Donkey Konga

"Like, Wow? No, not Like, Wow."

Note: This review is based on the NTSC/Region 1 version of the game.

There is a universal truth about music games: no matter how glossed up they are, what modes they have, what peripheral they use, or what extras you can unlock, it all boils down to two things: your input (how the player interacts with the notes – bongo drums, in this case) and the game's output (mainly the quality of the music and the title's song selection). Sadly, it is in these two crucial areas that Donkey Konga misses the mark on most levels, and the sparse set of unlockables the title employs just can't make up for that fact. Read on.

The Input

Thanks to an easy learning curve and a simple layout, it just takes a few minutes to get yourself oriented with the game. On your screen, the notes scroll horizontally, from right to left (in a method quite similar to Namco's own Taiko Drum Master), and you must either hit the drums or clap (thanks to the microphone) on your bongos. Hitting the drums is either relegated to “left drum”, “right drum”, or “both drums” depending on the symbol you see in-game. Each of the four methods have their own brightly-colored circles/starbursts which makes them stand out and quite easy to read.

Whenever you strike a note, you'll get a score based on your timing (great, good, bad, and miss... hmm, again, the same as Taiko Drum Master). And because the bongos aren't totally spot-on at picking up your hits, more precise strikes are crucial. It seems like sometimes that if you're off by even a fraction of a second, the bongos will register a “bad” or a “miss” in the game, which means you better have super-human hand-eye coordination if you want to get perfect scores on the higher difficulty settings. That said, I am glad that the build quality of the bongos is well within Nintendo's high standards for peripherals. The plastic is hard and sturdy, and the drums seem like they can take whatever abuse I throw at them.

What concerned me a bit more was an issue I discovered with the “four methods of input” system that could either be seen as just a slight oversight or a glaring error in the development process. Let's say that you have to strike the left bongo during a song. You can hit the left bongo as you're supposed to, or, if you're having trouble thinking quickly as the red and yellow notes go blurring by, you can hit both bongos – every time. Hitting both simultaneously counts as “left”, “right”, and “both” meaning that anytime you see any of the three symbols, you can simply hit both bongos. The only other symbol you have to worry is clapping. As another example, instead of performing a roll (left-right-left-right) you can simply tap “both-both-both-both” and still get credit. While “true” Konga players might think this is cheating, it sure is tempting when you know that you can make a particularly difficult track a bit easier by reducing the number of input methods from four to two, simply being “both” or “clap”.

Speaking of clapping, the other main method of input, it's one of those “your mileage may vary” type situations. Players should note that you'll want to do a lot of fooling around with the sensitivity of the microphone on the bongo, which rests in the center between your hands. Too many times during gameplay have I clapped and it not picked up, or not clapped and had the game register it thanks to background noise in the room. This is especially annoying during multiplayer matches where, if your friends sit too close to your bongos, their claps may register on your own. Thankfully, you can adjust the settings easily so this problem is kept mostly to a minimum.

What is harder to avoid are the physical ramifications of the game. In plain English, it means that your hands will get sore after a while. Clapping often for an extended period of time hurts the most, so you can tap the sides of the bongos instead. This is a life saver as clapping not only hurts after a while and it tends to wake the neighbors up at night.

That said, clapping is certainly much more fun and feels very natural in the game, though only in exhibition practice or with your friends. It's much faster to switch between tapping the sides and hitting the drums as opposed to actually raising your hands to clap and then hitting the drums. But it sure is fun. The inclusion of “Bingo”, in which players will clap out the letters of the dog's name, is a blast and found me giggling like a child clapping out the song in kindergarten. It just feels good because clapping is part of the song in real life, and, well, you can clap in the game too. The same could be said for “We Will Rock You”, another favorite. Playing those songs is a blast and really makes me like the game more. If only the rest of it wasn't such a hit/miss experience (literally).

The Output

What will probably make or break the game for you is the song selection. I'll start with the main allure for Nintendo gamers: the Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Konga theme songs. This seems like it's purely fan service (as it'd be blasphemy for a Nintendo-published music game not to have at least one or two Nintendo theme songs), but they are probably the most fun to play, even if you feel odd drumming on bongos to the Zelda theme.

The rest of the songs are a mixed bag of kid-friendly hits and pop culture blips that dominated top 40 radio stations in the year 1999. Simply put: nothing offensive here, folks, which I'm sure most parents will find relieving. However, while kids and early teenagers might enjoy the list, for adult gamers, it comes off as more of an insult to good music as it does to something that should be in a quality music game. “Diddy's Ditties” is a compilation of nursery rhymes like “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Happy Birthday to You”, there are some classical tracks thrown in, older stuff like “Whip It”, “Louie Louie”, and then the smattering of 90s pop songs.

What's most offensive to music aficionados like myself is that they're all covers. Every one of them. The artists that originally performed them aren't even mentioned on the game's song list. The only way to tell who performed a song is to look the title up on the Internet. It's almost as if the creators were embarrassed by what they picked.

And the covers themselves? They range from “all right” to “cringe-worthy.” You'll really have to listen to them yourself, but I noticed quite a few flat notes as the singers chosen for the game seem like they should have stayed where they were most likely found – at a karaoke bar.

It wasn't as if Blink 182's “All the Small Things” was anything spectacular when it came out, and it fares much worse when the “talented” singers in the game try their rendition of it. Friends of mine that played the game with me would ask me why it sounded so off compared to the original. Just because it's a cover doesn't mean it has to be bad, right? Unfortunately, this is usually not so with Donkey Konga. “Busy, Child”, a favorite of mine from electronica artist The Crystal Method, comes off with much less enthusiasm than the original. What once got my blood flowing now leaves me ice cold.

They're not all bad, of course. “The Impression That I Get” from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones is a standout thanks to its chorus which seems perfectly suited for the bongos. Other decent titles include Willie Nelson's “On the Road Again” and Drew Allen's “Right Here, Right Now.” But then... there's “Like, Wow”.

“Ya know your kisses set me free (It's like, wow), Cuz when we touch, It's such a rush, I can't get enough, It's like, it's like...”

...like, wow?

Is the Rhythm In You?

What puzzled me quite a bit was that certain “notes” in songs appear completely randomly. I've played my own music on the piano, French horn, mellophone, and other instruments for over ten years and it seems like I know more about rhythm than the developers, because some notes are so out of place that it's simply maddening. I try to get in my “music mode” when I play this game, so I follow along very closely with the measures and note timing, but then some notes seem to come out of nowhere. They just don't fit the game rhythmically at all. The cover of the game box asks me, “Is the rhythm in you?” Well, yes, but not all the time in the game. While this isn't too big of a problem (the odd notes don't manifest very often), it's enough to make my scratch my head and just wonder, “why?” Clearly there's a lack of musical focus to this game which is disappointing, but remember, this is designed to be a mass-market friendly Donkey Kong game, not the dance-heavy Dance Dance Revolution.

If there's any point or purpose to this game, it's for multiplayer action. Getting four sets of bongos (you can use controllers, but who wants to do that?) together and a few friends can make Donkey Konga a great party game that can bring a crowd together thanks to the simple “pick-up-and-play” approach it has to newcomers. I think this is where Nintendo and Namco have succeeded the most, at creating an accessible title that a bunch of people can all play together with a song list that has “something for everyone”. In that aspect, Donkey Konga works very well.

Unfortunately, in order to get your hands on four pairs of bongos, you'll need to fork over the cash, and lots of it. The game and a pair of bongos set you back $50, but each extra set costs $30, pushing it well past the hundred-dollar mark for optimum enjoyment. It's to be expected; games that are based off of peripherals usually push the limits of your wallet, but it all depends on the game. Those who have played the legendary Guitar Hero on the PS2 know that it's a no-brainer paying for the game and a second guitar controller because the game's just so darn good. But it's hard to recommend the same for Donkey Konga. At least you can purchase generic bongos if you feel so inclined, as the official ones are a pretty penny.

Other things that might have been fun for two or more players would have been the included mini-games, but the three you can unlock with enough in-game cash are so poorly constructed that they make the mini-games in Nintendo's Mario Party series look epic in proportion. I won't go into too much detail here, but let's say that we were laughing more at how bad they were more than how much we actually enjoyed bashing King K. Rool. But hey, the bongos were made for drumming, so it's best to stick to that.

Unlockables - or Lack Thereof

You'll earn coins in the game by playing “street performances”, basically the one-player mode. However, the game is terribly unrewarding to the player. What you can unlock are either mini-games, sound sets, or harder versions of the same songs you've been playing. I've already touched upon the laughable attempt at mini games, but the sound sets are probably worse. These consist of three sound effects that replace the bongo sounds in-game. Nintendo and Namco have included sounds from old-school games like the original Donkey Kong and ones that are simply random like dogs barking or cars beeping to play every time you strike a note. However, these blips and beeps mar the songs even more. They sound completely out of place (maybe that's what they were going for). What's more, certain sound sets like the banjo actually play musical notes when you hit the bongos, and they're just random notes, not in tune with the song at all. Anyone that plays music knows that they're very much off-key and can tend to ruin the songs. It's like playing an G Sharp when you're in the key of C Major. It just doesn't sound right at all, especially in a music game.

The only thing really worth spending the coins on, then, are harder versions of the same songs that you've already played. That's right, no hidden songs are included in the game whatsoever. Not a single one to unlock. Why add more when you can keep playing the same two or three-minute “ditties” all over again? Or even without notes?

That's Jam Mode, by the way. It requires you to memorize every single note in a given song. This is beyond frustrating, or maddeningly difficult, or insanely upsetting, or whatever other adjectives I could come up with. Only true Donkey Konga nuts should ever approach this mode, as it will eat your children, and probably you as well.

If you do manage to clear songs in this mode, give yourself a pat on the back, because that's all you're going to get. No unlockables, no extra tracks, no extra sound sets or mini-games... Nothing. If personal satisfaction is your motivation for attempting what will give you hours of frustration, then have at it, but I'll stick to songs where I can read the notes, thanks.

No Rewards Means No Replay

And that's really the fundamental issue with the game – the replay value. It's pretty close to what I'd call zilch. Once you blast through the short song list on easy difficulty and then tackle them again on the harder levels, that's it. There's just so little incentive to ever come back and play them again except for the few entries that you really like or a couple bouts in multiplayer mode. This is simply because Donkey Konga fails to reward players for any real accomplishment outside of coins that don't even purchase anything particularly worthwhile.

I don't want you to think I hate Donkey Konga, because I don't. You've no doubt seen the score I've given it, that big and nasty number five, but rest assured that it doesn't mean it is a terrible game – just a mediocre one. I actually had some very enjoyable experiences in the game, mainly being the first few hours while I grew accustomed to the bongos (thinking, “hey, this is pretty fun!”) and some frenzied multiplayer battles. It was only after I exhausted the stinted song list, by myself and with friends, that I realized that my investment in this game just wasn't holding up.

I really liked the idea for Donkey Konga and I really wanted to like the game, but the sparse selection of hit-and-miss songs/covers, the lack of any real reward for your accomplishments, and the flaws that affect the core gameplay itself make it impossible to recommend anything above a rental to see if it might be up your alley. Because music is so opinionated, I can't tell you that the song list was absolutely terrible because you may like it a lot more than I did, but it is the truth to say that a lot of the songs sounded flat and their covers missed their marks by a mile.

Donkey Konga is a semi-enjoyable experience that could have been so much more if handled properly. Unfortunately, we'll have to stick with what we have, and it certainly won't make you say, “Like, Wow”!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/06, Updated 12/19/06