Dave the Diver’s next DLC may not stick to sushi, but its underwater croc fights and jungle exploration have my attention

Dave The Diver took over my PC around Christmas in 2023. I found Mintrocket’s wonderfully charming restaurant manager/ocean explorer a joy to flipper around the depths of, battling big fish, discovering ancient civilisations, and then returning to the surface to do some sushi waitering. I’ve honestly not thought about returning in a while, but the fresh look the devs have just offered at their upcoming In the Jungle DLC has me very much pencilling one in.

In the Jungle, as its name suggests, sees Dave, chefman Bancho and co head to a location with lots of trees. Rather than his free roaming being largely limited to deep-sea delvage, the diver’ll be able to wander around a jungle village and surrounding forest helping out the locals in an array of Stardew Valley-esque ways, including knocking coconuts out of trees and shredding riffs in a loveable on-the-nose Guitar Hero parody.

Lest you think you’re staying dry, there’s a big jungle lake to conquer the depths of by battling the likes of crocodiles, piranhas, and eels. To take those out, there’s a new jungle gun, which can switch between firing nets, shotgunning, and sniper rifleing on cue. In addition to those beasties, the lake’s home to a litany of freshwater fish which can’t be eaten raw. Cue a switch from Bancho Sushi to Bancho Grill – that being the restaurant the chef opens up in the jungle village. Rather than serving a row of hungry folks, Dave’ll be wandering between tables, adding an extra challenge to his plate-plopping gig.

Overall, the DLC offers a much more freeform Davely divering experience, right down to the hours filling by in real-time, rather than days being segmented into morning, noon and night. As of right now, the expansion remains without a concrete release date, having been pushed back into 2026 as of June this year.

So, plenty of time to dive back into Dave’s original adventure and work out whether the crossover beasties like Godzilla are still waiting in the depths somewhere. To be fair, you’d think in that specific case, he beast’d be big enough to spot from afar, especially if you bellow something provocative like “Is this an indie game?”