Review: Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong's first and only major adventure on the N64 was none other then the memorable title, Donkey Kong 64. It was Donkey Kong's first real 3D adventure game and it sure was worth it back in the day. Packed with a memory pack upgrade for the console making it obvious that the game was going to be one hell of an adventure.

The home island of Donkey Kong, which was oddly enough in the shape of Kong's head, was soon approached by the the floating fortress of none other then Donkey Kong's arch nemesis King K. Rool. Plans to destroy the island were about to get underway until the fortress of the evil reptile crashed into a rock near the shore of the island. However his plan was already underway as he had stolen Donkey Kong's collection of golden bananas and hidden them throughout a total of eight worlds. However if it wasn't enough to have Donkey Kong running about trying to reclaim all 201 of his stolen bananas the King had also kidnapped four of Donkey's close friends and locked them up. Of course it's up to you to rescue them and once they are free they will actually become playable allowing you to use each of their distinct abilities in order to collect more golden bananas.

Each of the eight worlds in the game contained 25 golden bananas each however each of the five playable Kong's could only collect five of these bananas themselves meaning that it would be necessary to switch between them quite often. This would be done by jumping into the many tag barrels scattered throughout the levels.

Upgrades were major in Donkey Kong 64 as each of the five playable characters all had their own abilities as well as each of them got a unique firearm weapon as well as a musical instrument. With these abilities you would be able to continue to collect golden bananas and with so many abilities at your disposal you can guarantee that you won't be doing the same thing over and over again.

Of course golden bananas won't exactly be the only thing you'll be collecting throughout the game as you will also be required to collect multicolored bananas which will eventually allow you to reach the boss fight for that world. Multicolored coins act as the currency in the game and will be what is used to purchase more advanced abilities and upgrades. Each world will also have five multicolored blueprints in them which will allow you to claim a golden banana from Snide the original maker of the blueprints.

The boss fights in the game are all quite unique except for a few repeat boss appearances throughout the game however other then that they are actually really enjoyable and never exactly get too difficult. After each boss battle you will receive a large key which will allow you to unlock one of the eight locks on the cage of the large reptile, K. Lumsy, who has been locked away for disobeying a direct order from King K. Rool to destroy Donkey Kong island.

The multi player is a bit of a disappointment as for the most part it is only comprised of a few of the many mini games seen throughout the game itself. The replay value of many of these mini games isn't exactly enough for you to want to play them along with friends making the multi player a bit of an ignored and sometimes completely unnoticed feature in the game.

Overall Donkey Kong 64 is one of the greats on the N64 system and it is a memorable and a game worth a play for those who have yet to experience the adventure at hand. The multi player may be a little less then appealing but the rest of the game play makes up for this quite well.