The 2000s were a weird time for the "Donkey Kong" franchise: Rare had just been bought out by Microsoft and, naturally, they couldn't take "Donkey Kong" with them. Thus, the franchise was left, unfortunately, directionless by Nintendo. Throughout the 2000s, the series mostly only existed in the form of what was essentially spinoffs, but one series of "Donkey Kong" spinoffs I used to love was "Donkey Konga." Essentially an American adaptation of "Taiko no Tatsujin" with a "Donkey Kong" coat of paint, I sunk way too many hours into this game in my youth, and to this day, it remains a game that I love.
"Donkey Konga" is an easy rhythm game to pick up and play: the game tasks you with using a pair of bongos to play along to the rhythm of a diverse group of songs, from video game tracks to children's lullabies to even a few pop songs. It's a game that's stupidly fun, with responsive bongo controls, a decent collection of songs, and a good difficulty balance. I also like the visual design of the game, as its plenty colorful and nice to look at, and this is the kind of game that's most fun to play when you have multiple people to play it with (or, if you want, grabbing multiple bongos and trying to play multiplayer tracks by yourself. I've done that plenty of times and I honestly recommend it).
It's not perfect, though: I do wish that the more difficult "Gorilla" versions of the songs were available from the start (as someone who likes playing rhythm games on higher difficulties, I just wish it didn't take playing through the songs 50 times to get their most difficult versions), and I do think the extra content in the game is lacking a bit. There are a few minigames, but they aren't the most memorable or exciting things ever.
Overall, though, "Donkey Konga" is a surprisingly fun spinoff that's absolutely worth playing. It's probably best if you grab a few friends to play with, but regardless, this is a very fun game that's absolutely worth your time.
Final rating: 8 out of 10 "Great"