If you click “Advanced”, I think there should be a button that comes up that allows you to bypass this.

Of course, you should be wary about doing this for most websites, but I’ve had no issues doing this for this site.

… I realize “nudes” is a bit hyperbolic. It’s more like “thirst traps”.

*no bananas or fossils left to collect

All in all, I’m having fun with the DLC. Though it does fall flat on a few things. If you don’t see yourself getting into grinding Emerald Rush like I am, I would recommend passing on it…

Hopefully someone at Ninty will see these gaps and try filling them (copium)

Though I guess there is a story-based reason as to why it’s not playable. But maybe Void will change his mind? We’ll see.

With how many sublayers it has, I think the Planet Core would be a fun challenge to play through on Emerald Rush. The only obstacle I can think of for implementing it is figuring out how to allow the player to go between layers without the mine carts.

Finally, where’s the Planet Core?? Emerald Rush is playable on every other layer except for the smaller or intermediary ones (010, 400, 700). Planet Core is not even visible on the level select screen.

2 or 3 Buzzoids are very manageable. But 20? That would definitely keep players on their toes.

My second gripe was very long-winded, and I could go on and on about how they could make the game harder. But I think I’d be trying to boil the ocean if I kept going with this, so I’ll drop it xp

Though I guess there’s only so much you can do with the base game enemies of an already easy game. Perhaps that can be compensated by having more enemies to defeat in a goal as you go through each round. And by more I mean… a disgustingly high number.

I think there could be other ways to scale difficulty besides more rounds and harder quotas. As fun as it is to defeat enemies in Void goals, they aren’t too difficult to beat and I never feel like I’m going to lose all my health.

Trying to play past the Round 15 mark after playing that long and having next to no bananas or fossils to collect left to get would be exhausting and dull. Perhaps it would be like a NG+ situation.

A save feature and some way to reset the map would be necessary though. 15-round games can take at least 45 minutes, and by that time the player has probably already stripped away everything on the layer.

An endless mode would be fun too. It would go well with the higher max score and actually put pressure on players who have figured out how to breeze past the quotas and V ranks by giving them harder objectives.

Second, there is so much potential for scaling the game to keep players hooked. I am still having fun with it, but I can see the grind getting dull at some point.

It wasn’t long before players started maxing out scores on some layers. I think this signals that the max score should be higher.

I think there could be some improvements to be made on it though.

Firstly, I think having your rank next to your high score on the level select screen is a no-brainer. Why they don’t do that I haven’t a clue. It seems like a pretty easy fix though.

…At least Emerald Rush is fun! It makes the $20 USD price tag sting a little less.

It reminds me of bonus content from the Pikmin series in that it puts a new spin on the game loop. You can still mindlessly hack and slash like in the main game, but there is an incentive to being intentional.

If this game came out 10+ years ago, I feel like this would’ve been a post-game 100% completion award.

It’s evident that Ninty is pushing their luck on how much they can get away with. I feel like at some point, this bubble will burst and they’ll have to decide on whether to sink or swim…

While I can tell that Ninty put a lot of care into the map design itself, it would’ve been nice to have some other reason to explore it other than “OoOOoohh remember this? Remember that? Nostalgia feels!!!”

Intrinsic motivation can only go so far when the essential game loop is stripped away xp

It’s a damn shame they didn’t add some extra bananas or fossils to DK Island. The only reason I can think of for why is to make it not essential to 100%ing the game, because then it would essentially be a $90 USD game xp