"You'll find everything, and more, in 'Donkey Kong 64'"

Donkey Kong 64 is perhaps the most gargantuan game on the Nintendo 64. If you think Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie, two games of a very similar vein, were large and dense, you haven't experienced anything until you try this one. I love it when developers go all-out and throw in everything possible (that makes sense, anyway) to a game, and Rare made it no secret that they wanted Donkey Kong 64 to be a monster of an adventure. In fact, this game requires that memory expansion pak, which is fortunately sold with the game. Not many games on the N64 can say that.

I think the question on nearly every player's mind is whether or not it is too much of a good thing. There is a lot of game here to play, even long after you've beaten the final boss. There is an abundance of items to collect, among them being golden bananas (the Power Stars or Jiggies of Donkey Kong's world), regular bananas, blue prints, and crystal coconuts, along with the ammunition items strewn about the worlds such as oranges that act as grenades and food-inspired bullets for each monkey's weapon. Oh, and did I mention that there are five different characters to play as, each with their own musical instruments to play, colored bananas to find, coins to collect, and abilities to learn?

Yes. Gargantuan this game is indeed.

Adventuring Basics

The game starts simply enough, and by the middle of the third world becomes incredibly complicated and complex. You start your adventure with just Donkey Kong, and after learning the ropes of basic moves and meeting a few key characters, you'll enter the first world of the game, where you can rescue Diddy Kong, allowing you to play as the little monkey as well. In each of the seven main worlds, your biggest objective is to find the golden bananas. These allow you to enter the worlds themselves, though they aren't the only thing you'll need to continue your quest to save Donkey Kong's island. There are 25 golden bananas per world, five for each character.

There is a vast variety to the ways you'll collect these important golden fruits. Sometimes you'll need to find a specific barrel which transports you to a mini-game. Sometimes you'll be able to see the banana, but you'll have to figure out exactly how to get there. In each world, you'll find specific enemies that hold blueprints, and there is one blueprint per monkey per world. Turning in a blueprint earns you a golden banana.

Speaking of the worlds, they truly are gigantic. Some of them are the biggest single areas in any Nintendo 64 game aside from maybe Ocarina of Time's Hyrule Field, but even then, these worlds are packed with way more to experience. I will admit that some of them aren't terribly creative, but are beautiful to look at nonetheless. One of the better ones is the fifth world, Fungi Forest, that practically features two different levels depending on whether it is day or night, a unique property to this area.

Along the way, you'll also find regular bananas scattered around each world. Each character has 100 bananas to find, and with five different characters to play as.....yeah, the math is pretty simple there, and leads to a staggering amount of collectables. For the completionists out there, the 500 bananas in each world will likely drive you nuts, but you'll probably enjoy it every step of the way.

These bananas lead to a boss fight in each world. These battles are epic, as you face a foe much larger than yourself. They are very fun to fight and usually very unique encounters. The first couple have you facing off in traditional methods against the bosses, but the third changes the tactics of the overall fight, and then the fourth is completely different from anything you've faced thus far. Once you defeat a boss, you can face it at any time from the main menu, which is a neat little additional gift. My only complaint with these awesome encounters is that two bosses are repeated, which I didn't exactly understand, especially since they really didn't fit the exact theme of the second worlds in which they appear. They are tougher fights, sure, but I would have preferred seeing completely different bosses rather than more difficult retreads.

Defeating a world's boss nets you a key (yet another item to collect), which eventually leads you to the entrance of the next world, which you can open with golden bananas. See? Now the circle is complete. Were you able to keep track of all that? It is sort of complicated, but makes sense and isn't too difficult to understand as you play since the game keeps good track of what you have and don't have from each world.

How The Monkeys Play

One of the signature aspects to this game is playing as five different characters: Donkey Kong, Diddy, Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky. Going by only their names, especially the latter three, you can kind of guess what sort of abilities each of them will have.

Cranky Kong makes a return in this game, fortunately, and he gives a potion to each monkey in each of his various shacks throughout the game. The coins you find (yes, the coins are colored too, so there isn't just a mass pool of coins to draw from) will buy you these potions, and the abilities get pretty fun to play around with. Diddy, for example, gets a sort of jet as a backpack that allows him to fly. Tiny, in a not-so-surprising move, shrinks to a minuscule size, allowing her to enter locations the others can't reach. And Chunky does quite the opposite, as he can grow to a very large size.

Those valuable coins won't just buy you abilities, however - you'll also need them to buy a musical instrument and a weapon for each Kong. Now while the instruments may be different (and can thankfully be replenished via the same method for all of them) they all have the same effect: defeating enemies in the area as well as activating some sort of device nearby if you are standing on a character's appropriate instrument pad. The weapons are similar too, as each weapon can defeat enemies and activate switches all the same, and thankfully you don't have to collect different ammo types for each monkey.

You'll need to use the Kong's different abilities, weapons, and instruments to get each golden banana throughout the worlds. One way of playing is to take control of one monkey and do everything you can in the world at once. Another way to play, and one I usually preferred, was to tackle each world area by area, as floating barrels allow you to change characters instantly. Many times as you play with one Kong, you'll see a switch or instrument pad for another to use, which can become overwhelming and even exhausting at times. It is definitely a pattern throughout the game, especially starting a few worlds in when you have all the Kongs in your possession to play with.

With Great Depth Comes Great Fun

I know this review almost sounds as if I'm complaining that there's too much to do. Like I said, the game can become overwhelming at times, especially in the latter half. It feels as if it's almost too much of a good thing, which is probably the main reason I can't give this game a perfect score. I found myself going back through the same area five different times, once per Kong, and that got a little tiresome in the last world or two.

Regardless of that, however, the game is incredibly fun to play. Most of the golden bananas feature different methods of obtainment, whether it's a mini-game or finding your way through a difficult maze full of traps and enemies. If you're like me, and you get a kick out of collectathon-type games like this, you'll absolutely love Donkey Kong 64. There is absolutely no shortage of gameplay here, as it's filled to the brim with content. You'll be playing this for a very long time if you choose to collect everything (and if you do, good luck). Donkey Kong 64 definitely redefines what we think of in an adventure platformer, and it is one of the most engrossing games on the Nintendo 64.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/11

Game Release: Donkey Kong 64 (US, 10/31/99)