What's the consensus on Donkey Kong 64?

[Spinluck]

I remember adoring this game as a kid. Me and my brother sunk ungodly hours into the game trying to collect everything.

When I revisited it on Wii U...

Man, it was kind of a slog. Didn't hold up nearly as well as both Banjo-games and I honestly think it's one of the weirder DK games now.

I know collectathons get a bad rep now but during their glory days I still remember people being quite sour on the game and I don't see it being talked as much as its peers from that time.

 

[JeffGubb]

It's a bad video game.

 

[Pancracio17]

Sucks donkey balls

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Pure trash. I stupidly trusted magazine reviews and bought it when it was current. I can't say I remember it in detail now, though.

 

[Weiss]

It's a bloated mess where every idea was thrown in without regard for how it fits together.

For a 3D game made a generation later it feels more disjointed and less of an adventure than the SNES trilogy.

 

[MJForum Poster]

Bloated. I think there was interesting ideas in there (5 playable characters with their own skillsets) but it is incredibly tedious to manage the collectibles and stuff for all of them - blue prints, ammo, golden bananas, regular bananas, tokens, etc.

 

[mute]

It is a collection of minigames wrapped in a really elaborate package.

 

[Betty]

Lots of great parts, Minecart sections are boss, the rap is god tier.

Having to replay a level with every character to collect everything is tedious now though.

 

[WillyFive]

One of the best soundtracks in the entire series.

Too big for its own good though.

 

[FormatCompatible]

Bloated.

 

[Deleted member 45617]

According to IGN its Rare's "War and Peace"

Lol

 

[LelouchViBritannia]

Amazing game.

 

[Flex1212]

There was a Donkey Kong 64?

 

[No Depth]

So they're finally here, performing for you

 

[Lobster Roll]

It's got good bones, but it's the textbook example of a bloated game.

 

[Alienhated]

A potentially good game destroyed by its insanely padded collectathon extreme design.

 

[Gush]

fever dream game that pushed collectathon gameplay to the most unpleasant limits

 

[Cosmic Voyager]

Needs a remake PRONTO

 

[Ramsay]

It's Mario Odyssey 64.

In other words, it's bad.

 

[logash]

Loved it as a kid but I think people who were not in grade school at the time that they played it hate it.

 

[iksenpets]

As someone who 100%'d DK64 as a sad child, DK64 is not good.

 

[mordecaii83]

It can be summed up as "too much" of basically everything.

 

[Deleted member 8752]

I somehow acquired the cart in a lot about 10+ years ago and still never put it in my N64. I should really rectify that sometime soon.

 

[Nax]

...I liked it.

The last boss is also the perfect amount of challenge.

 

[DarkSora]

I'd always wondered about playing it.

If I LOVE Banjo Kazooie, will I love DK64?

 

[NotLiquid]

It's a good game and it's better than Banjo-Tooie

 

[Spinluck]

Safe to say this is the most divisive DK game lol

 

[DayEnder]

There was a Donkey Kong 64?

Click to shrink...

Yes, and it was great for the time. It won't age perfectly, but there's a lot of fun to be had if you like the old school Rare collectathon games.

 

[Berordn]

it's bloated to hell, the level design is pretty dreadful after the first two worlds, it has no respect for player's time or any interest in pacing

but it's got a memetic rap song and it ends with a boxing match against k. rool so it evens out

 

[RPGam3r]

Good game albeit a bit more than needed. Not that I have a lot of trust for this place based on how often Nuts & Bolts gets treated like it's shit.

 

[Grahf]

"Collectathlon " and "bloated" will inevitably come up dozens of times.

I admit, there's TOO MUCH to collect and just having the Kong swap on the go would solve a lot of this issue.

That aspect aside : game is beautiful, excellent, meaty and lentghy, contains a plethora of mini-games (also "full" fledged games like original DK or jetpack), the hub is very nice...
It could have been one of the greatest without all those collectibles.

 

[Deleted member 24907]

Effectively killed the collectathon platformer genre for me. After having so much meaningless bloat sand realizing this was the natural conclusion of the genre I never really engaged with it again. When the Assassin's Creed series broughy collectathoning back I stayed away from it (that kind of side content, not the games lol)

Jetpac slaps tho

 

[NotLiquid]

I'd always wondered about playing it.

If I LOVE Banjo Kazooie, will I love DK64?

Click to shrink...

Don't 100% the game and you'll likely find enjoyment in it.

 

[eXistor]

Not great; went completely overboard with collectibles.

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

I think I remember it having a space invaders knock off mini game that was dope.

 

[Derachi]

it's garbo

 

[Stopdoor]

It's a bad video game.

Click to shrink...

Sorry, I disrupt your concensus. Overruled.

 

[Caiusto]

I'd always wondered about playing it.

If I LOVE Banjo Kazooie, will I love DK64?

Click to shrink...

That's a good question. People love to hate DK64 but I find it way better than Banjo-Tooie, for example.
They are both bad games, don't get me wrong, but I find DK64 a more enjoyable and fun game overall. That said, Banjo Kazooie, the one you love, is one of the best games on N64, it's not a fair comparison. Haha

 

[Transistor]

It was such a drop in quality from the SNES DKC games.

 

[K' Dash]

I played it twice when it released and loved it, I don't know if I'd like it if I replayed it today.

I'll keep my memories intact and not attempt a replay.

 

[ClickyCal']

An actual slog, insane amount of collectables, too much repeating/backtracking. Really good music and some fun ideas of areas and bosses though. King Kutout is hilarious and K.rool was at least a payoff to using all 5.

 

[entremet]

It was one of the few ways to play the original Donkey Kong arcade with cement stage outside of the arcade.

 

[Spinluck]

I'd always wondered about playing it.

If I LOVE Banjo Kazooie, will I love DK64?

Click to shrink...

I'd say give it a try but don't expect a game on the level of Banjo-Kazooie. I'd say it's quite a few tiers below it. It's still as funny and charming as a Rare game can be though. It's just that every ability you learn is just an excuse for more collectables and are usually extremely situational with little practical use.

x that by 5 and you have a more tedious game.

 

[catswaller]

good bad game

 

[Dyle]

It has Lanky Kong and the DK rap so it's easily a top 10 game of all time.

 

[Mekanos]

Loved it as a kid, couldn't get past world 2 as an adult. The bloat and time wasting is fine when you're a kid but as an adult you can tell it doesn't respect your time.

 

[ClickyCal']

It's Mario Odyssey 64.

In other words, it's bad.

Click to shrink...

Odyssey is dk64 and banjo tooie done mostly right.

 

[Calamari41]

The game would become great if you could switch monkeys on the fly.

 

[decoyplatypus]

I'd always wondered about playing it.

If I LOVE Banjo Kazooie, will I love DK64?

Click to shrink...

The better guide will be your feelings about Banjo-Tooie. While they're all collectathon 3D platformers, B-K is by far the most focused. DK64 asks you to cover the same ground over and over again to collect each Kong's unique bananas. Banjo Tooie is not quite as egregious but still grinds to a halt as you go switch to Mumbo (or solo Kazooie, or transformed B-K) to activate a single switch, then run back to play through the same area in one or more of your other forms.

 

[Archduke Kong]

It's a flawed and bloated game that has plenty to love about it.

The thing for me was that, at the time at least, this game was HUGE. I never played the DKC games before 64 so I didn't have a reference for what Donkey Kong played like. I was a kid and had never seen or played a game that felt this big to experience before. Banjo-Kazooie came close but this game made it feel quaint. Yes, there's something to be said for the slow speed and all the inconveniences, but this was a game with:

• Large levels full of stuff to climb and things to collect everywhere
• Gorgeous graphics (going from Mario 64 to this was something else)
• A sense of dread and atmosphere (K. Rool's ship being that close to the island and you seeing what it can do at every game over was creepy)
• A lot of playable characters each with their own game's worth of stuff to do
• A surprisingly fun multiplayer mode
• Funky Kong. And he sells you firearms.

It's aged, really poorly in some cases (and I still want to know whose bright idea it was to lock the final boss behind beating the Donkey Kong arcade game) but for a 7 year old with all the time in the world back in 1999, this was exactly the game I wanted and it surprised me when I started seeing all the "DK64 isn't very good" takes as an adult. I mean, their takes have merit, but I still like it. It could really benefit from a remaster to fix performance and maybe do some QOL, imo.