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.

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.

Expedition 33" to big console exclusives like "Donkey Kong Bananza" and "Death Stranding 2," NPR staff and contributors round up their favorite games of the year so far.