Donkey Kong Bananza Speedrunners Have Already Found a Way to (Sort of) Skip Getting Pauline

Donkey Kong Bananza has been retired for a week now, and speedrunners are already figuring retired incredibly accelerated ways to bushed the crippled successful arsenic small arsenic an hr and a half. While they're definite to find ways to chopped that clip down adjacent much successful the coming weeks and months, 1 truly absorbing instrumentality has been discovered with a unusual broadside effect: it skips getting Pauline arsenic DK's companion.

Warning! Spoilers for the ending of Donkey Kong Bananza's Lagoon Layer follow. Read connected astatine your ain risk!

In a mean playthrough, Pauline bursts retired of Odd Rock adjacent the extremity of the Lagoon Layer erstwhile she and DK play euphony unneurotic and activate DK's Kong Bananza transformation. It's a captious communicative infinitesimal some successful that it really introduces Pauline into the communicative proper, but besides due to the fact that the cutscene is required to get Kong Elder to unfastened the doorway to the adjacent layer.

However, speedrunners person recovered a instrumentality that lets them skip the full thing. The driblet to the adjacent furniture is hidden successful a gathering that DK tin really clip into nether the close circumstances. This video shows the instrumentality successful action, but it fundamentally involves hanging from a tube adjacent to a barred model into the building, and rapidly entering and exiting Photo Mode to get DK to clip done the bars and into the country with the hole. This works careless of whether DK has Pauline oregon not, which means DK and Odd Rock tin travel to the adjacent furniture unneurotic without progressing the story.

Unfortunately for Odd Rock lovers retired there, you can't really advancement the crippled overmuch farther this way. The adjacent sublayer is simply a brag combat arena, and portion you tin cod a fewer Banandium Gems successful determination with Odd Rock's support, the brag won't really spawn if you don't person Pauline with you. Weirdly, you volition perceive a spot of Pauline's (not Odd Rock's) dialog arsenic you attack the arena, but with nary brag to combat there's besides nary mode to manifest the large spread successful the crushed that leads to the adjacent main layer. So you're brushed locked until you spell backmost and decently get Pauline.

That said, knowing however accelerated speedrunners enactment astatine breaking these things, I wouldn't beryllium amazed if we perceive astir them solving this caller occupation sometime soon and doing thing that results successful immoderate brainsick no-Pauline tricks, oregon possibly adjacent ways to skip Odd Rock entirely. After all, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom runners figured retired however to play arsenic Link alternatively of Zelda. Video games are conscionable wacky similar that sometimes.

Donkey Kong Bananza is retired now, and we emotion it, having fixed the crippled a 10/10 successful our review. As our reviewer said, "Donkey Kong Bananza is simply a genuinely groundbreaking 3D platformer, with satisfying movement, almighty abilities, awesome destructible environments, and clever challenges that each travel unneurotic successful implicit harmony to make Nintendo’s archetypal Switch 2 masterpiece."

If you, similar us, can't get capable of Bananza, we person plentifulness of walkthroughs to assistance your travel underground, including Banandium Gem locations, starter tips and tricks, and a afloat walkthrough.

Rebekah Valentine is simply a elder newsman for IGN. You tin find her posting connected BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a communicative tip? Send it to [email protected].