YouTuber AKfamilyhome has posted that they have beaten Donkey Kong Bananza without picking up a single banana. While he hasn’t made a video showing off the accomplishment, a screenshot of the save file shows zero bananas collected along with the star that denotes the story has been finished.
When discussing how getting through the game evolves, AK said the following, “It’s pretty much smooth sailing at the start, figuring out some neat ways to bypass certain sections during the mid-game, and then suddenly the endgame forces you to lock in because you die in 1-2 hits.” Bananas in Donkey Kong Bananza are more than just a collectible since they are counted towards your stat point progression, so completely forgoing grabbing any of them will leave you with just the base move set and three hearts to get by.
What New Challenges Are Available in Donkey Kong Bananza?
While there are moments that bananas are placed right in front of you, there is obviously always a way to ignore them and move on with the game. Unlike stars and moons in 3D Super Mario games, you don’t need a specific number of bananas collected to open up new levels. That is a level of freedom that you really only see in games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which allows you to take on the final boss after about a half hour if you are skilled enough to make it. A zero-banana run in Donkey Kong Bananza will be much longer, but the skill to get through the game with lower health and less abilities is quite the accomplishment.
Since release, there has been a ton of praise given towards Donkey Kong Bananza, which currently looks to be in the discussion for 2025 game of the year for many people. Our Max Moeller has even gone so far as to say that he finds Donkey Kong Bananza to be better than Super Mario Odyssey, which share the same development team. At the end of the day, both are brilliant games, though, with a lot of fun, inventive mechanics and levels.
It will be interesting to see what other kind of new challenges can be made for speed runners and those just looking to change the formula after 100% completing Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s only been a couple of weeks since launch, so we can’t wait to see what new things people come up with.
