'DK Challenge' Will Put Your NSO & Bananza Skills To The Test For A Limited Time

"Timed event" for your $70 game that requires a $20 dlc and $20 online to play on your new $500 console. 🤑

Edited for NSO+ not being required, just NSO.

"Bananza is the SW2's 3D Mario" believers are winning right now.

Making this a timed event is a mistake.

@rjejr breaking news: for-profit company needs to make profit to stay in business. Allegedly, giving out hardware and software for free is bad for business. More at 11.

Timed costumes? That's bull.

Yeah, still not buying DLC just because of FOMO from timed events.

So many cool announcements ruined by leaks.

I should get away from mynintendonews and nintendolife…. And spawnwave.

@rjejr Yeah, but if you've already paid for all that stuff, it's a pretty cool bonus!

@Windbreaker1612 what are you talking about, it's been right here the whole time, didn't you see Mario?

_{I'm going to have a lot of fun with this}

@rjejr $20 online and $450 console

Just saved you $80

@MS7000 True. You should buy it if you want a Bananza roguelike mode. Not everybody will appreciate it, but it's a really well-done bit of content, definitely worth $20 to me.

The events are just a cool bonus for if you already have the DLC.

@rjejr Nowhere did it mention that the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack was required for the DK Challenge, just the $20 base NSO. DK64 challenges were not shown. But yeah, you do need the $20 paid DLC for the special Emerald Rush events and Mario-themed outfits.

@Windbreaker1612 denial at its finest.

@mutenroshi @rjejr Right. Things cost money.

@Windbreaker1612 I say it's only a matter of time till you see the truth

I feel bad for those that are desperately waiting for the next 3D Mario game but won't even try Bananza. I mean there's a demo for it now and everything. I'm not saying it'll scratch that Mario itch for everybody, but I bet it will for a lot of the current naysayers.

@LastFootnote Not the biggest fan of roguelikes, so not worth it for me. Only reason I would like it is for DK Island, but £17 just for that? Meh.

This is not what I was expecting this to be. I wonder why they chose DK for this. I'm curious to see if we can expect other challenges after this period ends. Presumably, that's the plan. I'll have to check this out later and see what the deal is with those cards and all that.

@Windbreaker1612 In our hearts.

@Windbreaker1612 okay lemme break this down for ya:

See the big hairy guy in the red hat with an M on it? That's Mario. The green guy on his shoulder is his brother, Luigi. Notice how they're traversing the environment in a 3D action adventure game for the Nintendo Switch 2.

Ipso facto, this is the new 3D Mario.

@Windbreaker1612 Impossible. Donkey Kong has never appeared in a 3D Mario game.

Need that Luigi hat.

@Windbreaker1612 I think you may need glasses because I only Mario on the screen right now

The limited-time thing deflates the hype considerably.

Honestly, this is just how I feel, but I really don’t like it when games add Mario stuff just because. It makes it seem like the devs are trying to convince players the game is worth it only because something from Mario shows up.

@Windbreaker1612 If I'm coming off as confrontational or aggressive, that's not the intent. I'm just committing to what is a really stupid bit.

@Windbreaker1612 DK killed them and is wearing their clothes like a trophy.

@Windbreaker1612 @N00BiSH Yeah, emphasis on "stupid." 🫶🏻

Loving this idea. Great excuse to dive into classic titles!

The Bonanza bit love or hate it, completely optional. I got the dlc and it’s fun and worth the money if you like challenging your donkey skills.

@AussieMcBucket unfortunately for both of us, I find this bit really funny

@Mattrizzle Thanks for the NSO+ correction, gonna go fix it when I'm done with this never ending reply.

@Friendly $500 US. I know there's been a lot going on lately but do try to keep up. Also we have tax where I live, it's basically $500, like $492.🤑

You were right about this not being NSO+ though, gotta back and change that, a lot going on here too. 😂

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/05/nintendo-announces-sweeping-price-hikes-for-switch-2

@mutenroshi Breaking news - the first 2 words in my comment were "timed exclusive" and you never explained why you need that to make money, just nitpicking an argument that wasn't there. There will also be no film at 11.

@LastFootnote That's always the other side of the amiibo coin isn't it - we don't want game content locked behind plastic, but we want game content for our amiibo purchase. This all seems a bit much though coming from Nintendo who not all that long ago was saying we don't do dlc we release finished games, and online was free. And timed content isn't getting a lot of love in this thread.

@Windbreaker1612 Save your thumb strength for Switch Sports Resort.

You'll need it. 🔥💪🏻

@N00BiSH Emphasis on the "unfortunate." 🤕

@Windbreaker1612 He's been playing the long game this whole time.

@rjejr 500 is the game bundle, no?

Oh, you’re counting tax. Ok.

@MS7000 Yeah, I’d say the island by itself definitely isn’t worth the price of admission. I mean I have no DK64 nostalgia, so I definitely don’t care about it. Others’ mileage may vary, I guess.

Thinking about it more, I should have called this a roguelite mode. But is it that? “Roguelite” might imply that you can power up between runs; that something carries over. I wouldn’t say that’s the case here.

@Windbreaker1612 It is pretty funny. That being said, I believe it has a decent following in the UK. Maybe someone from there can confirm or deny?

@LastFootnote But the runs are self-contained, right? It's not like you keep chipping away at a big end-goal?

The Pauline Luigi outfit's cute, but yeah, I cannot at all imagine myself bothering with any of this. Not been that long since I replayed DKC1 and 2 and they're the only ones of the games available in this I particularly care to spend my time on.

Hopefully these items are relatively easily attainable. Like I’m ok with some challenge, but frankly I’m just not very good at emerald rush. I enjoy it, but I’m ok with admitting I’m not very good. The first event I managed to get both statues after much trial and error, but after that no other event was I able to get the second statue for

I will be doing all of the challenges outlined.

Honestly, I really don't like DK, so having this challenge stuff be time limited AND DK limited is an immense disappointment to me. This could've been a Direct highlight for me, instead it's one of the most disappointing announcements.

@AussieMcBucket That's what I'm trying to say, and it's mostly correct. You do earn points by doing runs, and they unlock things. But I wouldn't say they make you more powerful. You unlock three kinds of things:

1) Music discs for the game's music player.
2) Clothing items for DK and Pauline (which can help in future runs, though I don't think their abilities stack).
3) New perks that you can get as you play runs. I think this actually makes runs harder, as the individual perks become more diluted and it's harder to stack levels of them.

There is an end goal in that, once you unlock everything, there's an optional boss fight which is a harder version of an existing boss. It's a cool fight, but you don't get anything for beating it if memory serves.

@N00BiSH
That looks more like the new Mario and Luigi game to me.
As you can see, they went in a completely different direction after the controversy with Brothership, but they still kept the Bros. Attacks.
The only thing they haven’t revealed yet is whether they brought back Yoko Shimomura to compose.

I'm pretty disappointed by this after getting excited by the leak, I was hoping for challenges across various classic games. But, it's a step in that direction so I'll participate in the hope that they expand on it in future. I may even give Bananza another go, I dropped off it pretty early first time around.

@N00BiSH "Impossible. Donkey Kong has never appeared in a 3D Mario game."

Counterpoint: Mario Party

It's a 3D game with Mario in it, and Donkey Kong is there too. Ipso facto, DK is in a 3D Mario game.

@rjejr Yeah Nintendo should have not bothered to do anything as you clearly would prefer that 🙄

@Windbreaker1612 Ah, arm wrestling, that was it! 🤣 My mistake.

@LastFootnote Thank you for explaining that. I haven't bought the game yet, though I think I will now, to get in on all the added fun before it's gone. 😰 That's a real bummer about not getting anything after all that.

Are those Mario Odyssey assets or... maybe something we don't know?

@N00BiSH @Windbreaker1612 My dumb brain thinking that was George the monkey this whole time

nintendo somehow taking the more disappointing route with the nso challenges than even my downplayed hopes gave.

will they ever realize that not many people will do these.. just for the sake of doing them? wowie, lovely pngs you got there, but you couldn't think up literally anything else to get for doing all these?

the theme believers are in shambles.

Remember Mario 35? Wasn't that fun? Remember 3D All-Stars? Wasn't that a good deal?

Bleh to this.

So how long do we get to keep these digital challenge cards though? I can take a break from my 101% DK64 run to try my hand at these, but I'm still not going to pick up the Bananza DLC. I'll pick it up when Nintendo decides to add it as a perk for NSO+EP members.

Oh I'm logging off for today, people are actually making me mad! The negativity towards Banana from people who obviously didn't finish the game.

The whining over an extra fun thing.

The nagging about third party and RPG's "Not counting"!!

Guys, come on! 😳

Cool idea but limited time kills it for me. Even more ridiculous that they do it for a PAID dlc

I love the idea, but I'm just immensely disappointed that they locked it to the Switch 2.
Some of us still cannot afford to pay $500 dollars for a new console.
Why the heck did they even bother to update the apps on the OG Switch?

So I’ve already completed most of the challenges, mostly the retro ones.

Question is - what will happen after September 1st? Will the cards disappear once the event is over?

FO-MO FO-MO FOMO Kong is here

@DennisReynolds I would have preferred them not doing anything to them doing what they've been doing since after DKB released, that is 100% true, no debate there.

Besides doing nothing here's a few other things they could have done instead. I don't see why options should be limited to: do everything exactly they way they did or do nothing at all. 🤷‍♂️

The Emerald island could have been included in the game at release as it didn't release very long after it. Then everyone who paid $450 for a console and $70 for the game could have enjoyed it.

They could have released the island later for free. Yes, I understand people need to get paid for their work, yet somehow the better than I expected GoW:R dlc Valhalla was free for the $70 game. It was a rogue like but it had a different setting and a story that lasted about 6 hours. That was me playing on easy w/o dying, I'm not a fan of rogue.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/12/god-of-war-ragnarok-valhalla-announced-free-dlc-out-next-week-on-ps5-ps4

They could have released the paid dlc, have content for that, but also put challenges like these in the game.

I don't see why these need to be timed, and I'm clearly not alone in that.

Probably more if I thought about it but I think that's enough.

So given all the stuff they did do, and all the other options available to them, I still say yes I'd rather they did nothing than what the are doing, but I really wish they just would have done at least 1 or 2 things differently. And I'm not the only one.