Nintendo's DK Challenge Event Hints at a New Achievement System

Interest in Nintendo’s latest Donkey Kong-themed event on Nintendo Switch Online is driven by the prizes and what it might signal about how the company will approach achievements in the future.

The short-lived “DK Challenge” event is now playable in the Nintendo Switch Online app, which adds a challenge hub to the service’s homepage. The promotion runs through September 1 and allows gamers to collect digital challenge cards by completing tasks across several Donkey Kong titles.

You need Nintendo Switch Online to play in the event.

Several distinct Donkey Kong titles face obstacles, from the classic games available in Nintendo Switch Online’s vintage libraries to the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza. The event is packed with titles from systems like the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy, so gamers can go back and enjoy games from different eras of the franchise.

Nintendo has not referred to the function as an achievement system. Still, the way it is implemented has prompted some people to speculate that Nintendo might be testing ideas that could one day be part of a broader system of awards. In the event menu, players can pick challenges from previous Donkey Kong games or objectives from Donkey Kong Bananza. How it works will vary from game to game.

Challenges for earlier Nintendo Switch Online games usually place players directly at a specific point in the game, which serves as a link to the save state. They get a digital card as a reward when they accomplish targets in minutes, and occasionally less than a minute.

Some goals are also marked “hard” by Nintendo, but it’s not always apparent what the distinction is. Some hard missions include fighting a major boss; some just involve finishing a level. Some reward cards include special iconography, such as boss images, that might indicate the type of achievement.

The event appears to be mainly on the digital cards.

The art for each reward is from the Donkey Kong series. It spans from today’s 3D character models to pixel art from retro titles like Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3. Select a card, and a short preview film will show the task related to it. The videos are not of a particular player's performance, but they do illustrate the goal and provide context for the achievement. The player can also pause the movie and capture images of the art to share.

The presentation focus has led to comparisons with other game platforms' trophy and achievement systems. Nintendo seems to want gamers to be able to show off their achievements, something that has long been available on other systems.

One intriguing thing about the event is that the challenge structure can be fairly fluid. When a goal isn’t met in Nintendo Switch Online's vintage games, players are encouraged to use tools like “rewind.” Instead of forcing individuals to restart, the system lets them jump back a few frames and retry immediately.

Nintendo might be emphasizing participation and completion rates rather than hard-and-fast difficulty benchmarks to gather data on how players engage with achievement-like content.

In Donkey Kong Bananza, it works a little differently. Instead of just telling players to go to an objective, challenges send players into the game, load their save, and get the work done naturally as they play. This is because the framework is more similar to how award systems work on PlayStation and Xbox.

It remains to be seen whether DK Challenge will be a one-time event or used to test new features in the future. But the project is one of Nintendo's clearest attempts at using achievement-based rewards, and it's a window into how the firm can reward players further down the line.