What did I tell ya?
I'd start off as I usually do by saying 'Happy Nintendo Music Thursday', but it is currently the Wednesday after that I'm finally getting around to writing this, as I simply haven't had the opportunity due to being on vacation over the weekend.
So, uh, yeah, sorry about that.
That aside, I must repeat, what did I tell ya?
...okay, sure, it's not like predicting that Bananza would land on Nintendo Music the day before its anniversary makes me some incredible psychic or something, it was a pretty easy conclusion to come to after Mario Kart World did the same thing back at the start of June, but, c'mon, let me have this it felt good to get it right.
Okay, let's get to the point.
Last Friday, the 17th of July, marked one year since Nintendo unleashed Donkey Kong Bananza onto the world, and it still easily stands as my favorite Switch 2 game to date. To celebrate the occasion, the Thursday Nintendo Music drop for the week was the entirety of Bananza's incredible soundtrack.
It's a pretty darn meaty OST, coming with 229 tracks spanning the main game and the paid DLC, totalling 8 hours and 36 minutes of music.
While I was pretty content with the Special Release that we got around the time of the Emerald Rush DLC's release, bringing many of my absolute favorite songs from the soundtrack, such as Canyon Layer, the first three Bananza themes, and Breaking Through (PEAK), having the full album available reminded me of just how much great music was in this game: absolute bangers such as Ingot Isle Cave-In, Banandium Refinery, Snake Bananza, Banandium Root Tower, and all the Emerald Rush music (including the Super Mario version from the recent crossover event!) just to name a few. It's also done wonders in terms of expanding my personal sleep playlist with tracks like Sinkhole, The Divide, and Hilltop Layer.
This is one of those soundtracks where simply scrolling through the tracklist is enough to invoke fond memories of the experiences I had with the game last summer. It even led to me striking up a conversation with a good friend who also played and loved Bananza, reminiscing on the game and our favorite moments from it. Bananza is just an exceptional game all around, and I intend to do a retrospective on the game some time soon to explore my thoughts on the experience and the impact it left on me now that a year has passed.
After missing on the first of my four predictions, this was a satisfying bounceback, and I feel like the odds of going halfsies on these are pretty high. We shall see.
For now, here's the updated predictions once more:
Here's the updated predictions by the way:
Monday, 7/13/26: Mario Kart World Free Roam with Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Double Dash, and Mario Kart Super Circuit- (CORRECT) Thursday, 7/16/26: Donkey Kong Bananza (in honor of its first anniversary)
- (Almost correct: A week late, missed Mario Paint)
Monday, 7/20/26: Mario Kart World Free Roam with New Super Mario Bros, New Super Mario Bros Wii, New Super Mario Bros U, and Super Mario Maker - Wednesday, 7/22/26: Splatoon Raiders Special Release
