Nintendo often makes fans wait a spell for DLC or expansions for their favorite games, so it came as somewhat of a surprise when the most recent Nintendo Direct announced Donkey Kong Bananza, released only two months ago, was getting DLC the same day as the presentation. The DK Island & Emerald Rush DLC adds a new stage based on DK’s tropical home featured in Rare and Retro Studios’ games, as well as a new fast-paced roguelite mode.
Is the DK Island & Emerald Rush DLC a gem or are its flaws all too apparent? Swing on down for my full impressions...
Note: This is an opinion piece and, thus, not as detailed as a full scored review would be.
As the title of the DLC implies, the centerpiece of Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush is a new HD recreation of the big ape’s island home from the Donkey Kong Country games. Nintendo has really gone all out rendering DK Island in all its glory, packing it with familiar characters, landmarks, and plenty of Easter eggs. It’s a welcome addition to a game that’s really a celebration of the Donkey Kong franchise as a whole, although it is hard to overlook the fact that Super Mario Odyssey included something similar – a stage based on the classic Mushroom Kingdom – as an in-game unlockable, while DK Island is stuck behind a $20 price tag.
Super Mario Odyssey’s Mushroom Kingdom was also fully integrated into the core game, offering fresh challenges to tackle and Power Moons to collect. The same can’t be said of DK Island. While the tropical locale looks nice and will give you fuzzy nostalgic feelings, it strangely sits apart from the main game. There are no new Banandium Gems or fossils to collect here, making the whole experience feel a bit too much like a superficial theme park attraction.
At least that’s true until you jump into Emerald Rush mode, which DK Island was clearly designed around. Emerald Rush is essentially an accelerated take on the roguelite genre, with all the gold in the game turned into glittering green gems. Over a series of quick 99-second rounds, you’re challenged to collect a specific quantity of green goodness by smashing ore deposits, defeating enemies, and finding green bananas (again, bananas can only be found on DK Island in Emerald Rush mode). The number of rounds you have to survive depends on the difficulty you’ve chosen, but thankfully, finding emerald fossils will grant you stackable upgrades that will help you as the rounds get tougher.
Emerald Rush is fun enough, in a simple, smashy-smashy sort of way, although it condenses the roguelite experience to such a degree that it all starts to feel a bit meaningless. You'll be picking up a lot of fossils, requiring you to choose upgrades almost constantly. While I'm absolutely sure some folks will get really into strategizing and finding synergies between upgrades, I found myself succumbing to information overload fairly quickly.
In addition to DK Island, you can unlock the ability to play Emerald Rush on the majority of DK Bananza’s layers, and it will likely take a solid half-dozen hours or more to unlock all the DLC’s new content. Even then, you can pump up the difficulty on each layer for a new challenge. That said, I'm not sure how long the average player is going to stick with the mode. Emerald Rush reminds me a lot of the Balloon World DLC for Mario Odyssey, in that it's something I think some players will really get into, but will be largely ignored by most.
Not a Knockout Follow-up Punch
Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush isn't without its charms, but the titular island's lack of integration into the main game, Emerald Rush mode's relatively simple gameplay loop, and a substantial $20 price tag means this DLC will likely only appeal to a relatively small subset of Bananza owners. If you've read through these impressions and are still interested, by all means, dig in, but given how substantial the core Donkey Kong Bananza experience is, others may prefer to keep mining for fun there.
Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush is available now on Switch 2 for $20.
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