"There were yet more immiserating layoffs amid painful, executive-led pushes for AI. Yet the games themselves bore few traces of such hardship, sparkling from our screens - quite literally in the case of Donkey Kong Bananza,which saw its simian star unearthing diamond bananas. Banaza arrived on the new Nintendo Switch 2 console that itself launched to record-breaking sales figures, a financial shot in the arm for the industry in which some analysts had expressed grave concern about following an ostensible post-pandemic downturn."
"The long-awaited release of the Switch 2 also epitomized one welcome trend: a deluge of titles with massively protracted productions (over seven years in some cases) finally seeing the light of day. We got to enjoy action-platformer Hollow Knight: Silksong after what felt like an age of gags, memes, and internet speculation. It arrived alongside personal soccer odyssey Despelote, calorie-counting life simulator Consume Me, and many more."
"The long-awaited return of the ape-starring franchise has one almighty trick up its sleeve: destructible environments. It sees our lovable muscle head - now accompanied by a teenage singing sensation called Pauline - smashing through the 3-D levels that make up Ingot Isle. Dirt; rock; precious minerals: D.K. carves through it all in a state of coin-clinking abandon while attempting to recover stolen banana diamonds from a group of villainous monkeys."
Video games faced significant industry turmoil in 2025, including widespread layoffs and executive-led pushes for AI. Consumer-facing results remained strong as major releases and a new console energized the market. The Nintendo Switch 2 launched to record-breaking sales and hosted Donkey Kong Bananza, which features destructible environments and a diamond-banana recovery plot starring D.K. and Pauline. A wave of long-delayed projects finally arrived, including Hollow Knight: Silksong, Despelote, and Consume Me. Grand Theft Auto 6 experienced further delay into 2026. Games continued to blend code, art, music, writing, and interactivity into complex, labor-intensive productions.
Read at Vulture
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