Bongo Madness

Two weeks ago I picked up a Gamecube for one game: Donkey Konga.

It's no secret that I love music games. Konami's Guitar Freaks series in particular has held my attention for several years. So when Nintendo finally brought DK to North America, (the sequel has been out for months in Japan) it just had to be a match made in heaven... Mostly.
The game goes like this: coloured icons scroll left on a music bar. When an icon reaches the play spot, it's your job to perform the appropriate action. There are four actions in all - left drum, right drum, both drums, and clapping. Yes, clapping. The DK bongos have a built-in microphone that detects if you are clapping in the right spots.

In general, the game is fun. Everyone likes music, and it's difficult not to enjoy playing it with a novelty controller. The problem is the song selection. Nintendo provides a low number of tunes (about 30) with varying levels of fun. This is a big deal in single player mode where you may not want to play the Pokémon theme or "Diddy's Campfire Medley" too often.

However, even using only one set of drums, the fun factor goes way up when playing with friends. Clapping along to the kids song "Bingo" or Devo's "Whip It" is wonderfully ridiculous and provides a lot of laughs.

When a song is successfully completed, players earn coins to spend in DK Town. Soundfonts are the main unlockable - these change the drums sounds to space lasers, dogs, cars, etc. A few minigames can also be bought with coins, but they're not much fun.

I know I sound a little down on game, but it really is fun... No matter your age, there are probably at least 10 songs that you'd enjoy playing. I just wouldn't recommend buying a whole Gamecube for it until some new bongo games come out.

Title screen

These drums need more lasers

Clap, Left, Clap, Right!

Let's see if this song sounds better with cows

No, it really doesn't