I love Donkey Kong Bananza's new DK Island & Emerald Rush DLC – but should it have been in the base game?

If you had to push me for criticisms of Donkey Kong Bananza, there aren’t that many I can level at it. It’s a smashing time – hur hur – and though it perhaps doesn’t have that jaw-dropping impetus of a Mario Odyssey, it is nevertheless something special. Here’s one, though: the post-game offering is over way too quickly. Nintendo has now addressed that with a new downloadable content, DK Island & Emerald Rush.

Donkey Kong Bananza: DK Island & Emerald Rush DLCDeveloper: NintendoPublisher: NintendoPlatform: Played on Nintendo Switch 2Availability: Out now on Nintendo Switch 2

While not technically an exclusively post-game affair – as a paid DLC you can travel to its titular isle and begin exploring at any progress point – expansion-wise it certainly like one. The stuff added offers a variety of delicate twists and variations on the game systems showcased across the main game, all crammed into a vaguely roguelikey framework. Add on a healthy shot of nostalgia with the return to a location eighties and nineties kids will remember fondly, complete with a new arrangement of Grant Kirkhope’s lovely hub world music, and you’ve got a winner.

And yet… I feel rather strange about it. It’s one of those releases that doesn’t suffer from any nasty complexity on its own merits, but rather due to context. I like the expansion. But the price, the proximity of this DLC to the main release, and the fact that I’d already been mentally comparing Bananza’s post-game activities to that in Odyssey in an unfavorable way adds up. I find myself thinking a classic, good old faithful:

To see this content please enable targeting cookies.

I mean, for now, I digress. What’s the DLC about? Well, basically, it lets you visit a loving recreation of DK Island (though it is more of an atoll, ), which has been the canonical home of the Kong clan since 1994’s Donkey Kong Country. It’s appeared in various forms over the years, though this version most closely resembles that featured in Donkey Kong 64 – but with lovely nostalgia-baiting references throughout, be that K. Rool’s pirate ship wrecked off the island’s shores, or a smaller island shaped just like some Jungle Beat bongos. This is an area for the fans. It’s a charming little area, and my nostalgia meant it was actually the first Bananza locale I actually felt a bit bad smashing to bits.