Donkey Kong 64

"Look a Donkey Kong game WITH Donkey Kong!"

Although continuing the DKC series from the Super nintendo its been given a '64' name title, but you can really just see it as DKC4.

Story (The Big Meat of the game, Is it collect the crystals or become the best farmer ever?) 4/10
The story is pretty bland and has been recycled too much from the previous games. King K. Rool has stolen Dk's golden Bananas, kidnapped his friends all in a few minutes after crashing into a giant rock (how can anyone miss that?). By doing those evil deeds K.Rool now has time to repaired the ship he crashed into the rock which caries his weapon to blow up Kong Island, The dreaded Blast O' Matic. So basically its the old big weapon threat that will never come true.

Game Play (Does the Spiderman game feel like your slinging through the air? or does Spidey feel like a drunk skunk driving a tractor trailer?) 7/10
This is a pretty easy game to get through, well at least in terms of tasks and bosses. Finding your task locations has to be the most grueling and annoying tasks in platformer history. While other great N64 platformers had small worlds and hard to do tasks, this games does the opposite. A great example of this torture is the power on task that Dk must do to let Frantic factory turn on. You have to travel all around the level to reach the top floor and then all that traveling done just to press the B button once! Another thing that bugs me is that most levels are freakishly empty having little enemies at all (theres only 19 enemies and only Krusha is a road block in travels). Besides this the game is pretty straight forward and easy to play.

Controls (Do the characters run like the wind or run like a chair melted to the ground?) 8/10
The response to controls is great! I don't remember ever cursing about the bad response as it is quick besides in the water. As I see it rare must have had major troubles with the water controls and response to them as they barely work half the time i push the swim button. So you end up losing many underwater mini-games about a thousand times. Luckily there is only one water like world and it goes by very quickly.

Graphics (A Beautiful lush Rainforest or Glitchy Athletes, What are they?) 10/10
This was one of the first games to use the expansion pack in full force. With that added touch it really makes everything look great. While the nintendo 64 still has blocky characters like all the games, the blockiness is cut down extremely to the point were few things look freakish. As for the scenery its vast and beautiful with all kinds of little touches like blowing sand in Angry Aztec or malfunctioning equipment in Frantic Factory.

Music (Does it sound like a Violen being played with your feet?) 10/10
If you expected the music you got from DKC where everything sounded appropitely then your in for a shock, because it is still. Every track goes perfectly with the scenery. Creepy Castle as a creepy tune, Jungle Japes has a nice jungle beat, Angry Aztec sounds like an old egypt scene from movies, etc. One little thing i didn't like personally was the fact everything was so upbeat in fungi forest when its like a battlezone from hell whenever you run into the weakest enemy.

Sound Effects (The little boops and bings that give it that extra touch) 10/10
This game will remind you of Banjo Kazooie the more you play as so many effects sound edited from it. The effects aren't annoying but are loud enough so you can hear them with the volume down low. You'll rely on these sounds alot to see if you hit anything when you can't see that far out.

Mini-Games/Extras (Is it a nice little break from the game or a forced torture process?) 10/10
Some of the minigames here are so frustrating i almost broke the dang cartridge. Actually they were midly annoying but i liked them for the most part. Maze games, classic Arcade games, shooting games, and a very odd herding game. All fun and easy to get through. I'd have to say Rare did a perfect job here.

Replay Value (Would you ever go through this long/short game ever again without a gun to your head?) 5/10
While it took me 5 times and restarts to finally beat crystal caves, I would never do it again as once you get to crystal caves the fun is just repeated and dull.

Multiplayer (Have fun with your friends as they beat you bad...) 9/10
DK64 has a nice battle mode where you can choose any of the 5 kongs and 1 big hulking reptile. There are 3 battle arenas and each vary greatly in size and shape. If you replay anything in this game that will be it. You can also play the King of the Ring type game with a few twists but it still is pretty flat.

Overall (Where math really can be painful) 68/90 =7.5

Final Comment (And now my final thought...)
I would defenitly recommend buying this great N64 game as you will have a fun experience even if it repeats the tasks near the end. DK64 has many great things that will keep you busy even after you complete the grueling task of beating this tower of a game like Multiplayer Battle, DK Arcade, Jetpac, and some other games.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/03, Updated 02/02/03