Donkey Kong series

[Foggle]

Diddy Kong Racing without "AH'M BANJO! UHWOW!" isn't Diddy Kong Racing at all.

[Kiddington]

I didn't even know there was a barrel racing game... how horrible was it?

I have it laying somewhere around here (bought it for like, $3 at a thrift store years ago). It's been a while, but from what I remember it's very clunky; the control scheme was based around the Wiimote/Nunchuk combo, you literally couldn't use anything else but that, so it was just awkward as hell trying to play. I'd say these reviews paint a better picture than I can though.

Apparently at one point it was supposed to be a GCN title that used the bongo controls.....now that would've been cool.

[Avaitor]

You know, I liked what I played of Jungle Beat. I didn't get to play too much of it, but I thought that the controls were decent, and that it was fun to get around in. I'm still keeping an eye out for a cheap version of the Wii port.

I liked it better than the little I played of the Donkey Kongas, at least.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It was more of a platformer than the others, I heard. But I didn't have much money when it came out and have never seen it in the wild.

[Avaitor]

You can find the Wii port for like $20 at GameStop sometimes, if you're interested enough. I'm not sure about the original Gamecube version, but it wouldn't be the same without the bongo controls.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I think I'll wait to see if they put it on the eshop like I think they will. It seems like a game I'd be more eager to pick up that way.

[talonmalon333]

As someone who doesn't like DK64, I don't think it's a terrible game. Also, I don't see anything wrong with the addition of all those Kongs. They aren't what killed the game. It could've been good with all five of them. The problem is everything else.

Besides, I actually like those Kongs. As characters.

[Commode]

The characters aren't the problem, even the rap at the beginning(which is pure cheese) isn't the problem, it's the fact that the game is too bloated and it's super tedious to play.  There's very little fun in it.  To me it feels like some sort of weird experiment for Rare for them to see how much they could cram into a game before they found the breaking point, because they found it.  No other game from them, either before DK64 or since(keep in mind Banjo Tooie came out after DK64, and while I don't much care for it either it's still not as tedious or bad as DK), has been as bloated.

(I have never played Star Fox Adventures, which I also hear suffers from similar issues, so I can't compare it to DK64).

I just think the game should have been more concentrated in it's game play, not sure what they were thinking putting so much into it.  Maybe if it had been more concentrated it wouldn't have had the game crashing bug in it that required Rare to ship the game with expansion pack.  After all Conker is much more concentrated in it's game play, it doesn't require an expansion pack, and it looks just as good or better than DK 64.  Not speaking on anything regarding Majora's Mask and Perfect Dark's requirement of the pack though; at least those games weren't forced to ship with it(probably because DK already did it).

[talonmalon333]

Rare had a weird fascination with putting as many "things" as possible into their games in that era. It was already starting with the SNES and peaked with DK64.

[Spark Of Spirit]

They had a good balance of stuff in DKC2 and it was still manageable in DKC3 (banana birds aside), Diddy Kong Racing, and Banjo, but DK64 went totally over the top. It was about the time Rare lost a lot of focus on what they were doing.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So DK64 is out on the Virtual Console.

I shan't be downloading it, but maybe someone here will other than RSW.

[Commode]

Nah.  I have the actual cart, and actually tried to play it for a bit last week.  Lo and behold it still fucking sucks.

[talonmalon333]

I haven't touched that game since the day I beat it over ten years ago. Still feel no desire to go back to it.

[Foggle]

It really isn't that bad.

I'll be buying it on the VC once I have the money.

[Kiddington]

Yeah I still have the cart as well.....my old save file continues to hover somewhere around 45%.

I will never finish it.