Donkey Kong Bananza has become the highest-rated game from Nintendo by user score on aggregator website Metacritic.
According to the user score stats on Metacritic, Donkey Kong Bananza is now the highest-rated Nintendo first-party title ever alongside The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, with an aggregate score of 9.2 based on a total of 1,393 user reviews as of writing. It has surpassed the user scores received by all-time greats like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (9.1), Super Mario Galaxy (9.1), Metroid Prime (9.1), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (9.0), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (8.9), Super Mario Odyssey (8.9), GoldenEye 007 (8.9), and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (8.9).
Top 10 Nintendo First-Party Games By Metacritic User Score
The list of highest-rated Nintendo first-party titles based on Metacritic user scores can be seen below.
- Donkey Kong Bananza – 9.2
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – 9.2
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – 9.1
- Super Mario Galaxy – 9.1
- Metroid Prime – 9.1
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 – 9.0
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 8.9
- Super Mario Odyssey – 8.9
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – 8.9
- GoldenEye 007 – 8.9
Recently, it was revealed by The Game Business Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dring that Donkey Kong Bananza’s launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 in the UK was three times larger than that of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on the original Switch. However, it achieved less than half the launch numbers of Super Mario Odyssey, one of the Switch’s most prominent titles. While such comparisons offer a general sense of performance, Dring was quick to point out the differences in context between the launches.
As noted in community discussions, Odyssey arrived near the holiday season in 2017, roughly six months after the Nintendo Switch launched. By contrast, Bananza was released in July, 2025, merely two months after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, during the less commercially aggressive summer period. Additionally, while digital purchases have increased globally since 2017, Dring remarked that the shift toward digital sales on Nintendo platforms has been more moderate compared to others.
