Oooooh, here we have it. The big one. Donkey Kong 64 is equal parts beloved and infamous. While a childhood favorite to many, in recent years folks have come around to being more critical of this classic adventure. Alleging that it is bloated, tedious, and poorly-designed. Personally, I had a wonderful time revisiting Donkey Kong 64. Though I must also confess to understanding these criticisms a lot more now that I've replayed it.
Donkey Kong 64 is quick to impress. The game kicks off with a lengthy cutscene depicting King K. Rool's latest assault on the DK Isles. Complete with impressive voice-acting and a cinematic touch; both of which were largely absent from prior Rareware adventures. It's shocking going from the gibberish language and simplistic cutscenes of Banjo-Kazooie to an opening this imposing. Though later cutscenes switch back to using text instead.
The story is nothing new however. Donkey Kong's hoard of golden bananas has been stolen and his friends are imprisoned. Thus he sets out on an adventure to retrieve both, while teaching King K. Rool and his Kremling army a lesson in the process.
The transition to 3D went well for DK and his crew. Moving any of the monkeys around with the control stick feels smooth and accurate. Camera controls are then divided between the C-buttons and the R-button. The former rotating the camera a certain direction, while the latter snaps it behind your character. It's not as precise as modern 3D adventures, but very manageable once you get the hang of it. The rest of the controls are then inspired by Rare's success with Banjo. A to jump, B to attack, and then you have a number of special powers that utilize the C-buttons.
Compared to Banjo's adventure, there is some added awkwardness to the controls though. Movement feels slow compared to the size of the levels, with the new long-jump feature doing little to alleviate that. In Super Mario 64 the long-jump gives you a lot of speed at the cost of control, but here it's just this weird hop that seems only barely faster than your normal movement. Only 1 Kong has access to a faster form of movement and that too is only slightly faster than just normal walking. Requiring a second power-up unlocked late in the game to approximate a speed resembling Kazooie's Talon Trot. The high jump—performed by ducking before jumping—also has a weird pattern to it that makes it difficult to use reliably.
This is aggravated by the level-design, which feels weirdly out-of-sync with the controls at times. The complex design of the world often makes it hard to land or grab unto services the way you'd want to. Like in Angry Aztec there are these stairs that are juuuuust a touch too high for you to jump up each step normally. If you jump and attack it gives you just enough height that you may get up them... or you might just barely slide off. Or not grab the ledge despite clearly touching it. So the safest option is to slowly high-jump up each step every time. It's not terrible by any means. Rather it's a lot of small yet noticeable stumbles that sometimes cause annoying problems like this.
The DK Isles act as a HUB from which you access the game's 8 worlds. Each of which is unlocked after you retrieve the boss key from the world before it. Once you're inside one of those worlds, that's when the collecting truly begins. 500 color-coded bananas are littered across each world, with 5 medals being rewarded for collecting enough of each color. 5 Blueprints collected by beating powerful enemies + the boss key from beating the actual boss of that world. Coins, banana fairies, and battle crowns are mixed in sporadically. And, of course, there are those golden bananas to retrieve. 201 in total across the entire game.
There is plenty to do, but how that feels differs depending on your mindset. Some will enjoy that laundry list feel of the game. That you can pop into any world and take care of so many different little tasks. Maybe hunt down the last few bananas so you can get that medal or commit to a battle crown. Maybe go exploring for the last blueprint or that banana fairy you know is out there somewhere. Or you could simply track down some golden bananas. If you're centered on efficiency and-or completion though, that's when annoyances can rear their head.
Having so many collectibles be color-coded to match a specific Kong means you end up with a lot of wasted time. A path might have bananas for one Kong despite leading to a challenge intended for a different one. Which then also has some coins lying around for a third character to grab. Effectively meaning that you end up retracing your steps several times over to get everything. This is also reflected in the level-design. One Kong may be needed to open a door that then has challenges specific to another character behind it. The levels also take a long time to navigate, each for their own reasons. Some are mazes of branching paths, others are filled with water or have a lot of verticality to their design. All of which adds to the frustration experienced if you insist on meticulously grabbing everything you find on your first run through.
Like with the Jiggies in Banjo-Kazooie, the golden bananas take more effort to collect. Often being hidden behind special challenges across each world. You might have to tackle a maze or a mini-game, solve a puzzle, or complete a platforming challenge. In Jungle Japes, for example, you have to hit switches with Donkey Kong's coconut gun to free one of your friends, receiving a golden banana. That friend can then unlock the path to a hidden alcove where you find a mini-game that has you collect coins while riding a mine-cart down a perilous track. Beat that challenge and there's another golden banana for you. Plus it spits you out in a field opposite a door you can now unlock, but not yet access; hiding yet another challenge for a Kong you have yet to unlock at that point.
With that said, Donkey Kong 64 feels a lot more rigid in its design. Banjo-Kazooie only needed to fit 10 Jiggies in each world, whereas this game has 25 golden bananas in environments that are only slightly larger. As a result, Donkey Kong 64 often falls back on HUB buildings you can enter that then have the actual challenges inside. A solution that works, but is so transparently a bandaid fix that it makes the level design feel shoddy. Like in Crystal Caves there's an igloo with openings for each Kong, taking them to isolated sub-zones where you then actually do something. In that same level there's also a cabin with multiple doors where the same thing happens, and an ice castle that does it on a smaller scope. So few of your objectives are ever just a natural part of the level.
The over-reliance on mini-games also becomes a nuisance. Their difficult varies from completely trivial to being borderline unplayable. With many of them being recycled with little to no variation multiple times across the adventure. How impressive are those 201 Golden Bananas really when a quarter of them are stuffed in barrels that make you swat flies or play a slot machine for a few seconds? Worse are the times when you have a unique objective to complete, but instead of a golden banana it spawns a mini-game barrel. No! Why?! This is filler content! Don't make the player do them when you already made something more fun for them to do.
While their challenges aren't always creative, I did absolutely love the design of the levels themselves. Donkey Kong 64 really harkens back to the moodier tone of Donkey Kong Country 1 & 2. Scared me shitless as a child at times actually. You get levels Gloomy Galeon; a harshly-lit sea cove with a ship graveyard and two lagoons plagued by stormy weather. Deep, dark colors matched with intense rain and lightning, not to mention a haunting theme song courtesy of Grant Kirkhope, it's intense stuff. Frantic Factory is another favorite of mine. A mechanical maze of dark corridors and pounding machinery, with the chilling sound of winding clockwork mixed into the music.
Even the earlier levels—Jungle Japes and Angry Aztec—already have plenty of atmospheric segments despite their overall lighter tone. With Jungle Japes having a nighttime portion with harsh rain and these dimly-lit cavern passages tying the level together. This dense atmosphere and the variety within it make Donkey Kong 64 so memorable and impressive in a way that still amazes today. It's still so immersive, effortlessly drawing you into these amazing, strange worlds.
Lightening the mood somewhat, there's also plenty of comedy to go around. The quality of which has improved a lot coming from Donkey Kong Country 3. The Kongs and Kremlings alike make for entertaining characters, both in cutscenes as well as during gameplay proper. Playing a character like Lanky is just so fun. Everything he does comes with goofy noises and he acts like such a clown throughout it all. All the Kongs have their own charming appeals and silly moments throughout the game. With a lot of incidental jokes hinging on slapstick and goofy animations. I like, for example, how Chunky becomes deflated whenever he falls from a great height. Needing to blow himself back up to full size before you can resume playing.
The Kremlings have a lot of amazing moments too. Frequently being abused throughout the game's many cutscenes and making for fun enemies to beat up on your way.
It also has to be said that—despite its infamy—Donkey Kong 64 is actually rather lenient. Certainly by collect-a-thon standards. You only need 100 golden bananas and 4 battle crowns to access the final boss. As well as the Rareware and Nintendo coins, whose locations are signposted fairly well. So once again, your experience can be a lot smoother if you aren't aiming for completion. If you don't like the mini-games or the races or just can't figure something out, you can just skip it and most likely be fine. You can also ignore a vast majority of the coins and still easily afford every upgrade. Heck, the banana fairies are just completely optional. You don't even have to start collecting those if you don't feel like it.
As I said: this game is only as frustrating as your determination permits it to be. Does that make it okay that some of the content is lackluster? No, of course not. But a lot of the modern criticism towards Donkey Kong 64 frames it as if you're obligated to slog through dozens of hours of menial collecting. Pointing out how even speedrunners sometimes take well over 24 hours to beat it. When in reality, it can be a relaxing, easygoing game that offers you plenty of choice in what content you want to engage with.
When you then add in the amazing atmosphere and comedy, the fun challenges, gorgeous visuals, and Kirkhope's genius soundtrack, Donkey Kong 64 easily holds up today. It's an imaginative game that offers hours of fun. Both to nostalgic dweebs like myself revisiting it, but also to new players drawn to its unique mood or historic significance. With that said, it can certainly be an arduous game at times. With frustrating design choices in the levels, gameplay, and controls alike. So while I can recommend giving the game a playthrough, don't be too proud to walk away whenever a section of it gets too frustrating.
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