DK Island & Emerald Rush DLC review

System: Switch 2
Release date: September 12, 2025
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

All things considered, it seems safe to say that fans don’t appreciate Nintendo’s price antics lately. The recent Nintendo Direct confirmed the most expensive amiibo of all time, a $70 Super Mario Galaxy collection, and now a $20 Donkey Kong Bananza DLC two months after launch. That’s not inherently a problem – Bananza was in development for quite some time, given that it started out as a Switch 1 game. That said, the Nintendo Direct doesn’t do a very good job of telling you what the DLC actually is. From the previews, you would think DK Island is Donkey Kong Bananza’s version of the Mushroom Kingdom. And in many ways, it is – but it doesn’t have any Banandium Gems or fossils, nor any collectibles other than new outfits tied to the titular Emerald Rush mode. In other words, DK Island is essentially a big, pretty set piece – it’s nice to look at and fun to explore for a few minutes, but there’s not really anything of substance within.

I’m a big fan of Donkey Kong Bananza, and I gave it a great score in my review a few months back. After playing the DLC for around 10 hours – it’s fine. That’s about the best I can say about it. DK Island has some cute little references to past games in the series, plus the new Emerald Rush mode does contain some hidden dialogue between characters like Diddy Kong, Poppy Kong, and Grumpy Kong. Problem is, there’s also a lot of misconceptions about this DLC going around, and I’ll clear those up here while I’m at it.

First up, the new Emerald Rush mode is really the selling point of this DLC – DK Island is not a selling point of it at all, so I’m not really sure why it’s so prominently featured in the marketing. Right off the bat, if you don’t like roguelikes, this is not the DLC for you. In fact, it’s not really DLC you would expect to see in a 3D platformer at all. Over the past few months, some fans have theorized that Donkey Kong Bananza would receive additional layers with their own Banandium Gems and fossils, but DK Island pretty much only exists for you to use it to play Emerald Rush. 

Which leads us to the bulk of this DLC. You can get plenty of hours out of it if you enjoy Emerald Rush – over time, you’ll eventually unlock the ability to play it on almost every layer in the game save for the small ones like The Divide and such. This is one of the misconceptions that’s been going around, that you can only play Emerald Rush on four or five layers – you really have to grind it to unlock the mode on every single level. As for how the mode works, all of the Gold in the level turns into Emeralds, and you have to rack up a certain number of them during each round. The earlier difficulties have 10 rounds, and the later ones have 15 rounds. Each round is 100 seconds. Every time you smash a Banandium Gem or complete a task Void Kong gives you, you can pick an upgrade for Donkey Kong. This can either restore one of his skills, or give you a multiplier that lets you get more emeralds. The easier difficulties are easy enough, but the final difficulty for each level is actually insanely tough. You’ll need to unlock a lot of upgrades and have excellent knowledge of where fossils are in each level to be able to clear it, so it does pose a challenge if that’s what you’re looking for.

There are also rewards for clearing Emerald Rush. Most of these are more upgrades you can unlock to appear within the rotation, while other rewards unlock new layers to play Emerald Rush on. There are some new clothes for DK and Pauline as well, but as I mentioned earlier you really have to grind this mode to get them all. If you love the idea of a Donkey Kong roguelike, then the $20 might be worth it to you – but I feel like the percentage of players who love Donkey Kong, 3D platformers, and roguelikes might be kind of small. Think of Emerald Rush as DK’s version of Splatoon 3’s Side Order. You get value out of replaying it, so it does wind up feeling samey after a while.

It also adds a ton of new content if you want to 100 percent complete the game. You’ll need to clear all seven difficulty levels on each layer, and as I mentioned earlier that seventh difficulty is a true test of your skills, knowledge, and reflexes. There are real strategies you’ll need to employ to even stand a chance in the tougher settings, and we’ll be back at some point soon with a guide on how to utilize everything you have at your disposal.

To sum things up, Donkey Kong Bananza’s DLC is just fine – not necessarily in a good way. It’s a neat little distraction that most players will probably cast aside after an hour or two or three, but the players who really sink their teeth into Emerald Rush will get hooked. I can see a small number of people really learning this mode and finding it rewarding, but in all honesty it probably won’t hold the attention of most players. Then there’s the price – DK Island is cool and all, but it’s relatively small compared to other layers and of course it doesn’t have its own collectibles either. Emerald Rush is a neat concept, but unlike Splatoon 3’s Side Order, it doesn’t really have its own unique levels. If this DLC added Emerald Rush-exclusive levels and gave DK Island its own Banandium Gems and fossils, I think it would be worth $20.

As it is right now, Donkey Kong Bananza’s DK Island & Emerald Rush DLC is definitely skippable. If you’re on the fence about buying it, I would highly suggest looking up Emerald Rush runs online just to be sure. You really need to know exactly what you’re getting into here – you won’t get any value out if it if you don’t like rougelike gameplay. If Emerald Rush doesn’t sound like your thing, I would recommend skipping it. It’s kind of a shame, really, because I feel like the existence of this DLC makes true extra content for Donkey Kong Bananza feel less likely. You may have seen people describe this DLC as basically selling the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi’s Balloon World from Super Mario Odyssey, and it actually is exactly like that – except imagine if the Mushroom Kingdom had no Power Moons. If this were kept in the base game, I think Bananza would have been received even better than it was on launch. But as DLC, I think this pointlessly creates ill will around the game.