Joined Jun 2004
3K Posts | 0+
England
In December 99, I got Donkey Kong 64 for Christmas. I remember finding it to be pretty good, not in the same calibur as Donkey Kong Country for the SNES, but still a solid enough adventure game with plenty of variety and challenges. This adventure was shortlived, however, as a few months later the game "dissapeared" (please, don't ask how, but i'm pretty sure it was stolen). Now, almost 5 years later I have the game in my collection once again after seeing it very cheap in a second hand gamestore (you never know, it could be my old one that was stolen ). So onto my second opinion...
I'm not quite as far as I was the first time round (I got to the 5th level and am currently on the 3rd), but I still have pretty much the same opinion on it. This game really didn't do as well as it should, although I suppose it's down to the tough competition it recieved from other first party games like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time. The game's only fault (and sadly a fairly high one) was repitition. The game turns into a bit of a collect-a-thon, with 5 different characters to collect various items. However, there's enough variety to keep you going, and if you're patient enough it's an enjoyable enough experience.
The game boils down to this: You start off as Donkey Kong, wandering around an Island called "DK Isles" which is under attack from a huge boat shaped as the game's bad guy, King K.rool. You only have access to the first level at first, where you'll be able to rescue Diddy Kong. The 3D levels have simular themes to the DK Country games....a jungle, a factory, an underwater level etc. Your task in each level is to collect regular bananas, and also to collect golden bananas by completing certain tasks in a fairly "Mario 64" esque way. Each character has different ablities, and you'll only be able to get certain golden bananas with each one. Aside from ablities, the characters also have their own gun (Donkey has a "coconut shooter" Diddy has a "peanut pistol" and so on) and their own musical instrument which unlocks certain doors when you use the right characters one as well as wipes out badguys. The variable actions that you can do with each character is what makes the game so good in my opinion. You're urged to use each character if you want to progress. Once you've got enough regular bananas, you fight the boss and proceed to the next level and so on. Oh, and there's tons to unlock if you catch "banana fairies" in the game.
I reccomend anyone to at least try this gem out, but if you're not patient with collect-a-thon type games, then maybe you should give it a miss.