When DDR came out, it received a lot of buzz because, well, it was different. You played it with a gigantic gamepad you put on your floor, by tapping your foot on the button that corresponds to the direction the highlighted arrow on the screen is facing. Arrows keep coming, matching up with the rhythm of the music playing in the background. Surely, it was a mad design, right? Actually, it wasn't THAT mad of a design. It was a great design, and it was done correctly and successfully. It spawned more DDR games than I can count on two hands (11, from what I counted), some in the arcades, others on home consoles. Donkey Konga, however, adds a new twist: instead of jumping around, you hit bongos. For the few people in the world who actually get an exercise from DDR that's worth the excessive amount of energy you put into playing it with a gamepad at a moderately high speed, this is a step back, but for those who just want to play a simple and fun game- and see just how good our reflexes are, which is something Donkey Konga truly can help you find out- Donkey Konga is, as the saying goes, a blessing in disuise. Donkey Konga is simply downright fun, simple, and accessible. In five minutes, somebody, no matter their age (I'd say from four or five to whenever the person can still move their arms and hands quickly) or skill (it's fun even if you completely suck at it), can understand everything there is to know about the game. You hit the left or right bongo, or both, or you clap (or press a button on the side) whenever the icon for each of those actions is in the circle in the middle of the screen. The icons simply slide down a "conveyor belt" of sorts, and you choose the difficulty, AKA the speed that the icons slide, and the song. The song selection is great... mostly. For every two or three great songs, there is an annoying-as-hell remake (done by that annoying children's choir-like voice you hear in annoying recorded children's songs all the time) of a children's song that became old and annoying to everybody who isn't six years old when they heard it the second time. Did I mention those songs are annoying? What's truly bad about them is that there are extra parts of the songs added, even some songs completely merged, so if you think you know a song when you choose it for the first time, you might be pleasantly surprised. It almost seems like those songs are poorly-done remixes that are re-sung for added annoyingness. But those songs are less common than the great songs (mainly just the licensed songs like Wild Thing, and the numerous theme songs from various Nintendo games) and thus don't ruin the experience completely. Though the licensed songs are, as the GameSpot review mentions, not performed by their original artists and are pretty randomly selected, they're not really all that [i]bad[/i], and so they don't really seem like a negative of the game unless you truly hate the songs. Fortunately, the random song choices, though random, are [i]good[/i] choices for the most part. The three difficulty settings are certainly well spaced out. Monkey is for beginners or people who want a simple game; Chimp is for those who want a moderate challenge; Gorilla is for those who are completely insane. Basically, in Monkey/Chimp, you are able to see your icons, but in Gorilla, you just see a barrel, which is any one of the icons. Yes, that means that you have to completely memorize each icon and the order of each icon for Gorilla mode. It's not that hard for simple songs, but the complex ones (mainly the classical ones or the really fast-paced ones) are a living hell. Adrian Monk would have a ball with Gorilla mode; the average gamer probably wouldn't. Oh, and did I mention that Gorilla is even [i]faster[/i] than the other modes? I'm probably making Gorilla sound worse than it is, but hey, that's why difficulty is a [i]setting[/i]: so you can change it. My point is that there's a difficulty setting for everyone, unlike some games, which leave a huge gap between the difficulty choices. You can earn coins for doing certain things. One way to earn them is for simply doing the action that meets each icon. Another way is to complete the random stretches of "do this certain icon's action as fast as you can for the time this icon is in the center circle" icons, which earn you more. Or you can just crank up the difficulty level for more coins. These coins let you buy bongo-based mini-games (which are pretty bad, though certainly worth trying once or twice if you've somehow exhausted the actual game), the ability to use certain songs in higher difficulty settings, and a few other little things that are, like the mini-games, worth doing if you want to take a break from the main game but still want to use the bongos for something. Graphically, Donkey Konga really can't be all that amazing because of its genre, but it still looks good. The graphics are crisp, so you'll never actually confuse the icons [i]visually[/i], though the real challenge in the game is not confusing them [i]mentally[/i]. There are things like balloons, monkeys, and tons of little things meant to distract you, as well as Donkey Kong himself, but it's really not that hard to ignore them. The graphics aren't memorable, but then again, you don't play any game, especially a puzzle/rhythm game, for the graphics. You play for the gameplay. And the gameplay, as I have said, is downright excellent. It's simplistic but challenging, chaotic but controllable, and extremely accessible to everybody. You simply cannot dislike the gameplay, because it's something everybody can understand, and it's something everybody can love if they give it a try. Donkey Konga has members of my family addicted. My sister, her friend, my father, my mother, my brother, my cousin, even my grandmother... and, of course, myself. They love it, and though none of them (with the exception of my brother and possibly my sister) are what I would exactly call "gamers", they manage to enjoy it. Donkey Konga is a perfect example of Nintendo's goal: to provide a "family" game but not make it boring and annoying to people who aren't little kids. And Donkey Konga is proof that, with the right people developing it, the right idea, and the right choices, there is no reason that they can't meet that goal better than any company in history. It's certainly not flawless, but it's certainly not just plain good". Donkey Konga is great.
During a carefree romp on the beach, Donkey Kong and his accomplice Diddy stumble across a pair of weird circular objects. With the help of Cranky Kong’s incredible intelligence, the pair was soon introduced to one of th... Read Full Review
The Good: DK Bongos are really responsive and cool; makes for a great party game. The Bad: Song selection is incredibly bizarre, ranging from sing along songs to random swing music; presentation is underwhelming; over... Read Full Review
