Thanks to Hamada for helping with edits.
My introduction to this medium came through my copy of Monster Bash, arcades, department stores, and my buddies. One of them owned a Super Nintendo and the first two Donkey Kong Country titles, both of which enthralled me. They were unlike anything else I had seen: silly and snarky, yet moody, exciting, and as photorealistic as their 16-bit hardware could manage. Their ambient scores are wonderful. And they’re fun to play, too. Only with the release of their flawed Game Boy Advance ports a decade later would I finally get to purchase Rare’s Country trilogy, and only through the Wii‘s Virtual Console service a few years after that would I experience them as originally intended. I adore all three, with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest proudly enduring as my second favorite game of all time.
Super Mario 64 and Rare’s first 3D platformer, Banjo-Kazooie (which I rented and watched friends play), left a strong impression on me. So did Rare’s second “collectathon,” but for very different reasons… (Image: Nintendo)
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The first console to enter my possession was a Nintendo 64, my first games for it were Mario Kart 64 and Super Mario 64, and through the former I rediscovered my old buddy Donkey Kong. Soon, I learned he was getting a new adventure of his own: Donkey Kong 64 (his partner, Diddy Kong, had also recently scored a racing spin-off, which I savored at friends’ houses). I was excited, eager to experience the gorilla’s biggest adventure yet!
I went through Donkey Kong 64 with my two best friends at the time; I saw the whole game. However, going through my copy alone was… strange. I couldn’t articulate why, but the game wasn’t capturing me like Mario 64 or Country. I… wasn’t having fun. Never before had I consciously disliked playing a game; I even gave up on it midway through. Over the years, I’ve made countless attempts to finish Donkey Kong 64 on my own—and, finally, have successfully done so. This “Beat the Backlog” article has been a long time coming, and since Donkey Kong’s my favorite platforming franchise, I only wish it was a positive one.
DK64 has five playable characters: Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and newcomers Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, and Chunky Kong. That was a major selling point to a young, starry-eyed Cart Boy, especially after Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie only had their headliners. (Image: Nintendo)
Super Mario 64 has 120 Power Stars as its primary collectible, Banjo-Kazooie’s got 100 Jiggies, and 201 Golden Bananas act as Donkey Kong 64’s; King K. Rool and his Kremling cronies absconding with them is what kicks Donkey Kong into action. Each stage—barring the eighth and final one, Hideout Helm—and the hub, the DK Isles, contains twenty-five, five for each playable Kong. Clearing an objective yields a Golden Banana, and a gatekeeper blocks you from entering new stages unless you possess a certain amount of them. One hundred are required to infiltrate Hideout Helm.
That’s not all, though! Five hundred color-coded bananas lurk the first seven stages, one hundred for each playable Kong; once you find and feed enough of them to an overweight hippo, the stage’s boss opens. A cell near DK Island holds the kind-hearted, excommunicated Kremling K. Lumsy, whose freedom is granted upon acquiring all eight boss keys. Returning a key causes the giant to cheer and dance, inadvertently opening up a new area somewhere along the island chain. Former Kremling technician Snide seeks forty blueprints, eight per Kong. You’re given a Golden Banana for each one and, more importantly, an additional five minutes to clear Hideout Helm (I suggest securing at least thirty). There are also twenty stray Banana Fairies to photograph, an optional task that unlocks cheats and extras.
Snide and the pig / hippo duo of Troff ‘N’ Scoff can be found in standard stages, as can the Kong merchants. Cranky Kong and Snide have bases in the hub, too. (Image: Nintendo)
And even more stuff’s required just to finish Hideout Helm! Cashing in the Nintendo and Rareware Coins yields its boss key, and getting those entails beating the original Donkey Kong—which is tucked away in Frantic Factory, the third stage—and Jetpac, respectively. Unlocking Cranky’s copy of Jetpac is done by earning fifteen Banana Medals, items you get by collecting seventy-five bananas in a stage as one Kong; there are forty in total. Oh, and four Battle Crowns are necessary to access K. Rool’s throne room, meaning you must endure at least four of ten combat gauntlets (nabbing one Battle Crown also unlocks DK64’s multiplayer mode).
Donkey Kong 64 is notorious for its collectibles, even holding a Guinness World Record for them. Now, yes, the game would undoubtedly benefit from trimming any of this fat. But DK64 having so many doodads isn’t itself the dealbreaker. What fundamentally ruins it is how unengaging discovering its stuff is. Stages should strategically use each Kong’s bananas to guide players; if you see, say, a trail of purple ones, it should lead to a Tiny section. But DK64 often—not always, but often—fails to do this. Not only that, but it‘ll lock Kong-specific places or things behind mechanisms that require another Kong to open, forcing you to backtrack to a Tag Barrel, change characters, and walk back. Stumbling upon something you can’t interact with or collect for purely arbitrary reasons isn’t gratifying; it’s frustrating.
Goofing off in these sandboxes, wondering what goodies lurk nearby should be fun, right? Sadly, it’s not, and Donkey Kong 64’s excessive backtracking is the worst kind of padding. (Image: Nintendo)
And what are those mechanisms that require specific Kongs? Well, Cranky Kong’s potions give each Kong new abilities, mechanic Funky Kong deals guns, and Candy Kong sells musical instruments (getting all of these requires spending color-coded Banana Coins, of course. Those are plentiful, thankfully). Each Kongs’ firearms and instruments have buttons and pads, respectively, that only react to them specifically.
Gloomy Galleon’s initial cave network perfectly demonstrates how poorly they’re implemented. In the center lies a Tag Barrel, and two banana trails guide players from there to big, open areas… that are locked behind gates that require other Kongs to open, forcing you to mosey back to that Tag Barrel. Another good example is Hideout Helm, where there are gates only Chunky can punch that block Tiny, Lanky, and Donkey Kong rooms. Aside from making you waste more time running around—in a timed stage, no less—why do those gates exist? I know I’m repeating my padding complaint, but repetition is the theme of the game: you effectively go through stages five times at minimum.
You can shoot enemies with each Kong’s firearm from a first- and third-person perspective, and using their instruments nukes the screen. Ammo crates litter stages, while blue headphones restore musical energy. (Image: Nintendo)
In terms of presentation, Cranky’s abilities are more compelling than Funky’s or Candy’s wares. Some of them nicely play into each Kong’s distinct characteristics, something the goofy Lanky particularly benefits from (though others, like Donkey’s lever-pulling power-up, are rather dull). Even if it’s a nightmare to control, Diddy’s jetpack can be fun to mess with, even giving him an easier time traversing a few maps (theoretically, the same should be true of Tiny’s Dixie-esque glide, though very little is set up to take advantage of it).
Unfortunately, these techniques otherwise aren’t additive. Diddy’s Chimpy Charge and Chunky’s Primate Punch are thematically similar, yet only the former can hit dongs and the latter wire gates for some reason. Several of these abilities also require specific pads or barrels to trigger and run on Crystal Coconuts (which are pretty bountiful, mercifully). In Banjo-Kazooie, new abilities grant more utility; they’re not just proverbial keys. The Talon Trot, for example, helps you up steep inclines and lets you run faster. Lanky’s equivalent, the OrangStand, only accomplishes that first bit and is only needed in a few places. DK64’s gimmicks aren’t comparable to earning a new weapon or tool in a typical Metroid or Zelda, either; those are toys to play with and master. Ultimately, Cranky’s drugs let the Kongs traipse over short, otherwise impassable routes, or activate gizmos, leaving no room for free-form experimentation.
Enemies are sparse, and save for the blueprint-guarding Kasplats—who have multiple moves and can potentially stun lock you for a sec—are uninteresting and avoidable. You’re rarely in any real danger. (Image: Nintendo)
Which is especially problematic since the five Kongs already struggle to differentiate themselves. Their gear functions the same, their special abilities are mechanically uninspired, and they even share a standard moveset: jogging, jumping, punching, crouching, a dash attack, air attack, ground pound, long jump, and high jump. Their running speeds are comparably slow and differences in jump height are negligible. This is a far cry from Sonic Adventure of the prior year, whose six-man roster (or seven-man, counting Super Sonic separately) offers distinct experiences. It’s also a far cry from Mario 64; the plumber’s far more acrobatic and fun to control.
However, alternating between five nearly indistinguishable primates to flip switches might not be too bad if Donkey Kong 64‘s stages were otherwise imaginative or bustling with life. Unlike Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie, which host smartly designed, intimate playgrounds, Donkey Kong 64‘s levels consist of largely flat, sprawling, barren rooms that link together through equally bland caves. Some try differentiating themselves with gimmicks: Angry Aztec has quicksand (which functions like lava, weirdly), Frantic Factory a labyrinthine setup, and Gloomy Galleon an abundance of water. Banjo refugee Fungi Forest’s time-changing mechanic affects which parts of it are accessible, which aggravates DK64’s already unsatisfying gameplay loop. Finally, Hideout Helm hosts the game’s worst minigames (more on those later).
This barren bit of Angry Aztec taught little Cart Boy that bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Seriously, even when accounting for each stage’s teleportation pads, which do help, moving from one section to another feels like it takes forever. (Image: Nintendo)
The only stages with clear, arguably engaging through lines are Jungle Japes, the introductory stage, and Creepy Castle, the penultimate one. Jungle Japes is primarily set up for Donkey Kong and Diddy, the first two characters, and your initial run through it guides you up through Funky’s shop, Snide’s base, and Diddy’s prison. While there are superfluous corridors and sections for the later Kongs, much of them are quarantined away from Japes’ central area. Creepy Castle is also a smidge nicer in how it structures itself, yielding another through line: you ascend the outskirts of the building while collecting bananas and triggering the level’s teleportation pads. This organically familiarizes you with Creepy Castle’s layout and is as considered as Donkey Kong 64 ever gets.
Still, nothing here emulates Country’s tight courses, where items and enemies are strategically placed to help skilled players weave along faster. What little actual platforming that does exist in Donkey Kong 64 is incredibly basic, too: you climb things, walk along thin boards or pipes, or jump atop blocky structures. Some traditional Country elements, like vine swinging and barrel blasting, carry over, though the latter’s primarily used for a minigame only the headliner can access (despite Diddy having more experience with Barrel Cannons, accounting for Country 2 and Land 2). Iconic Animal Buddies Rambi and Engardge return, but they’re only usable in enclosed areas and, of course, only respond to specific Kongs.
DK64 has moments of honest platforming, like ascending Frantic Factory’s lofty center. It’s brought down by the camera and the fact you’ll redo chunks of it, though. (Image: Nintendo)
Unfortunately, dozens of Golden Bananas are locked behind other minigames, too. Among other menial tasks, you’ll shepherd Gnawty beavers into holes, play the slots, and race a handful of eccentrics while collecting coins (and never as Diddy, oddly; shouldn’t this be his specialty?). And these minigames repeat across the whole game! Admittedly, several 3D platformers feature segments that have nothing to do with platforming, including both Banjos, some Marios, Sonics, and Pac-Man World. These half-baked variety acts usually fall flat, but rarely does a “platformer” rely on them so heavily.
Other issues plague Donkey Kong 64. Hitting enemies while dashing can cause you to unsatisfyingly recoil off them. Sometimes you’ll struggle to pull yourself up a ledge. Taking out your gun, instrument, or camera, or tossing one of the pointless orange grenades requires first pressing the Z button to crouch and then the corresponding C button, which gets clunky. Gauging your distance relative to items that are rendered as sprites—bananas, ammo, watermelon health, etc.—while swimming is unruly. Although the camera as a whole isn’t good, certain areas, some of which require carefully plodding along thin walkways, employ fixed, uncooperative angles. You must clear Donkey Kong twice to claim the Nintendo Coin, but if you fail an attempt, Donkey Kong has to boot the arcade cabinet up again, the animation of which becomes irritating. And a bevy of glitches and an inconsistent frame rate mar DK64 further.
Although I haven’t touched it since elementary school, I do have fond memories of DK64’s multiplayer mode. I imagine it’s still better than, say, its racing or mine cart minigames. (Image: Nintendo)
As for the bosses… well, they’re functional, oscillate in difficulty, and rarely employ any clever ideas. Army Dillo, the first one, is a perfectly serviceable introductory fight where you dodge straightforward attacks and retaliate by throwing explosive barrels. His successor, Dogadon, basically just copies him. Then the considerably tougher, more durable Mad Jack chases Tiny along a series of footholds that actually require her gliding ability. Then Lanky drives a boat around a pufferfish. Then Dogadon and Army Dillo get slightly more challenging rematches.
The last two bosses are collaborative efforts between the Kongs. Against King Cut Out, you’re stuck on a small platform, the prop moves along the outskirts of the arena, and hitting it requires entering the rotating Barrel Cannon. If you enter it while it’s facing the wrong direction, that Kong’s out, and it’s game over if you lose all five (or if the spawning grunts hurt you too much). Unfortunately, you’ll be fighting the static camera here more than any of the King’s goons. A match against K. Rool’s new wrestler persona closes the game; it spans five phases built around the Kongs’ gimmicks. Neither of these bosses are more engaging than their predecessors, but at least they feel appropriately grandiose.
The lengthy K. Rool duel’s the only time in Donkey Kong 64 where the Kongs truly unite together to accomplish something. Even Cranky, Candy, and Funky assist during cutscenes. (Image: Nintendo)
One of my admittedly more nitpicky complaints against Donkey Kong 64 is its tone. Stages in the Country trilogy could be quiet and contemplative, and while DK64 has moments of that, it prefers to accentuate Rare’s lackadaisical tendencies. Some of K. Rool’s new lackeys are normally-inanimate objects that sport googly eyes. Country veteran Klump now burps with gusto, and returning Kremlings generally look more saturated. Ultimately, DK64 hews closer to Banjo‘s cynical, coarse take on fairy tales than Donkey Kong’s more naturalistic series (even if Country 3 and Land III admittedly began drifting in this direction; the former does house Belcha). Later Donkey Kong platformers Jungle Beat, Country Returns, and Tropical Freeze, meanwhile, offer a bombastic propulsion DK64 lacks (the former through its energetic, bold reinterpretation of the franchise; the latter two through their dynamic stages), making Rare’s Kong swan song an aesthetic outcast.
Thankfully, though, Donkey Kong 64 has positive qualities. Its irreverent personality can be entertaining, elevating its cinematics (K. Rool’s characterization is a particular highlight). Grant Kirkhope’s pleasant score certainly suits this Donkey Kong; his DK Isles overworld melody proudly stands tall as one of the franchise’s definitive tracks. On a technical level, the game’s visuals are very impressive—seeing lights flicker and sway in caves blew my young mind—and Cranky’s jaundiced commentary in its manual is a funny, eye-opening treat.
Some of DK64’s locations, including Kong Quest homage Gloomy Galleon, can channel that classic Country aesthetic. Tragically, Galleon doubles as the game’s most boring stage. (Image: Nintendo)
And I do sympathize with the Country 3 team, who were in an unenviable position developing Donkey Kong 64. Its sillier veneer was inevitable given the Nintendo 64’s hardware limitations; Country’s lush jungles, grimy swamps, or forsaken, foggy forests wouldn’t carry the same gravitas if filtered through the machine’s bright, blocky models. And, crucially, this was the first 3D Donkey Kong title (Diddy Kong Racing notwithstanding) and it was made during a time when developing 3D titles was an arcane venture; a degree of experimentation is understandable. I also respect that DK64 performed well critically upon release and has plenty of fans who defend it as a fun, worthwhile interpretation of the series. One of them is Camelot president Hiroyuki Takahashi, who’s expressed interest in developing a sequel.
Plus, the valuable stuff Donkey Kong 64 introduced is still around. Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky got encores, with the former also scoring a (questionable, frankly) makeover by Nintendo. DK64‘s Krunch-esque Kritters remained their default look for a few years. Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Returns reappropriate Diddy’s Peanut Popguns and Rocketbarrel Boost, and Tropical Freeze gave Dixie and Cranky analogs to the former. DK64’s legendarily dumb, fun “DK Rap” is a Smash staple and even graced The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Donkey Kong 64 absolutely enriched the greater franchise, which it deserves credit for.
Another nitpick: it was a mistake not to include Dixie and Kiddy, potentially cementing them as series staples (Wrinkly’s the only returning Kong who debuted after the first Country). Still, I like Chunky, Kiddy’s successor, and Lanky’s endearing. (Image: Nintendo)
A stigma undeniably haunts the game, though. In 2002, when confirming that his company sold its share in Rare, then-Nintendo of America president Peter MacDougall cited the studio’s “recent track record;” one could infer that Nintendo was internally dissatisfied with Donkey Kong 64 (during its development, Shigeru Miyamoto was also allegedly horrified seeing DK use a realistic shotgun). Rare alumni joked about learning their lesson from DK64 when promoting Yooka-Laylee, their then-upcoming Banjo successor (which nevertheless did inherit some of its problems, oversized maps among them). Jonas Kaerlev cited Donkey Kong 64 as partially to blame for the downfall of collectathons when making A Hat in Time.
Donkey Kong 64 suffers from a litany of issues. Its most damning one is that it lacks an identity of its own outside the sheer novelty of being the only “proper” 3D Donkey Kong title. If I want to play a 3D platformer, I’d spring for one of Mario’s. If I want a collectathon, A Hat in Time and Banjo are better. If I want a nostalgic 3D platformer that juggles multiple characters, Sonic Adventure’s right there. Or if I want an exciting Donkey Kong adventure, the Country side scrollers, Jungle Beat, and arcade and side stuff have my back. Donkey Kong 64 falls short against all its contemporaries. We don’t know how well the game’s original premise, a 3D interpretation of Country’s linear stages, would’ve turned out, but the DK64 we got—an off-brand Banjo-Kazooie that’s five times its size but a fifth of the quality—remains disappointing.
Coincidentally, my recent string of articles have been kinda negative. I’m going to make a conscious effort now to discuss topics I like for a while, stuff that’s good. (Image: Nintendo)
- Beat the Backlog: Crazy Taxi - September 9, 2024
- Beat the Backlog: Space Channel 5: Part 2 - July 28, 2024
- Character Chronicle: Tiptup - June 29, 2024
This is a horrible article. Donkey Kong country games are terrible and boring as any side scroller would be. Donkey Kong 64 is a master piece and one of the greatest n64 titles ever made.
While I stand by everything I wrote in my critique, I am happy you enjoy Donkey Kong 64 and hope you’ll grow to appreciate the Country games.