you may read the headline of this blog and think i’m saying donkey kong bananza is a souls game. that’s not what i’m saying. i’m saying donkey kong bananza is literally dark souls, the action roleplaying game developed by from software. various aspects carry over to other souls games, of course, but i’m just focusing on the literal dark souls from 2011. anyway, someone (or someones) who worked on donkey kong bananza at nintendo loves dark souls, and while i can’t literally prove it, the evidence they left behind is unmistakable.
i don’t know why you’re reading a story on donkey kong bananza if you’re worried about spoilers but here’s your spoiler warning.
eelevators are primordial serpents
early into the game, donkey kong bananza introduces the player to eelevators, eel-like creatures who swallow donkey kong and allow him to “teeleport” between checkpoints. dark souls features a pair of primordial serpents known as kingseeker frampt and darkstalker kaathe, who swallow the chosen undead and transport them to other parts of lordran.
i’ll admit i didn’t see the similarities between the eelevators and the primordial serpents until encountering the large, matronly version of the former, which acts as a vehicle between donkey kong bananza‘s separate biomes. watching her swallow donkey kong made me point at the screen like the leonardo dicaprio meme and shout, “frampt!” i don’t think i need to explain how lonely i am.
mid-level shortcuts
for a game so cute and joyful, donkey kong bananza can be surprisingly difficult at times. fortunately, the game often provides unlockable shortcuts after long stretches of punching and climbing that provide for a quick way to get back to high or otherwise hard-to-reach positions should you fall or backtrack find more collectables.
while it’s true donkey kong bananza‘s shortcuts — typically ropes you knock down from one platform to another or the franchise’s ubiquitous barrel cannons for firing oneself between areas — aren’t quite as cool or inventive as those found in dark souls and from software‘s extensive lineup of soulslikes, they still serve much the same purpose.
banandium chip geckos are crystal lizards
banandium chips are one of several collectables available in donkey kong bananza. one source of banandium chips are unnamed (as far as i can tell) gecko-like creatures found throughout the game’s various levels, much like the way crystal lizards provide valuable upgrade materials in the dark souls series.
donkey kong bananza‘s banandium chip geckos don’t disappear like crystal lizards, but they are very fast and run away from donkey kong as soon as they seem him. catching them often requires altering the landscape in some way, such as restricting their movements by removing the type of terrain through which they travel or digging a hole as a trap.
poison swamp
dark souls director hidetaka miyazaki loves poison swamps. he uses them so much, it’s become a running joke among the fanbase every time a new from software game comes out and features a gross, goopy area that kills the player slowly.
i don’t have much to say here other than “donkey kong bananza‘s forest layer is a poison swamp of miyazaki-like proportions” so here goes: donkey kong bananza‘s forest layer is a poison swamp of miyazaki-like proportions.
poppy kong is crossbreed priscilla
the second major boss you’ll fight in donkey kong bananza is poppy kong, who uses a special perfume that somehow makes her invisible. i don’t know man, it’s a donkey kong game. don’t ask me how any of this ape nonsense works.
beating poppy kong requires tracking her movements through the snow-covered boss arena. optional dark souls boss crossbreed priscilla operates the same way. and sure, while poppy kong is much easier to see after she turns invisible, i couldn’t help but compare the two. maybe it’s because i was already primed to see similarities between donkey kong bananza and dark souls. oh, they both have white hair, too! i’m losing my mind!
k. rool, king of rot
i mean, come on. this a dark souls-ass boss name if there ever was one.
gold statues are bloodstains
much like dying in dark souls leaves behind a bloodstain that gives you back your lost souls if you manage to get back to it, losing all your health in donkey kong bananza produces a golden donkey kong statue. destroying it returns the gold the game takes from you as a penalty. it’s also very creepy.
i wish i could get more analytical and/or philosophical on this topic rather than just making some stupid list but i’m not in that kind of headspace at the moment. in any case, thank you for reading.
update (10:19 am pst, 07/25/25): added the reddit post about death statues.
tell them i died 