Donkey Kong Bananza Speedrunners Discover a Hilarious Pauline Skip... That Doesn't *Quite* Work
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
Speedrunners found a way to skip Pauline in *Donkey Kong Bananza*, but, alas, the game puts its foot down eventually. It's only a matter of time before these mad lads figure out a complete skip, though, isn't it?
Right, *Donkey Kong Bananza* has been out for, like, a week, and the speedrunning community is already at it, bless their little blocky hearts. These digital daredevils have managed to carve out a route that gets them through the game in a mere hour and a half. An hour and a half! I can barely decide what to have for breakfast in that time. According to IGN South Africa, however, there's a particularly cheeky trick they've stumbled upon: a way to (sort of) skip rescuing Pauline.
Now, for those who haven't been glued to their Switch 2 (if you can even find one, fair dinkum), Pauline is a key part of *Bananza*. She pops up in the Lagoon Layer, triggers DK's Kong Bananza transformation (oo-er!), and generally moves the plot along. She's kinda important, yeah? But speedrunners, being the delightfully disruptive sorts they are, found a way to say, "Nah, Pauline, we're good."
Here's the gist: there's a drop to the next layer cleverly concealed inside a building. Using some seriously impressive glitch wizardry involving pipe-hanging and photo mode abuse (sounds about right), they've managed to clip DK through the bars and straight into that room, bypassing the Pauline rescue entirely. It's like accidentally teleporting in an RPG, but with more bananas.
But here’s the kicker: while you *can* technically skip Pauline and bring Odd Rock with you, it turns out you can't actually progress much further. You hit a boss arena, collect some shiny Banandium Gems (gotta catch 'em all, right?), but the big bad won't spawn without Pauline present. You even get a snippet of Pauline's dialogue – a ghostly echo of what should have been! It's like the game is taunting you: "Nice try, mate, but you need the damsel in distress to, uh, cause distress." So, you’re soft-locked. Game over. Back to square one. Well, almost.
IGN reckons, and I'm inclined to agree, that it's only a matter of time before these speedrunning sorcerers figure out a way around *that* problem too. Maybe a no-Pauline run is on the cards. Or, even crazier, maybe they’ll skip Odd Rock altogether? Who knows what wild, bananas shenanigans they'll conjure up next? Remember that time someone figured out how to play as Link in *The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom* instead of Zelda? Madness! Pure, unadulterated, gaming madness. And that’s why we love it, yeah? We love that *Donkey Kong Bananza* is getting a solid 10/10.
So, hats off to the speedrunning community for constantly pushing the boundaries and reminding us that games are just big, interactive playgrounds ripe for experimentation. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to try and clip through my own reality. Wish me luck!
Tags: Donkey Kong Bananza, Speedrunning, Nintendo, Glitch, Platformer
Original article: IGN South Africa