- Pronouns
- He/Him
So I know I make more than my fair share of LTTP threads. I initially wasn't going to make one for this game but after doing a search I couldn't find a LTTP thread on ERA for this game so I figured what the hey.
Personal note: My little brother got this game for Christmas some 20 years ago. I remember playing a bunch of it during the good ol days but neither of us ever finished it. I decided to pick it back up after nearly two decades.
So I have a soft spot for 64 games as well as 3D platformers. I know this game has gotten it's far share of criticism and some of it is deserved, but I think there is a better game here than what some people give it credit for. To my knowledge there has not been another platformer that has succeeded with having five different playable characters, each with their own unique abilities. Every level was set up to where you needed help from other Kongs in order to collect at least some of the golden bananas. I liked that design as it did not allow me to lean on just one Kong to advance through and beat the game. Also, you could really tell that this game was pushing the 64 hardware, even with the expansion back. For example the game really slowed down at points when I was using Diddy's jetpac.
Levels: The seven full worlds were different and vibrant. The teleports were set up very strategically so that any backtracking was mostly ok to deal with. The character change barrels were placed just good enough to where switching out wasn't too annoying. My favorite would would probably end up being Fungai Forest. I loved the day/night changes involved.
The overworld was great. That is one staple from the N64 days that I really miss in modern day platformers. Being able to interact and get extra bananas throughout the travels and exploring are a nice bonus. There was only one or two collectables in the overworld that I had trouble figuring out. Again the teleporting devices made traveling that much easier.
Bosses: More than anything else about this game, I was surprised how much of the bosses I remembered from 20 years ago. The variety from the dragonfly to the jack in the box made for a fun time. I only remember having to do one restart so the bosses for the most part were easy to put down, but they were still fun.
Golden Bananas: Collecting them was fun and fairly easy. There were some that were bunched together like the temple in the desert world. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but it didn't happen too often so it isn't much to complain about. The mini games that were involved with collecting golden bananas were fun, although I hated the beaver game with a passion. I swear to God so many times the beaver would get pushed to the hole but then there was an invisible forcefield that would keep it from falling in. So annoying Also, I wish more objectives would have included the animals that we have come to love and remember from the series. Overall you only needed 100 to get to the final level so the requirements were not harsh.
Collectables: This is where the hate for the game comes in. Some of it is valid IMO. Overall there was just too much and trimming was needed
Colored bananas- Well lets get this over with. Yes it was very cumbersome collection those retched things but it wasn't as bad as it seems. You didn't need to collect all of them to 101% the game (I wish someone told me that earlier). Also, a lot of times the bananas lead to bananas so they weren't a total waste. Really until you got to the last couple of levels the requirements weren't that high to where you needed to actively search out the bananas only. They should come naturally as long as you keep using all of the Kongs. My plan was to 100% bananas and most levels I was going nuts looking for that last 10-20 bananas for one or two Kongs.
Blueprints- I didn't mind collecting them. It was a nice side-quest (technically main quest too). The annoying part was having to switch out each Kong every time I wanted to redeem them for golden bananas. That was my issue with blueprints.
Fairies- That was a nice side-quest that lead me to getting banana 201. For the most part they were next to golden bananas so it wasn't hard to find them.
Battle crowns- This was definitely one of those things that was too much. Not a terrible thing to collect, just extra fluff that didn't do anything in the long run.
Rare/N64 Coin- Ok, this was my biggest gripe with the collectables. So I have to beat this old Rare game for the Rare coin? Ok whatever. (30 minutes later congrats!). I get to the end and I need a Nintendo 64 coin? What the hell is that? Wait, I have to go back to the Factory level??????? Yea those two coins were definitely annoying.
Side characters: This was where the family came back! The power-ups they all provided were great. The one nice thing that the game did was allow you to just buy upgrades for all Kongs just once, except for some of Cranky's powerups.
Overall after 101%ing the game in just under 29 hours I was surprised that I had more fun that I think some give it credit for. Yes some of the collecting was annoying, but you could get through the game without being totally bogged down by them. This isn't Rare's best platformer or even Donkey Kong game, but it is still a decent game.
One more thing......
Admin Edit : Testing.
Personal note: My little brother got this game for Christmas some 20 years ago. I remember playing a bunch of it during the good ol days but neither of us ever finished it. I decided to pick it back up after nearly two decades.
So I have a soft spot for 64 games as well as 3D platformers. I know this game has gotten it's far share of criticism and some of it is deserved, but I think there is a better game here than what some people give it credit for. To my knowledge there has not been another platformer that has succeeded with having five different playable characters, each with their own unique abilities. Every level was set up to where you needed help from other Kongs in order to collect at least some of the golden bananas. I liked that design as it did not allow me to lean on just one Kong to advance through and beat the game. Also, you could really tell that this game was pushing the 64 hardware, even with the expansion back. For example the game really slowed down at points when I was using Diddy's jetpac.
Levels: The seven full worlds were different and vibrant. The teleports were set up very strategically so that any backtracking was mostly ok to deal with. The character change barrels were placed just good enough to where switching out wasn't too annoying. My favorite would would probably end up being Fungai Forest. I loved the day/night changes involved.
The overworld was great. That is one staple from the N64 days that I really miss in modern day platformers. Being able to interact and get extra bananas throughout the travels and exploring are a nice bonus. There was only one or two collectables in the overworld that I had trouble figuring out. Again the teleporting devices made traveling that much easier.
Bosses: More than anything else about this game, I was surprised how much of the bosses I remembered from 20 years ago. The variety from the dragonfly to the jack in the box made for a fun time. I only remember having to do one restart so the bosses for the most part were easy to put down, but they were still fun.
Golden Bananas: Collecting them was fun and fairly easy. There were some that were bunched together like the temple in the desert world. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but it didn't happen too often so it isn't much to complain about. The mini games that were involved with collecting golden bananas were fun, although I hated the beaver game with a passion. I swear to God so many times the beaver would get pushed to the hole but then there was an invisible forcefield that would keep it from falling in. So annoying Also, I wish more objectives would have included the animals that we have come to love and remember from the series. Overall you only needed 100 to get to the final level so the requirements were not harsh.
Collectables: This is where the hate for the game comes in. Some of it is valid IMO. Overall there was just too much and trimming was needed
Colored bananas- Well lets get this over with. Yes it was very cumbersome collection those retched things but it wasn't as bad as it seems. You didn't need to collect all of them to 101% the game (I wish someone told me that earlier). Also, a lot of times the bananas lead to bananas so they weren't a total waste. Really until you got to the last couple of levels the requirements weren't that high to where you needed to actively search out the bananas only. They should come naturally as long as you keep using all of the Kongs. My plan was to 100% bananas and most levels I was going nuts looking for that last 10-20 bananas for one or two Kongs.
Blueprints- I didn't mind collecting them. It was a nice side-quest (technically main quest too). The annoying part was having to switch out each Kong every time I wanted to redeem them for golden bananas. That was my issue with blueprints.
Fairies- That was a nice side-quest that lead me to getting banana 201. For the most part they were next to golden bananas so it wasn't hard to find them.
Battle crowns- This was definitely one of those things that was too much. Not a terrible thing to collect, just extra fluff that didn't do anything in the long run.
Rare/N64 Coin- Ok, this was my biggest gripe with the collectables. So I have to beat this old Rare game for the Rare coin? Ok whatever. (30 minutes later congrats!). I get to the end and I need a Nintendo 64 coin? What the hell is that? Wait, I have to go back to the Factory level??????? Yea those two coins were definitely annoying.
Side characters: This was where the family came back! The power-ups they all provided were great. The one nice thing that the game did was allow you to just buy upgrades for all Kongs just once, except for some of Cranky's powerups.
Overall after 101%ing the game in just under 29 hours I was surprised that I had more fun that I think some give it credit for. Yes some of the collecting was annoying, but you could get through the game without being totally bogged down by them. This isn't Rare's best platformer or even Donkey Kong game, but it is still a decent game.
One more thing......
Admin Edit : Testing.