Donkey Konga (JP)

The familiar Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong appearing in a “rhythm action” game.

JP release: 12th December 2003
EU release: N/A
NA release: N/A
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine Score: 88%
Mods Used: None

Donkey Konga is Namco & Nintendo’s take on the music rhythm genre. It came with a set of bongos to use as the controller – and yes, I used the proper bongos to play the game. You can play the game with a controller, but it’s just not the same. I’m also treating the Donkey Konga games differently to other games on the list, usually I’ll just play one regional version, however, the songs in a rhythm game can make for a different vibe, and these games have different playlists for Japan, America and the UK.

In Donkey Konga, there are four main moves: bash the left bongo, bash the right bongo, bash both bongos and clap your hands – the latter is detected via a microphone on the bongos. I found that clapping wasn’t reliable (although it could be a skill issue), while tapping the side of the bongos worked better. Some moves you’ll have to repeat them as fast as you can. It’s simple, easy to understand and a ton of fun.

The Japanese tracklist is an interesting one. There’s a few gaming songs – such as the DK rap and a Mario Bros medley, some classical music, a couple of Japanese songs, a few international ones such as Mambo No 5 (the original, not the one you know), but the main bulk seems to be comprised of songs from anime. I wasn’t familiar with most of the music (although I do remember listening to the Pikmin song Ai no Uta a fair amount), so it was interesting playing a game like this with songs I’m hearing for the first time.

There’s also some minigames, such as whack-a-KRool, but I’ll go into them more when I play a version where I can read the rules better (they seemed quite simple, though). I’m looking forward to playing Donkey Konga with different sets of songs.

Fun

The music currently provide in the Japanese version of the game won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but we guarantee that after a few hours with the game, musical quality will really be the last thing on your mind.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #90

Remake or remaster?

A complete Donkey Konga collection would be great. Licenses would stop it, though. Perhaps a Nintendo edition with only Nintendo owned songs.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Donkey Konga.