Monday, October 20, 2025

Nintendo Dropping the Bananza Ball

Imagine that the next big Zelda game for the Nintendo Switch 2 releases. You've been looking forward to it for years and while it may have some rough edges, it's a fun and innovative title overall, a strong contender for game of the year... But months after release Nintendo announces paid DLC for the game, which costs as much as Hollow Knight: Silksong and doesn't really add any substantial content. Instead, it's a simple game mode, where your goal is to collect as many Rupees as possible within a time limit.

That mode is fun in theory, but not really worth the additional price point. But to add some incentive to play (and buy) it, there will be time-limited events, which can score you exclusive armor pieces, which you can't get otherwise. It's a practice used by many mobile and free-to-play games to create "FOMO" and incentivize player retention, except that this won't be for some mobile game, like Super Mario Run, but for a full-priced title, which requires an arguably overpriced DLC on top.

Sounds like something that Nintendo would never do? Well, they are doing it right now, with Donkey Kong Bananza:

Donkey Kong Bananza - DK Island & Emerald Rush: Chip Fever

To be fair, the DK Island & Emerald Rush DLC from the latest Nintendo Direct looks quite neat, but it is something that you would expect from a free update, not something that costs an extra 20€/$. And to make things worse they have now announced time-limited events, which is the only way of getting certain statues. The first of those "Chip Fevers" will happen between October 28th and November 4th, so only for a week.

I don't have a Nintendo Switch 2 yet, but I've planned on getting one soon for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. And Donkey Kong Bananza has been on the top of my list of other games to buy for the system, even above Mario Kart World. Now... I'm not so sure about that anymore, because I'm absolutely sick of such event nonsense, where you're obliged to play the game on certain dates. "Play the game now or miss out later!" At the same time I like my games to be "whole", so it's hard for me to ignore.

Next they'll add a monetized gacha system to Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, since this has been working out nicely for Fire Emblem Heroes...

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