Donkey Kong Bananza isn't just one of the best games of 2025 and a delightful reimagining of Nintendo's leading gorilla. No, it's also a meditation aid – a way for you to to focus on whatever's weighing on you while you mindlessly destroy the game's levels. An unlikely way to play Donkey Kong Bananza? Maybe, but Nintendo's own devs recommend giving it a try.
"The goal in creating this game was to create a game that feels good to destroy," programmer Tatsuya Kurihara tells GamesRadar+ in an interview at the Game Developers Conference. Certainly the game's destructive potential is something the devs spoke about extensively in a panel at the event. But Kurihara thinks there's a constructive way to play, too.
"You know, another alternative way to play this game is – you've got something stuck in your head," Kurihara continues. "You've got something to think through. You can just put Donkey Kong Bananza on and focus on your thinking as you're just mindlessly destroying the game. That's one way to enjoy this as well."
It's an odd way to hear Donkey Kong Bananza presented, especially by an actual Nintendo dev, but I can see it. This is the kind of game where it feels good to smash things for pieces, and I found an odd amount of satisfaction in the few times I've tried pulling a level down to its foundations. It has a charm not far off of something like PowerWash Simulator, and those kinds of simple, repetitive actions do tend to make it easier to focus your thinking.
So hey, next time you've got a problem to work out, maybe throw on Donkey Kong Bananza. It won't make the problem go away, but it'll let you think of that problem as a mountain you can smash to pieces. That's basically the same thing, right?
