Donkey Kong Bananza’s DLC is just kinda eh…
So, one of the big surprises in the recent Nintendo Direct was the announcement and immediate drop of brand new DLC for Donkey Kong Bonanza with DK Isle and the Emerald Rush mode for $20. And uh you know, a lot of people are focusing in on the price. And my belief has always been I don’t let’s look at what the content is. See if it’s worth it for yourself because uh while I do think $20 is a bit pushing it, especially when the balloon mode in Odyssey was free. You know, there is actually more to this mode than I think a lot of people are giving it credit for. Uh it’s still I probably still not $20 worth, but I I would be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t have a really good time with this. So, the first up in this brand new DLC is yes, Donkey Kong Island is back after so long. You get to travel around it and you get to hear the DK Island song from Donkey Kong 64 make a return and that’s always glorious. And there’s a bunch of little fanervicey bits all around the entire island. Mainly the crashed ship from Donkey Kong Country 2. Uh I guess it is it could be from one also, but I mean that there’s a segment on the back of the ship that’s straight up just the end of level thing from DKC 2. And I think that’s just neat. do kind of wish there were more uh like symbolic imagery uh that’s more reminiscent of the Super Nintendo games in here because Donkey Kong Island is there for sure. Everyone appreciates the giant head of Donkey Kong. I mean I mean who doesn’t? And I’m sure like if you really are going through with a fine tooth comb then there’s some level geometry that’s like maybe a little bit similar to Donkey Kong 64. But I was definitely a little more hopeful that there would be like somehow a tiny ice section that was reminiscent of DKC1. Like I I don’t know if that’s a minor thing, but if you’re going to do a fanervicey based section, you may as well go all out, you know. But the kind of interesting or the lack of interesting thing about this area is there’s no real collectibles here. It’s just a bit of a playground. You get to explore. You get to just destroy a bunch of dirt like you’ve already been doing for the entire game. There’s really not much there. Squawks is back though, and that that’s kind of cool. And he’s actually the key towards the Emerald Rush mode because he shows up on multiple layers. But I mean, it’s cool that he’s back. I kind of wish that again more of the DK animal buddies from the past would show up. I believe there’s like a box with Ong Guards symbol on there. That That’s kind of cute. And if you look off in the sky, you can see a purple squawks, which is uh just quacks, I believe, was his name uh from DKC2 as well. So that that’s kind of cute. And I mean, there’s like a minecart section that you can like just do a little casual run around the island. It’s it’s cute. It’s a fun little time and but it is definitely a little halfbaked and that’s a shame looking at the crashed ship from DKC2. I mean that releases a lot of serotonin in my body and that’s nice but sadly there’s just not a whole lot here. There are six bonus stages you know scattered throughout DKisle and it’s just like the existing ones from the main game. If you ever found any of those like every single one of the the six unique ones are here. So for some reason if you want to just grind out a bunch of gold you can do that now. That cool. Sick. I think my favorite part of like the limited fan service that’s in here is that DK’s house is here. And that’s of course great. So, you would automatically assume, okay, if I go under it, will the banana horde be there? And it is. It’s It’s a very tiny banana horde. I really think they skimped out on the amount of bananas they could have loaded in on this section, but it’s it’s still there and the sign’s there. Cool. But there is one little aspect that a lot of people are not even considering before we even get into the Emerald Rush mode. There’s a new NPC here off in the sky. And uh th this guy is a little strange. Up on this platform is a new banana-shaped frack tone called banandium tone. And he just kind of speaks in symbols. And uh it I was I was so damn confused about this for a while. I’m I’m not going to lie. I did have to look up a guide to figure out just what the hell this thing is doing. But essentially, he speaks in a series of I I think it’s seven or eight different puzzles, riddles that are all this simple, and you have to just try to analyze what these symbols are, why they change in the way they do depending on how you interact with him. And basically, if you do something correctly, one of the symbols turns yellow and you have to get the entire row yellow. He will then do like a little spin and give you some bananium. And then once you get them all completed, you get a brand new tie uh to, you know, to cosmetically change Donkey Kong. And it’s it’s it’s so interesting that uh they didn’t talk about this whatsoever cuz this is one mysterious little fella. I will spoil like the first two uh because like what happens is you initially you see him and you’re like what the hell do what if I punch him I guess and then you see the symbol changes you just punch him enough times and then one of the symbols turns yellow and and gems come out and that’s okay. That’s the solution for the first one. And it just shows you how it’s done. And then the second one, there’s two. You do one punch, one side changes, another punch, another side changes. And I still didn’t know what exactly that meant, but essentially one the left side changes. If you do a left punch, the one on the right changes with the right punch. So you got to time your punches and like walk away to get it right. And then boom, both are yellow. You do it. And they get they get really confusing is basically what I’m saying. They they get really confusing. I’m sure I’ve heard some rumblings that there are some people out there who manage to figure out how to do all these things by themselves and good on you. But uh that’s it’s it’s quite insane honestly. But the the reward’s kind of cool. It’s a tie that will basically change everyone’s outfits. It’ll change DK and Pauline’s outfits. It says at random to me. I only noticed it when I went to a new layer, but I it’s that’s a neat little reward, I guess. Just a fascinating little creature, this guy. But then yes, there is the Emerald Rush mode as well. It is a new roglike mode that has been injected into DK Isle as well as a handful of the existing layers in the game. Not every single one of them, not even half of them. I do wish there were more on offer, but what what is here is still pretty fun. Essentially, you’re working with Void Kong now. Uh which, you know, uh story-wise, it does I guess it kind of makes sense. Uh but it’s it’s a little strange if you don’t know exactly what’s going on, but you know, I won’t spoil that here. He’s just a greedy little guy and he’s tasking you with running around this entire area and instead of gold, they’re all green and they’re emeralds now. They they make a reasoning for it as to like the gold isn’t ripe yet, so they’re green, perfect, whatever you say, man. Just go around and destroy a bunch of stuff like you’ve been doing, but you got to hit certain quotas in certain time limits in order to proceed and finish up the mode. After certain thresholds and after breaking certain bananas, you’ll eventually get an option of one of three different skills that’ll increase the multipliers that you get from emeralds for a bunch of different actions. And there’s actually a ton of options on offer. And the more you level up your employee card, the more of these things will cycle in to the rotation. And that’s pretty fun. I just, you know, I like a good rogike mode. It’s really going to all depend on if you like a mode like that. And what’s fun is there are actually a few different ways you can tackle this on the fly. You got to make on the-fly decision-m at all times because you have those three different things on offer whenever you want to level up, right? But also these goals that Void Kong is giving you where it’s like defeat these certain enemies on the map, you know, break these certain emerald balls. Uh maybe you just want to high-five Diddy Kong. I don’t know. But let’s say that you don’t think you can do that in a reasonable amount of time. Well, if you have enough emerald in your deposit, you can when you level up, you can uh go ahead and say, “Hey, you know, I don’t really feel like I can do that. Let me let me cycle and get a new job.” And that that that sounds pretty good right about now. And when you first start off this mode, you only have DKI on offer. And you also only have, I believe it’s only three difficulty options. And the way the difficulty works is the higher the difficulty goes, the less you start off with and the higher the quotas get every time you level up. And you get more of these levels as you level up on your employee card as well. And the thing that they really didn’t highlight in this trailer, and I think because a lot of people are immediately dismissing it for the price, people aren’t really talking about all that much. The later difficulties actually do get pretty damn challenging. The quotas get abnormally high. And if you’re someone who is really a big fan of like score challenging yourself and going for as high of a score as as possible, there is actually a perfect ranking because the game will rank you at the end with this nice little bar graph. And most of the time I’ve been getting a ranks and that, you know, I’m I’m okay with that. But it turns out there’s a perfect rank called like the V rank for Void Kong. And to do that, you got to get a lot of points. And I have watched some videos of people getting the V ranks and the multipliers that these people can get and you’re getting millions upon millions of emeralds by the end of these like 30 minute some odd runs is honestly kind of impressive. And if you do manage to do basically everything on your employee card, there’s a brand new final boss, which is an existing boss from the main game, but just in a different location, which is kind of neat. I mean, it’s still new content at the end of the day. And then when you do that, there’s also a brand new playable credit sequence, and that’s just kind of cute, too. I mean, I I do think people are underelling exactly what the entirety of this DLC is all about, but it does all ultimately come down to whether or not you enjoy a roglike mode. And I feel like Bonanza does lend itself to this mode quite a bit because like on top of just the basic abilities that you’re getting every time you level up that modify your multiplier, you also start off with none of the abilities from your ability chart like from the main game. like you’re you’re starting off at basically nothing and then some of the bananas will give you abilities or by some of the emerald manandium chips that you’re getting. You can then spend some of that currency to level yourself up as well. So let’s say you want to take the the the elephant and try to max him out and it’s just nothing is really working in your favor. Well, if you’re getting enough benandium chips, if you’re working towards the multiplier to get more benandium chips, you can then invest and make that stronger. Once again, lot of like on the-fly decision- making that you’re doing. And I I think it’s fun. I think this gameplay formula fits Bonanza perfectly. The problem is it’s it’s a $20 DLC on top of the base game. And a lot of times my general thoughts are, you know, financially it always once again comes down to whether or not you enjoy it. But it does kind of suck that it’s uh it is a little bit pricey on top of an already pricey game. Maybe if it was for like every single layer of the game, at least like a heavy heavy majority, I could say like, okay, at least there’s something there. You know, there’s only a few costumes that you can get for for Donkey Kong and Pauline. And I mean, they’re cute and they do make your runs a little bit more effective. That that’s nice. But outside of like you can also get a bunch of these figurines that you can litter DK with and those are cute, there’s still not enough there despite me having a fun time with this mode. So, it’s a it’s a tough it’s a tough position because I do enjoy it, but it’s tough to recommend if you only if you are someone who really really likes a good rogike mode and can see the potential and just going all out and trying to plan your destruction instead of the more I guess mindless destruction of the base game. Only then will you find value in this. But I will give the development team credit. The same way the balloon mode does kind of further emphasize the movement mechanics of Mario Odyssey, the roglike mode here, the emerald rush mode does sort of emphasize the pure destruction nature of Bonanza like perfectly. I had a good time. I don’t even really know if it’s worth $20, but I I don’t It’s tough to talk about how anything is worth any money nowadays anyway. But hey, what do you think? Let me know down below. Let me know your best runs. Just let me know what you think about Bonanza in general. It still doesn’t ruin the fact that Bonanza is like a 10 out of 10 video game. So that that’s that’s nice. If you haven’t played Bonanza yet, I still think that’s a system seller. And then, you know, maybe one day in the next decade, the DLC will drop in price and then maybe then it’ll, you know, more people should get it. They’re never going to do that, are we? I mean, like the whole joke with this is it’s like a a greedy guy wanting you to get more money for so it’s like a weird analogy, right? It’s like meta commentary. I don’t know, bro. One of the abilities you can get in this mode is called Banana Slamma. And I just think that’s kind of
Donkey Kong Bananza’s new DLC, DK Island & Emerald Rush, dropped after the latest Nintendo Direct, and with how good the base game is, I had to see if this extra content is worth the asking price! Verdict? Well…
Edited by: @KanesTheName
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