Sunday, October 31, 2004
 

Review: Donkey Konga (Nintendo Gamecube)
Posted by Chris :: 6:56 PM
Oh, "Konga" I get it. It's a pun. Clever, Nintendo.

Now usually I despise the DDR-esque type games. (*ducks from Josh*) Mainly because I can't stand the techno-y bullshit music that accompanies them, plus I don't like to sweat when I play video games. Add to the fact that I'm a clumsy motherfucker, and you have a sad night of falling on my ass and having 12 year old Asian girls pwn me. So pretty much like every Saturday night out, then.

But Donkey Konga, this is a whole new beast here. Why, you may ask? I get to beat on shit! One of my most favoritest pasttimes. Now I've had people tell me that I should have been a drummer. It just comes naturally to me. I'm very good at keeping rhythm with my hands, so now Nintendo has given me an opportunity to experiance DDR-esque gameplay without the humiliation and degradation.

As in all Rhythm Based Games, DK has specific drum cues for each button on the controller. But in this case, instead of a controller you have... wait for it... a KONGA DRUM. Word. This thing is very cool. Using the Konga Drum, you have four different notes to hit. The left and right (yellow and red, respectively. Brother.) notes, the double (pink, as you hit both left and right together) and the kicker dynamic of the game, the clap note. That's right, you get to clap along with the music. Aww yeah. There's also a colored bar that calls for you to hit the appropriate note as many times as fast as you can to get more coins. I'll go over the coins in a minute. For each note you can either get a Great, OK, Bad, and a Miss. You can Combo your Goods and OKs together for some long combos, but miss a note or hit a Bad note and your combo is dead in the water.

DK is broken up into 6 different modes of play. The meat of the game is Street Performance, where players drum away at different songs in order to gain coins to purchase things like mini-games and extra drum beats in the DK Town. Street Performance has 3 Difficulty levels. Monkey, Chimp, and Gorilla. Money = Somewhat Challenging. Chimp = Hard. Gorilla = OH HEY'L NAW. But the Gorilla difficulty songs you have to purchase in the DK Town. Also available are Monkey, Chimp, and Gorilla Jam, which is essentially the same as the others, but with one catch. You'll had to have the other levels beats memorized. Yeah, I tried this one time and one time only. The other modes are Challenge, where you try to pass as many songs as you can in a row. Jam Session, where you can play any of the games songs you like. Battle, where you battle with a friend in Multiplayer, DK Town and Ape Arcade, where you go to play your purchased mini games. The Mini Games are ok, at best, but they're nothing more than a glorified Hit-The-Gopher-With-a-Mallet style game and others.

Now, a game like this would live or die depending on it's song selection. Drab songs do not a fun game make. Fortunately, Donkey Konga has a very interesting selection of songs to choose from. Some I didn't even see coming, really. The song list is as follows:

Diddy's Ditzies
Bingo
Campfire Medley
Pokemon Theme
Kirby Right Back at Ya
We Will Rock You
Like Wow
Wild Thing
I think I Love You
Louie Louie
The Locomotion
Shining Star
All the Small Things
Rock This Town
You Can't Hurry Love
Right Here Right Now
Dancing in The Street
Rock Lobster
Stupid Cupid
The Impression That I Get
What I like About You
Whip It
Busy Child
Para los Romberos
Sing Sing Sing with a Swing
Oye Como Va
On the Road Again
Hungarian Dance #5 in G MInor
Turkish March
DK Rap
The Legend of Zelda Theme
Mario Bros Theme
Donkey Konga Theme

Each song has a Bongos Rating ranging from 1-10 Bongos. And when a song has an 8 Bongo Rating on Monkey Level, you can damn well bet that it's gonna be fucking hard. Unfortunately, however, the songs are not performed by the original artists, leaving a nasty Kidz Bop taste in my mouth. But I can overlook that on the majority of the songs. All The Small Things still sucks though, no matter who sings it.

Pros: Fun fun fun, especially if you're a drummer-type person like me. Some catchy tunes and the Nintendo Tunes are greatness. The learning curve is pretty easy, too.

Cons: HARD HARD HARD, especially if you're a un-coordinated klutz like me. Kidz Bop style songs which will irritate the hell out of you. Did I mention sometimes frustratingly hard?

Personally, I had a freaking blast playing this game. One of the most fun games I've ever played, really and very addictive. But as a objective score I give Donkey Konga a...



Out of 5.

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