Donkey Konga

"Going ape over the rhythm"

Follow my rhythm…

Hesitantly, I picked up the bongo-shaped controller at the local game shop, which had a Gamecube demo disc featuring the brand-new Donkey Konga. I watched a few other people play it before, and I'd read up on it beforehand, but was still somewhat skeptic. While some songs, like Oye Como Va, seemed perfectly set for the type of gameplay I expected, others like the Pokemon theme did not seem to fit with the experience.

I selected Oye Como Va for my first run, because I was rather familiar with the song beforehand. I drummed in spurts, and rather nonrhythmic at that, to keep up with the flowing half-circles and other “snowflakes” coming at me, and my beats were shoddy at best. Eventually, I picked up which symbols represented what, and I was good to go.

Just nearing the end of the song, I got the gist of Donkey Konga. There is more to understanding it than being able to interpret the symbols. A lot more goes beyond learning a snowflake means to make a sound, or that the white vertical line represents the start of a new measure. Actually, the interface is rather simple.

Rhythm games are slowly seeping into the mainstream, and it's rather interesting to see. Of course, the most popular example is Dance Dance Revolution, which I more or less enjoy, but games like Taiko Drum Master, Guitar Hero, and Donkey Konga enter the market which incorporate a lot more interaction than a standard video game.

I like what Donkey Konga does, and it is a good way to bring non-players into the world of videogames. For innovative, accessible games, this is a step in the right direction. The presentation is straightforward, most everything is accessible from the get-go, and the gameplay is incredibly fun. Donkey Konga became a success right after its 2004 release.

The… story?

There is a general background story involving Donkey Kong and his companion Diddy Kong happening upon a set of mysterious barrels, which Cranky Kong explains to be bongos. The two younger Kongs wham and beat to their heart's content, but stink at it, as the game explains. Cranky insists practice, and DK and Diddy decide to go on tour and become music legends. It's something along those lines.

The same team at Namco that was behind the similar Taiko Drum Master for the PS2 / arcade designed Donkey Konga, whose layout and gameplay is quite similar to its counterpart.

The interface and the peripheral

This title for the ‘Cube plays exclusively with the DK Bongo peripheral. Players navigate the menus by pressing left and right on the bongos, and with a ‘START' button situated inbetween the two drums, everything is in place and easy to control.

Nintendo, as well as anyone who has played this game, would strongly recommend playing with the DK Bongo peripheral. For as little as fifteen dollars apiece, the controller is rather sturdy and, thankfully, can take quite a beating.

Featuring a plastic rim looking like barrels found in a typical Donkey Kong game, the bongos feature two soft pads with sensors underneath which register hits. Players can hit these as soft or as hard as they'd like, but to let them last longer, playing softly will help. Even a motion as soft as tapping a pointer finger will register a response.

Inbetween the two bongos is a small microphone, which picks up any percussive sound. Players usually clap to trigger a sound, but tapping the side of the bongos, snapping fingers, or simply yelling will do. For convenience's sake, clapping hands will keep both hands close to the bongos, or tapping the bongos along the side will ensure that the player's hands will never have to leave the drum. How a player plays Donkey Konga is entirely up to them.

Along with simply hitting drums or clapping individually, players may have to hit both drums at once or do some sort of roll. A roll might consist of doing a drum roll on either bongo, both at once, or a “clap roll”.

The game plays as simply as the controller looks. The goal of each song is to keep along with its beat and hit as many notes during the song as possible, racking up points and /or coins, depending on the mode. Symbols scroll from right to left along a straight line, and it is the player's job to hit the drum according to the symbol when it reaches a small circle along the left of the screen.

By playing well, players can rack up combos, points, and / or coins. Combos are two or more consecutive “Good” or “Great” ratings. Drum rolls do not count in the combo, but the more hits during a drumroll, the more points and / or coins the player earns. Even if a song features a lot of rolls, a player can receive a perfect combo without performing any rolls, as long as each individual beat was played correctly.

The main mode, “Street Performance,” is the main single-player mode. Players choose from songs of initially two difficulty levels, and can earn coins based on their performance in playing songs. All songs are available from the get-go, and the coins earned in this mode (also being the only mode where players can earn coins) can be used to buy special things in the game's shop.

Also, a mode exists in which players can play through the “Street Performance” arrangement of songs without any note cues, meaning that the players memorize the beats and when they come, and this is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Multiplayer modes eliminate the coin aspect and allow players to go at it cooperatively or competitively playing to the music. Though there are no serious consequences in the game, players can compete against each other for highest combos or so on. A Challenge Mode for single or several players allows for direct competition.

The Battle Mode in Donkey Konga, though, like most other Nintendo-related multiplayer titles (Mario Kart, the Mario Party series), may rely too much on chance to be enjoyable. Battle mode, as well as Challenge, are limited to only two players. Certain trios of notes trigger a slot-machine while a song is playing, and the results of the slot machine can take points away from the opposing players or double the points of the winner. This can severely through off the balance of the competition, and while some might like this random aspect, a rhythm game's multiplayer should be, well, about the rhythm.

However, the multiplayer modes can be entirely rewarding. It can be fun to simply wham on the bongos and be a rousing bongo quartet, but two things can maximize the experience. First and foremost, four humans in the Jam Session mode make things all the more fun. If an AI takes over for one of the bongo parts, everything is played perfectly by the AI, and though this can help keep non-rhythmic players on the beat, it eliminates from player interaction a little. Players would then feel inadequate, and this can take away from the fun.

Donkey Konga, as a product, is not entirely about the rhythm. That is to say, players who want to master a music title, treating it like DDR, will probably not find too much challenge. The bongo drum controller and the sheer accessibility bring this product to make it what it is. Playing the game with people who just want to play can be very fun, but playing it with those who want to truly drum is a new game entirely.

In the four-player mode, Jam Session, the arrangements are woven in very intricately, requiring equal participation from every player. Experienced musicians will notice subtle nuances like switching between melodies, paradiddles, sixteenth notes, sextuplets, and other intricate beats. Players one and three may play a beat, then two and four “answer” it back, perhaps playing it oppositely. Contrastingly, one player may be clapping the upbeat or the downbeat, while others play different parts of the general melody. Listening to a well-experienced bongo quartet is rather rewarding, especially when the player is a part of it.

Mini-games, like a K. Rool version of Whack-a-Mole, can be purchased at the game's store, but these are mere novelties. These are not particularly rhythm-based and require just a bit of drum-rolling or clapping, but there are no musical ties. I've generally skipped these in favor of Jam Session when three excited drummers are with me, ready to play. The mini-games in Donkey Konga 2, however, are much more satisfying, for they involve capturing and manipulating a rhythm.

DK Town is a store where players can spent coins they've earned in the Street Performance Mode. Alternate bongo sounds, “Gorilla” (hardest) difficulty songs, and mini-games can be bought, giving players access to all sorts of new content. In the store, though, prices can fluctuate wildly. A set of bongo songs can cost from eleven to twenty-three thousand coins. “Gorilla” songs usually cost about 4000-5000 apiece, with the more children-oriented songs generally the cheaper ones. All three mini-games, total, cost about 17,000 coins to purchase. Bongo sounds can be important from one Donkey Konga to the next, which can be a treat.

Overall, the DK experience can be enriching and endearing. From a casual gamer's perspective, the eye-catching controller can bring newbies to the table, while seasoned musicians will get a kick out of rousing quartets and creative beats. A lot of this enjoyment comes, too, from the song selection.

Monkey Shines

Over thirty songs are in Donkey Konga's lineup. Nintendo has gone all over the musical spectrum. Of course, as players would predict, some Latin and swing percussion pieces are thrown into the mix (Sing Sing Sing with a Swing, Oye Como Va), but from there, a bongo basher can expect anything from modern rock (Blink 182's All the Small Things), Nintendo television show themes (Kirby, Pokemon), Nintendo Latin-style classics (Legend of Zelda theme, Mario Bros.) country (On the Road Again), mo-town (You Can't Hurry Love, Dancing in the Street) and even some house.

With an array of music such as this, players can expect to find at least one song they'll like. The covers here are also quite authentic-sounding, and some I could hardly discern the new version from the original. Other songs in the selection, though, are questionable. “Diddy's Diddies” (Happy Birthday), “Bingo”, “Campfire Medley” are all “jazzed-up” renditions of children's folk songs from back in the day. These, to some, are completely ridiculous, and I doubt children will want to play them. Fortunately, songs like “We Will Rock You,” “Wild Thang,” “Louie Louie,” “Right Here, Right Now,” and others bring the game to more contemporary audiences.

What's important here, of course, is variety, which lends more to its accessibility. I commend it. Keep in mind, too, that I am reviewing the U.S. build of Donkey Konga. The European release, from what I understand, has a different song selection, and the Japanese version has a far different song selection as well.

That is the most important part of the sound department, of course, but there is something I would recommend. Do not waste too much time purchasing bongo sound sets unless a completionist is reading this review. Some might like to listen to NES-style sounds as opposed to the bongo sounds set as the default, but a lot of the sound sets serve merely as distractions. “Cold” is just people sneezing and coughing, and “Whip It” is, well, whipping and “Ouch!” sounds. On top of that, some sounds last more for two beats as opposed to the standard one, that is to say, two sixteenth notes or two eighth notes. That can throw any player off. Instead of a chorus of stately bongos, players could instead have hollering barnyard animals, space lasers, country strumming banjos, and Super Mario Bros. noises all at once. A cacophony!

A very simple interface

I'm also disappointed that the interface could generally be done on N64 hardware. Of course, what's important here is to be able to interpret the notes without any visual distraction, and in that regard, this game does well. For observers, though, it can't help but be noticed that the backgrounds and characters are really quite primitive in this day and age.

Similar to the older Donkey Kong Country games, DK, Diddy, Cranky, and the rest have a pre-rendered look to them, but these models do not have many more polygons than they did in, say, DK 64. Backgrounds are also rather bland and uninteresting: a beach, a cave, and so on simply accentuate the action. Characters also move awkwardly. While players beat out a song, for example, Diddy sometimes does a little dance at the bottom of the screen, which is only about five frames of animation. I find it funny, though, that DK flails his muscular arms around like a lunatic when the bongo is not being played, even inbetween notes. He'll hit a right bongo, then flail his arms for a split second, then make a jerky motion hitting the left bongo.

Despite the lack of visual flair, the interface is easy to use and understand. Players might wonder where the detail of such 2-D masterpieces like DKC 2 have gone, but that is not what the game is about.

A Few Words of Warning

Donkey Konga is a loud game. Be sure to play in a closed room or among people who don't mind the noise. Also, play with the bongo on a flat surface, or the clap sounds may not be registered when the drum is uneven. The game only registers hits that are made, and extra noise doesn't count, but it would be best to sit far enough apart that the bongo does not register other people's claps. For example, if the game calls for a left-right for player one, and another player's screen calls for a clap-clap, player one's mic might pick up one or both of the claps, and register that instead of the left-right. This will throw off combos, and the problem has happened to be more than once.

Also, please play with the DK Bongo peripheral. That will make the entire experience whole.

Catch the Music, Drum with the Music

Donkey Konga does a lot of interesting things, and I have seen a lot of people really connect with it. I brought this over to a neighbor who has MD, and he played this game like nobody's business. It was heartwarming to see that a videogame, of all things, could lighten up his spirits and help him to interact. Enough of the sob story, though... For an enriching multiplayer experience, good songs, and good fun, give Donkey Konga a try, if catching the rhythm won't be so hard on the checkbook.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/05/06