Donkey Konga

"A poor man's DDR."

Finally, a rhythm game that fellow cubers like myself can enjoy! I always enjoyed playing Dance Dance Revolution in arcades, as silly as it may be. Not owning a PS2, there was little I could do to feed my musical urges (well, maybe playing the Saxophone helped some). When I saw a Gamecube game featuring bongos as controllers, I had to have it.

Yes, the DK bongos are the highlight of this game, and without them it wouldn't be the same. When the game begins, you see that there are not too many options available to you. Street Performance is the single choice you have, and it's where all the action in the game is contained. From there you can select a difficulty and song to play, and it's time to play. If you've played DDR or other rhythm games (I haven't played too many so it's hard to compare it), you should know how it works. Four different symbols scroll on the screen: Red, Yellow, Purple, and Blue. Yellow means hitting the left drum, Red means hitting the right, Purple is both, and Blue signals you to clap (yes, actually clapping your hands). When the symbol lines up with a circle on the left of the screen, you do the appropriate motion. On the early difficulties, this is rather easy. The notes move slowly, and there are few of them. On the harder ones though, it takes a lot of skill, timing, and quick movements to complete, as well as time to rest in between songs.

Speaking of songs, the song list is pretty varied. There are a lot of old-school hits on here, as well as recent rock and rap songs, songs based on Nintendo games, and (ugh!) children's songs. It is pretty weird seeing so many different types of songs on one disk. Playing Locomotion, All the Small Things, and the Pokemon theme song right after the other can be a bit disorientating. Some may tell you the song list on DDR is better, and while it may be, it's refreshing to drum to songs that you are actually familiar with, instead of obscure japanese-esque ones. There are about 30-40 songs on the list, which is a bit small in my opinion. It's still fun to try and master these, though.

Jam sessions are the part of the game that you absolutely must try. The game is 1-4 players, and each person playing plays a different part of the song. Instead of competing, you each sound like a different section of a band. The game can be played with a regular gamecube controller, but I wouldn't recommend this unless you are limited in funds. All in all, Donkey Konga is a fun distraction from all the text-heavy RPGs and FPSs of today. If you enjoy rhythm games and need one for the cube, I highly recommend you pick this up.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/04