Ever since the launch of the Emerald Rush DLC on September 12th 2025, Donkey Kong Bananza has been getting a steady stream of events for the mode. These grant the player two statues based on their scores, with many involving a theme like the Kong or Zebra Bananas, chip collecting or turf surfing.
But it seems like this pattern is finally coming to an end. Why?
Because on the Japanese Nintendo News app, the company announced that the next Donkey Kong Bananza event will be the last one. That next month’s event will be the end to the whole season.
What’s more, it ends with some fan-favourites too. Why? Because according to the news app, it’s called Bananza Antics and gives you statues of Funky Kong and Candy Kong.
Yep, at long last, the last two major Kongs are coming to Bananza. It’s not super surprising given their references in the game itself (especially on the DK Island layer), but it’s neat to see nonetheless, and very much overdue at this point in time.
Meanwhile the layer used for the event will be the Feast Layer (since it’s the last one not to have an event in the game), and it’ll take place from September 22nd to September 29th 2026.
And this raises a few interesting questions.
For starters, how exactly will Funky Kong look in statue form here?
Since well, his original design was heavily based on Donkey Kong’s own one, and the latter has seen a major design overhaul as of Donkey Kong Bananza.
So, there’s a looming question about how Nintendo might handle it. Whether they’ll keep Funky Kong the same despite Donkey Kong being overhauled (like a recent toy did), or whether they’ll somehow overhaul him to match DK a bit more closely. Personally, we’re gonna assume the former, but it’s hard to tell.
Secondly, will these events be rerun later?
Since there are going to be exactly 12 events by the time this run comes to a close, and that’s just perfectly for yearly reruns. It’d give players a chance to catch up on the game if they missed any events the first time around (or bought into the title later on), and match how Nintendo treats other ‘live-service’ titles like the Splatoon series.
Again, we’d assume the obvious answer is the correct one here (that reruns are on the cards), but it’s impossible to tell with Nintendo. Heck, for all we know, they might make the events choosable in game or something!
Regardless, the end is nigh for Emerald Rush, and the latest event for the mode goes live this September. Sorry Squitter and Swanky Kong fans, it seems your day hasn’t come this time.
Source:
Final Emerald Rush Event is Funky Kong + Candy Kong on Feast Layer (Bluesky)