A pretty cool rhythm game with bongos, bananas and pretty satisfying game play.
The story goes that Dk and DdyK found some barrels. They take these barrels to Cranky(?) (what's his name - old wise looking monkey) to learn that the barrels are actually magical bongos. Then Dk has an idea to set up street performances to earn money. The story is revealed if you don't push anything on the title screen for a while.
In this rhythm game your musical instrument is bongos! Though you can use a controller instead if you wish. On screen there will be a bar of beats and you have to play the song correctly to score points. The commands are Left bongo (or left thumb stick) Right Bongo (C stick) both and clap (L,R or Z buttons) There are three difficulty stages these are monkey, chimp and gorilla. And there are a few modes too. Street performance is probably what you'll spend the most time on - you pick a song and play it. Challege is a non stop marathon of songs, I personally don't have the attention span to finish it. There is also multiplayer modes where you can verse each other to see who gets the highest score or perform a duet or quartet together. Also included for novelty you can purchase different sound effects for your bongos. This includes a drum kit, jungle noises, pain and many others.
There are also some mini games present if you fancy a break from playing tunes. There is a whack-a-mole style game where you have three holes where King Krool will pop up from and you have to whack him. There's another one where you have to make DK juggle bananas. Use the bongos to juggle and clap to get Diddy Kong to throw you another banana, this is my personal favourite of the mini games. And finally there is one where you have to climb up vines and collect as much fruit as possible.
The game plays well and weather you're using the bongos or controller the game registers fine. I prefer to use the controller because it's easier to get higher scores and I don't have to worry about disturbing people if I choose to play it late at night or in the morning.
The track list varies depending on where you come from as the PAL and North American releases have different tracks. Being from Europe, I have the version with the PAL tracks of course. And I find there is a good lot of variety featuring songs from different genres and there should be something that will appeal to everyone. There is even some remixes of classic nintendo songs such as the Smash Bros. Meelee theme.
A list of the tracks from the PAL, NA and Japanese versions can be found on wikipedia (I would put the link in but GS won't let me) Just google search "List of Donkey Konga songs wiki" and you'll find it.
So overall, I don't feel Donkey Konga has a lot to offer, but what it does offer is fun while it lasts. It's a cool party game and is also quite satisfying to play on your own as well. So grab those bongos... AND LET'S MAKE SOME NOISE :D :D :D
Milesprower2k9 Original Reviews
Review 48