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Close to Perfection but Misses the Mark

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 40 / 51
Date: October 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing Donkey Konga on and off for just about a month now and have been having a great time, but the fun is wearing off. At first it was all pure joy beating out rhythms to the music, but as I progressed, I raelized what a shallow experience it was. There is no reward for getting the highest score or completing all the songs with a gold medal. After awhile I get to thinking why am I doing this? What was the goal?

Also the song selection, even though it includes some 30 songs left much to be desired. I would have preferred some current songs (nothing is earlier than 1992 or so) and more that had a definate drum section. It would also be fun to have a mode where you can drum anything you want then save it for playback.

A strong point of the game is that gamers of all ages can play together. I like that aspect of it quite a bit. Finally a game the entire family can enjoy together with no one at a real advantage. This game levels the playing field.

Unfortunately I haven't played multiplayer which is a shame because it's designed specifically for that. But the price of an extra set of bongos (or two or three) is a bit too rich for my blood. The game does give you the option of playing with a regular GCN controller, so at least the option of multiplayer is available for me to try. I suspect that the game would be a riot with a group of players. But again, I think the fun would fade once players realize the games doens't give you much to brag about except that you won.

If you go into this game realizing its shortcomings you might have a better time. But with just a little bit more work on Nintendo's part it could have been a must own game.

Nintendo jumps on the rhythm-game bandwagon...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 26 / 29
Date: October 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

...and not surprisingly, it's well done and a lot of fun.

The phenomenom of rhythm- and music-based games has been going strong in Japan since Dance Dance Revolution hit arcades there in the mid to late 1990s. Even today you'll find arcades packed with games where you can play guitar, be a DJ, play a huge taiko drum, play a trap set or any number of other variations. Not to mention, each of these games has many (sometimes dozens) of home versions.

Unfortunately, with the exception of DDR, these games are hard to find in the U.S, at the arcade and at home. Only recently are developers starting to realize the profit potential of a genre that appeals to all ages and both genders.

So here we have Donkey Konga, Nintendo's first rhythm game, and it comes with a pair of bongos - a good deal for $50. The bad news is that, despite looking like bongos, they don't play like bongos. The heads are rubbery and soft, not tight like real bongos, and they don't make a bongo sound, except through your TV speakers. So if you had planned to jam on these sans GameCube, forget it.

The good news is the game is competent and a lot more challenging than I thought it would be, given the "kiddie" premise. There are about 30 songs, which, unlike the J-pop and original songs in DDR, will be familiar to almost everyone. I especially like the classical music and the new versions of old Nintendo theme songs. There's also oldies, swing, pop and rock.

Basically, like any rhythm game, the goal is to watch scrolling symbols and hit the drum at the right time - either one or the other, both at once, or clap your hands together (or, easier, slap the side of the drums). Surprisingly, even the middle level (equivalent to "standard" in DDR) has some pretty tough songs. Even if you can pass them, you'll have trouble getting all "greats" (equivalent to "perfect" in DDR).

The only thing I'm really wanting in this game is perhaps a bigger songlist. Thirty songs will get mighty boring after too long, I predict. But I'm hoping this won't be the last game to utilize the bongos - and I hope it sells well enough to convince other developers to make rhythm games.

Great fun - Great songs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 22
Date: May 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I picked up Donkey Konga (the first one) after I got Donkey Konga 2, because of the great song list in Donkey Konga. The graphics aren't quite as good, but it's just as much fun!

In essence you get 30 reproductions of songs to sing along with - from classics like Louie Louie to classic music songs, from Legend of Zelda to the Pokemon theme song. I really LOVE this song collection and think they provide songs that all ages will enjoy.

There are different levels of gameplay, from beginner to advanced. In fact, if you do really well, you can earn remix versions of songs and buy truly advanced versions to play along with. Plus, there are multiplayer versions that let multiple players play together or in competition with each other.

There are mini-games to test your skills, and a shop where you can trade in your earned points for new bongo sets.

I've heard some people say they get bored after a few months of playing the same songs over and over again. Heck, most games out there only keep your interest for a week or two! Plus, half the fun here is simply playing along. If you were in a band, would you complain on tour that you were tired of playing the same songs? :)

Really, you get all the fun of Donkey Konga 2 plus a far better song set. The minor drop in graphics really isn't a big deal at all. Of course it'd be great if, like with the XBox, you could simply download new song sets that you enjoyed. That way they could let you buy one game, and then download whatever types of songs you liked to sing. Kids could download the kid songs, adults could download the classic rock songs, and teens could go for the pop-hip-hop stuff. But until Nintendo gets its online act together, I don't mind them coming out with a whole series of Donkey Konga games, each with a different song set. I'll gladly collect them all!

Konga is Mad Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: January 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Due to my son's blind allegiance to Nintendo, our household has been stuck with Gamecube even though Nintendo seems to have lost their edge in the video game market ever since Super Nintendo. With Donkey Konga, Nintendo finally seems to be fighting back against Sony and Microsoft with a GC exclusive that is a ton of fun. The Donkey Kong Country franchise was arguably the pinnacle of achievement for the SNES platform, and Donkey Konga may be the resumption of that DK tradition (with apologies to Metroid Prime, which was a pretty fine GC exclusive in its own right).

Donkey Konga's bongo is the best alternative input device since the gun for Duck Hunt. Perhaps even better if yours is a household that frowns upon militaristic toys. It's a breath of fresh air to finally do something other than joystick/A/B/X/Y/etc. There are a good range of difficulties for entertaining the quick and nimble teenagers like my son, as well as for the aged, rhythm-challenged like myself. It's been a long time since a video game made me laugh (and curse) as much as Donkey Konga. Be sure to play it with someone -- having a witness when you brain freeze in the middle of a difficult song is the most entertaining element of this game, and one which is lost during a solo session. After the kiddies go to bed, I bet DK would make a hoot of a drinking game ;-)

Definitely was 5 stars worth of fun. I am witholding one star on overall rating due to the suggested improvements I'd like to see in a Donkey Konga II sequel:

1. Create more options for competitive play with a single set of bongos. Yeah, a second set doesn't cost much more than another standard controller, but the second bongo is good only for one game, unlike a second controller which can be used for dozens of games.
2. Alternatively, provide the bongo at a lower price. The game plus bongo goes for $50, but a second bongo costs $30? Come on... sell us the bongo much closer to cost ($15?). We can only use it to play DK after all. Plus, I expect they'll need periodic replacement since we're literally beating on them whenever we use them.
3. Create a handicap option for competitive play.
4. Create some method for importing additional songs provided off the Nintendo web site to a GC memory card (even if I have to buy some sort of special GC-memory/USB reader). An iTunes-like per-download charge seems reasonable to recover the cost of transcribing more songs.

Donkey Konga is a great example of a game that doesn't require amazing technological pyrotechnics to impress. Even the older platforms probably had enough horsepower to run a game like this. Nintendo seems to finally be thinking outside the box/gamecube again. Let's hope it is a sign of other innovative fun to come to Gamecube in the future.

A slight disappointment from DK

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 24 / 32
Date: October 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm no music game aficionado - and I have not weaned myself on DDR - but I can tell you this is a Nintendo product that, while exhibiting the polish and lustre characteristic of their games, is sorely lacking in extended play value. I suppose that replay value has never been the selling point in the formulation of novelty peripherals, back to the days of the Power Glove and Power Pad; but Donkey Konga's deficiencies were not irremediable, and the minute you start taking this game seriously enough to delve into its intricacies and unlock all its goodies, you'll find it a fool's errand.

The biggest problem I have lies with the implementation of the controller. Looking at the Kongas, it seems that there are two buttons per drum head: one near the bottom rim, and one in the center, which would allow for a reasonable approximation of hand drum playing. If these extra two buttons *do* exist on the face of the controller, they are not used. I could not think of a better way to fashion an 'expert' mode than the addition of two buttons into the mix, allowing for some really diverse rhythms and gameplay. Nintendo's ludicrous expert mode demands that you memorize each song in the normal mode; they give you the rhythm without indications of a left, right, center hit, or clap. Regardless of your age, this is a waste of time. Perhaps this provides the illusion of musical 'performances', but they did not do their best here.

It being Nintendo, there should be little doubt that ultimately, this game is designed for kids. At best, their games are truly for 'kids of all ages'; unfortunately, Konga does not offer enough incentive for better/older players to want to unlock its assortment of incentives. The games forces you to spend many of the coins you earn to unlock the 'expert' modes of the 31 songs, which is acceptable. But there are a few problems: one, there is no coin collection in co-op mode (Challenge), which seems counterintuitive; two, the mini-games, which are coin incentives, are terribly disappointing (the psuedo-DK Jr. vine climbing game offers a slight diversion, while the Whack-a-Mole clone has never been fun); three, when you get good enough to start posting high scores on your songs, they omit names from the high score lists, opting for dates. Little inexplicable oversights like these attenuate the thin gameplay further.

The song selection is sufficient, but not at all inspired. You're given alterna-rock standards like The Mighty Mighty Bosstone's 'The Impression That I Get,' Blink 182's 'All the Small Things,' and Devo's 'Whip It'; a few saccharine, glossy remakes of old pop hits; a few classics in the vein of 'Dancin' in the Street' and 'Oye Como Va'; and the occasional oddball (Willie Nelson's 'On the Road Again,' which really works). Truly, some of Nintendo's original music is the most fun: 'Para Los Rumberos,' a latin-inflected original, and the takes on the Zelda and Mario themes are terrific to play. Kids will love the Pokemon and Kirby themes; 'Campfire Medley,' 'Diddie's Ditties,' (both medleys of "timeless" children's songs) and 'Bingo,' however, are outright embarrassing. They're not any more appealing to 5 year-olds than 25 year-olds. Nintendo's rap send-off is an ersatz 'old school' number about 'D-K: Don-key Kong,' done with discomfiting Run DMC panache, while the inclusion of Crystal Method's 'Busy Child' confirms that the song committee is officially living in 1998.

Lastly, could a 'freestyle' mode have been that difficult to program? The orchestral four-player mode is a good time, but a mode that allowed for creativity and some ingenious mode of on-the-fly scoring, given the game's simplicity, does not seem like a stretch. The programmers obviously had an easy time with this one, and the lack of riveting or even attractive options will wear out your initial enthusiasm for banging away on the plastic drums.

Most gamers realize that an average Nintendo product is still going to be streamlined fun. This is an entertaining game to have around at parties or get-togethers, but for the price of two controllers and the game, I expected more (and a more challenging experience). If you have any sense of rhythm, you will fly through DK's challenges. In my limited experience, the venerated 'Samba de Amigo' for Dreamcast has set a standard for peripheral-driven music games that has not been met since.

I have actually PLAYED this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 20
Date: August 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I find the other reviews for this item to be pretty baseless, since they don't indicate any knowledge of the game. I played this game earlier today, in fact, and so I feel compelled to add a few actual facts to the review page.

Some people are wary of this game because it involves a really unusual peripheral, and Nintendo doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to strange new peripherals (Powerglove, anyone?). But you know what? This one works. The drums register every hit, and have a very satisfying give when you hit them (the tops are not stretched taut like real drums).
The microphone also does not miss any claps.

And, of course, you also get the game Donkey Konga with the drums--which, by the way, is a full-fledged, totally COOL rhythm game. It offers multiple difficulty levels (monkey, chimp, etc...I think the highest is "gorilla") and multiple play modes. The J-pop from the Japanese version has been replaced with some very recognizeable licensed tunes--like "Wild Thing!" Perfect!

Last but not least...there are other games coming out that will use the drums. Later this year there will be Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (a side-scrolling platformer) and in Spring of 2005, there will be a pinball game (um...kind of. You'll see what I mean) called Odama. Both use the drums. Jungle Beat uses them instead of a controller, and Odama will have some truly bizarre 2-player action that involves the drums.

So, you may have to get by on Donkey Konga for two months, but trust me, it WON'T be hard. This is one to preorder. Your friends and family will be seriously jealous of you--expect to have to share once everyone you know becomes hooked.

I can't hardly wait!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 23
Date: September 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

We saw the strage looking peripheral at a Gamecube station at a retail store and my son was curious about it and started the control. And there we saw the Image of Donkey Kong and atarted playinf. He really liked the game and I was anxioous to give it a try then we toured around the store and when we came back to play some more, 3 guys in their early to mid 30's were hooked into it each trying to beat the demo level.
Then I found out the game included one set of DK Bongo controllers, which is great, because it's disgusting when there are games you need special controllers and they are sold separately.
The thing that impressed me the most was the fact that the controlled sense perfectly the claps, and they were very responsive when you hit them to the rythm of the song, in the demo level it was "Wild Thing".
My son loves to play this game in which ever store he sees the demo. We are looking forward for the launch of this game to get it because of adictive gameplay and we also like the Donkey Kong Character a lot.

Donkey Konga Review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: November 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When I first saw an advertisement for this game I didn't think that it would be a very fun game. It looked boring and the graphics weren't very good. After I played the demo game at EB Games I found out I was only right about one of my assumptions about the game. True, the game's graphics weren't up to par with other Gamecube titles, but I was very wrong about the fun factor of the game. After playing only a couple of the thirty-three songs the game had to offer, I had to purchase this game along with another pair of bongo drums so I could play against my sister. Though fun as a single player game, the multiplayer mode is what makes this game a must-buy. There are five modes in this game and three difficulty levels. My only complaint about the game is the unlockables. The only things you can unlock are songs on the hardest difficulty level, alternate drum sound sets, and three minigames that have very clunky controls. Overall, I really like the game and you probably will too, even if you aren't a fan of music and rythym games.

It's good, for a while, but not worth 50 bucks

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 16
Date: October 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In an attempt to react to the lastest rythem based games that the competing consoles have, Nintendo decided to come out with a Drum game. So how is it? Well at first, I got to admit, it was a little fun, but then, after about 15 minutes, I was bored out of my mind, there is no point to this game, the best thing you can unlock are the games, and they're kinda lame and the controls for it are very clunky for games that might of been good(the DK jr. vine climbing game). They also let you buy new konga sounds, some of them are hillarious like the laser sound, some are annoying, like the sick sound(I'm not joking they actually put people trying to sound like they're sneezing) and then, there's the extremely annoying like the zelda bongos or the donkey konga sounds(worst sounding instruments ever).

The music in this game is, well, older 90's songs and...children's songs. While I can understand why they put this in there being that younger audiences might play this game, but they should have left it out because, while some of the older songs are old, gamers like me don't want to play some rhythem based game with Bingo, and the Happy Birthday song. If you really think about it, how many of those songs actually used a drum? The rest of the music, is old stuff with none of the actual singers, which is kinda sad because some of the singers aren't as good. Ever see those Kids Bops commercials? That's about the quality your getting.

I guess you might like this game, if you like playing the drums and you don't play in band or don't want to go through the hassels of being in a band. Other than that, if you're buying this game because your the rhythem type of person, then you might consider buying it. But I still wouldn't recommend it.
I would only recommend this to young children who want to play the drums, or a person who enjoys the drums alot.

Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: September 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is great! I love it! First of all, it is only $50 and that includes the bongos. Some of the music kinda sucks, but most of it is good. The difficulty setting are well done. On Gorilla (most difficult) setting some of the levels are almost impossible. I just got and spent 3 straight hours playing it. This is the best game I have bought in a long time.

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