There's also a sense of persistence in Bananza. You can create little home bases that let you rest up and change outfits. You'll meander off and come back to locations. Mario Odyssey had some of this too, but Bananza feels more lived in.

To earn more skill points in Donkey Kong Bananza, you’ll need to find and collect Banandium Gems scattered throughout the layers. Once you find five Banandium Gems, you’ll get one skill point. The skills below apply to Donkey Kong all the time, whether he’s in or out of Bananza form.

Donkey Kong Bananza is a 3D action platformer where you can dig holes, build bridges, and experiment in other ways as you burrow through various whimsical worlds on your way toward the planet core. Nintendo was so happy with its deformation tech that it decided to spin it off into an entirely separate artist mode.