Can You Learn an Important Life Lesson from Donkey Kong Bananza?

Can Donkey Kong Bananza teach you a life lesson? Well, if you want to get schmaltzy, you could say that the relationship between Donkey Kong and Pauline teaches about the value of unlikely friendships, but if you want to be practical, you could also learn how to manage your mental stability, especially if you’re usually a completionist.

The Life Lesson of Donkey Kong Bananza

Sam Hallahan of The Gamer shared his experience playing Donkey Kong Bananza with a completionist mindset. His first instinct was to leave nothing un-smashed. Indeed, you will have a natural instinct to smash everything in the game and load up on sweet gold. In addition to rewarding you, smashing stuff just feels so good. However, as Hallahan progressed, it became overwhelming to smash up everything. As such, he learned to adjust his way of thinking “to refocus my approach on completionist methods to blend into a carefree adventure.”

My Own Experiences

I previously wrote about how Donkey Kong Bananza can be a completionist’s nightmare. Indeed, it can be, but it can also help you to rethink why you are a completionist in the first place. When I started the game, I spent ten minutes smashing through the first cave and collecting gold before touching the banana in front of me, but as I’ve progressed, I’ve realized that gold is everywhere in the game, and you don’t need to pick up every little piece. Is that a life lesson? Maybe not, but it can help to approach the game with a more relaxed attitude and remember that not everything needs to be smashed for the sake of smashing.

Conclusion

Donkey Kong Bananza will mess with a completionist’s brain with its insane number of collectibles and its emphasis on destroying the environments. You can drive yourself crazy trying to obtain every last piece of gold, or you can focus more on the adventure. Does that mean you shouldn’t smash anything and you should forget the collectibles? Of course not – the game is all about smashing and collecting, after all. Just remember the game’s little life lesson that sometimes it’s okay to leave a rock un-smashed. You might have a lot more fun in the game – and in life – if you don’t worry about collecting everything.