Pros: The graphics are excellent, expansion pak requirements allowed them to pull off some pretty fancy shmancy lighting effects on considerably high poly models for the N64. They knew graphics were what put DKC on the map, so they couldn't cheap out for the N64 successor. Animations are also pretty vibrant, characters are full of plenty personality and movement, with, maybe even a little too much toony squash and stretch. But one thing's for sure, everyone looks full of life. And they control great, the base mechanics for movement and gameplay, actually feel solid. And these characters are all pretty fun, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are joined by newcomers Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky, in a grand open sandbox 3D platforming adventure game, like Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. It's huge, and being huge means it comes with the good and the bad. The good, the worlds are all vibrant and offer plenty of variety, colorful areas with boppy fun music, and some nice bonuses, like the entire arcade DK and even Rare's first game, Jetpac, fully playable.

Cons: The bad... the game forces backtracking by making you switch characters at specific areas, to then travel through areas to grab collectibles that only that specific Kong can collect, and often, these are areas you've been to before with other Kongs, artificially making the game feel bigger, when really it's just bloat. And it's not fun bloat either, not that bloat ever really is. They say it's the journey, not the destination, but if the journey is the same journey I've done three or four times before, and the destination is a purple banana, it's not much of a journey, or much a destination. So what's the point? They shoulda gotten rid of all that, just make it so any collectible can be grabbed by any Kong, and the abilities of the Kongs themselves are what allow you to gain access to new areas and challenges. That's all... I mean, that's a big fundamental change, but it would've saved the game. Oh well.

And for some personal annoyances, as a DK fan. Why Tiny and Chunky when Dixie and Kiddy are right there??? Also, I love Grant Kirkhope, his compositions in the Banjo-Kazooie series are perfection. But... His style doesn't really fit Donkey Kong, you know? Not everyone can be David Wise, sure, but Evelyne Novakovic and Kenji Yamamoto still nailed the style of DKC, which is more atmospheric and ambient. Whereas Grant's music is oompah-pah boppy bop xylophone goofaround. Not bad music, but not what I've come to expect from Donkey Kong... Also yeah, the over abundance of squash and stretch is a bit too toony for DK too. Look, I just really dug the "fractured realism" of the original DKC series, and this game doesn't really follow the same look and feel as them.

What it means to me: There was no game I was anticipating more when the N64 was revealed, than the future Donkey Kong 64. I would skip to the end of every issue of Nintendo Power I got in the mail, to see if it was listed in the "future release" section, and for years, nothing. Then out of the blue in 1999, it SHOWED UP!! I was, yeah, hyped. But, I had certain ideas for what a DK64 should be in my head, after years of hoping and dreaming. And those ideas didn't quite line up... Yes, I wanted a big 3D adventure game like Super Mario 64 and B-K, got that, but the rest? I imagined DK, Diddy, Dixie, and Kiddy, the four playable Kongs from the DKC trilogy, now all together for the four-player featured N64 system, like that was a marketable feature of the system! That and more animal buddies (we ended up getting Rambi and Enguarde in this, they're alright, but barely used, and you don't even ride them, eh) And of course, David Wise, the more naturalistic art style, etc etc. Instead we got a Banjo-Kazooie tryhard, and it feels kind of wrong comparing one of the worst 3D platformers to one of the best, but you can tell, this Rare team looked towards Banjo-Kazooie for direction, but dropped the ball hard... It was all something that was really hard for me, a huge DK fan, to come to grips with. It's not without its qualities, but it's mostly a disappointment.

this is it

the best collectathon platformer

doesn't get any better than this

Considering how much this game and its more negative aspects have been talked about to death by many people, I'll try to keep this brief as much as possible. To me, this feels like the epitome of a double-edged sword for video games, since, despite the huge issues I have with the game, I still had a lot of fun with the game and I can appreciate Rare making the biggest and most expansive game that they could for the N64. I love how incredibly flexible the game can be in how you collect the various collectibles needed to beat the game since I was rather overprepared for the later worlds and kept getting stuff like golden bananas, banana medals, and blueprints that, in hindsight, I didn't need, and I surprisingly liked that. I felt the game allowed you to traverse these worlds however you wish in a way that feels comfortable yet still encourages you to collect the various items needed for the game. It's a good thing as well because I also really enjoyed most of the worlds (with the only real exception being Crystal Caves), thought all of the bosses were amazing, got a kick out of all the playable Kongs, enjoyed some of the neat one-off things it provides like the playable Donkey Kong Arcade and Jetpac, and enjoyed the graphics and music.

Despite my enjoyment, there were a few major issues that held it back from being a truly great game in my eyes. The one most people refer to is the game's serious pacing issues, thanks to the amount of backtracking you have to do with the colored bananas, which are required to beat the game, and having to switch to the Kongs in certain locations. While the locations of the Kong changes were, for the most part, rather convenient, having to constantly do that and go back to the same spots on the map just to collect 5-10 bananas gets rather tedious after a while and spoils the pacing of the game when you go back to the same areas again and again mindlessly just to look for 10 bananas to open the boss gate. There were a few other issues I had with the game as well that kind of ruined the experience in a few areas, mainly how somewhat finicky the swimming controls can be, Diddy's jetpack mode being a pain in the ass to maneuver around, some of the bonus stages being rather poorly thought out (Mainly Beaver Bother and Splish-Splash Salvage), and some of the platforming being surprisingly wonky at times.

Overall, despite the major issues that set back this game, inside those, I can see a game that, with some minor adjustments and fixes to the controls and pacing, can truly be great. I still had a pretty good time with the game, and a part of me wanted to like it even more despite the setbacks. But unfortunately, DK 64's pacing issues just hold it back from being up to par with previous DK games like the Country trilogy. Despite that, though, it's still a good game in various areas, and for the N64, you can honestly do so much worse than this game. If you like the kind of game that is focusing on offering as much as it can to the player and are willing to look past its issues, then I say go ahead. But personally, the only way I can see myself replaying the game again (especially if I ever think of completing the game) would be using a hack that switches Kongs on the fly to make my issues with the game not nearly as apparent.

There are so many good reasons why this game is controversial, and I can easily get behind both the lovers and haters of the game.

Donkey Kong 64 was supposed to be the technical masterpiece of the console, and in that regard, it certainly succeeds. Indeed, its large open spaces give a sense of freedom unlike a vast majority of other games on the N64. The DK Isles feel as immense and dense as Delfino Plaza in Super Mario Sunshine, a game from the next generation of consoles. In some regards, the size of the map and the amount of things to do in each corner you go to is reminiscent of the Zelda series, and especially in the woody areas of the game, I sometimes felt like I was playing an unintended sequel to Ocarina of Time.

The sheer size of the map is accompanied with pure beauty, too. It is an incredibly cinematic game by all means, from its hilarious cutscenes to its colourful levels. If anything, it's worth playing through the entire game 101% just to get to watch all the cutscenes, including the special ending cutscene you get after getting everything.

Its music is great, too. It has one of the most iconic theme songs in all of gaming history and the actual game's soundtrack has some beautiful moments, with Jungle Japes, DK Isles and Hideout Helm being personal favourites of mine. It makes me wish Grant Kirkhope had composed soundtracks for some non-Rareware games, as he is definitely up there with Koji Kondo.

The dialogue and character design is also phenomenal. The strong but insecure Chunky as well as the goofy but reliable Lanky are beautiful new characters that I hope get some more love in future DK games. The existing characters' personalities are amplified: DK is stupid but determined, Diddy thinks and moves quick, and Tiny is a very smart logical thinker that brings a bit of logic to the family. Not to mention Cranky Kong which is as much of a grinch as he has ever been, Funky Kong who is an absolute gun maniac, Candy's weirdly flirty dialogue and King K. Rool who is the perfect evil antagonist who will keep you on your toes for the entirety of the game. Everything is charming and wonderfully written.

The cinematic, musical and theatrical aspects of the game makes it one of the most entertaining games to watch someone else play. This is indeed why in the prime of its speedrunning scene, streamers such as Connor75 managed to be very successful and why its 101% category makes it into so many marathons, such as the Rareware 301% marathon and the 1545 relay race. Having been introduced to this game in that form of gameplay, it made me very excited to play it and made me have high hopes for it.

Unfortunately, my hopes were likely too high.
This game basically has four different 'types' of challenges: collectibles, platforming, minigames and fighting.

The collectibles here have been talked about to death. Most people complain about the sheer amount of collectibles there are, especially regular bananas. It is however not what bothers me; the real problem with the collectibles in DK64 is the fragmentation and the character barrels, which were one of Rare's worst design mistakes ever. In order to change your character, you need to enter a character barrel, and there are only a handful in each stage. For instance, in Fungi Forest, there is a tunnel that you must go through, but there are two doors preventing you from going through it. In order to open these doors, you must shoot tags with two different characters, one for each door. There is also a banana for a third character in the room that this tunnel leads to. I don't remember what characters exactly, but you get the point, and the problem is that the barrel is relatively far away from the tunnel, so you waste minutes going back and forth over and over again just to get through this tiny section. The collectibles being so deeply linked with each character (you can only collect the bananas, coins and golden bananas that are assigned to the very character you're playing), and needing certain characters to unlock parts of the level leads to so much backtracking that you'll be spending more time walking in places you already know instead of discovering new places. This makes the game's length feel artificial, annoying and disingenuous. If the collectibles were actually arranged in a way that prevented excessive backtracking, then I would have much less problems with it, but when you consider that most bananas don't require you to do anything or require you to play a bad minigame (I'll get back to this later), I find the same problems in here that I did in Super Mario Odyssey's excessive ground pound moons and repetitive minigames. Very little of the game feels like you're actually playing something exciting, since maybe 95% of all of it is just getting tedious collectibles. Even for somebody who loves Rareware-style collect-o-thons, there is just too much backtracking for it to be enjoyable.

The platforming sections feel very weird and slippery, especially with the bigger characters. Donkey moves too much with the slight touch of the joystick, Chunky just doesn't move well in platforming sections, Lanky is way too slippery to control well, and Diddy is just hard to control especially in narrow places (that one bridge inside the temple in Angry Aztec...damn it). At least, Tiny is has a decent control scheme that makes her preferable for all the platforming she has to do in the game, which is really not enough. The characters' shadows are hard to make out, which really messes up the depth perception of platforming sections. The weird controls are often credited to this being still an era where 3D platformers were new and devs didn't know exactly what to do yet, but come on, this came 3 years after SM64 and a year after Banjo-Kazooie. Both of those games have great controls and their platforming is tight and skill-based. DK64's platforming sections feel more luck-based than anything. Tedious.

The mini-games, especially the God-forsaken barrel games, have been talked about to death. They're some of the most broken, glitchy, tedious and repetitive things I've ever seen in gaming and made 101% feel like more of a chore than a game. Some of those mini-games you have to beat up to five times without any difference except maybe how fast the characters move. It is pure hell, and these sections were some of the most infuriating experiences I've had in gaming. Rarely have I screamed out of pure anger into a pillow because of a video game, but damn, Beaver Bother did that to me and many other gamers. Comes directly from Hell. Two video game testing companies are credited in this game, yet it feels like the game, especially those sections, were never play tested at all. Were they that short on time that they had to fill the game with these abominations?

Happily, the bosses in the game are creative and have a lot of character, which makes the fighting sections (except for the battle crowns which were an absolute waste of time) really enjoyable. Each boss got better than the last, and the final boss fight is the ultimate test of everything you have learned in your journey.

I must also stress that the very last level is some some of the most tense I have felt while playing a video game and it is truly an incredible experience (except for the weird Lanky shooting minigame, but whatever). The beginning and the ending of the game is bliss, the rest is tedious.

Is it worth playing Donkey Kong 64 nowadays? If you like great cutscenes, love mindlessly moving around collecting items, and care more about the aesthetics of a game than the gameplay, then it is likely the game for you. If not, just watch a 101% playthrough on YouTube and save yourself the stress. I'm glad I played it, but I doubt I will be revisiting.

Donkey Kong 64 was one of the several noteworthy games that remained in my backlog for over 10 years. Because of that, I would say this game and a handful of others that I have and haven't reviewed yet were all a part of the key reason I made my Backloggd account. In my previous playthrough, I made it all the way up to the final world in K. Rool's lair where you were the amount of time you had to beat it depended on the amount of blueprints you collected. By the time I wanted to tackle it, I somehow forgot how to do all of the kongs' moves. Ultimately, it lead to me dropping the game. I did try to start over from scratch a few times, but I never was able to commit until I decided to beat it this year. I enjoyed it, but compared to Rare's other collect-a-thons, this one probably has the most issues.

It plays like all of Rare's other platformers where your purpose in playing is to collect a plethora of different items spread across 8 different worlds, but some of the collectibles have slightly different functions compared to Banjo-Kazooie. The golden bananas are just like your jiggys or stars, but the different colored bananas scattered around the level serve as a means to access the boss for each world which also plays a necessary role in getting to the next world alongside the golden bananas since you get a key for defeating each boss. It all sounds pretty simple, but the problem is that you aren't just playing as one character like Mario or Banjo. In Donkey Kong 64, you play 5 different characters including DK, Diddy, Tiny, Lanky, and Chunky Kong. In most cases, it's pretty cool to have a roster that big in a platformer. However, the approach Rare took in adding more characters is what is this game's biggest flaw, bloat.

Each and every kong have their own colored bananas to collect and objectives to do. The placement of a lot of where these collectibles are located will lead to a copious amount of backtracking. Another big issue that also amplifies the backtracking problem is that most of the worlds are just too big. It's fairly easy to get lost and even with teleportation pads, getting to some locations can still be rather time-consuming. Speaking of time-consuming, getting 100% in this game requires double the amount of golden bananas needed to regularly beat the game. Given how much you have to backtrack for the colored bananas and numerous golden bananas I would never do it since I'm not a madman. I salute those bold enough to 100% this game.

Personally, I still enjoyed the game a lot despite it being very flawed and straight-up inferior in comparison to Rare's other platformers. Their ambitions with this title were pretty expansive, but ultimately they bit off a little more than they could chew in some areas. If you're a diehard collect-a-thon fan and willing to put up with the repetitive parts of the game I'd still recommend it. If DK64 seems like too much, then I'd stick to something shorter and better-paced like Banjo-Kazooie.

I want to love DK64 more than I do, but it's just so bloated and frustrating at parts.

The DK rap is great, the new characters are great, the music is great, the final boss is fun (even if it does go on a little long), and the glitches are really fun to mess around with.

I don't mind collecting a lot of things, but DK 64 is a step down from Banjo Kazooie in that regard.

The backtracking is not as egregious as something like Tooie, once you get a kong you can get pretty much all of their collectibles on your first visit to a level and the levels are not as bloated as Tooie's.

The minigames and some of the golden bananas are where things kind of start to fall apart. There are a few mini games that just don't work (beavers....) and a few golden bananas are just obnoxious and made even harder with the fixed framerate of the wii u port.

Still fun at times, but it's a little intimidating to go back to.

Lanky and Chunky Kong are excellent editions to the DK lore though and Tiny Kong kind of breaks the DK timeline in weird ways in future games.

Still waiting for Nintendo to release a game explaining the time shenanigans that led to Tiny Kong growing faster than Dixie