Donkey Konga 2 Review

The DK Bongo controllers. It makes everyone try them at least once.

Jessica and I have been playing the new Donkey Konga 2 game quite a bit lately, so I thought I should write a review on it. This game is played with the DK Bongo controllers, a little mini set of two bongo drums that look like Donkey Kong barrels. The purpose of this game is similar to that of Dance Dance Revolution or Samba de Amigo. You play the bongos in time with the music by watching specific symbols fly by on your screen.

A red symbol is for hitting the right bongo, a yellow for the left, pink for both, and you clap your hands together for the spikey blue symbols. That's all, just four different kinds of notes. The symbols move from right to left, and when they light up with the transparent circles on the left, that's when you slam on your bongos accordingly. I haven't played the first Donkey Konga, but from what I read from reviews, they appear to be exactly the same except for one minor detail...

While Donkey Konga 1 relied on remixed versions of classic Nintendo songs such as "Zelda" and "Mario", Donkey Konga 2 has been made to use with only popular music. In some ways this is good, and in others this is bad. While video game music is made for the purpose of being only backround music, popular music is made for the purpose of being fun to listen to. So what could possibly go wrong with playing the bongos to popular music where Bongos obviously belong?

That's the problem: in most cases, the songs don't have anything to do with Bongos. There are songs that are just perfect for the use of the DK Bongo controllers such as "La Bamba" and the "Donkey Konga 2 Theme" itself. But too often I'm stuck drumming to songs like "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M, "All Star" by Smash Mouth, and some song by Hillary Duff. There's just something inherently wrong to smashing both bongos as fast as you can to the end of a sad, slow song that's fading out.

In some cases, songs that I'm sure I would hate, are the best arranged for the bongos. In other words, who ever wrote the arrangement for how I'm to play the bongos with the song made it a lot of fun and totally worth my time. Even songs that I didn't think would be any fun, like "Boombastic" or "Hit 'em Up Style (oops)". But other songs just don't work. It's not that the rhythm is bad, or the song's bad, it's that it just doesn't feel right.

DK is surrounded by the 32 song selection screen. Luckily, the game doesn't focus on advertising for the artists. in fact, it doesn't even mention who made the songs. (click for a slightly larger image)

I was initially a little bit disappointed with the game, because of how lame some of the beats you were suppose to play with the bongos were. Hitting a different bongo on every down beat is pretty pathetic. But after purchasing the hardest mode of all the songs, there are some real challenging beats to have to play. And once you get those down, you really feel like you've learned to play the music. I've become incredibly good at the game, and Jessica's really good at it too (but not as good as me, bwahaha).

A pretty standard screenshot. Unfortunately, Dixie is not a playable character, only CPU operated.
(click for a slightly larger image)

The graphics are a real problem, however. Donkey Kong and friends all act, move, and look the same way that they did on the original SNES, including frames per second. I have a really strong feeling this was done intentionally to harken back to the old days, but I have to ask: does it really have to be that way? The backrounds that you float on top of are barely N64 quality, and the special baloons and butterflies that float behind you are just plain pathetic.

In most ways, the game is trying to keep it simple. Nothing flashy, just little colored symbols to tell you how to play. But I'd really like to see it work like Samba de Amigo. That game had the rhythms, it had the songs (all really good selections too), and the graphics were these crazy 3D super-colored animations that were so flashy you could probably get seizures. That game was pretty sweet.