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

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.

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.

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.

"It's bloated"

"It's too long"

"Fate/stay night is a good videogame"

Keep talking, we are not listening. This game is good because you will die before you see all the content in it