Exactly today Donkey Kong Bananza turns just two months old. It's a very young title, despite its significant depth and length, which means that many players might still be "going deeper underground", layer by layer, enjoying its beautiful, fun, rather unique experience. Others might see themselves by now completing the meaty, challenging post-game content. Both are extremely satisfying experiences, as we've come to expect from Nintendo EAD Tokyo.
DK Island & Emerald Rush, on the other hand, is just not what we've come to expect from them, and that is its main problem.
Because the content is good, really. It mostly consists of a complete reimagining of the game rules, where the so-called "Emerald Rush" game mode tasks you with completing different missions for the former villain, Void Kong, as DK and Pauline become employees of the VoidCo.
As the main selling point of the content, it's been implemented thoroughly and with good care, and you can tell how the (many) systems fit together within a round-based proposal to make your typical exploring/mining experience feel different. In other words, the new gameplay style is well done, works with environments old and new, and is fun to play. It's addictive in the best way, engaging as we say nowadays, and makes you rethink your approach with perks and abilities in a fashion you hadn't imagined before.
Perhaps the gameplay loop will become less interesting to some after a few rounds, but at least to me, it means I'll keep playing, honing my strategy (as there's more to it than meets the eye), and perfecting my performance to get all the titles, rewards, statues, discs, and clothes.
And before I forget, it also introduces one of the most interesting challenges in the whole series, the so-called Banandiumtone puzzle, which is as fascinating as it is the hardest puzzle in the game. Obscure, obtuse, it might even end up ignored or straight up unnoticed by some, but I tell you it is a true highlight here.
Finally, the first part of the DLC's name means we also get a new place to explore and enjoy, the titular DK Island, an environment that was hinted at (by dialogue), or even teased (the nostalgic side-scrolling Challenge levels) in the base game, which was probably avoided then so that the new ideas and concepts took centre stage, and that should feel like home for veteran players now, full of references and fan service.
Well, while the looks are there, it didn't give me the feels. It's like a bad Star Wars movie, where it ticks all the boxes (DK-shaped rock, DK cabin with a poster of Candy Kong, Kremling Galleon, Diddy-Dixie-Cranky-Rambi, mine cart section exploring ruins, nods to both Rare and Retro Studios, and even bongo-shaped islands), but it's meaningless in the end, as if it were there just for the scenery, with no narrative intention whatsoever.
This, for a game that nailed references and managed timing and story beats so nicely when it came to hit hard in the fans' hearts, that made many cry with how they used both the powerful new character (young Pauline) and the links to the wider DK/Mario lore almost in the fashion of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, felt quite disheartening, disappointing, and disrespectful, definitely not on par with the base game. And only by reaching the very end of that obscure puzzle (where few will progress without a guide) did I feel the game's trademark fan-serving soul. It's like a fake theatre set, or a sort of Truman Show, where you can literally touch anything and it'll fall down with no real purpose.
And then comes the when and the how. Which, admittedly, should not condition or affect my assessment of the entertaining quality of the content itself, but man the base game is so amazing, and this feels so incredibly off in comparison, it might even put a stain on its well-deserved GOTY candidature. Because Donkey Kong Bananza gave me so much, and so well done and measured, that, much as I'm probably expending 10+ hours rushing around and collecting emeralds, it doesn't align with the magnificent expectations created. I won't use the obvious pun to say it was rushed; I will just say that manners matter a lot this time around.
DK Island looks the part, but doesn't actually play its part.
