Donkey Konga



At the Turn of the Millennium, Video Game creators Nintendo and Rare were at a parting of ways. After years of cooperating on hit franchises like Killer Instinct, Banjo Kazooie, and of course, the Donkey Kong Country games, Nintendo, having acquired a large part of Rare's assets, had the chance of buying out the company once and for all. For a host of delicate and complicated reasons, they chose not to, selling Rare's services to Microsoft instead. Thus, Miyamoto-san's wallet got a little fatter, Rare packed their bags to go spruce up your X Box Live avatars, and Donkey Kong was left largely adrift and directionless.

Without any more Country games to come in the future (or so it seemed at the time), Nintendo made an effort to distance the character from Rare's stint with him. Since Rare had distanced him so much from his roots at the arcade, it felt illogical to return to the barrel-rolling, ladder-climbing, girder-grappling days of yore. So they made two offbeat games starring the character. One was a Platform Game, similar to Donkey Kong Country but featuring none of its popular characters or aesthetics: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. The other was a Party Game, their zany answer to Guitar Hero: Donkey Konga.

Donkey Konga is a Rhythm Game you play using the Game Cube bongo controller, literally a contact-sensitive controller shaped to resemble a set of bongo drums. You strike the correct drum at the correct time as depicted on the screen, to the tune of public domain music, old-school Nintendo themes, and some songs by popular artists such as Willie Nelson and Devo. The game sold well enough in Japan to warrant a pair of sequels, but in the west, it was poorly regarded and flew largely under the radar.

This game features examples of:

 * Cel Shading
 * Excuse Plot - The Kongs (specifically Donkey and Diddy) want to become big bongo stars so they can afford all the bananas they can eat.
 * No Export for You: Donkey Konga 3.
 * Rhythm Game