Donkey Kong 64

Summary

Genre: Platform
Number of players: 1-4
Rumble Pak: Yes
Controller Pak: No
Expansion Pak: Compulsory

Review

Donkey Kong's first appearance was as the enemy of Mario, in the very first Mario game. Of course, since then, depending on whether you take Nintendo's word for it, in Super Smash Brothers, or Rare's word for it, in the DK series on the SNES, either Mario and DK have "patched things up since then" or the DK of the SNES and N64 is the nephew or something of the one in the original game. Neither are particularly convincing, but there you have it. So, on DK's third outing on the N64, does he deliver a Giant Punch, or does he slip on a banana skin?


Gameplay: No doubt a lot of effort has gone into the game. The player starts with only DK himself, on "DK island" which is under seige from K. Rool - the evil crocodile-type thing - who has captured the four other Kongs, leaving them in cages which can be opened by completing certain objectives. Every Kong has his or her own long range weapon, which fires missiles, as well as having another special ability. For instance, Tiny Kong can shrink and fit in small holes, (oo-er) which can't be accessed by any other character. This allows for huge levels, with many puzzles that require the correct Kong to complete.

There are many subgames, such as the traditional mine cart things, which have appeared many times in the DK games, and also a car race one, and even the original Mario game, featuring DK! These are very good fun, and are also quite challenging too.

The game plays quite well, which really you'd expect from Rare. I had thought that it might play fairly similarly to Banjo-Kazooie, their last platform game, but it definately does have a touch of Kong about the game, and is a unique gaming experience. The speed of the game is also quite good, not too fast, but at the same time, not lumbering. Nice.


Challenge: The game is very difficult indeed. As with all DK games, you have to collect bananas, but this time there are a massive 3701 bananas to collect, which will of course take you a long time to do. The game is absolutely huge, and is will take you a long time indeed to complete. That said, you won't find yourself dying too often, since most of the challenge comes from completing puzzles than fighting enemies.


Graphics: Very nice indeed. The land is very detailed, and there isn't even a hint of fogging which so often affects some games: you can see very far into the distance indeed. Although there is a bit of a cartoony feel to it, the colours have been darkened down a bit to create a slightly more 'adult' feel about the game.


Sounds: Quite good. All the characters' guns have very different noises, as do the sounds each character makes when hit or dying. The music will instantly remind you of DK, with several of the SNES tunes incorporated into the themes, which is always a welcome thing in my book - I quite liked the Donkey Kong theme...


Multiplayer: You'd think that a DK multiplayer game would be quite good fun. Sadly, it isn't nearly as good as you'd think. For some strange reason, it just doesn't have that 'thing' about it which makes a multiplayer good. For some reason you aren't drawn into it. That, and the inclusion of water in the levels was a stupid idea. It's extremely difficult to hit a person swimming, which means whenever you're about to kill someone, they can hop into the water and easily escape! Curses!


Summing up: A good single player game, let down a touch by its multiplayer mode. I don't think it's quite as good as Mario 64, but it's not far off!


Gamesmark: 88%


Reviewer: Tangycheese



Maverik's opinion: For once, I have a lower opinion of a game than Tangycheese does. DK64 isn't a bad game by any means, but I found there to be too much plodding, and not enough personality. The five controllable characters sounds like a great idea, but the fact that various coloured bananas can only be collected by a specific character means you go back and forth over the same ground again and again and again. Also, the game doesn't feel quite as 'precise' as Rare's other platform games, and in addition contains a couple of minor 'bugs'. Multiplayer sucks, too.