Dave the Diver: In the Jungle is the kind of release that makes the word "DLC" feel too small. It arrived on June 18, 2026 from Mintrocket, with the critic conversation focused mainly on the PC version so far. Metacritic lists the expansion across PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Xbox Series X, but the scored launch coverage is concentrated on PC.
The score picture is already useful. OpenCritic has Dave the Diver: In the Jungle at a 92 top critic average with 100 percent of listed critics recommending it. Metacritic is cooler at 86 from 11 critic reviews. That is not a contradiction. It is a generous expansion running into the usual question with Dave: is the mess part of the charm, or does the game eventually add one system too many?
Most reviewers came away impressed by the scale, the price, and the way In the Jungle extends Dave's rhythm of diving, cooking, errands, jokes, and sudden mechanical detours. A smaller number were less comfortable with the turn-based combat, the story premise, or the sheer amount of new stuff being thrown at the player.
So the useful question is not whether critics like Dave the Diver: In the Jungle. They do. The better question is why they keep describing a paid expansion like a sequel.
Dave the Diver: In the Jungle review scores
OpenCritic lists Dave the Diver: In the Jungle as "Mighty," with a 92 average and a 100 percent recommendation rate across 12 reviews. The visible score spread sits mostly between 88 and 95: PC Gamer at 90/100, DayOne at 9.5/10, Loot Level Chill at 9.5/10, Screen Hype at 9.5/10, Game8 at 88/100, and Pizza Fria at 9.1/10.
Metacritic tells a slightly rougher version of the same story. Its PC Metascore is 86, with 10 positive reviews, no mixed reviews, and one negative review. The outlier is The Wand Report at 40, criticizing the narrative premise even while acknowledging movement in the gameplay department. That single low score gives the reception more texture than the OpenCritic number alone.
A clean read: this is one of 2026's best-reviewed expansions so far. The disagreement is not about polish or quantity. It is about whether Mintrocket's anything-goes design style feels abundant or overstuffed.
PC Gamer: a $10 expansion that refused to stay small
PC Gamer's Christopher Livingston gave Dave the Diver: In the Jungle a 90/100, and his review captures the dominant reaction: surprise at the scale. He expected "a cute little distraction, perfect for the weekend," then wrote that the weekend was gone and he was still playing after more than 25 hours.
The verdict is the neatest summary of the positive consensus: "Packed to the gills with activities and swimming with great characters, In The Jungle is just as charming and surprising as the base game." That sentence works because In the Jungle does not merely add a biome and some fish. It moves Dave to Utara Village, turns Bancho's sushi operation into a grill, adds villager relationships, opens a freshwater lake, then keeps going.
PC Gamer especially liked the new daily flow. In the base game, Dave's life is split into clear slices: dive, run the restaurant, follow the story, repeat. In the Jungle keeps that shape, but the village makes it feel more lived in. Livingston writes that the expansion makes it feel "more like Dave is really living in the world than the original game ever did." That matters. The best parts of Dave the Diver were never just about catching fish. They were about how errands, restaurant work, and weird interruptions could become one long, pleasant day.
The review also explains why critics keep reaching for sequel language. In the Jungle includes new bosses, bird hunting, beetle management, rhythm-game riffs, block puzzles, fishing with a rod, a virtual flower app tied to distance traveled, and turn-based jungle combat. That list sounds messy because the game is messy. PC Gamer's argument is that the mess works because Dave's warmth holds it together.
TheGamer: hooked by the scale, less sold on the combat
TheGamer's review is helpful because it praises the expansion while naming the weak spot. The piece says In the Jungle "isn't on the same level as previous DLC" and jokes that it could have been packaged as Dave the Diver 2. The reviewer liked the freshwater ecosystem, village relationships, grill service, isometric movement, bug-catching, and the steady run of cameos and references.
But TheGamer is also where the turn-based combat starts to look divisive. The reviewer calls it a novelty that wore thin, especially once bosses became damage sponges. That criticism does not sink the expansion. The review says the weaker combat missions did not drag the whole thing down because the highlights were strong enough. Still, it is the clearest warning for returning players: if you come back mainly for diving, restaurant work, and odd little sim loops, the jungle battles may feel like a detour.
That is the tension running through In the Jungle. Mintrocket is very good at adding toys. The danger is that some toys become chores when the game makes them mandatory. Several positive reviews brush past that because the full package is so lively. TheGamer lingers on it, and the result is more useful than a pure rave.
OpenCritic and Metacritic show the same consensus from different angles
OpenCritic's review blurbs are almost comically enthusiastic. DayOne says the quality and variety are something few games can match. Loot Level Chill says it could be sold as a game in its own right. Uagna calls it a "must-have DLC" and points to rhythm games, JRPG-style turn-based combat, and Bancho Grill as examples of its scope. Screen Hype says it feels less like a separate product and more like returning home to find new rooms in a house you already love.
That last image gets close to why the expansion is landing so well. In the Jungle does not win critics over by making Dave the Diver cleaner or more focused. It wins them over by treating the original game's appetite for surprise as the whole point. You start with fishing and cooking. Then the game hands you a beetle. Then a rifle. Then a village gift system. Then a block puzzle. The structure is loose, but the tone is steady.
Metacritic's lower average adds one important asterisk. The Wand Report's negative review suggests not everyone is willing to let the premise slide. Without leaning on more than Metacritic's summary, the objection appears to be less about whether the expansion has content and more about how the story frames its new setting. That is worth noting. Score averages often flatten this kind of concern into noise.
That is where aggregation helps. The 92 on OpenCritic says critics broadly recommend it. The 86 on Metacritic says the praise is not completely frictionless. Both are true.
What critics agree on
The agreement is strongest around value and volume. In the Jungle is priced like an expansion, but reviewers keep describing it with sequel language. PC Gamer spent more than 25 hours with it and still was not finished. TheGamer notes seven chapters, around 80 fish, and 30 bug species. Metacritic blurbs repeatedly call it polished, substantial, and worth the time commitment.
Critics also agree that Utara Village changes the texture of Dave's routine. It is not just a lobby between dives. It gives Dave people to know, gifts to give, errands to run, and a reason for Bancho Grill to matter. For a game that has always lived or died on the charm of its interruptions, that is a smart fit.
The third point of agreement is that Dave himself remains the anchor. PC Gamer spends real time on his humility and his willingness to help. That is not fluff. In a game this mechanically restless, character tone is load-bearing. Without Dave's kindness, In the Jungle could feel like a pile of minigames wearing a wetsuit.
Where the reviews split
The biggest split is combat. Some reviewers treat the turn-based jungle battles as another delightful surprise. Others see them as the place where In the Jungle overreaches. TheGamer's complaint about monotonous fights and spongey bosses is the one to remember if you dislike RPG battles that ask for repetition before they ask for much thought.
There is also a quieter split around pacing. Positive reviews praise the expansion for constantly introducing new activities. More cautious readings suggest that this can become tiring. Dave the Diver has always relied on novelty, but there is a thin line between "one more in-game day" and "one more system before I can get back to the part I wanted."
Finally, there is the story concern. Most critics seem happy to accept the plot as a vehicle for more Dave, more Bancho, and more strange creatures. The low Metacritic outlier suggests charm does not erase every framing issue. That does not undo the broader consensus. It just keeps the conversation honest.
Why this one matters for players tracking 2026 releases
Dave the Diver: In the Jungle matters because it is the kind of mid-sized release that can disappear under louder games unless people keep notes. It is not a new console launch title or a giant sequel. It is a paid expansion to a game that already had its big cultural moment. And yet, on the critic side, it is sitting near the top of the 2026 conversation for reviewed games and expansions.
That makes it a good Perthro kind of game to track. Not because Perthro has a take on whether you should buy it. Perthro is an iPhone-first social gaming journal, not a score machine. But this is exactly the sort of release that benefits from being logged properly: a return to something you liked, a surprising amount of new play, maybe a note that the combat annoyed you, maybe a five-star reminder that you spent a week happily grilling fish in a jungle village.
The critic consensus is clear enough: Dave the Diver: In the Jungle is a generous, confident expansion with a score range that runs from glowing 9s to one sharp rejection. If you loved the base game for its looseness, kindness, and habit of turning every errand into a new joke, critics are mostly saying this is safe to dive into. If you wanted a cleaner, tighter Dave, the combat and mechanical sprawl may test your patience.
That feels honest. In the Jungle sounds less like a disciplined sequel and more like Dave the Diver at full appetite. For most reviewers, that appetite is the reason to play.