Bananadle (All Things Banana)

About Bananadle (All Things Banana)

Bananadle is the daily puzzle at All Things Banana, a site about bananas that also carries banana prices, recipes, news and a clicker game with a league of countries. The puzzle itself sends you through English Wikipedia: every day starts on a new article, the same one for every player, and the goal is always the same, the Wikipedia page for Banana.

Unlike the Wikipedia races where you click links, here you see only the page's title and a one-line summary, and you name the next page from memory. Type a page that the current one links to or mentions and you jump to it; type a real page that is not connected and it counts as a miss, while typos cost nothing. Once you reach a page that links to Banana, you type Banana to finish. The example on the board is Napoleon, then Haiti, then Banana.

The score is the number of hops against a par of 4, with three a birdie and two an eagle. The board keeps a count of misses, a timer and a streak of days, and there is a hint, a give-up button, a practice round and a result to share. Page titles and summaries come live from Wikipedia.

It suits players who like Wikipedia racing games and general knowledge, and who enjoy working out how any subject, from a singer to a war, connects back to one fruit.

How to play Bananadle (All Things Banana)

1. Open Bananadle and read today's start page: its Wikipedia title and a one-line summary.
2. Type the name of another Wikipedia page that this page links to or mentions, and press Go to jump there.
3. Keep hopping from page to page, choosing ones that bring you closer to bananas, food, farming or the tropics.
4. When you reach a page that links to the Wikipedia page Banana, type Banana to finish.
5. Tap an earlier page in your route to go back; the steps after it are undone.
6. Compare your hops with par 4, then share your result.

Tips

• Countries are good stepping stones: many tropical countries' pages mention bananas among their crops or exports.
• A real page that is not linked counts as a miss, but a typo is free, so check your spelling rather than guessing wildly.
• Broad pages such as a country, a city or a continent link to far more pages than a narrow one, so head for them early.
• Use the practice round to learn the feel of the game before the day's puzzle.

Questions