>>717436910
For one the Golden Bananas are handled a lot better than Odyssey's Moons.
There are still plenty of them and they encourage you to observe and explore every perspective and angle of the world. But thanks to Bananza having a lot more depth to its stage design, very few moons are actually just out in the open. And there is a much wider variety of gameplay tasks tied to acquire bananas too.
And related to that. Even with Mario's Cappy, DK still has more movement options and tricks than Mario.
Bananza's challenge rooms are also broadly a step up from the comparable challenges in Odyssey. Elaborating on direct comparisons would take an entire thread though.
But Bananza also doesn't progress-gate you with its bananas the way Odyssey does with its moons.
This makes Bananza a game where progress itself is actually rather linear, while side content is open ended and plentiful. Unlike Odyssey where progress is gated yet for the most part also lacking in direction. Both games benefit from the strengths of open exploration, but Bananza benefits from both it and guided direction. It gets to have its cake and eat it too. Odyssey does the open exploration really well, but it doesn't so much benefit from the former.
And lastly. And though this is more taste and less subjective I guess. Bananza is also more challenging broadly and will happily punish both small and minor mistakes more harshly and more frequently than Odyssey will. Both in combat and from environmental hazards. And I personally think that's a plus.
