Donkey Konga

[Shockeye]

Has anyone purchased this yet? My son had some fun beating on the bongo drums at the store the other day and I'm wondering if it's worth the purchase for both entertainment for him and to help him learn rhythm and music a bit better.

[Merusk]

I seem to have stopped caring WTF the public thinks about me now that I'm 30. Nobody warned me about this, but it meant I felt secure enough to try it out at the game kiosk.

  If you like DDR, or wanted to try something similar without all that physical activity or the game mat, I think it's a good choice.   I tried "Louie Louie" which was the easiest song available but the rhythm seemed off.  Might just be that I couldn’t hear it well enough in the store, but I felt like I was hitting at odd times.   Maybe some of the other songs would be better synced. Because of this I’m not sure it’d be a good tool for teaching anything other than hand-eye coordination.  Either way,  it looks like a good pickup for the youngins that doesn’t involve fighting.

[Signe]

I have seen this game in action and it's worth the price.  It is the most adorable game I've ever seen.  The huge grin of pleasure on your boy's face will cancel the noise pollution.  I've ordered it for my 22 year musician nephew.  I'm sure he'll consider me insane, but trust me... he WILL play it.  He won't be able to help himself! :)

[HaemishM]

Penny Arcade had this to say.

If you've been into EB lately, and call it a hunch but I'd imagine this is the case, you've seen that they have modified the Gamecube kiosk to include a set of bongos where the second controller might once have been. God love 'em, but I really think they're asking a lot of the young men that come into an EB if they think they're going to go over there and touch that thing in plain sight.

That's really the trouble. Donkey Konga is like an experiment I perform on people I know, from the hardcore on down, as I'm of the opinion that the game taps into some pretty fundamental themes. I have all the shit and four bongos in a box I wheel from place to place like a travelling show. As long as you can get someone to actually play it, as opposed to just stand there framed in the doorway with their arms folded, you're in for a pretty good time. The concept it is based on goes something like this: "It Is Fun To Clap With Your Friends."

Now, I know that's ridiculous. I know it. But I swear to you on the plot of unturned earth that will one day be my mother's grave that it is true and it is good. It is true and good and incontrovertible that when you clap with your friends you feel joy. As a raw game, it is highly amusing and can pack an almost demonic challenge you wouldn't expect from the earlier difficulty levels. Initially, you might find yourself looking around as you are playing the bongos on the song Bingo. You are looking around because you are afraid that a girl might see you. I need you to be strong.

They had them in Costco when I was there last week, for five bucks cheaper than EB - hopefully they'll carry the bongos solo for cheaper as well. If you're already enthusiastic about rhythm games, the purchase is a no brainer - but I can't stress enough the tribal unity produced by as little as two and as many as four drums.

Take that for what you will.

[Shockeye]

I was already leaning towards getting it for my son and I think I will probably pick it up for him for Christmas. They released a sequel in Japan so hopefully there's be a 2 in the US next year.

[Venkman]

This was a good time at E3, whether alone or with three other random-walkups playing alongside. It is very dependent on the song being played though. Some are methodically slow, on the order of DAoC crafting. Others are like playing Unreal Tournament on sugar-coated bricks of Crack.

The Nintendo booth featured this device with two games:

[*]Donkey Konga DDR- a Drumbeat machine. "Game" is stretching even the vaguest definition of the term. It's a drum machine. Hit drum when correct symbol rolls by, Dance Dance Revolution style. Get score. Read if you care.
[*]Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat- a side-scrolling Donkey Kong Country (N64) esque game. Typical stuff. Run left, run right, jump, activate powerup you used in Super Mario Brothers 20 years ago... or was that just me?[/list:u]
Drum left, drum right, drum together, clap. Like a four-key D-pad except your hand hurts after about 20 minutes of playing.

It's a nice idea. A new way of playing the same shit, good to regurgitate all of those old games you've long since forgotten. I'm more hoping this inspires a new round of creativity in the third-party controller market. Seeing the same CAD file passed between 20 different controller manufacturers is getting old.

[ahoythematey]

DKC was on the SNES, not the 64.  DK64 was a mario64 clone with too much collecting.

[Venkman]

Shit. Don't get old man, it sucks. I could swear I was playing the thing around the same time I was playing Goldeneye. Guess I was playing DKC with Return of the Jedi instead...

I think I've seriously played all of five console games in the last 15 years. You'd think I'd remember on what systems I played them...