Donkey Kong Bananza Is a Smash — Yet Nintendo’s Odds of Winning GOTY Are Surprisingly Slim
Nintendo’s new Switch 2 exclusive, Donkey Kong Bananza, is getting very strong reviews, but Nintendo has historically won major Game of the Year awards only rarely — most notably with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017. Bananza currently sits near the top of year lists, yet past award trends make a repeat victory for Nintendo uncertain.
- Review scores and current standing for Donkey Kong Bananza
- Nintendo’s track record at major awards like The Game Awards, D.I.C.E., BAFTA and older Spike/VGA shows
- Reasons awards panels have often overlooked Nintendo, and why Breath of the Wild was an exception
How Donkey Kong Bananza is performing
Donkey Kong Bananza is a Switch 2 exclusive. It has an aggregated review score of 92 on OpenCritic and 91 on Metacritic. Therefore, by those measures, it ranks among the top games of the year so far. It is widely described in reviews as a high-quality platformer with strong visual and social appeal.
Nintendo’s award history in brief
Historically, Nintendo has produced many critically acclaimed, widely played games. However, across several major awards systems, Nintendo has won the top prize only occasionally.
For example, Nintendo won The Game Awards Game of the Year once, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017. Meanwhile, earlier awards show history includes cases where Nintendo titles lost out: at the first Spike Video Game Awards in 2003, Madden NFL 2004 won over The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Also, at the D.I.C.E. Awards there was a long gap between Nintendo wins — a 19-year span between The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 1999 and Breath of the Wild.
BAFTA has recognized Nintendo titles at times (for example, Super Mario Galaxy received awards in 2008), but it did not give its top award to Breath of the Wild. Similarly, Nintendo titles have seen mixed results at the Game Developers Choice Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards.
Context: why the awards record looks like this
Several concrete factors help explain the pattern. First, major game awards as institutions mostly formed in the 2000s. At that time Nintendo’s market position differed from companies that were dominating mainstream attention — for example, PlayStation and large third-party publishers. Second, Nintendo often focuses on family-friendly design and gameplay systems rather than cinematic storytelling. Awards juries and public voting bodies sometimes favor titles with strong narrative or high-profile cultural moments. Third, Nintendo’s long history of excellence means some critics and voters treat new entries as expected polish rather than surprises.
Breath of the Wild is a notable exception. It earned broad recognition because it changed expectations for a long-running series and introduced a large open-world design that many outlets described as a reinvention of Zelda. As a result, it gathered both critical acclaim and awards.
So, can Nintendo win GOTY again?
Based on the facts above, Donkey Kong Bananza is a strong contender in review-based rankings. However, historically Nintendo has only occasionally captured major Game of the Year prizes, with Breath of the Wild standing out as a clear exception. Therefore, while Bananza could be nominated and admired, past award behavior suggests Nintendo faces a higher bar than many other developers when it comes to winning the top prize.
