Defending Donkey Kong 64

This is a video I've wanted to make for a while defending one of my favorite video games of all time Donkey Kong 64. Why is it so universally panned nowadays? It had good reviews when it first released. This will be a brief history and addressing the complaints I hear against this game. This game is definitely the KING of Collectathons!

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Credit for Assets ripped from game for visual purposes:
Deviant Art Users: BeeWinter55 and Merry255
Also images found on the DonkeyKong fandom website

Music from Donkey Kong 64 by Grant Kirkhope

[BoundaryBreak]

thank you for offering a counter weight to this debate!

[JB-fpfb]

Someone who doesn't like the DK Rap is not going to enjoy many games at all 'cause they obviously don't know how to have fun.

[MintyFries]

My only memory of this game was my step dad walking in while I was playing, looking at it for two seconds as DK swam in the water and saying "that's one smart monkey, huh?" and then walked away.

[Scrubber]

I can’t believe the cast is something that’s complained about! It’s one of its strongest areas!

[redhoodreviews]

It feels SOOOO GOOD to finally see someone defending this gem of a game. My brother and I were baffled when we found out that apparently the intenet hates this game. As kids we'd be GLUED to the screen. Especially my brother (he's the one who actually went for the 101%). My favorite N64 collect-a-thon and my second favorite of that console.

[DCol]

I always felt DK64 is supposed to have a ton of collectibles, because 1999 wasn't really a time where someone could have instant access to a digital catalog to play other games if they got bored. Back then, our parents bought this game at the store, and we played it because we only had that, and a few other games. While I'm a big fan of Banjo-Kazooie, the biggest problem to me is: BK can beaten in like under 2 weeks of casual play (1world/day.) DK64 alleviates that by just having more things to collect.

[charajaznao]

In that era, a game being long was the best thing that could happen, you could play a ton of hours for a fair price and with a world as vividly as dk64 i think its underestimated the levels of fun the game can produce

[jiggylookback]

Update: My Nephew now LOVES this game.

[NoNameNoWhere]

Back in the day, collect-a-thons were not a genre. DK64 was an adventure game with a bunch of collectables.

Today, people think the maim purpose of the game is to collect evey single thing. It's not. The goal is to complete it.

This is where Banjo-Kazooie nailed it. Banjo-Kazooie didn't add too much, making the line between adventuring and collecting much more cohesive.

People's mentality about collect-a-thons have changed, because the way we play games have changed. I used to get as far as possible in games as quickly as I could, because I wanted to explore. In Banjo-Kazooie, I couldn't wait to unlock the next note door or next world, so I wouldn't worry about collecting everything.

As an adult, I'm far more meticulous. I'm able to delay my curiosity of what's ahead in order to beat games more thoroughly.

I believe this is, to a degree, true for most people.

Collect-a-thons are rare nowadays, so I imagine they can feel a bit tedious or overwhelming to younger players who aren't used to collect-a-thons.

That's my take. I haven't watched the video, but that's my pre-watch theory.

[RitzStarr]

I honestly think the whining about backtracking is insane. It's one of the funnest parts of tooie too.
Returning to a level beefed up with new abilities to use and exploit and finding more and more stuff keeps things nice and fresh despite the length of it all. Being able to fully explore a DK64 level on the first go would mean they'd need to cut like half the content or it'd be obscenely long. There's nothing wrong with leaving it incomplete and returning. Literally the only issue is adding a few more Kong switch spots. "Backtracking" in this instance means breaking up the linear progression with familiar yet distinctly new areas in more bite sized forms.

And yeah it's a bit ironic people whine it's too buggy cuz of all the speedrun specific tricks it has...but no one has the same complaints about Ocarina of Time which is one of the most mangled and broken videogames in history. Neither affects a casual playthrough.

[KLW]

The DK Rap is better then every mainstream rap song

[ThatBluDude]

As a fellow DK64 defender, I have quite a bit to say actually. But there are a few points I'd like to make.

Firstly with the game's length. I find it a bit odd that people complain about the game's length and number of collectables while praising games like Mario Odyssey with its hundreds of power moons. I 101 percented DK64 blind and clocked in with 36 hours on my save file. Compare that to my blind Odyssey playthrough which went well over 100 hours. Yes, having to backtrack IS annoying every now and then. But it never really felt all that tedious. And for me at least the worlds hit that sweet spot of being just big enough to feel satisfying, while not being too big to feel daunting to find everything in, like Sand and Metro Kingdom from Odyssey.

Secondly is the minigames. I understand a lot of the frustration. Believe me, I've felt it too. But part of that frustration isn't DK64's fault. The Nintendo 64 had issues with lag, and Rare knew this. Many of the minigames were designed with this lag in mind to make the games function. But since most people nowadays will be playing this game on the Wii U or emulators, the minigames are going to be significantly harder than they were intended to be. It's the same reason Canary Mary's races are a nightmare on the Xbox port of Banjo Tooie. They're more powerful systems without the issue of lag. (Though Beaver Bother admittedly sucks no mater what console you're playing on.)

At the end of the day, no. I don't think DK64 "Killed the the platforming genre." I think there's a lot of contributing factors that went into their decline. Shooting games were on the rise, Playstation were capitalizing on it, and soon Xbox would do the same. (Rare saw their popularity even back then. Goldeneye was a huge hit. Meanwhile DK64, Tooie, Jet Force Gemini and Conker all had gunplay of some kind. ) If anything, I'd say Rare was just too ambitious. It just wasn't the time for the games to be as big as they wanted them to be. I know that sounds a bit biased, I know DK64 has legitimate flaws with its level design and pacing. But claiming it's this unplayable, genre-killing marathon of a game has always seemed unfair. ESPECIALLY considering some of its complaints are praised in other platformers.

[stunphy]

I'm a simple man, I see DK64, I click.

[Zersetzor]

I think the 'too many collectibles' complaint is one of those weird things someone says online and everybody just agrees with without actually thinking about.

I played DK64 when it came out, to completion if memory serves, and I've completed it a couple of times since then.
My biggest complaints are:
* The minigames. There is no way around this one. In the best case, minigames are a welcome reprieve from the regular gameplay. A short quick burst to shake things up a bit now and again. But in DK64, whenever I have to do a minigame, my heart sinks. Beaver Bother is far and away the worst offender, but this applies to all of them, just to a lesser degree. During one playthrough, I actually started to just skip some Bananas, even though I'm a hardcore completionist.
** Way too many moves / upgrades are basically 'button presses' that only serve to gate some areas. The musical instruments, some of the pad / barrel abilities, and even the guns are just that.
*** (related to **) The stage design is blatantly segmented, with every level having some mini-areas set aside for each Kong. In the most blatant examples, there are a bunch of doors next to each other, each reserved for a different Kong. E.g. Gloomy Galleon and Crystal Cave
**** The Kongs play very similar. They all have a weapon and an instrument that work all the same, and apart from their special moves, they feel very similarly.
Least important, but still. Why did they come up with Tiny, when she is super similar to Dixie? I have no idea why that was necessary. Use her hair twirl. She can shrink, sure. If Donkey can turn invisible all of a sudden, why shouldn't she get a new ability? Let her keep the guitar, and give Diddy some other instrument (IF all the Kongs actually need one!). Diddy could even get the sax.

[MrDark]

Still got my original childhood copy that came with my jungle japes green see-through n64 and matching controller. It may be a bit rough to complete but it'll always hold a special place in my heart as my personal favorite DK game

[robertlauncher]

Also yeah this and Tooie are Kirkhope’s masterpieces. The grand and whimsical theme of DK Isles, the Japes remix of Jungle Hijinx whose new sections fit right into the swing vibe of the original, the eerie playfulness of Frantic Factory, and the chaotic boss remixes of each stage theme, along with K Rool’s menacing motif, it may be different from Wise’s slower, atmospheric focus, but it’s wonderful in its own way

[MarushiaDark]

When this game first came out, I used to hold it up as a model of the "perfect game, " by which I meant I couldn't think of anything that could be added or removed to make it better. That take didn't age well. I first came to realize its flaws after seeing the "Switch Kongs Anywhere" option in randomizers and boy did THAT improve the game SIGNIFICANTLY.

[radmcbad]

I played this game as a kid and really enjoyed it. My friends and me would talk about where some of the collectables were and our progress. My first play through was incredible and it was exactly what I wanted it to be. The second time I played the game all the way through, I was getting kind of annoyed switching kongs. That was pretty much my only problem. I went back to play the game and used a bunch of glitches. This really made the game cool.

[NineQuestionMarks]

Honestly "Too many collectibles" doesn't even sound like a real complaint, especially in this modern age full of big open world games with loads and loads of collectibles. BoTW's Korok seeds immediately come to mind for this.

[goldenraven]

As someone who is completely OCD about collecting every possible thing in a game world no matter how useless, DK64 satisfies this itch like few other. DK64 doesn't have too many collectibles- your favorite game doesn't have enough.