"Donkey Kong Goes to the 64"

Introduction- Donkey Kong has been around a long time and first came out on the Super Nintendo with the games Donkey Kong Country 1,2,and 3. Now it is out also for the game boy color and advance. Now the game is on the Nintendo 64 with all new characters and a ton of new levels. The game is in 3-D and the graphics are great. This is a great addition to the Donkey Kong series and it works great with the Nintendo 64 system. A new addition in the game includes three new cool Kong's but you will have to read further in this review to find out which new characters they added.

Gameplay/10-10/ The gameplay in this game is great. The controls are pretty easy to get the hang of with A being to jump, Z being to teleport, B being to bash into your enemies, and C Left being to pull out your gun and using B to fire a round of coconuts or peanuts etc. Some of the controls include pressing Z and A do do a back flip or a long jump, A and B to swim underwater, and Z and then A to do a long jump. The games difficulty is pretty hard with there being 8 different levels with many different objectives to do in each one (all the objectives have to be done with all five characters throughout the level). Including a boss after each level (they get harder as you progress through the game). The levels in the game include Jungle Japes, Angry Aztec, Frantic Factory, Gloomy Galleon, Fungi Forest, Crystal Caves, Creepy Castle, and Hideout Helm. It may also be difficult to complete some things because they may be hard to find or you can't figure out where to go etc. The game is very fun to play through and there are also THREE new characters added to the game. You can now play as Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, and Chunky Kong. All 8 levels in the game have different things that must be completed with each character having certain things to beat. All of the boses must also be played with a certain character (for example in Gloomy Galleon Lanky must play the boss and not the other characters). Overall the game is fun to play all around and has great controls. It definitely deserves on 10-10 in this category.

Story- The story in Donkey Kong 64 is to try to collect all the keys so that K.Lumsy can be released from K.Rool's
prison. K.Lumsy was locked up because he refused to hurt any of the Kong's. Throughout the game you also have to collect all the blueprints. There are also other things to collect like bananas, diamonds, blue coins, watermelons,oranges, film, etc. After every boss that you beat you will collect a key to unlock K.Lumsy's jail cell or cage like I said earlier. I don't want to spoil the ending of the game but if you know Donkey Kong you can probably figure at what will happen at the end of the game.

Graphics/9-10/ The graphics in the game for the most part look great. All of the levels scenery looks good and so do all of the Kong's. The enemies in each level also look quite realistic especially all of the bosses. But some parts of the levels look kind of bad and could have been made better. I think the main land with K-Rool's castle and all of the areas where you can enter levels looks the best (because of the water, the rain and thunder near K-Rool's castle, and the sun on the beach). Overall the graphics are good all around and there are VERY few problems with them at all.

Sound/9-10/ The sound in the game is alright with the Kong's talking and the sound of enemies getting attacked sounds pretty good. The guns that the Kong's shoot also sound pretty cool especially since bullets aren't coming out of them. Another good part of the sound is when the Kong's say stuff like ''mmm bannannas'' and ''pick me'' when you are choosing one of them to play with. The best part of the sound is the back ground music during the levels because it is played at the right times to make it sound cool. Overall the sound is good and there isn't really anything bad to say about it.

Value/10-10/ The games eight levels will take you a very long time to complete and you should be playing it easily for 10's of hours all together. So the playtime is very high and the game will take you enough time to beat 100 percent. The replay ability may not be as high once you have beat the game 100 percent but you still may try to want to beat the game one more time. It also comes with a multi player mode which can be played with up to four people. The multi player modes include Battle Arena and Monkey Smash. In Battle Arena you try to knock the other player off the platform using a weapon or a mystery box etc. In Monkey Smash you can either play survival mode, coin heard, a timed game etc. Overall the game will take you a while to beat, it has a multi player mode, and is definitely worth the money.

Overall- I would highly recommend buying this game if you are a Donkey Kong fan like me, but you may want to rent it just to try it out first. The graphics are tight and gameplay is sweet. The new character are also cool and have all different moves( including Tiny Kong's hair twirl thing). The games story includes eight long levels which will keep you busy for a long time. The two multi player modes are also a sweet addition to the game. It might be the best Donkey Kong game yet so you better try it soon and see what you've been missing out on. I rarely give a 10 to a game so you know this game is got to be awesome.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/04