quote

News: Donkey Konga Trailer, Soundtrack

It's very hard to translate the soundtrack list for Donkey Konga, but some of the specific song titles are The Galaxy Express 999, Colors, Fly High, Shake, Love Somebody, and We are the One. In addition to a Mario and Donkey Kong theme songs (one is the stupid DK Rap), there is a game theme from Legend of Starfee (a popular GBA series in Japan) and Hamtaro. Two America, one Mexican and one French folk song are to be included. The soundtrack will probably change for North America but is likely to still have a lot of pop and latin beats.

quote

November 04, 2003 - Sources in Japan have revealed that the new issue of Japan's Nintendo Dream Magazine, set for official publication later this week, will contain some good news for those anticipating Nintendo and Namco's music-based Donkey Kong tie-up. According to the magazine, Nintendo is considering making the Donkey Konga conga game into a series of titles. No further details are provided by the magazine.

This news isn't too surprising, of course, seeing as how Namco's similar PS2 title, Taiko no Tatsujin has seen numerous music expansion disks, all of which sold in the hundreds of thousands. We expect similar updates for Donkey Konga.

quote

December 12, 2003 - Nintendo and Namco surprised everyone earlier this year in announcing that their collaborative Donkey Kong effort would be a musical title. Now, as the year comes to a close, the Japanese version of Donky Konga has hit retail shelves, allowing us to get an up-close and personal look at the game.

If you've had the fortune of seeing it, picturing something close to Namco's PS2 Taiko no Tatsujin series of drumming games will give you a close idea of what to expect from Konga. Little circles move from right to left on a music bar. Your goal is to time your strikes on the game's drum controller to match up with the style of the circle. In a sense, you're playing along with the song in the background.

The game ships with a small special twin conga controller peripheral, which is made with a surprising amount of quality considering how cheap it is (5980 yen when bundled with the game, 2980 yen sold separately). The conga controller has a good feeling of weight to it (800 grams) and really does looks like a miniaturized version of the real thing.

Depending on the style of the on-screen circle, your actions with the conga vary between four basic things: striking the left conga, striking the right conga, striking both congas at the same and clapping. This latter action is achieved with an audio sensor located in the middle of the unit. You don't actually have to clap -- snapping works just as well, as does shouting loudly and closely to the unit. You can also mimic the clapping by tapping the side of the conga unit.

With this small move set, the game manages to offer up a good amount of challenge. While played in beginners' mode, songs have rather simple drumming arrangements. Move on to hard and eventually expert, and you'll be playing your congas and clapping like a pro in seemingly impossible combinations. There's plenty of room for improvement with practice in Donkey Konga.

As you play, you're rated in three different areas. Each time you make a move, the game determines who close you were in timing, with four different levels: good, okay, bad and miss. You have a life-meter of sorts that builds up with successful hits and combos (uninterrupted string of successful strikes). Once this reaches a certain level, you've successfully cleared the stage. Another meter counts up your successful hits and awards you with money which can be exchanged in a store for buying new items.

There's plenty to unlock in Donkey Konga. The game makes you purchase arrangements for expert mode as well as three different conga-based multiplayer mini games. You can also purchase sets of sounds which, when activated in the main mode of play, replace the conga and clapping sound effects with other sound effects. Our favorite at this point is the NES sound set which adds 8-bit gaming sounds to your music. We can't wait to see what the "trance" sound set sounds like.

Single player can be experienced in a standard "street live" mode of play or in a challenge mode in which you try out new songs one after another. There's also a free session mode in which you try the game without worrying about reaching the norm and a memorization mode for those who've played the other modes enough to have actually memorized the order of the moves for each song.

Multiplayer mode offers up even more fun if you have mulitple conga controllers. Challenge mode can be played by two, with both players sharing the same life meter. The free session mode allows for up to four players, with each player contributing individually to the song as a sort of quartet of conga players.

A two-player only battle mode is also included. In this mode, both players attempt to collect the highest number of special points, earned by timing your hits to get "good" ratings. Battle mode features a special POW marker which if hit properly can be used to sabotage your opponent's current points.

It's possible to play multiplayer mode with other players using GameCube controllers rather than the conga controller, although the players without the special controller might feel a bit jealous. On the GameCube controller, A mimics the right conga with the control stick mimicking the left conga. L, R and Z can be used for clapping. This, of course, isn't all that fun, so we'd suggest picking up multiple conga peripherals if you want to play multiplayer.

With the conga controller, Donkey Konga proves to be just as much fun as Taiko no Tatsujin and even older titles like Sega's Shakkato Tambourine and Samba De Amigo. Unlike those other games, though, Konga can be played very quietly, as the conga controller doesn't require that you push too hard. We actually played at night without receiving complaints from those in close quarters.

The only problem we've had with Donkey Konga so far is with its limited song list. The game's thirty-two songs span a wide range, including J-pop (not featuring the original artist), a couple of Japanese television and commercial theme songs and a few songs that should be more recognizable to western audiences, including three latin songs, three game themes and a couple of fast classical pieces. Still, we want more! Of course, as with Namco's Taiko no Tetsujin series, we expect Nintendo and Namco to release song packs regularly, assuming the game takes off.

There's no official word yet on an American release for Donkey Konga. IGN will be back with more should Nintendo of America announce anything.