Gaming Donkey Konga

[Semjaza]

The original thread is apparently now in the Archives, so yeah.

Anyway, I picked this up when I was on vacation in Florida. I had been looking forward to it for awhile since I really enjoy music games (Gitaroo Man, Frequency, Um Jammer Lammy... not that filth that is DDR).

The game is rather easy to get into and thankfully features three different difficulty levels. The first is Monkey, which is ridiculously easy. You just have to follow the line and hit the left bongo, right bongo, both bongos simultaneously or clap. Monkey has very few beats to hit, so it's good to get your feet wet.

Chimp is the next level, which steps it up some. Gorilla is the final level, which can be extremely challenging until you get good enough. When you're in a groove though, it's actually pretty easy to keep up with.

In each song, you're expected to hit enough beats to clear the level. Just getting past the clear bar nets you a Silver award, but filling it up completely when you finish gets you a Gold award. As you do this, you're also raking up points (which are really just bragging rights) and coins. Coins allow you to buy things in DK Town such as new songs for Gorilla Mode (most need to be bought), new bongo sounds and a few different minigames.

The songs themselves are all rather well known. There's some Nintendo themes such as Kirby Right Back at Ya!, Pokemon, Mario and this amazing Zelda remix. It's kind of calypso, I'd say and probably the best remake of the original theme I have EVER heard. I loved playing that one.

There's a couple classical tunes, which are a lot of fun to play... one is done with electric guitar, which kind of spices it up a bit. The rest of the songs are mostly pop hits of some sort... The Locomotion, All the Small Things, We Will Rock You, Rock Lobster, etc.

The only issue here is that none of these songs are done by the original group. Every last one of them is a cover. The strange thing is that they're not redone or anything, they're exactly like the original and the vocalist is doing all they can to sound like the original singer. It gives the impression that Nintendo just didn't want to pay the bands as much as would have been necessary or something.

I guess it doesn't matter really, because in many cases, I could barely tell the difference.

I've not gotten to play this game multiplayer, which I'm sure is what makes it the most fun... especially if you can get four bongos. The bongos are especially well made and the plastic on top is actually kind of leathery feeling. They're very responsive and can be adjusted in game if you want. The normal controller works too, though.

As a single player game, however, you're really not going to have much to do with it after a few days. Depite having around thirty songs and things to unlock, the game is like all other music games: you're just going to keep doing things you've already done over and over and over. The game is never SO difficult that you'll be coming back to finish it weeks later like the Master mode in Gitaroo Man or Frequency.

But if you like these sorts of games and have the money to play with a few other people, I think it'd be worth it.

[XeEmO]

I've been thinking about getting this game for a while. Recently I've been getting into rhythm games, so this would be a great addition to my collection. The only thing that's been holding me back from this game is the difficulty. From what I've played in the store this game seems extremely easy.

When I started playing DDR it took me a while before I could complete most of the songs on light mode. When played Donkey Konga in the store I cleared a song on both monkey and chimp mode my first time. Other than that the game seemed quite fun, I just don't think it would hold my interest as long as some other games would.

What I'm hoping for is a sequel that's harder than the original. If that doesn't happen then I'll probably end up buying the game sooner or later.

[Guest ScirosDarkblade]

I'm glad I didn't purchase this game. A friend of mine did and I've watched a good amount of it being played, and I must say I've never been so disappointed by a Nintendo game. I haven't found a single song that I've truly liked yet, and the Nintendo theme arrangements they threw in (Zelda, Mario, etc.) are some of the worst I've heard, actually (I've heard every single one I could get my hands on throughout four years of active searching). There's not that much decent conga-appropriate music, either, actually. Oh, and then there's the CRIMES: bingo (yeah the dog named bingo), happy friggin birthday, and some other nightmare that I wiped from my memory.

I thought that Animal Crossing's graphics were total ****, but man, compared to Donkey Schlonga you might almost say they're Team Ninja quality. There's a good reason that you're only looking at a 1"-tall portion of the screen during playtime--everything else looks like absolute crap. I swear, the screen is populated with .gif files. There's a nice 3-frame .gif of Ellie the Elephant in the lower left, a killer one of Diddy, and some cut-and-pasted Banana Bird .gifs jittering around as well. Donkey himself looks decidedly worse than in DKC, and maybe ever-so-slightly better than DK from the original N64 Smash Bros.

Anyway, purchase this game only to spite DOA Ultimate, X-Men Legends, Pikmin 2, and a host of other far better multiplayer games. And if you plan on playing it single-player, I recommend the following as an alternative: buy some real conga drums, then pay bums a couple of quarters to dance around while you play the conga drums. It'll be like Donkey Konga, except you will enjoy yourself far more and give money to bums who deserve it far more than anyone who throws money in the toilet by buying Nintendo's pale imitation of... what, DDR? Ugh. To liken this game to DDR is to liken Van Damme to Harrison Ford as an actor.

[S9per]

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Edited October 22, 2016 by S9per

[Semjaza]

I suppose Nintendo fell into the rut of trying to appeal to kids and adults... especially with those kids themes. I don't mind Bingo so much, as it's kind of fun on Gorilla. I still love the Zelda remix though.

The graphics are very disappointing, I must agree. Obviously the focus is just the notes going by, but there is literally nothing going on in the background. Spicing it up wouldn't have hurt a thing and would have been better than two-frame animated DK characters. Seriously, two frame animations. Am I back in 1982?

Animal Crossing has the excuse of being mostly a ported N64 title. Donkey Konga doesn't have this excuse. This game was made solely by Namco, and as such sports the same simple detail of their drum game: Taiko. Even so, it's rather dull.

It's fun for a couple of days. That's really about it, because it wears out its novelty rather quickly.

[Charles]

[quote name='Semjaza Azazel']It's fun for a couple of days. That's really about it, because it wears out its novelty rather quickly.[/quote]I agree. I thought this one was a lot of fun initially but the lack of unlockable tracks or any real depth cut this one off at the knees. It's purely a party game. At least it's given me reason to have a set of bongos in my possession for Jungle Beat though.

Anyway, I particularly enjoyed your commentary, Sciros. It's one of those times where I fall into agreement with you regarding a video game and it holds the same mystique as an eclipse.