny or Snowboard Kids or Lost Kingdoms on the GameCube.

What’s peculiar is that I think I was most inspired the other day when perusing the Switch home screen (apparently with unacceptable blur?), selecting which of the chosen, launch-glowed games to engage with. It brought back memories of rifling through my N64 cartridges in their repurposed ice cream tub on days off school. Even more astonishing, I’ve just verified there are only about 10 of them, played and cherished enough to fill an era. (Yoshi’s Story was £18.99 from Cash Converters according to the peeling label on the back.)

I’ve had a fantastic time familiarizing myself with my Switch 2, indulging in Mario Kart and the rest – pips and all. And now I’ve relished these few weeks of runway where everyone’s synced up with excitement for Bananza – an all-time Direct, some snippets of the songs, opening Chrome in lulls at work because Bing corrects it to ‘Bonanza’. The context surrounding games is significant, and it’s delightful to have some uncrowded space so ripe for enthusiasm. Now it feels like proper, Big Nintendo Release Time.

Only a couple of days remain.