Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong 64
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Rare
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Composer(s)	Eveline Fischer Grant Kirkhope
Series	Donkey Kong
Engine	Modified Banjo-Kazooie engine
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Donkey Kong 64 (abbreviated as DK 64) is a platformer video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in North America on November 24, 1999; in Europe on December 6, 1999; and in Japan on December 10, 1999. The game is a follow up to the Donkey Kong Country trilogy on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Donkey Kong 64 was the first game to require the Expansion Pak, which provides more RAM for enhanced graphics and more expansive environments (in future games, the Expansion Pak was entirely optional, with the exception of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask). Donkey Kong 64 went on to become a Nintendo 64 Player's Choice title.

Gameplay

Donkey Kong, exploring the Jungle Japes level

The game is a 3D adventure with strong platforming links, similar to that of Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. There are a total of five playable Kongs, each with completely unique (and upgradeable) abilities. Much of the gameplay involves collecting the level's entrance. There are 25 Golden Bananas in each level, but each Kong is only able to find five. One of the five they find is from Snide after a Kong gives him a special blueprint found in a Kasplat (40 in total. )The second most important thing to collect are the colored bananas, which come in five different colors, one for each Kong. These are needed to feed Scoff to reach a key to unlock the entrance of a level boss for one specified Kong to battle. There are 500 bananas in each level (or 3500 overall), 100 for each Kong per level. They can be found alone, in bunches of five, or in balloons, worth ten, that must be shot in order to acquire their bounty. The number of bananas needed to unlock the entrance to the boss is shown on the entrance door. The Boss Keys are the third most important items for completing the game, as they can only be acquired after obtaining the necessary number of bananas. Seven of them are collected by defeating a level boss. These keys are used for unlocking each of the eight locks on the imprisoned K. Lumsy's cage, and when each is unlocked, K. Lumsy creates an earthquake with joyful stomping, unlocking the next level's entrance area (though this actually makes little sense, as K. Lumsy's prison is floating on nearby water). Sometimes, two levels can be unlocked together, with different amounts of Golden Bananas needed for the B.Locker to unblock the entrance.

The primary objective, however, is to free the four Kongs who are held captive in the first three levels, as each Kong can only do 1/5 of the adventure. In the second level, there are two Kongs being held captive in two different places. They are needed to collect the Golden Bananas and their colored bananas to feed Scoff. A specific Kong will be chosen to fight each level boss, and if you don't have that Kong, you are stuck. After each of the Kongs are freed, the player can switch Kongs freely by going into one of the tag barrels.

Weapons can be bought and upgraded for each character. Players are able to fire both regular and homing ammo from their guns, and each Kong's ammo has a different amount of firepower, from the weak feathers to the huge pineapple bullets. Kongs can also throw "orange" grenades. A unique musical instrument for each Kong to play, which can destroy every enemy in the area, is available from DK's girlfriend, Candy.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer can be played by up to four players at one time. It features three arenas, one special arena and six gameplay modes. The five playable characters from the single player adventure are used in the multiplayer mode, along with a secret character, Krusha. If only two players play in the special arena, random baddies will appear to make the game more difficult.

Plot

King K. Rool is trying to destroy Donkey Kong Island with a large laser called the Blast-O-Matic, but it malfunctions after a crash that puts his floating, mechanical island face-to-face with Donkey Kong Island. To buy some time, he captures some of the Kongs and locks them up. He then steals Donkey Kong's precious hoard of Golden Bananas. As Donkey Kong frees his fellow apes, they set off to recover the bananas and defeat King K. Rool and his army of Kremlings and other evil creatures.

Characters

File:DonkeyKong64ConceptArt.jpg

Promotional art for Donkey Kong 64, illustrating the protagonists

Donkey Kong, the titular character and the first playable character in the game, is a large, muscular Mountain Gorilla who wears a red monogrammed necktie, and his weapon of choice is the "Coconut Cannon". Diddy Kong, who debuted in Donkey Kong Country, is a monkey in a red baseball cap and T-shirt, the latter bearing a yellow star on the back, his weapons are the "Peanut Popguns" (pistols that fire peanuts). Tiny Kong is another type of more human-shaped monkey, and younger sister of Dixie Kong from the Donkey Kong Country games. Just like her sister, her pigtails allow her to temporarily float through the air, and unique to Tiny is the ability to shrink in size to fit into places the other Kongs cannot reach, her weapon is a "Feather Bow" (a crossbow that fires sharp feathers) Lanky Kong, a newcomer in the Donkey Kong series, is a Sumatran Orangutan whose long arms allow him to handstand. He can also inflate himself to float. His weapon of choice is the "Grape Shooter" (similar to a blowgun). Chunky Kong, the older brother of Kiddy Kong and cousin to Tiny Kong, is a strong yet cowardly Lowland Gorilla who can lift heavy objects, but (as explained in the theme song) is slow and unable to jump high, and his weapon is a "Pineapple Bazooka" which is the most powerful gun on the game.

Other characters include Cranky Kong who sells the Kongs various new moves via his potions, and Funky Kong who sells them guns. Snide the weasel was formerly King K. Rool's henchman before he was fired and thus collects blueprints for the Kongs, and Candy Kong, who supplies the Kongs with musical instruments. Some other notable characters are K. Lumsy, who opens up levels, Squawks, who points things out, brings you Golden Bananas when his attention is attracted, and can carry Tiny to new heights. There is also a Banana Fairy Queen, who requests that the Kongs rescue her citezens and in exchange teaches the Kongs an invincible tecneque. Collecting Banana Faeries unlocks many new options outside of one-player mode, including cheats.

Rambi and Engaurde appear in the game. Donkey Kong can turn into Rambi the Rhino in Jungle Japes. He can batter into objects and immediately kill any enemies. Lanky Kong can turn into Engaurde the Swordfish in Gloomy Galleon. He can swim at high speeds, leap out of the water, and strike with his "sword".

The game has several antagonists as well. The main villain is the Kong's main antagonist, King K. Rool, who tries to destroy DK Isle. The level's bosses are Army Dillo (a heavily-armored armadillo who is the boss of Jungle Japes and Crystal Caves), Dogadon (a giant dragonfly who's the boss of Angry Aztec and Fungi Forest), Mad Jack (a gigantic jack-in-the-box who is the boss of Frantic Factory), Pufftoss (a large Blowfish who is the boss of Gloomy Galleon), King Kut Out (a cardboard cut-out of K. Rool who is operated by two Kremlings and is the boss of Creepy Castle), and the final, extremely difficult boss, King K Rool (who is disguised as a boxer and each kong must fight him.) The game's secondary antagonist is a Minecart Kremling [Krash], not actually a boss and has nothing to do with King K. Rool, and operates mines throughout Jungle Japes, Fungi Forest and Creepy Castle.

Music

The intro cut scene of the game features a full-length song with vocals, called the "DK Rap". The line "His coconut gun can fire in spurts. If he shoots ya, it's gonna hurt!" was named the fourth worst game line ever in the January 2002 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Also the rap contains the word "hell" being spoken out loud during the rap and is the first Rare game to use mild language (Conker's Bad Fur Day had strong language since it was rated M for Mature where DK64 was rated E for Everyone). It was also used in Donkey Konga and as the background music for the Kongo Jungle stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but was remixed. The song is performed by James W. Norwood Jr., who used several different voices and effects for the remix in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but used the same voice for the original Donkey Kong 64 version.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	88%
Metacritic	90 of 100

Review scores

Publication	Score
Electronic Gaming Monthly	8.37 of 10
GamePro	5 of 5
GameSpot	9.0 of 10
IGN	9.0 of 10
M! Games	87 of 100
Nintendo Power	8.6 of 10

Awards

Publication	Award
	GameSpot: Editors' Choice Award
	E3 1999 Game Critics Awards: Best Platformer

Donkey Kong 64 was released to generally positive reviews. Review scores range from 80% to 100%, with an average of 88% on review aggregate site Game Rankings. The most commonly cited issue was the lackluster multiplayer mode and unwarranted tediousness and difficulty of some parts. GameSpot claimed "it lacks enough 'wow factor' to exert the revolutionary influence that Donkey Kong Country had" and IGN reports that while it is "not the leap and bound that Donkey Kong Country was for Super NES, [it] is still an excellent platformer all the same".