Anyway, DK64 was all about DK saving his four ape pals and stopping King K. Rool (a big alligator) from destroying DK Isle. Of course, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You’ve got to go through seven or eight
worlds, unlock your pals, collect five Golden Bananas per character per area, collect 100+ colored Bananas per area, and beat bosses. Compare that to Luigi’s Mansion’s depth.

I’m reviewing this game on a 0-4 star scale, and I’m going to be realistic about it, not exactly always
positive. After all, no game is perfect, even if everyone else thinks so. I’m not saying this game is bad, either, so just read it and find out.

Graphics: ****

For a N64 game, the graphics are perfect. No, they aren’t Cube-level, but they are high and above any
other N64 game, even being released back in 1999. Yes, they are the ugly polygons, but come on, look at DK
island through DK’s eyes (C Up) and you’ll see a beautiful sight, especially for the N64.

Sound: ****

I said this about Diddy Kong Racing, that Rare games have excellent music. The music heard around DK Island and remixed in other places is great. At Frantic Factory, the music heard is beyond the power of the
N64. And at Fairy Island, you can hear the most beautiful, moving musical tune in a game since Mario 3’s ending music. Here again we have the highest category for a game.

Difficulty: ****

I’m giving out the 4-star ratings today! But this time, it’s not a good thing. See, the trouble is, this game involves lots of shooting weapons. Unless you have an immaculate sense of where your shot will go, you will miss. Of course you can use the aimer, but in a battle, you’ll get hurt by standing still to use it. Plus, the boss battles are extremely hard, because you’ve got a horrible camera view, and you’ve got to have exceptional aim, not to mention great jumping, quick reflexes, and a little bit of luck. As for the camera view, it makes everything hard in this game. The camera doesn’t always stay behind your character, which is absolutely horrible for a lot of things you need to do. Plus, there’s challenges like Tiny Kong’s race in Angry Aztec that are absolutely impossible, frustrating, and demoralizing in this game. Now you may say since I always complain about difficulty that I stink at games. That’s not true. But for someone whose time schedule doesn’t allow for hour upon hour of game playing, I can’t be stuck on one area for too long, or I’ll give up. A little impatience, a little “I have better things to do”. The extreme difficulty is probably where this game falters most. Hmm, remember Diddy Kong Racing?

Characters: ***

Ah, the five playable Kongs. Donkey and Diddy are famous, and the other three have completely opposite
personalities. There’s crazy Lanky Kong, cute Tiny Kong, and hilarious and huge Chunky Kong. K. Rool is
like Bowser, Wart, and Darth Vader thrown in a blender. That makes him a good big boss. The rest of the
enemies stink, and where’s Dixie Kong? But the main characters and all Kongs in the game (including the
funny Cranky as well) are great.

Controls: no stars

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! The coconut shooter, that’s Z and C Down, I think. But what’s the instrument? Z and
C Up? Okay, then, oranges. Uh, Z and C Right. But then what’s Z and C Left? Wait, is the coconut shooter Z
and C Left? Then what’s Z and C Down? R is getting the camera behind my character, but it leaves my character if I move and let go of R. Wait, what’s L then? The B button, does it do anything? Down is backward, or is that forward? A jumps, and Z and A is long jump, or high jump, or- wait, C Up is seeing through my character’s eyes, and Z is ducking, so what’s Z and C Up- hey, wait, Z and C Left is, um, it’s something, I know- oh, and Z in mid-air is that Simian Slam, right? Z and C Left- special moves, maybe? Yeah, that’s it. Or not... No, it’s fairy camera pictures. Is it? Wait, Z and B- or is it Z when running, or- Do you get the point by now? Complete confusion.

Story: **1/2

The story is a little funny, a little serious, and a little dumb, but it works. Basically King K. Rool has a big alligator tank that will destroy DK Isle with its electric lasers, and DK must release his pals and stop him. As it unfolds, sometimes you won’t believe what people say to you, sometimes you won’t believe how you’re going to get to the next part, and then sometimes you can’t understand why these others can’t help you more, like why won’t the other Kongs, with their lives threatened, just give you everything? Or why can’t that pig and that other thing reach the key without needing bananas? Basically, what I mean is that the story hangs by a thread, but it works, especially K. Lumsy getting you to unlock other places.

Gameplay:

As I’ve started to do now, the gameplay is too big to be thrown into one category, so I’m splitting it up into several mini-categories.

Shooting: 1/2

First, and foremost, is the shooting problem. This goes hand-and-hand with the camera problem, which I’ll
address in a moment. It’s so hard to tell where you’re going to shoot. Now you can use the aimer, but in a
battle or in an unsafe position, you’re going to get hit, and lose power and have to restart your aiming. So if this is such an important factor in this game, why is it so hard?

Camera View: 1/2

Another very bad thing. The camera doesn’t stay fixed behind your character, as it should. It stays in one
spot and lets you move in any direction, meaning that your character sometimes walks towards the screen,
leading to lots of frustration because you feel like the controls are so loose (and they are). Also, shooting is very hard because you can’t do it on the run successfully. One other thing: you can use the R button to get a view behind your character, but you must hold it down to keep the angle there. So just hold down R all the time and it will be all right, right? Wrong. First of all, I don’t like having to have it held down the whole time, and second, even then sometimes the camera view is not controllable, when a little movie camera appears in the corner of the screen. Bad. Very bad, in fact.

Fairy Pictures: 1/2

All right, now I’m abusing the half-star rating, but it’s true once more. The fairies are so hard to capture on film, because of their extreme speed and the bad camera viewing, and you only have limited film supplies. It’s all about quick aim and some luck that it flies into your picture, which makes Pokémon Snap still the best picture-taking game ever.

Golden Banana Quests: ***

Enough with the bad, let’s have some good stuff. The Golden Bananas ARE hard to get, don’t get me wrong.
But some of the quests to get them are so complex and interesting, so they give you some suspense, fun, and great action at the same time. Sure, they’re very hard at times, and also near-impossible at times,
especially for one who is impatient with games. But these are fun and exciting things you’ve got to do, and sometimes they’re even funny. And you’ve got to love the return of the original Donkey Kong arcade game, enough to get me playing it for hours by itself.

Levels: ****

What? Can you find any N64 game with levels as complex as these? Believe me, not even your favorite Zelda game matches the absolute awesomeness of some of these levels. And I’ve only unlocked four of them so far! Wow! I want to only give 3 and a half, to try to stay away from the many 4 star ratings for this game, but I can’t find anything to say that’s bad about them.

Multiplayer: ***

The multiplayer modes in this game are fantastic. You’ve got the good old just destroy everyone else,
coin collecting, capture the flag, and more. The problem: you still have the same shooting and camera
view problems, and you can’t aim that often because you’ll get hit while you do so. Also, the coins that
appear are all in the same easy to find locations, if you capture the flag, you’ll win simply by diving underwater unless somehow someone hits you with an orange, and the stock battles are easy to replenish
life because of the many watermelons available. So it’s almost too easy to win in this game, or at least
stay alive. Hmm, why isn’t it a little easier when playing alone? Still, it’s exciting action like no other N64 game at its time.

Replayability: ***1/2

This game takes so long to beat, you’ll be replaying it many times just to get to the end. Plus, you’ve
always got multiplayer, DK arcade and Jetpack arcade, as well as some other mini-games. This goes
hand-and-hand with game depth, which this game has more than plenty of.

Fun Factor!: ***1/2

If you’re not frustrated, it’s awesome fun. Frustration is a little hurt to your fun, but mostly you’ll enjoy it. The game is funny at times, and the multiplayer modes will really give you a blast. Also, don’t forget the DK arcade game, which I actually enjoyed a lot.

OVERALL: ***

Did I ever say this game was bad? No, it’s just not worthy of all the praise given to it. It’s good, and if you can get it cheap, then buy it. If it’s going to cost you $50 or more, skip it. But I must warn you: only play this game on a long vacation. No way can it be played with a busy schedule. But otherwise, buy it. Really!

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