Donkey Konga (JPN) Review

Developer	Namco
Publisher	Namco
Genre	Puzzle

While Konami is the clear leader in the music/rhythm game industry, Namco has recently struck gold with its Taiko drum series. While the GameCube isn’t getting that particular drum game, Namco did develop an entirely new one for Nintendo. Based on the Taiko games, and featuring a Donkey Kong-styled barrel conga, Donkey Konga follows the same basic formula of the genre: icons appear on screen indicating where to step or what to hit in time with the music. Throw in some four player support and very poorly animated Donkey Kong characters and, well, that’s Donkey Konga.

Gameplay - The drum is a simple device, but it’s sturdy. Never did I worry about damaging it by hitting too hard, and the drums have a hand-friendly texture, insuring that the player won’t injure themselves after a long session. Truthfully, my hands do start to hurt after a while, but that’s from the clapping. There are two drum heads, as well as a clap sensor, which limits your moves to hitting the left, hitting the right, hitting both, and clapping. The clap sensor’s sensitivity can be adjusted, but I found the default setting to be just fine. Never did I miss a note because of a non-registered hit. The game also asks players to do drum rolls, and occassionally clap rolls (which are annoying, but fortunately only come up in a few songs.)

Perhaps it is because of that limited moveset, but Donkey Konga never becomes insanely difficult. As a veteran of many similar games, I was able to stumble through most Expert songs on my first try after just a couple hours of play. That, unfortunately, is the biggest strike against Donkey Konga. Without a Master mode or something similar, there is little reason to keep playing. The Expert songs, while difficult enough to play for fun, will provide little challenge to an experience Donkey Kongaer. Instead of a Master mode, Namco has given players a Cool Mode. Playable on any of the three difficulties, Cool Mode hides the notes, testing player’s memory skills. Unless pointless memorization is your thing, stay away.

Players earn money, based on number of notes hit and timing, for each single-player song they complete. In the shop, the money can be spent on new sound effects for the drums, mini games, or Expert songs. Yes, songs on expert difficulty need to be purchased in the shop. Most of the new drum sound effects were more annoying than anything else, like children yelling, dogs barking, and a man struggling to say “Donkey Kong.” The minigames, similarly, feel cheap and unnessacary. Making Donkey Kong climb up ropes and grab fruit by controlling his arms with conga drums is something that I just have no desire to do. That said, I do like the idea of the shop. It just needs some worthwhile items.

On the topic of worthwhile items, let’s talk multiplayer. There is a two player battle mode, where players compete for the highest score, but the most fun is in the four player mode. Each player in the quartet has a different set of notes to play. Player one might be playing the melody, while player two claps to the beat with players 3 and 4 providing drum rolls. Surpsingly, all of this goes along with the music quite well. Perhaps Namco spent so much time crafting four-player versions of each song that they forgot to do a Master mode. In any case, this is almost a worthy trade-off if you have the cash to get four congas. Players can play with just the controller, but it isn’t much fun. The computer will also fill in for any missing players.

Graphics - Rhythm games are certainly not known for their visuals, but Donkey Konga is one of the most ugly games on the GameCube. During each song, Donkey Kong sits in the corner, attempting to match your actions. When you clap, he’ll clap. This doesn’t really work, though, since he can’t begin his clap animation until your clap registers on the drums. It makes for some jerky animation, especially when you’re doing well and he begins to dance. Worse yet is Diddy Kong, who dances with about 6 frames of animation at the bottom of the screen. Finally, there’s the elephant. With a whopping three frames of animation, this little guy rears up on his hind legs over and over again. Okay, let’s get real, though. Everything that actually matters is easy to see. Notes are clearly distinguishable from one another and move across the screen smoothly.

Sound - One of the most important aspects of a music game is, of course, the music. The songlist contains just over 30 songs, and while my initial impressions of the selections were negative, much of the list has grown on me. There’s a good mix of genres here, from Latin and Classical to J-Pop and children’s songs. The best of the bunch is a new version of the Mario theme, but it’s too bad there aren’t more classic Nintendo themes in here, aside from the atrocious DK Rap. It’s not a great songlist, but is adequate for the first game in what will hopefully become a series.

Bottom Line - Donkey Konga is good, but it’s not great, and certainly not a must-have, even for fans of the genre. The lack of a Master difficulty really hurts the game’s longevity, and the songlist is pretty slim at just over 30. The multiplayer mode is a blast, but probably not worth the substantial investment of 3 extra congas. There are much better rhythm games out there, although this is currently the only one on the GameCube. I can only strongly recommend it to GameCube-only players, casual fans of the genre, or those that have simply have already played every other rhythm game and need something new. Of course, a Donkey Konga 2 with an expanded songlist and a Master difficulty will fix basically every problem with the game.

Importing: FreeLoader users beware, as apparently the game plays but will NOT save your data when using the FreeLoader. Saving is very important in this one, since you need to buy those expert songs. I absolutely cannot recommend importing for FreeLoader users. Those with Japanese or modded GameCubes could consider it, though, as the game is fairly import-friendly. All the menus are in Japanese, but it isn’t very hard to figure them out. Of course, almost all the songs are in Japanese, too, and that may or may not bother you. At the time of this writing, Donkey Konga’s coming to the USA has not been announced. As always, my recommended import shop is NCSX.com.

Review by Joe Mackie