I’m a big fan of Dave the Diver – and as of a few days ago, so are ten million other people, including, I’m assuming, you. Well, a cool million of us have taken things a step further and fled the Giant Blue Hole and its myriad mysteries for its DLC, In the Jungle – and the other nine million are really missing out.
Bye Bye, Blue Hole…
While other DLC and content packs brought fun new faces and challenges to the Blue Hole and Bancho Sushi, the In the Jungle expansion is a different beast and a whole new adventure for our super sushi stans.
Once you’ve completed the main game, the epilogue sees Dave and Cobra doing what they do every day – Dave prepares for a dive while Cobra prepares to, um, watch, I guess. But the panicked arrival of Dr Bacon’s speedboat shatters the routine. An ominous boom from a faraway lakeside location has our friend worried – a researcher in that area needs our help! And, more importantly, the food there is apparently terrible! So Dave, Cobra and Bancho pack their bags and head into the jungle…
Hello, Utara Village!
Utara Village is a peaceful, pretty place with some perplexing problems. The village is on the shore of a large freshwater lake which, for mysterious reasons, isn’t behaving normally. The water is murky and toxic. It’s FULL of crocodiles. And once under the water, the terrain keeps shifting… sounds familiar, right? Not to mention the fact that, a few days ago, it spat a literal dinosaur carcass onto the beach. None of this is normal, but all of it is well within Dave’s watery wheelhouse.
Bancho has other problems to deal with. Fighting seasickness from the trip, he desperately needs something to eat… but the meagre offering from the locals is not to his exacting palate. He wastes no time opening a restaurant… but this murky freshwater fish can’t be made into sushi. Welcome, instead, to Bancho Grill.
Dave and the gang must work with the villagers, from children to the Chief, to bring peace, safety and tasty dinners to the people of Utara. Time to wriggle on that wetsuit and get stuck in.
Fresh, Familiar and Fun
From here, the gameplay is both familiar to players of the main game, and also fresh enough that it doesn’t just feel like more of the same. Dave dives, Bancho cooks, Cobra does… Well, not nothing at all, but I’ll let you discover that for yourself.
Dave must work with a cast of new characters (and some familiar faces) to clean up the lake, deal with the dinosaurs, and, of course, run the restaurant.
In the Jungle is jam-packed with things to do, from fetch quests, collection apps, and boss battles. Fans of the OG game will enjoy more of the quirky quests that make the main adventure so unique, but it’s all approached thoughtfully and tweaked just enough in terms of functional play that never once feels repetitive or derivative.
And it’s pretty huge for a DLC – seven full chapters of gameplay, loads of new areas to unlock, and it’s riddled with homages to other games and IP. It’s like an entirely new game, and Mintrocket could easily have marketed this as a whole sequel.
As before, the graphics are gorgeous, with more of the pixel art style that was so easy on the eye in the main game. The soundtrack is great, the cast is huge, and it’s even spawned a live-action movie. I can’t recommend it enough. In the Jungle is a quirky bit of escapism that’s fun, funny and satisfying to play. I suggest you fling on your flippers and jump straight in.
Dave the Diver: In the Jungle is out now on PC (Mac, Win), PS, Switch, and Xbox, and on mobile as of September 17th. We played via access kindly provided by the game’s publisher.
