Donkey Kong Bananza came out for the Nintendo Switch 2 back in July, and it’s still one of the best games ever released for the console to date. Around two months after the launch of the main game, Nintendo has now released the first DLC called ‘DK Island & Emerald Rush’.
The best new location in this DLC is, without a doubt, DK Island. This is a sunny tropical island where Donkey Kong lives, and there are lots of characters to see and locations to visit. You can even collect statues for some of the characters in the game in this area.
However, the main part of the DLC is the new Emerald Rush mode. Void Kong (who is a bad guy in the main game) has somewhat turned good and is no longer obsessed with Banandium Gold. Now the former villain wants to collect Emerald Ore instead, and he’s hired Donkey Kong and Pauline to help him achieve his goal.
The emeralds in this DLC look exactly like the Banandium Gold in the main game, but they are coloured green instead. In the new Emerald Rush mode, Donkey Kong and Pauline have to collect as much Emerald Ore as they can in a set amount of time.
The first level you can collect Emerald Ore is in DK Island, and our heroes have 100 seconds to collect as much as they can in each round. Void Kong sets a quota for each round, so you have to be quick in order to fully complete this mode.
The quota starts off easy because in round one, you only have to collect 50 pieces of Emerald Ore. However, as the rounds increase, the more ore you have to collect. You can collect ore sitting around the island or complete missions to earn more.
In the easiest difficulty setting, you have to complete only six rounds. This number increases to 10 and 15 rounds in the medium and hard settings, respectively. Donkey Kong can earn perks to get more Emerald Ore if he does a specific action by collecting fossils.
Some of the perks include getting more ore for defeating a specific enemy, or by using a specific transformation, for example. You need to use perks or complete missions because collecting ore that is lying around isn’t enough to fulfill Void Kong’s quota in the latter rounds.
One of the only disappointing things about this DLC is that DK Island is the only new location. All of the other levels in this DLC take place in the previous locations that DK visited in the main game.
Another thing that will shock some buyers is the price of this DLC. Here in New Zealand, this DLC costs $33 NZD. It’s pretty expensive for a DLC that doesn’t offer a long story mode. I remember the Horizon games offering 10 hour DLC campaigns that cost around the same price.
I also forgot to mention it is way easier to access this DLC if you have already completed the main game. If you haven’t finished the main game, hold off on buying this DLC until you are done.
Overall, DK Island & Emerald Rush is a fun DLC, but it’s too expensive for its current price. I’d only recommend buying this DLC if Nintendo offers it in a sale in the future.
