Donkey Kong Bananza is a great example of how, despite having some sloppy and chaotic elements, a game can still be incredibly fun. I didn’t have any particular expectations going into the game, but it engrossed me more than anything else I’ve played in quite some time. After sinking forty hours into the game and completing everything in it, you would think I would have been ready to move on. I thought I was. Then Nintendo revealed and released some DLC for the game in the form of DK Island and Emerald Rush. Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in.
There are technically two components to this DLC, but they are very much tied together. Oh, and the first thing I should mention is that you need to complete the main story before you can fully play this stuff, though you can access some of it after a certain point partway through. So go do that before you even think about buying this. Anyway, having done that, you can ring your nearest Warp Gong to make your way to DK Island, the new area introduced with this DLC.
It’s a single layer, and it doesn’t have any new Banandium Gems to find. With that said, it’s a fairly large space with plenty of gold strewn about, in case you need more of that. You can also access all of the gold bonus stages you might have come across during the main game. Sure, you probably don’t need more gold at this point, but it’s nice that it’s there if you still need to invest in any construction projects. DK Island also has a lot of nifty Easter Eggs for fans of the series, and it’s very much worth taking a careful look around to see all the details.
You’ll find Cranky, Diddy, and Dixie here along with Rambi, who can help you move your friends to different spots for photo opportunities. Squawks the Parrot has also set up a little shop here on DK Island. You can trade him 100 Banana Chips and he’ll go find you a random statue. These are enjoyable to collect, but they also make for useful solid objects should you find yourself needing one. There will apparently be special events in the future with exclusive statues up for grabs, so even if you manage to get them all right now there will be a reason to come back again in the future. From a practical standpoint, it’s a useful way to burn any excess Banana Chips you might have after collecting every Banandium Gem.
After fooling around for a while in this new playground, you might be looking for something slightly more substantial to do. Well, the game will probably have pushed you towards that part as soon as you arrived, but let’s pretend you haven’t noticed Void Kong yet at this point. Ahem… Void Kong is here! He’s not in a fighting mood anymore, though. He’s found a new way to get rich quick, and his staffing problems means he can’t afford to turn down any help. He enlists DK and Pauline for a little something called Emerald Rush.
In Emerald Rush, your goal is to collect a certain quota of emerald ore within a strict time limit. At first you’re limited to DK Island, but you’ll be able to unlock Emerald Rush on several existing layers as you continue playing. Choose your location and difficulty level, then get going. Everything that would have been gold normally is now emerald, and both fossils and Banandium Gems will now help power up DK and give him new abilities. You see, part of the job requirements is that Void will strip you of all your upgrades and abilities. You can still use your Bananzas, however.
If you want to beef DK up again, you’ll need to collect Emerald Banana Chips, fossils, and Emerald Banandium Gems. Fossils and Gems will allow you to pick a perk among a few different choices, while the Chips can be used to buy back your normal upgrades. There are a lot of different perks available, and more will unlock as you play. You’ve got a lot of room to customize your DK to your own playstyle, and that will be vital as you progress through the higher difficulty levels where you’ll lose access even to your Bananzas. Each location has several difficulties to unlock, and your best score is tracked for each one.
The higher difficulties require you to complete more quotas for Void Kong, and the amount he wants increases significantly over time. He’ll issue missions for you to complete, and I suggest prioritizing them where you can as the rewards can be substantial. He’ll often send you from one end of the map to another, or even up and down layers, so it’s up to you to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze. If you fail to meet even one quota, your run is over. You won’t get nearly as many rewards as you would for fully completing the Rush, but you won’t walk home empty handed either.
Rewards include Banana Chips, gold, some new outfits, and new elements for the Emerald Rush itself. You’ll earn points from each Rush that go towards your employee evaluation, so win or lose you’ll at least make some kind of progress. Once you’ve unlocked everything, all that remains is trying to beat your best scores or using the Rush to earn Banana Chips to buy statues with. We’ll have to see how frequent those special events end up being, but for now it’s probably best to keep in mind that this DLC’s experience is heavily invested in score attacking.
What a score attack it is, though. In some ways, DK Island and Emerald Rush is the perfect complement to the main Bananza experience. The core game gives you all kinds of interesting spaces to explore and plenty of ways to navigate them, but it rarely gives you any real motivation to fully do so. That’s totally fine for the kind of gameplay it’s pushing, but Emerald Rush asks you to play in a very different way. Completing the most difficult rounds requires you to not only master DK’s moveset but also learn every in and out of the locations. You need to know where you can cut corners and find shortcuts, as well as how to chain different moves together to save time.
I was initially underwhelmed with this DLC, to be honest. Yet something about it kept calling to me, and after a while its charms became very apparent. Emerald Rush adds another layer to a game that already has plenty, providing a new angle that invigorates things anew. It’s a mode that expands not just from unlocking new elements for it, but from your practice as well. In asking the player to increasingly optimize their play, Donkey Kong Bananza’s true mechanical depth finally gets its time to shine. Turns out this game has plenty of platforming chops when you can’t rely on a powered-up DK to smash through everything.
DK Island and Emerald Rush is probably not going to suit the tastes of every player. If you were hoping for more exploration or story, there’s very little of that here. I think that’s fine, since the core game already offers quite a lot in that regard. What this DLC does is repurpose those great gameplay mechanics towards a new end, giving those who enjoy trying to top their previous bests quite a lot to chew on. The statue collection throws another activity on the pile, and the promise of future events is intriguing. I don’t know if this is the expansion people might have necessarily wanted, but it’s one that Donkey Kong Bananza wears very well indeed.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review copy provided by Nintendo
