Nintendo finally made its move toward achievements — sort of. The DK Challenge is now live on Nintendo Switch 2, running from June 9 through September 1, 2026, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a limited-time event where Nintendo Switch Online subscribers complete challenges across Donkey Kong games to earn collectible digital cards. It’s achievements in everything but name, and it’s the closest Nintendo has come to the systems Xbox and PlayStation have had for years.
Here’s everything you need to know about how DK Challenge works, which games are included, and whether the rewards are actually worth your time.
How to Access DK Challenge on Switch 2
You don’t launch DK Challenge from inside any individual game. Instead, you access the whole thing through the Nintendo Switch Online icon on your Switch 2 home screen — the circle-shaped NSO app that sits in your console menu. From there, you’ll find a list of available challenges tied to specific games, each with its own objective and reward.
You need an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription to participate. If you’re not subscribed, the event isn’t accessible. The challenges are also Switch 2 exclusive — even though every classic game included in the event is technically playable on the original Switch through NSO, the DK Challenge itself only runs on the newer hardware.
Every Game in the DK Challenge
The event pulls challenges from across the full Donkey Kong library available on Nintendo Classics, covering NES, SNES, and Game Boy titles. Here’s the full confirmed list of games involved:
- Donkey Kong (NES)
- Donkey Kong Jr. (NES)
- Donkey Kong 3 (NES)
- Donkey Kong Jr. Math (NES)
- Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
- Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
- Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES)
- Donkey Kong (Game Boy)
- Donkey Kong Land (Game Boy)
- Donkey Kong Land 2 (Game Boy)
- Donkey Kong Land 3 (Game Boy)
- Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2 — requires owning the game separately)
Donkey Kong Bananza is the one title here that requires a separate purchase rather than just an NSO subscription. If you own it, additional exclusive challenges unlock on top of the classic library content. If you don’t, you still have ten other games’ worth of challenges to work through.
What the Challenges Actually Look Like
The challenges are objective-based tasks inside specific games, not just general playtime rewards. Some examples Nintendo has shown include flying through the mine cart level in Donkey Kong Country, taking Barrels to the top of a level in Donkey Kong Country 2, and rescuing DK from a stage in Donkey Kong Jr. Each challenge has a clear, defined goal — think speed runs, specific level completions, or time-based objectives — rather than anything vague like “play for 30 minutes.”
The difficulty range is significant. Some challenges are designed to be entry-level, pulling in players who might not be familiar with older DK games. Donkey Kong 3 is described as having easier challenges to help newer players get comfortable. On the other end, Nintendo has teased Developer Challenges — objectives within Donkey Kong Bananza specifically that the development team designed to be genuinely hard. If you’ve already cleared Bananza and want something to push against, those are the ones to go after.
The Reward: Digital Challenge Cards
Completing each challenge earns you a collectible digital Challenge Card featuring art or screenshots from across the Donkey Kong franchise’s history. The goal is to collect the full set by completing all available challenges before the event closes on September 1. Once the event ends, you keep every card you’ve already earned — but you can’t unlock any more after the deadline. Partial collections are permanent; complete sets require finishing everything before time runs out.
It’s a different approach from Xbox Achievements or PlayStation Trophies, which live permanently on your account. These cards are more like a summer event stamp rally than a persistent achievement tracker. They don’t carry point values, they don’t roll up into an overall score, and there’s no cross-game cumulative ranking. What you get is a curated digital collection tied specifically to Donkey Kong history, and if you finish it you have a complete set. If you don’t, the window closes.
Whether Nintendo plans to expand this system to other franchises or future events after DK Challenge wraps up hasn’t been confirmed yet. The structure seems purpose-built for seasonal or franchise-specific events rather than a full console-wide achievement rollout, but how this one performs will likely inform whatever Nintendo does next.
The Donkey Kong Bananza Mario Crossover Event
DK Challenge wasn’t the only Donkey Kong news out of the June 9 Nintendo Direct. Launching the same day is a Super Mario Bros. crossover event inside Donkey Kong Bananza’s DK Island and Emerald Rush DLC. The event runs in four waves starting June 9, and it adds unlockable Mario and Luigi-themed costumes for Donkey Kong and Pauline, along with in-world visual elements like “?” Blocks and Super Mushrooms appearing throughout DK Island.
You need to have completed the main Bananza story and purchased the DLC to access the crossover content. It’s a nice incentive to boot the DLC back up if you’ve already cleared it, and it lines up cleanly with the DK Challenge’s Bananza-specific Developer Challenges running at the same time.
Is the DK Challenge Worth Your Time?
If you’re already a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber on Switch 2, there’s no reason not to participate — the challenges are baked right into your existing subscription at no extra cost. For fans of the classic Donkey Kong Country trilogy especially, having specific objectives to chase through those games adds a layer of purpose to replays that straight-up free play doesn’t always deliver.
For Donkey Kong Bananza owners, the Developer Challenges are the real draw. Nintendo specifically flagged these as being hard, and the Bananza team designing challenges for their own game suggests they put real thought into what “difficult” actually means for that title’s mechanics.
The September 1 deadline is the one thing to keep in mind. Nintendo has been explicit that no further cards can be earned after the event closes, so if you want the full set, starting sooner rather than later gives you more time to work through everything without a last-minute rush through eleven games’ worth of content.
If you’re tracking everything coming to Switch 2 this summer, check out our coverage of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster on Switch 2 landing July 23, and what’s ahead with Final Fantasy 7 Revelation and its Queen’s Blood changes coming in Spring 2027. Between DK Challenge, the Mario crossover in Bananza, and the FF10 release next month, it’s a stacked few months for Switch 2 owners.
