Well, it’s the end of an era. After a full year of Emerald Rush events in Donkey Kong Bananza, the final one is now upon us.
Titled Bananza Antics and set in the Feast Layer, this one has players use all the Bananza abilities to unlock statues on Candy Kong and Funky Kong on DK Island and runs from September 22nd to September 29th 2026.
And it’s honestly a bit of a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, it’s nice to have statues of DK’s best friends in this game. Funky Kong being absent in the base game altogether felt like a weird design choice, while Candy being limited to posters and advertisements was a real downgrade for DK’s in-universe girlfriend.
At the same time though, it really does mark the end of an era for the game. The last time we’ll ever see an announcement about a new event and the statues on offer there.
Which raises a few questions. Most notably, what happens once it ends?
Because while the likely answer is that the events will repeat on a yearly basis (there are 12 of them after all), it’s never been officially confirmed by Nintendo.
So, we’re curious what the situation is here. Will they do the obvious thing and let us retry older events we missed out on? Or are new players doomed to have an incomplete game by virtue of getting it late?
The second question of course is how quickly Bananza fans will blast through the event. Since well, Bananza Antics has to be the easiest Emerald Rush in the game bar none.
Seriously, all the good Bananza perks are here. You’ve got Slow-Mo Beat and Jumpin’ Beat for Snake Bananza fans, Storage Beat and Rock-Ensemble Beat for Elephant Bananza fans, plus all the Kong, Zebra and Ostrich specific ones too.
Add this to some generally overpowered perks on offer (lots of Barrel Bump Ups, Elder’s Apprentice, Encore Groove, etc), and well, it’s clear any good player is maxing out the score in the first few rounds. Heck, we hit the cap in round 6 on our first attempt without even trying!
Hence we’re curious how far the record will go here. Round 4 or 5 max out is definitely doable, and we’d go as far as to say a round 2 or 3 clear might be within the realm of possibility.
Still, that’s the end of the Emerald Rush events for Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s unknown whether they’ll repeat in future, so go and try it out if you want the Candy Kong and Funky Kong statues for DK Island.