Gamecube - Donkey Konga

Format
Gamecube
Publisher
Nintendo
Developer
Namco
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Rhythm Action

Donkey Konga - Gamecube

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
29th Oct 04

Donkkeeyyy Konga!!!
Donkkeeyyy Konga!!!

While I could very well keep writing that to make up this review I don't think it'd be put up. Donkey Konga is a rhymth game in a simillar mode to a dancing mat game. However rather than using a dance mat it uses a pair of bongos. You have to tap either the left or right drum, both together or clap to a mulitude of tunes on a number of difficulty levels.

Donkey Konga has a good range of tunes from pop,classical and some rock, there's bound to be a tune you know well and can sing along to while claping and taping your bongos. However all of the tunes are just impersonaters, they do a good job but it's just not the same.

Playing the game is easy, pick your difficulty level and your tune and your ami is to get as many "great" or "ok" ratings in a large combo to fill up the meter in the top right. If you pass the "clear" marker on the meter you will pick up the coins you got for doing the right action. Getting a "bad" or missing a note altogether lowers your meter. Coins gained can be used to by sound sets which make the sound of you hitting your bongos diffrent on the tv, songs for the higher difficulty level and a number of mini-games.

The mini-games are fun for a while, and the sounds sets, you'll try just to here but don't do anything to improve the gameplay. There's very little aim in the game, you may want to earn gold on all the songs in all the difficulty levels or try and beat your last record at in surrvival mode. Other than that theirs very little length to the single player mode.

The visuals are very bland, but then this is not supposed to be a pretty game but some thing more could of been done with the GC's power.

However the best bit of Donkey Konga is in the mulitplayer get three mates round with their bongos (spare sets are around £25 but you get a pair with the £40 game) and you can either compete against each other to see who's the best at "Wild Thing" or all take part in banging your bongos (You can use a pad but it's not the same) co-operatly all doing diffrent parts of the same song. Again this is limited however considering the ease at how the game is played you can have Granny Cradock playing with young Mr. Robinson and his 7 year old daughter Kate (Considering Granny Cradock dosen't have arthritis). This means that this is the game that'll get stuck in your GC at christmas partys etc. In fact with a copy of Wario Ware Inc., Worms, and a Mario Party your GC could very well be the most intresting thing at the party other than Granny Cradocks missing teeth.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 29th Oct 04

Gamecube Donkey Konga Images