I didn’t go intoDonkey Kong Bananzawith any kind of completionist agenda. I figured I’d play it just like I playedSuper Mario Odyssey: finding as many bananas as I needed to move onto the next level, or maybe a few extra if the vibe was right, and make a casual stroll to the finale while telling myself I’d come back one day to clean things up.
I still haven’t made it back to Odyssey to sweep up all 880 power moons, but y’know, I’ll get around to it one day.
That plan changed pretty quickly. In the Lagoon Layer - the first full-sized level in Donkey Kong Bananza - there’s a pool of water with a trail of gold leading into a tunnel at the bottom. Donkey Kong can’t dive underwater, but knowing there must be a way to get to the bottom, I started digging around the pool to try to find a way to drain the water.
This isn’t the solution; it turns out there’s a launch pad in the layer below that shoots you up into the pool. But seeing the pool completely unearthed and clean of debris triggered something in my mind.
My powerwashing instincts kicked in, and now I not only have to find every last banana and fossil in the game, I have to remove every last filthy rock from the entire world.
PowerWashing Your Worries Away
PowerWash Simulator is one of those games you’d think would have a niche interest but it turns out it actually has massive broad appeal. I’m sure not everyone understands the joy of spraying dirt and debris off of a taco truck, but those who do get it can’t get enough of it, myself included.
Detailing a car or building has an almost primal appeal. It’s easy to understand the pleasure of turning a disgusting mud-covered sedan into a sparkling new one, but there’s more to it than that. The joy that comes from blasting the broad side of a barn with a wide novel is totally different from the satisfaction of knocking off the last remaining flecks of dirt stuck in the grooves of a hubcap.
Every stage of a PowerWash Simulator job is gratifying, but none more so than the moment the job is finally done. That’s pure, distilled accomplishment, and it’s one of the best feelings there is.
I’m self aware enough to know that virtual powerwashing also activates neurosis. I won’t call it OCD, as that’s a very serious condition that people like to throw around far too casually, but there’s certainly something compulsive about the way I engage with PowerWashing Simulator.
It’s not just satisfying to clean something until it’s 100 percent spot, Ineedto keep cleaning until it’s perfect. Once I start, I won’t feel right until the job is done. I didn’t expect Donkey Kong Bananza’s destructible world to give me such a similar feeling, but it totally does.
Cleaning The Underground World, One Rock At A Time
Most people who play Bananza will probably experience it as a big destructible playground, and I imagine that’s the experience Nintendo intended. Once I discovered there’s a solid foundation that all of the destructible land is built on top of, I couldn’t see it as a sandbox anymore. To me, each layer is a beautiful sports car covered in dirt and mire, and I won’t stop until every inch of the Underground World has been completely cleaned.
This is a time consuming task. There are a few things that make it easier, like the upgrade that allows you to break objects with fewer punches, but the real trick to efficiently pulverize the entire world is to abuse Kong Bananza. When in this super powered form, you can absolutely tear through terra firma, completely obliterating the landscape in seconds.
You’ll usually dig up enough gold to reenter Kong Bananza as soon as it ends too, so you can keep going as long as you need to. As a bonus you’ll dig up countless treasure chests that will add all of the bananas and fossils to your map, but if you’re destroying the entire world, they’re not going to be too hard to find anyway.
There are some limitations. Not everything is destructible, and even some things that are will regenerate if they’re meant to be part of a puzzle (typically these are moving walls that need to be destroyed with bombs).
If I can break it, God help me, I will. I won’t stop, Ican’tstop, until the job is done, even if it means I’ve been stuck in the first layer for hours. Someday I’ll be able to look back at all my hard work and beam with pride at what I’ve accomplished. That, or this meaningless task will consume my whole life, my friends and family will abandon me, and in the end I’ll have nothing to show for it but a once-beautiful world stripped clean by my own hubris.
Either way, the job’s gotta get done. Someone’s gotta earn this Bananenergy.
