Donkey Kong Bananza speedruns are going to go bananas and I can't wait to see them

Digital Trends

2 days ago

A few layers into Donkey Kong Bananza, I came across an objective that left me stumped. I was to reach a platform and slam a button — a common task in the game — but with the problem being its placement. This specific button was on a small, floating island high above any other natural land formation in the level. There was no vantage point I could climb and leap from, and I had yet to learn the Ostrich Bananza at this point, so flying there was out of the question. This was a perplexing puzzle because nearly all other challenges up to that point could be solved via destruction. I could dig under or break through obstacles, but I couldn't dig up. Or could I?
A memory of one of the later trailers for Bananza came to mind, where we saw DK on a beach throwing clumps of sand to create a makeshift land bridge reaching out over the water. Curious, I scooped up a clump of material from the ground, aimed, and attempted to stick it to the bottom of the platform. It worked. I repeated the process, slowly but steadily sculpting a crude and jagged stalagmite of sorts that I could eventually climb up and reach my objective. Despite the tedium, the rush of creating my own solution was euphoric.
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Only when I came back down did I realize the 'intended' way to reach the platform. Off to one side was a platform that would extend as you ran across it in Zebra form through the air and eventually end at the platform. I liked my solution better.
What I came up with was infinitely slower than the way most people will likely approach this specific challenge, but it made one thing very clear to me: speedruns of this game are going to be insane.
Breaking a game that wants to be broken
Speedrunning has been gaining a ton of traction over the past two decades. While it is still somewhat niche in the grand scheme of things, most gamers are at least familiar with the concept, if they don't tune in for one of the big annual speedrunning charity events. The majority of them focus on, you guessed it, beating games as fast as possible, but there are a ton of other styles and categories to make things more fun, challenging, or strange.
Not all games are built for speedrunning, however. The games that draw the most attention from runners and viewers have a blend of mechanical depth in controls and movement options, plus fun tricks to bypass and 'break' the game to beat it faster. Most Mario games are a perfect example of this, with Mario 64 being one of the most popular speedrunning games of all time thanks to the skill ceiling in movement, challenging routes to complete, and various categories and ways to beat the game quickly. In short, it is as fun to play as it is to watch.
Donkey Kong Bananza has all the ingredients it needs to spawn a huge speedrunning scene. DK's base moveset isn't quite on the same level as Mario's, but is incredibly versatile. He can obviously run and jump, but rolling lets him move faster, he can roll in mid-air for a small double jump, plus all the ways you can use chunks to augment your movement. And that's just what I've noticed as a casual player. Once someone who is trying to break the game open has time to master DK's moveset, I have no doubt I'll see the game being played in ways I never would've thought possible.
(Between the time I wrote this article and it was set to publish, a speedrunner has already found a way to skip the entirety of the last layer of the Canyon layer, including the boss fight less than 24 hours after the game came out)
The Bananza transformations each add new ways to enhance DK's movement and destructive powers that are primed for speedrunning. I don't need to explain how being able to break concrete, dash, or fly for a duration of time can be exploited to reach areas early and out of order, but what I do know is that there's one very important feature of the Bananza system that speedrunners will love: you can change Banaza forms on the fly without reverting back to normal or going into a menu. If there's some strange interaction that can happen where you phase through the floor or get rocketed across the map by changing form in just the right spot or in a specific circumstance, someone is going to find it.
And how could I not mention the most obvious aspect of Donkey Kong Bananza that make it a speedrunner's dream; the fully destructive environments. Sure, we can all imagine how digging through a level in the just the right way could bypass a ton of stuff, but speedrunners won't stop there. Just like with Bananza forms, a lot of crazy things could be possible with that much freedom. I almost don't even want to guess how glitching into the walls or clipping will be used here and just want to wait to see it for myself.
Every speedrun has some roadblocks that slow things down. These are typically things like cutscenes or unskippable animations. In Mario games, a lot of time is spent watching animations after collecting Stars, Moons, or whatever else, which is why there are categories for beating the game with as few collectibles as possible. Donkey Kong Bananza has hundreds upon hundreds of collectibles, including bananas, and each one you collect stops the game for a moment to watch DK munch it down. The more bananas in the bunch you're collecting, the longer the animation takes for him to eat them all. But here's the thing: you don't need to collect any bananas in Donkey Kong Bananza as far as I can tell. Maybe there's one as part of the tutorial or something, but no part of the game is gated off by an arbitrary banana requirement. They only serve to give you skill points to level up, but speedrunners won't need that. Unless there's a trick that saves time in the long run that requires leveling up, I doubt anyone will bother collecting a single one.
The speedrunning community is such a fantastic group working together to crack games wide open and see who can master them. It isn't done out of malice, but as a celebration of our favorite games and wanting to show what's possible within them. Nintendo games have always been big hits within the speedrunning community. Now that I've finished my playthrough of Donkey Kong Bananza, I can't wait to see what the pros do with it.