The most over bloated collectathon there will ever be.
Why did I review this before Banjo-Tooie. I need to tell you the story of DK64 and how Rare didn't listen to the criticisms and thus kept making the same mistake over and over leading all the way to Playtonic's(the former Rare team that made all the classic collections)Yooka-Laylee.
I have a lot of nostalgia for this game. But it's not a good game. It's a test of your will. It's a test of your patience. It's the definition of tedious.
There is too much going in this game. At first, it's manageable. But it quickly becomes a tedious experience. I love collectathon, but this game pushes it too far.
Five characters all with their own things to collect. All with their own moves to get. All with their own areas they can access. Here's the thing though. You gotta switch characters constantly.
"Hey look, a trail of red bananas for Diddy leads to this gate and beyond. Wait...I need Chunky to open it. Sigh, let me go switch. (Opens it with Chunky.) Sigh, let me go back to get Diddy." This is the typical DK64 experience. Sometimes you have to get a move in a different stage all together to access something and it adds to the tedium even more.
The game runs at a solid 15 fps. A lot of things make it hit a good 5 fps. It's an ugly game. It doesn't control well. It's way too big for its own good. Some challenges are infuriating. On the official Wii U version some things are literally impossible with pause buffering. It controls worse on Wii U as well.
It is a charming game, don't get me wrong. I still love it. But it is a turd of a game. Especially the back half. The levels get larger and more obtuse. The character swapping gets even more tedious. The levels are uninteresting and bland. I will say the bosses are mostly fun.
This is not a game you want to 101%. It's such a chores. Back in the day it was fun because we didn't realize what a crime against nature the entire game was. You didn't realize the FPS was so terrible. You didn't realize how bad it controlled. Except for the obviously terribly flying mechanics. Even as a kid I found the constant character swapping tedious.
For the time it was amazing because how big it was. But that isn't really a good thing looking back on it. I know, I've done a lot of trashing on this game. It still is a fun experience. It is just very overwhelming to this day.
It's charming. The cutscenes are funny. The music is good. The first level is super fun and not too big. It's constantly giving you variety. Each character play uniquely different. None of them are so terrible that you don't want to play as them. You are constantly earning new moves or unlocking a new character. You get excited when you realize, "OMG, I can do this now!" The final boss, a bit infuriating at times, but still a very unique experience.
It's worth a play for collectathon fans. But you will lose your mind if you try getting 101%. I do not suggest doing it.
What do people say about this game? It's too big. It's too tedious. Too much collecting for a collectathon. This leads us into 1 year later to the release of Banjo-Tooie.
Why did I review this before Banjo-Tooie. I need to tell you the story of DK64 and how Rare didn't listen to the criticisms and thus kept making the same mistake over and over leading all the way to Playtonic's(the former Rare team that made all the classic collections)Yooka-Laylee.
I have a lot of nostalgia for this game. But it's not a good game. It's a test of your will. It's a test of your patience. It's the definition of tedious.
There is too much going in this game. At first, it's manageable. But it quickly becomes a tedious experience. I love collectathon, but this game pushes it too far.
Five characters all with their own things to collect. All with their own moves to get. All with their own areas they can access. Here's the thing though. You gotta switch characters constantly.
"Hey look, a trail of red bananas for Diddy leads to this gate and beyond. Wait...I need Chunky to open it. Sigh, let me go switch. (Opens it with Chunky.) Sigh, let me go back to get Diddy." This is the typical DK64 experience. Sometimes you have to get a move in a different stage all together to access something and it adds to the tedium even more.
The game runs at a solid 15 fps. A lot of things make it hit a good 5 fps. It's an ugly game. It doesn't control well. It's way too big for its own good. Some challenges are infuriating. On the official Wii U version some things are literally impossible with pause buffering. It controls worse on Wii U as well.
It is a charming game, don't get me wrong. I still love it. But it is a turd of a game. Especially the back half. The levels get larger and more obtuse. The character swapping gets even more tedious. The levels are uninteresting and bland. I will say the bosses are mostly fun.
This is not a game you want to 101%. It's such a chores. Back in the day it was fun because we didn't realize what a crime against nature the entire game was. You didn't realize the FPS was so terrible. You didn't realize how bad it controlled. Except for the obviously terribly flying mechanics. Even as a kid I found the constant character swapping tedious.
For the time it was amazing because how big it was. But that isn't really a good thing looking back on it. I know, I've done a lot of trashing on this game. It still is a fun experience. It is just very overwhelming to this day.
It's charming. The cutscenes are funny. The music is good. The first level is super fun and not too big. It's constantly giving you variety. Each character play uniquely different. None of them are so terrible that you don't want to play as them. You are constantly earning new moves or unlocking a new character. You get excited when you realize, "OMG, I can do this now!" The final boss, a bit infuriating at times, but still a very unique experience.
It's worth a play for collectathon fans. But you will lose your mind if you try getting 101%. I do not suggest doing it.
What do people say about this game? It's too big. It's too tedious. Too much collecting for a collectathon. This leads us into 1 year later to the release of Banjo-Tooie.
Absolutely horrid. Worst 100% experience in a game probably ever.
OOOOOO BANANA. kinda a lame repetitive game but its alright
OH BANANA 🍌
should've kept this one in the drafts
Oooh, Banana. I love this silly ass game. Even if there’s an insane amount of collectibles, even if there’s loads of backtracking, I don’t care. I love me some 3D DK and I want MORE.
fuck this evil, stupid, miserable behemoth of a game. seems fun and kid-friendly until you realize playing this shit is like reading ulysses. it never ends.
I want to start by defending Donkey Kong 64 against one accusation that is completly ridicoulous imo.
It is not responsible for the death of the 3D platform genre. 3D platformers were in a very good place during the PS2 era. If you're talking about the specific Collectathon subgenre, then again, this isn't DK64's fault. Collecthathons were designed how they were because the early 3D platforms couldnt allow for huge worlds, so creating small worlds dense with collectibles was the solution to that problem, once that problem went away, there was no need to continue that trend, as this was never really the ideal scenario. Beyond that, for DK64 to have actually influenced the industry in such a negative way, it would have had to have been poorly received, and unlike what it might seem today, DK64 was one of Nintendo's biggest hit of that generation, comercially and critically.
All that being said, Donkey Kong 64 is a good game that had very noble aspirations, that being becoming the biggest, most content rich 3D platformer on the 64. As such, it did what was thought best, and it filled its world with an absurd amount of collectibles. This was the best they could have done at the time, but this means DK64 has very poorly aged.
The 5 different characters are a great idea in theory, they allow you to see the world with a different moveset and therefore, find new and interesting stuff to do. Some say that the problem is backtracking, but I disagree that a game of this style with multiple characters is wrong to have backtracking. No the actual problem is that the characters are almost the same. Their movesets dont feel different enough beyond one traversal option and barred codes. This coupled with the fact that most of the time, backtracking isnt done in a way to interact with more of the world, but rather just to pick up what you couldnt otherwise with the appropriate Kong. You're not exploring, you're doing busywork.
I want to make clear, I think there's something unfair about how reviewers always seem to 100% this game specifically when they wouldnt do so otherwise. Every game, including the best ones, are a chore to 100%. But thats the thing. My playthrough was a minimalist one, I got 102 Golden Bananas, only got as much colored bananas as I needded. I got 4 battle arenas. And yet I am still exhausted and I dont want to go back to this game.
So what is good about the game? Well......the game itself? Like under all of that, you still got a pretty damn good exploration-platformer. But.....it's not as good as Banjo Kazooie. Like, even beyond the absolutely shitty way it handles its content. Banjo Kazooie is a more tightly designed game, with more memorable levels, better humour, better soundtrack etc. So it will unfortunately live in its shadow.
So.....good game, yeah.....but it has a lot going against it, despite me understanding why the game is how it is and respecting the dev's aspiration, I can't pretend its super compelling to play today.
It is not responsible for the death of the 3D platform genre. 3D platformers were in a very good place during the PS2 era. If you're talking about the specific Collectathon subgenre, then again, this isn't DK64's fault. Collecthathons were designed how they were because the early 3D platforms couldnt allow for huge worlds, so creating small worlds dense with collectibles was the solution to that problem, once that problem went away, there was no need to continue that trend, as this was never really the ideal scenario. Beyond that, for DK64 to have actually influenced the industry in such a negative way, it would have had to have been poorly received, and unlike what it might seem today, DK64 was one of Nintendo's biggest hit of that generation, comercially and critically.
All that being said, Donkey Kong 64 is a good game that had very noble aspirations, that being becoming the biggest, most content rich 3D platformer on the 64. As such, it did what was thought best, and it filled its world with an absurd amount of collectibles. This was the best they could have done at the time, but this means DK64 has very poorly aged.
The 5 different characters are a great idea in theory, they allow you to see the world with a different moveset and therefore, find new and interesting stuff to do. Some say that the problem is backtracking, but I disagree that a game of this style with multiple characters is wrong to have backtracking. No the actual problem is that the characters are almost the same. Their movesets dont feel different enough beyond one traversal option and barred codes. This coupled with the fact that most of the time, backtracking isnt done in a way to interact with more of the world, but rather just to pick up what you couldnt otherwise with the appropriate Kong. You're not exploring, you're doing busywork.
I want to make clear, I think there's something unfair about how reviewers always seem to 100% this game specifically when they wouldnt do so otherwise. Every game, including the best ones, are a chore to 100%. But thats the thing. My playthrough was a minimalist one, I got 102 Golden Bananas, only got as much colored bananas as I needded. I got 4 battle arenas. And yet I am still exhausted and I dont want to go back to this game.
So what is good about the game? Well......the game itself? Like under all of that, you still got a pretty damn good exploration-platformer. But.....it's not as good as Banjo Kazooie. Like, even beyond the absolutely shitty way it handles its content. Banjo Kazooie is a more tightly designed game, with more memorable levels, better humour, better soundtrack etc. So it will unfortunately live in its shadow.
So.....good game, yeah.....but it has a lot going against it, despite me understanding why the game is how it is and respecting the dev's aspiration, I can't pretend its super compelling to play today.
Loved every second even if I got stuck and had to return to it years later. It makes me sad that we will never get another open world DK game probably. With guns.
This game is amazing. More content than you can shake a banana at, insane boss fights, ear-worm level soundtrack. Fight me. It's not trendy to hate this game anymore, especially if you've never played it.
I don't know why people don't like this game. I guess nostalgia is a hell of a drug. My first video game :')
The ultimate collectathon platformer. Either you gonna love it or despite it based on your collectathon tolerance.
I personally can play a game without the need to collect everything, so I don't get frustrated of the amount of stuff you need to get in DK64.
Worse than Banjo Kazooie but still a great game.
I personally can play a game without the need to collect everything, so I don't get frustrated of the amount of stuff you need to get in DK64.
Worse than Banjo Kazooie but still a great game.
This game will make you eerily feel like a banana.
The one and only time mainline DK has been 3D.. Despite how slow, unfair, and horribly tedious it is I can't get myself to rate it any lower. It's so charming and both ironically and unironically funny in every way that made the experience feel far more bearable then it might realistically be. Everything from the music to the environments and the animations are so filled with life it's kind of shocking how its even able to work on the N64. This game deserves a full remake or a sequel for sure.
The one and only time mainline DK has been 3D.. Despite how slow, unfair, and horribly tedious it is I can't get myself to rate it any lower. It's so charming and both ironically and unironically funny in every way that made the experience feel far more bearable then it might realistically be. Everything from the music to the environments and the animations are so filled with life it's kind of shocking how its even able to work on the N64. This game deserves a full remake or a sequel for sure.
Good Game. Having lots of collectibles in a collect-a-thon is Good, actually
There is a saying that goes "You can never have too much of a good thing." This game proves that saying wrong. While extremely enjoyable, with tight controls, diverse play styles, a quirky and interesting story, and loads of things to do... there is almost too much to do. I do recommend this game, as just beating it is not a huge challenge and the methods for which to do that make replaying this game great, but getting 100% is exhausting.
I love the playable characters, atmosphere, and music.. but there were a lot of annoying minigames and the movement feels slow and stiff. the "too many collectables" argument only goes for 100% completion, which I would NOT recommend. very over hated game but still not without it's flaws.
OK
Eu ainda falo isso de vez em quando, no mesmo tom do DK
Eu sinto uma pequena tristeza de não ter vivenciado de perto o hype do Nintendo 64, por vários motivos. Eu era muito novo, não entendia quase nada à minha volta e meus pais não se importavam com isso, me deixando apenas com um NES pirata...
Eu via esse jogo em revistas apenas, e lá faziam questão de fazer parecer que era algo mágico demais pra ser real. Então, 15 anos depois, com essa facilidade que temos de adquirir certas coisas, fui ver do que se tratava esse jogo esse tempo todo.
Começamos com uma intro imortalizada que... eu parei pra ouvir uma vez, mas o ritmo se perde com a repetição, então é, não está no meu Spotify, eu garanto isso.
Logo de cara no jogo, posso dizer que os cenários 3D e a música da ilha do DK ganharam meu coração. Eu não sei porque sinto nostalgia por algo que eu nunca tinha visto de perto antes, mas algo ali era familiar. Então eu achei a primeira fase e é isso, aventura!
Bom, é aí que a diversão acaba mesmo. Eu ouvia falar que esse jogo era um collect-a-ton gigantesco, mas o quão gigante podia ser? Bom, do tipo de ter que explorar todas as fases com todos os 5 kongs pra pegar mais de 100 itens de cada vez de formas diferentes. Eu acabei notando que as fases eram labirintos enormes com coisas demais para fazer, e eu sentindo aquele medo de não querer fazer tudo de novo com outro personagem depois. Eu decidi parar após chegar no deserto... Simplesmente eu não me senti na paciência pra aquilo tudo.
É tipo se em Minecraft, você tivesse que explorar cada canto e caverna num raio de 500 blocos pra achar uns 5 diamantes... E DEPOIS VOLTAR E FAZER TUDO DE NOVO COM MAIS 4 PERSONAGENS!!
Eu me contentei em ficar andando pelo hub world da ilha do DK, ouvindo aquela música maravilhosa mesmo...
Não, esse jogo é lindo, e entendo perfeitamente todo mundo que ama ele, mas por mim, eu deixaria só enquadrado mesmo.
Eu ainda falo isso de vez em quando, no mesmo tom do DK
Eu sinto uma pequena tristeza de não ter vivenciado de perto o hype do Nintendo 64, por vários motivos. Eu era muito novo, não entendia quase nada à minha volta e meus pais não se importavam com isso, me deixando apenas com um NES pirata...
Eu via esse jogo em revistas apenas, e lá faziam questão de fazer parecer que era algo mágico demais pra ser real. Então, 15 anos depois, com essa facilidade que temos de adquirir certas coisas, fui ver do que se tratava esse jogo esse tempo todo.
Começamos com uma intro imortalizada que... eu parei pra ouvir uma vez, mas o ritmo se perde com a repetição, então é, não está no meu Spotify, eu garanto isso.
Logo de cara no jogo, posso dizer que os cenários 3D e a música da ilha do DK ganharam meu coração. Eu não sei porque sinto nostalgia por algo que eu nunca tinha visto de perto antes, mas algo ali era familiar. Então eu achei a primeira fase e é isso, aventura!
Bom, é aí que a diversão acaba mesmo. Eu ouvia falar que esse jogo era um collect-a-ton gigantesco, mas o quão gigante podia ser? Bom, do tipo de ter que explorar todas as fases com todos os 5 kongs pra pegar mais de 100 itens de cada vez de formas diferentes. Eu acabei notando que as fases eram labirintos enormes com coisas demais para fazer, e eu sentindo aquele medo de não querer fazer tudo de novo com outro personagem depois. Eu decidi parar após chegar no deserto... Simplesmente eu não me senti na paciência pra aquilo tudo.
É tipo se em Minecraft, você tivesse que explorar cada canto e caverna num raio de 500 blocos pra achar uns 5 diamantes... E DEPOIS VOLTAR E FAZER TUDO DE NOVO COM MAIS 4 PERSONAGENS!!
Eu me contentei em ficar andando pelo hub world da ilha do DK, ouvindo aquela música maravilhosa mesmo...
Não, esse jogo é lindo, e entendo perfeitamente todo mundo que ama ele, mas por mim, eu deixaria só enquadrado mesmo.
Too many collectables.
This review contains spoilers
During the final boss fight against K Rool when you play as tiny, you use her powerup to get super small and you're like...what the...how does being small help me HERE!!! but then you see a small hole in K Rool's shoe and you're like OHHH!!! and THEN you gotta dodge his toes! and they make a silly sound when they move!!!! what a cool game...
Went to first level. Had 40 bananas. Saw that there is 3500 bananas total.
Nah.
Nah.
Donkey kong
funny monkey
WOHHHHH BA NA NA
Long ass game
golden eye co-op was good. Grant Kirkhope and the rest of the sound team killed it.
On paper, I can't bring myself to hate "Donkey Kong County, but Banjo Kazooie instead"...in execution? Well...those people that say that they kind of went a bit overboard with it kind of have something there...they put a bit TOO much stuff in this game, and it really was to its detriment at the end of the day
Don't get me wrong, a lot of the stuff that people love about the N64 Rare era is still here, but, like, having to essentially play the game 5 different times just to collect everything? Yeah...not their greatest look
Having said that, however, there DOES exist a ROM hack that solves a lot of these problems, where you're allowed to switch between the Kongs whenever you want to, and if I were to recommend someone play this game now, that's the version I'd point them toward
Don't get me wrong, a lot of the stuff that people love about the N64 Rare era is still here, but, like, having to essentially play the game 5 different times just to collect everything? Yeah...not their greatest look
Having said that, however, there DOES exist a ROM hack that solves a lot of these problems, where you're allowed to switch between the Kongs whenever you want to, and if I were to recommend someone play this game now, that's the version I'd point them toward
No se cuando lo conseguí pero fue de segunda mano y fue porque necesitaba el expansion pack para jugar al Majora's. Me encantó el juego y me lo terminé pasando.
Nostalgia shielded me to how bad this game really was
lets take the banjo games but make all the items take five times as long to collect. also lets spam boring minigames everywhere. BUT the music and environments are still fun so its not all bad.
Infamous for allegedly "killing the collectathon genre", Donkey Kong 64 is an Xtra-Large gorilla sized 3D adventure to burn lots of hours into.
It does use a lot of the bells and whistles that could only be offered with the 8MB RAM upgrade such as more advanced lighting effects among other rendering gimmicks, if you see it with the historical context, this was an obnoxiously ambitious project to push the N64 into new frontiers.
Nevertheless, plenty of features get old quickly over time, admittedly plenty of the cartoony SFX could go chill out more often for the sake of our ears.
Now if you're looking for something beyond Super Mario 64 or the two Banjo games to sink a lot of your time into, this one will be what the doctor ordered.
It does use a lot of the bells and whistles that could only be offered with the 8MB RAM upgrade such as more advanced lighting effects among other rendering gimmicks, if you see it with the historical context, this was an obnoxiously ambitious project to push the N64 into new frontiers.
Nevertheless, plenty of features get old quickly over time, admittedly plenty of the cartoony SFX could go chill out more often for the sake of our ears.
Now if you're looking for something beyond Super Mario 64 or the two Banjo games to sink a lot of your time into, this one will be what the doctor ordered.