thank you for offering a counter weight to this debate!

The DK Rap is better then every mainstream rap song

I can’t believe the cast is something that’s complained about! It’s one of its strongest areas!

It feels SOOOO GOOD to finally see someone defending this gem of a game. My brother and I were baffled when we found out that apparently the intenet hates this game. As kids we'd be GLUED to the screen. Especially my brother (he's the one who actually went for the 101%). My favorite N64 collect-a-thon and my second favorite of that console.

Someone who doesn't like the DK Rap is not going to enjoy many games at all 'cause they obviously don't know how to have fun.

I think the 'too many collectibles' complaint is one of those weird things someone says online and everybody just agrees with without actually thinking about. I played DK64 when it came out, to completion if memory serves, and I've completed it a couple of times since then. My biggest complaints are: * The minigames. There is no way around this one. In the best case, minigames are a welcome reprieve from the regular gameplay. A short quick burst to shake things up a bit now and again. But in DK64, whenever I have to do a minigame, my heart sinks. Beaver Bother is far and away the worst offender, but this applies to all of them, just to a lesser degree. During one playthrough, I actually started to just skip some Bananas, even though I'm a hardcore completionist. ** Way too many moves / upgrades are basically 'button presses' that only serve to gate some areas. The musical instruments, some of the pad / barrel abilities, and even the guns are just that. *** (related to **) The stage design is blatantly segmented, with every level having some mini-areas set aside for each Kong. In the most blatant examples, there are a bunch of doors next to each other, each reserved for a different Kong. E.g. Gloomy Galleon and Crystal Cave **** The Kongs play very similar. They all have a weapon and an instrument that work all the same, and apart from their special moves, they feel very similarly. ***** Least important, but still. Why did they come up with Tiny, when she is super similar to Dixie? I have no idea why that was necessary. Use her hair twirl. She can shrink, sure. If Donkey can turn invisible all of a sudden, why shouldn't she get a new ability? Let her keep the guitar, and give Diddy some other instrument (IF all the Kongs actually need one!). Diddy could even get the sax.

Update: My Nephew now LOVES this game.

As a fellow DK64 defender, I have quite a bit to say actually. But there are a few points I'd like to make. Firstly with the game's length. I find it a bit odd that people complain about the game's length and number of collectables while praising games like Mario Odyssey with its hundreds of power moons. I 101 percented DK64 blind and clocked in with 36 hours on my save file. Compare that to my blind Odyssey playthrough which went well over 100 hours. Yes, having to backtrack IS annoying every now and then. But it never really felt all that tedious. And for me at least the worlds hit that sweet spot of being just big enough to feel satisfying, while not being too big to feel daunting to find everything in, like Sand and Metro Kingdom from Odyssey. Secondly is the minigames. I understand a lot of the frustration. Believe me, I've felt it too. But part of that frustration isn't DK64's fault. The Nintendo 64 had issues with lag, and Rare knew this. Many of the minigames were designed with this lag in mind to make the games function. But since most people nowadays will be playing this game on the Wii U or emulators, the minigames are going to be significantly harder than they were intended to be. It's the same reason Canary Mary's races are a nightmare on the Xbox port of Banjo Tooie. They're more powerful systems without the issue of lag. (Though Beaver Bother admittedly sucks no mater what console you're playing on.) At the end of the day, no. I don't think DK64 "Killed the the platforming genre." I think there's a lot of contributing factors that went into their decline. Shooting games were on the rise, Playstation were capitalizing on it, and soon Xbox would do the same. (Rare saw their popularity even back then. Goldeneye was a huge hit. Meanwhile DK64, Tooie, Jet Force Gemini and Conker all had gunplay of some kind. ) If anything, I'd say Rare was just too ambitious. It just wasn't the time for the games to be as big as they wanted them to be. I know that sounds a bit biased, I know DK64 has legitimate flaws with its level design and pacing. But claiming it's this unplayable, genre-killing marathon of a game has always seemed unfair. ESPECIALLY considering some of its complaints are praised in other platformers.

Back in the day, collect-a-thons were not a genre. DK64 was an adventure game with a bunch of collectables. Today, people think the maim purpose of the game is to collect evey single thing. It's not. The goal is to complete it. This is where Banjo-Kazooie nailed it. Banjo-Kazooie didn't add too much, making the line between adventuring and collecting much more cohesive. People's mentality about collect-a-thons have changed, because the way we play games have changed. I used to get as far as possible in games as quickly as I could, because I wanted to explore. In Banjo-Kazooie, I couldn't wait to unlock the next note door or next world, so I wouldn't worry about collecting everything. As an adult, I'm far more meticulous. I'm able to delay my curiosity of what's ahead in order to beat games more thoroughly. I believe this is, to a degree, true for most people. Collect-a-thons are rare nowadays, so I imagine they can feel a bit tedious or overwhelming to younger players who aren't used to collect-a-thons. That's my take. I haven't watched the video, but that's my pre-watch theory.

Still got my original childhood copy that came with my jungle japes green see-through n64 and matching controller. It may be a bit rough to complete but it'll always hold a special place in my heart as my personal favorite DK game

I'm a simple man, I see DK64, I click.

I legit feel the biggest fix to donkey kong 64 would be removing the DK barrel and just letting you switch with the d pad (which isn't used at all in the game) up gives you Diddy, down gives Tiny, left gives Lankey, right gives Chunky. If you're already one of those 4 pressing their corresponding button nets you DK

I played this game as a kid and really enjoyed it. My friends and me would talk about where some of the collectables were and our progress. My first play through was incredible and it was exactly what I wanted it to be. The second time I played the game all the way through, I was getting kind of annoyed switching kongs. That was pretty much my only problem. I went back to play the game and used a bunch of glitches. This really made the game cool.

The biggest issue for me was trying to get a high score in jetpack and beating the original donkey kong just to finish the game. It also had the same slow movement of rare platformers. It also takes longer to collect the golden bananas compared to stars or jiggies.

Honestly "Too many collectibles" doesn't even sound like a real complaint, especially in this modern age full of big open world games with loads and loads of collectibles. BoTW's Korok seeds immediately come to mind for this.

Also yeah this and Tooie are Kirkhope’s masterpieces. The grand and whimsical theme of DK Isles, the Japes remix of Jungle Hijinx whose new sections fit right into the swing vibe of the original, the eerie playfulness of Frantic Factory, and the chaotic boss remixes of each stage theme, along with K Rool’s menacing motif, it may be different from Wise’s slower, atmospheric focus, but it’s wonderful in its own way

I loved DK64. I replayed it so many times. Even after growing up. Still loved every minute. Here's hoping we get a remake withing my ~50 years left on this planet, but people seem to hate it so it may not ever happen.

I always thought it was stupid how people will say this game should've had less content just because they personally feel compelled to do absolutely everything. Like they're staking their pride on 100% completing a game for children from the 90s instead of just having fun with it.

It’s refreshing to hear someone praise this game

I definitely loved this game as a kid, although I revisited it as an adult and couldn't get into it even with nostalgia goggles. While the blanket statement "too many collectibles" is a shaky premise for the reasons you mentioned, I think when people say that they're actually channelling the frustration of the back-tracking and just attributing it to the number of collectibles rather than the real issue; the tedious set of steps between them. Which then makes me wonder, why was it so fun as a kid? My first thought is that child's sense of mystery and wonder. I remember being legitimately excited to enter each new world and even more excited to unlock all 8 keys. Not only do we become jaded as adults, at risk of sounding like a boomer (despite being full millennial) I think the age of the internet has basically killed that aspect of gaming. With social media, streaming & content creators, it's almost impossible to avoid being exposed to most parts of a game that you're interested in before you experience it yourself. That sense of wonder was definitely compounded by the technical achievement - as mentioned by most reviewers, for the time, the graphics were good and the game was massive. We were still in the stage of "bigger is better" as technology rapidly improved. As kids during that time, we hadn't really experienced a game of that scale, which was extra appealing because many of us would only really have one new game at a time and have to make the most of it. As far as we were concerned, finishing the game was bittersweet; an achievement but also a sad moment as the game had "run out". As you said, the theme/atmosphere is excellent and it "feels" exactly as you'd want from a DK 3D platformer. There's no real issue with the level layouts, theme & terrain, it's just the way the "stuff" inside is placed that really hurts. Along with that, my personal biggest issue with the gameplay that I REALLY noticed as an adult is how many different "moves" are literally just "press button" in a different skin. Having to "upgrade" your ground pound/musical instruments is especially egregious. Overall, I guess I kind of feel like it's a product of its time but we were the lucky ones who got to experience it. Thanks for the video!

Nintendo has to put this game on the Switch 64 app one day.

Tbh this game would’ve been much better if you could go through the main story campaign with multiple players. It would reduce the need to backtrack and switch Kongs so often.

Possibly my favourite game of all time. 101% completed it three times. The worlds…the characters….the art direction…the MUSIC The collectibles are even amazing in this game. Few games have actually made me feel like I really want to find everything and this is one of those games where I joyfully do it. It’s just so satisfying getting those 100 bananas with each character and 5/5 bananas etc. And like you said…the game only requires like less than half to beat it so if you’re not into it, it’s not grindy AT ALL. The backtracking is also really satisfying because you get to come back to old areas with new characters and unlock new areas within those old areas. It’s very refreshing. And all the levels are so awesome that it really feels cozy and warm being able to return to each of them for a new look. The mini games I also love. Oddly enough once you discover the ‘tricks’ to even the most frustrating mini games, they become easy and satisfying since you know how to win easily. Beaver bother is easy, and so is bug bash. You just have to know the mechanics really well. It’s kinda like once you discover the exact attack patterns and move combinations to swiftly defeat a dark souls boss. What was once infuriating becomes very satisfying because of your insider knowledge. Anyways… yeah the modern hate on this game is absolutely a ‘hate wagon’ that got started only a few years ago when a couple people did some retros on it hating it and everyone followed like sheep. It just became the popular opinion. Nobody can think for themselves these days

I can see people not being a fan of this game, but I still greatly enjoy it. I’ll pop it in every so often, relax and gather up the many many collectables the game has to offer. Speaking as someone who played the DKC series before this, complaining about the cast seems silly. I was surprised that Dixie didn’t make it into the game, but I do like Tiny as a part of the cast. All around, a fun group of characters. I think one thing that would alleviate complaints would be to allow free swapping of characters. Just to give a break on the backtracking. I think I’ve seen this implemented in the randomized version of the game and it seems like it’d do the trick. I could even see it working if you create a pair of Kong’s that you can switch between outside of the tag barrels. That’d be a nice nod to the DKC series, where you did work as a pair and were able to swap between the two. Either way, I’m all for this great game getting a worthy defense! 👍

I agree with you that if you don't care about 100%ing the game, it could even be considered a masterpiece by some. The problem is that it is a collect-a-thon, and the number of people who like collect-a-thons and the number of those who like collect-a-thons who also like checking off every box by collecting everything are almost 1-to-1. The collect-a-thon fan who doesn't care about leaving a level before collecting everything is the exception--the point of the genre really lends to it. I think if the fans of the genre who have this critique can let go of their desire to 100% it and try to enjoy it on its own terms, it would be a much more fun experience. Maybe maintaining some kind of parameter in its place, like "collect all of the minimum of what is needed for each level before leaving," could replace the satisfaction they get from box-checking.

"The DK Rap is a joke" - The Actual Grant Kirkhope

As someone who just recently discovered the randomizer community for this game, this video is spot on. I just completed an all collectibles run of the vanilla game and now I get to discover new ways to play DK64 with the randomizer, never requiring that I 101% the game but rather just get to K. Rool. It's a true gem of a game in all facets including story, gameplay, music, and bonus features.

Back in the day, We (me and my brothers) used to rent this game for the weekend, it was one of my favorites alongside smash bros and goldeneye. The problem with renting was I never get to finish and I had to wait another weekend to rent again... Now you made me realize I can emulate and finally finish this gem, thank you!

This needs to be on the NSO! If it can be on the WiiU Virtual, it can be on the NSO!

DK64 was one of the first games I remember playing alongside Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Red and it’s still one of my all time favorite games to this day

I'd like to see this game remade. Maybe give the levels more clearly defined sections designated towards each Kongs. The game already does this but it could still be segmented a little better. Having DK follow bananas and end up at a door that Chunky has to open for Tiny is a little all over the place. I'd like to see the collectable requirements be set so if one Kong finds everything they can find, they can beat the game, and then maybe have a unique final boss and ending.

I played and beat this game again a couple months ago, and I still adore it, despite its couple of completely broken minigames I can't defend. You basically just summed up all my thoughts. Love the game's creativity, characters, quirk, exploration, music, variety. Just a couple things that hold it back, but still a fun experience.

Criminally underrated channel, keep it up love your vids

A master piece of the 3D platforms, when I see a Top 20 N64 games and this Rare gem is not included I going bananas!! this game was amazing back in 1999 and it still kicks 95% of most 32bit/64bit game´s asses (it even knocks out some of the first Dreamcast or PS2 games), the term "goog" is not enough for this title, is TOP 5 best 3D platformers of all time material. So for the gentleman that made this video praising DK64: you are my man

It took way too long to finally have a video of a youtuber defending this game, thank you.

I did my 101% (Including every banana and coin accessible without glitches) playthrough a year ago and ended with a final time at around 32 hours, though that was with prior knowledge of the game. It was pretty fun, but the latter part of the game (Creepy Castle onwards) was a massive pain. It wasn't the number of collectibles that were the problem at all, it was the minigames. You would do something that previously in the game would just give you a banana, instead it'd give you a minigame barrel as the reward, and most of the minigames are honestly pretty bad tbh, and some are genuinely nearly impossible. One of the ones where you have to shoot the target and avoid the kongs was genuinely so ridiculously precise with its timing that after multiple hours of attempts, I just decided to cheat and use the slow feature on the emulator I was using. Other than that, fun game.

DK64 is another game I love a lot. I do acknowledge that certain design decisions are a bit much, but honestly, the amount of collectibles never bothered me as a kid, and still didn't when I replayed it recently lol That said, I think the ideal situation ‐ at least imo - would be to have a more planned out "route", with character-specific collectible chains meeting in places with a Tag Barrel more often

As someone who played this game constantly as a kid, the backtracking didn't bother me. I always felt like I was exploring and finding new stuff every time I started it up. I probably didn't even realize the things like "other Kong's bananas in a room I just opened with a different Kong", because by the time I went back there again, it was as a different Kong. It FELT new. As an adult, you think about things systematically. Like, "okay, I did this, now I gotta do this, this and this... man, that's a lot". It's different as a kid, you just walk around and have fun.

Great video. I remember being 10 years old and Christmas of 99 myself and my sister received the green DK64 bundle and Ocarina of Time. I’ll never forget that day! I’m almost 35 now haha, how time does go by fast

I always felt DK64 is supposed to have a ton of collectibles, because 1999 wasn't really a time where someone could have instant access to a digital catalog to play other games if they got bored. Back then, our parents bought this game at the store, and we played it because we only had that, and a few other games. While I'm a big fan of Banjo-Kazooie, the biggest problem to me is: BK can beaten in like under 2 weeks of casual play (1world/day.) DK64 alleviates that by just having more things to collect.

This is great and is making want to give DK64 another go. I do like some of the collecting in it, even though I do wish it had what mods included: switching Kongs instantly. I do think, and this is prob a subjective thing on my part, that my main issue is the level design. The levels after a while feel like they lack a bit of direction and structure. Banjo Kazooie generally used central landmarks [like Clanker, the big snowman, the mansion, the tall tree etc] and that made the levels understandable to navigate after quickly looking around - something I felt DK64 lacked. Still, I have fond memories of renting this game and I can properly complete it now...if my backlog weren't getting bigger.

happy to see someone on youtube who loves this game its my fav DK game i 101% the game i never had that much trouble with it i had a lot of fun with it

When this game first came out, I used to hold it up as a model of the "perfect game," by which I meant I couldn't think of anything that could be added or removed to make it better. That take didn't age well. I first came to realize its flaws after seeing the "Switch Kongs Anywhere" option in randomizers and boy did THAT improve the game SIGNIFICANTLY.

Thank you for making this. You nailed it. I was actually considering making a similar video, but your thoughts match mine almost exactly (if I ever do make the video, I'll be sure to give yours a shout-out!). It became popular to bash this game for its collectibles and that just caught on. It's an easy hook to design a video around. Like you said, you can avoid so much of the stuff in this game and still have plenty for what's required to beat it. It's probably the only game that gets judged so unfairly based on what it takes to complete it, not just beat it. We don't really do that for any other games. Anyways, thanks again. I enjoyed the video.

True. I only just learned about the memory leak, and now I've learned it's not actually an issue. lol I never had a problem with "backtracking" I honestly loved all the different colored bananas. This game was so fun to explore. And I played all 3 DK country games before DK64, and I still loved this cast. This is a great video. Thanks for coming to the defense of the kongs. SUBSCRIBED! :)

My only memory of this game was my step dad walking in while I was playing, looking at it for two seconds as DK swam in the water and saying "that's one smart monkey, huh?" and then walked away.

Man, I can see why you enjoy DK64 so darn much. The lighting, the music, K. Rool at his most diabolical, it's all here. Heck, there's a lot to collect to, which I see nothing wrong with (inherently). And Chunky and Lanky are amazing. However, I just can't say this game is 100 (or 101%) all there. Tiny Kong is WAY too similar to Dixie Kong (who is a fan-favorite for a reason), and with all the backtracking, it feels like I'm playing the game 5 times over in levels, covering ground I've already since covered before. Despite all this, and an overall sour taste I feel in my mouth, I see a good game buried in DK64. It shines with the hub of DK Island & Crocodile Isle, Jungle Japes is great with how it is paced (along with parts of Creepy Castle) and it finishes strong with Hideout Helm and the spectacular K. Rool Duel. There is good fun to be had in DK64, but it is held back by some baffling decisions that just arbitrarily extend playtime. And I've come to that conclusion from a casual AND 101% playthrough.

Great game and video. I think the biggest thing with DK64 is you definitely have to play the game with a mindset of patience and taking your time to experience things rather than speeding through most challenges through it like with what tends to happen with most other platformers. I remember experiencing a bug as a teenager, I was in the basement with my sister trying to turn on the game and it just didn't want to turn on and when it finally did, the audio was slowed down and deepened and it scared us both so much that we didn't touch the game for a month straight and only played it when our dad was around.

It's important to remember that back when this came out online gaming wasn't a thing and that these games were expensive; more expensive that AAA titles today when adjusted for inflation. So, if you were an only child (and couldn't always rely on siblings for multiplayer) and you you were only buying two or three games per year, then having a game with this much stuff to do was incredible. I LOVED it as a kid. Even the backtracking wasn't an issue, never felt like a chore. I confess I haven't played it for over 20 years and it may not hold up so well now, but it was perfect for the era in which it was designed.

Playing Donkey Kong Arcade and Jetpac were awesome. Perhaps the earliest example of Retro Gaming for modern hardware at the time. Even if I hadn't played those old games because I was only almost born at the time of their release, too young to play the Arcades back in the 80s, but I understood to get those coins, you need to Get Good.

this was one of those games that my friends and i played to death back in the day, so when i replayed it a few years ago i had no issues with figuring out where to go and what to do, sure the backtracking and variety of collectibles can be a problem but it was never something i ever really noticed simply because there was always somewhere else to go with that character. the one issue i always had was the availability of the kong barrels but even then it wasnt something that i noticed until i was an adult and it was pointed out to me. Thanks for making this video ill have to check out the rest of them! also with beaver bother, sure it was tough when i first jumped back into it but i dont remember it being all that hard, i think that you need to just overcompensate how far you need to travel to get them to go in the hole, although i noticed in your video one of them standing right on the precipice and not walking in so maybe there is a bit of BS in this one.

Nobody I knew back in the 90's actually collected everything. That wasn't even a thought that entered our heads. For every collectathon game we just collected exactly enough to progress, then moved on to the next area. The only time we kept on collecting was when we ran out of new games to play and our parents wouldn't get us any new ones, so we had to keep playing our old ones. And all the extra collectibles made DK64 the best game in that scenario, since there was always new stuff to grab whenever we booted it up for the 1,000th+ time. People complaining about it now forget that it was usually one of only a few games in a kid's library at the time, and having something new to collect instead of just starting back at the beginning again was awesome!

This is the fourth video I’ve seen in a while that is defending this game. I’m so happy to see this. This game is my childhood, more than any other game on the system. I don’t get why people have to complain about all the collectibles when you said in your video yourself that you don’t even have to collect everything just to experience what the game has to offer. I also love other games in the system from rareware. You have yourself a new subscriber. 👍🏻

Nice to see people spreading positivity on DK64. I was hoping my childhood wasn't a lie 😂 It did annoy me that I had to keep switching kongs to get everything but I actually liked running through and exploring the worlds at that time. Even with SM64 and SA/SA2 I spend alot of time in the hub worlds just looking at the scenery.

As someone who is completely OCD about collecting every possible thing in a game world no matter how useless, DK64 satisfies this itch like few other. DK64 doesn't have too many collectibles- your favorite game doesn't have enough.

Literally one of the first games I played ever, I was like 5 or 6 when I played it for the first time, and I was floored by the sense of exploration and the music was amazing, I have loved this game ever since, the only real complaint I have is Diddy's jetpack controls. But yeah the Rare games are the reason Grant Kirkhope is my favorite video game music producer, I'm currently in my second playthrough of Kingdoms of Amalur after finishing Yooka-Laylee and I just can't get enough. Great video man, I'm gonna go check out more of your videos :)

Playing Sea of Thieves as an old school RareWare addict is a constant bittersweet assault on my mind. There’s so many nods to their original run of games…but the only thing I can think of is what things would be like now had Microsoft not scraped our favorite developer out of Nintendo’s hands. Now that I think of it…Rare is the ONLY company they purchased that is still on its legs. Sometimes I feel like that’s only the case to act as a constant reminder of what was…but who knows.

The whole thing is pretty simple to me: the game has a great atmosphere; the levels are super colorful, fun and varied; the characters are charismatic and memorable; the soundtrack is great. That's enough for it to be a very good game IMO. It does have some flaws - the backtracking can be annoying at times, but it's nothing huge. There's a lot to collect, but you don't need to get everything unless you want to 101% it. I just can't overlook the fact that I love the game's ambience, levels, and humor. And just listen to the music and the sound design - the whole thing oozes with personality. It was fantastic especially for Donkey Kong fans. And having played the game when it was released, for the N64, I must say that it was pretty incredible back then seeing the size of DK Island and all these places. You didn't get that kind of stuff back then; walking on a huge beach, swimmimg to and from islands, it really felt like this big world and adventure, it was amazing for the 90s. Today people are less impressed by it (we have things like enormous open world games, after all) but back then it was a really big deal. Remember that just one generation prior all we had were 2D games.

I can’t hate this game. It’s just a cozy ass game that I grew up playing.

I remember exploring this game for HOURS at a time as a kid, it wasn't a game for me, it was an experience. The music, the atmosphere, the simple gameplay. We also didn't have a lot of video games growing up, so l didn't have an arsenal to compare it to. And I never felt like all the items were required like a checklist [or you didn't progress,] just something to get along the way and you WILL get along the way. It was more like a treasure hunt. 4:23 - I also thought that made it more fun for me to backtrack with a different Kong too, it never felt like a chore, because you felt like by going to said area with a different Kong meant that you may unlock more secrets with them. I don't even blame nostalgia either, because I recently downloaded a ROM and began playing again, back to the old fun feelings of just escaping into the world and unlocking every stage slowly but surely. Its therapeutic. Sure its not comparable the most fully realized AAA title out there, but its something to do.

Beautiful retrospective! It's a good point that we are drawn to certain qualities in games and you showed plenty to appreciate with Donkey Kong 64 - my favorite game ^-^ Love how you spoke about the common issues and brought forth the positive characteristics - such as the characters themselves and how players only need to collecting a certain amount of items to finish the game

In that era, a game being long was the best thing that could happen, you could play a ton of hours for a fair price and with a world as vividly as dk64 i think its underestimated the levels of fun the game can produce

People tend to forget that games back then didn't have a lot to do and most are rather short games. This game put in so much I spent literal summers trying to collect everything and I loved every bit of it. I can see the complaints today but back then this game game us so much to do as kids so screw anyone and everyone that has issues with my favorite game 😊

And then there’s Chunky…. He’s dead.

I swear, the Wii U Virtual Console release is somehow subtly messed up. If people are complaining about bugs or similar issues, I can believe it if the Wii U is how they played it. I've had no issues with emulation or the original hardware. For people who are really skeptical about giving DK64 a shot, I highly recommend playing with the Switch Kongs Anywhere emulator cheat. It's a shame it's charm is being downplayed, it always felt like a Banjo-Kazooie 1.5 or Banjo-Halfie to me.

You just earned yourself a new subscriber. This is my childhood and I love it! I can't wait for Crowd Control version of this to drop so I can stream it in all its glory with the craziness added!

I absolutely love this game, and at the same time, it's kinda funny how people complain about the collecting in this game, while they have no problem trying to collect EVERYTHING in the Zelda games, Metroid games, Kirby games, Yoshi games, etc...

I had an N64 as a kid and somehow missed this gem at that time, none of my friends had it either. I think it got overshadowed a bit by Zelda. I’m playing it through now for the first time in my 30s and having a blast! Also there are 650 comments and you have replied to almost all of them- impressive!! New subscriber!

I'm probably just an old guy ranting but I was 13 when this game came out and I absolutely loved it and definitely made my 1999 school holidays a great time. At the time I wasn't able to buy many games so I thought that the amount of content was great since I had a lot of time to spend playing and not many options. For it's time it was quite a looker too, honestly compared to first generation Dreamcast games, it looked remarkably well and better than most N64 games. I loved it back in the day and Frankly most people did. The hate this game gets nowadays is a strange and recent fad. I can understand why, for someone playing it for the first time will find the collectibles excessive and all but for it's time it was a lot of value for your money. I haven't checked on it in a lot of years and maybe I won't other than to show it to my youngest kid someday but I totally agree with you @jiggylookback this is still a good game and definitely deserves to be defended

Donkey Kong 64 really needs its own "Super Mario 64 DS" with the tweaks you suggested.

The argument of "too many collectables" is definitely a "let me think like everyone else" statement. You can literally beat the game in 1 sitting if you wanted to. It's not a problem not liking the game, but calling it a bad game just isn't fair. We're at a point now where these old games are really showing their age now that gaming in general is looked at more analytically rather than having the "fun factor" they used to. I personally can't stand playing Ocarina of time, but i can think back to 1998 and think damn this game must've been incredible. DK 64 deserves the same credit. Yes it's aged, but pretend you're 6-7 years old in 1999. This game was a dream for those of us who had nothing else to do or play

The biggest problem with the cast is that it doesn't meaningfully feel like 5 distinct characters, it feels like 1 character repeated 5 times. All of them have the same move speed and jump height/length, and extremely similar movement abilities. Tiny is the only one who organically interacts with level geometry via the ponytail twirl. The vast majority of the time, a barrier to entry is a music/ground pound/gun etc. Panel, which all kongs interact with in the same way mechanically. A gap only tiny can cross feels a lot more gratifying than a door that can only be opened by a ground pound switch, which all 5 kongs can do, but has a particular kong's face on it. The Banjo Tooie transformations feel like a fully realized version of what the DK64 kongs should have been.

Great video! I last played it years ago, and the issue of bugs never came up for me. People probably play it so much more now, and have discovered so much that's easier to notice. I loved it so much! I never owned it so I didn't get to beat it but I longed for it. Oh and that Beaver Bother game was frustrating as hell! Thanks for this lookback!

I don't think people who experienced DK64 before playing the DKC trilogy, can understand just how off certain elements of DK64 felt. Not just the lack of Dixie and Kiddy (though that was something very annoying for us DKC fans), but the music and animation being a bit too... goofy and exaggerated. The original DKC trilogy was less silly toony, and instead had a more naturalistic style, both in terms of visuals and especially music. David Wise created incredibly atmospheric music for those games, and Grant Kirkhopes crack at DK with DK64 was tonally an entirely different direction, and one that, yeah... felt off to me.

As someone who loved this game when it first came out, I want to start this off by saying that I do agree with a lot of the points you've made, but I think you brushed over one of the most egregious parts of the game. Yes, you do have to get the Nintendo and Rareware coins to finish the game, but you're completely ignoring the fact that that's incredibly difficult, but not because of how you can access them, but because of what you need to do once you do access them. In all the other mini games, they last about a minute long each at worst, and they were built with several game mechanics and controls in mind. However, to get the aforementioned coins, you need to play through two classic video games, Jetpac, and the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game. The former is simple enough because you don't need to get too far in the game to get the coin, but the latter is easily the worst part of the entire game, not just because it's difficult, but because it's required. The game does not ease you into the 1981 DK game, and you have to beat the entire game's four levels twice, with the second time on hard mode, to get the Nintendo coin, without getting a game over in any of the four levels. As an adult with decades of gaming experience at this point, I can do it pretty easily these days, with maybe some slight struggles as I readjust. But as a kid, and this game was intended for kids, I was literally sobbing trying to to beat this challenge because all I wanted to do was beat the final boss, considering I had done literally everything else. I would have rather they didn't make this aspect a requirement, because it added a frustrating challenge to access the final boss. Don't get me wrong, DK64 is a good game. But is it as good as Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie? No. Those games were designed better and had clear expectations of their players that stayed true from beginning to end. DK64 tried to do that, but it wasn't anywhere near as successful.

I feel lucky I found this channel! Amazing content and super under subbed. You got a sub from me!

A few days ago, when I was playing DK64 on the Wii U and the game crashed in Fungi Forest and I had no idea why. Turns out it was because I kept using save states and never reset through game. So the game thinks the game had been left on for over 19 hours. Once I reset it everything was fine. Was that the memory leak thing or something else?

I had a lot of genuine fun playing the multiplayer with friends back in the day. My personal gripe with the game is having to beat the original Donkey Kong for the coin. It took me way too long and I was miserable at it. I enjoyed Jetpac though and had fun.

That's the problem with today's generation. They're so entrenched in ever-advancing graphics and a changing game industry that they shit all over older generation games. No respect for their elders. This game was an epic part of my childhood.

There is a "swap anywhere" patch for DK64 and i strongly recommend it, as well as save states for the more annoying parts. Still wish there was a patch that swapped all minigame barrels for golden bananas.

I am obvious. Lmaoo I’m just now searching videos on it for nostalgia and I assumed it was loved. My favorite game on the 64. I NEVER beat it tho 😂😂 I just remember roaming deeper and deeper finding random but amazing bosses. I have no idea if it’s possible to play this on PC or if it’ll be on switch in the future but I’d LOVE to play it and 100%. Had no clue what to do as a kid lol I just played for a few hours until I got tired. Was like 6 or 7 in 31 now. Thanks for the video and covering this

Video games started out as basically being as ARGs. They had to be- developers used Feelies, or physical supplemental media -to supplement the limited storage space on discs. (If you play the original King's Quest without the story in thr manual, you're missing half the lore!) Then games kept going, throwing us a bone with long term goals, like items that cost 9999$, or enemies that take hours to find, so that we have a reason to revisit a game without resetting our save and losing all our hard work. We'd typically only get a few games a year, especially since gaming tended to be seen as a children's hobby through the 80s-00's. And then everything changed with the Internet, especially with smartphones and social media making its adoption so universal. Suddenly games actively compete for the entire human population's attention, often for free. And worse, so many people are arrogant enough to think that their current situation and preferences based on said experience is the OBJECTIVE viewpoint on which all games should now be judged. A game asking anything of its players? That's not a nice option now. (and in the 90s, it was something that could turn a bad purchase into a decent value) Its now a tall fucking order, if not an insult on the part of the developers. A game that wastes people's time is a grave sin, and its the fault of everyone but the player's own self-regulation, apparently. Obviously, I have a huge personal bone to pick with this attitude. Not at all in what people are playing, but in when people have the audacity to declare older games as objectively bad because they weren't the target audience, or they lack the patience to engage with a piece of media in the way it was made for. IMO DK64 was made to be played, beaten, then picked back up on several occasions so that you could revisit it without just restarting the whole thing. A game back then was the DREAM. But as for how that feels now? I mean, I can see how it hasn't aged as well for today's gamers and all that, and knocks it down a few pegs in terms of general timelessness and all that. But it really bothers me to call it "Bad" over that. Are we going to call the original King Kong bad, too? I mean, so much about it is "objectively" bad, just in the film they used, right? Where are we going to start drawing lines for historical context when it comes to video games? I mean, its pretty magical that people tend to engage with video games with a blind earnesty that isn't afforded to most media, but we're going to have to start taking context into account someday. I really hope we start having these conversations soon and in earnest, so that we don't wind up just recreating the fine art establishment, which blew waaaay to far past the other direction centuries ago and can go kick rocks.

I never thought this was too many collectibles, though I can see why people would find the backtracking irritating; especially when there's purple Tiny coins right at the end of a path for Chunky. The last time I played this game, I was able to 101% it, and it took me about a week to do. Compared to the amount of time it takes to collect every item in something like Terraria or Minecraft, it's just no contest. DK64 is a tropical breeze by comparison. I'm right there with you on the mini-games. They were a mixed bag, and it's not like you suffer any penalties for losing repeatedly. They're really more speed bumps than challenges per se. I did find some of the races hard to complete, because the controls on some of them weren't the greatest, but you don't run into those all the time, so it didn't ruin the whole game. Another thing that was an issue that you don't run into all the time was the camera for the rocketbarrel. The camera wasn't good at following your character around, and would frequently invert if you tilt the stick the wrong way by accident, making it much harder to continue following the animal you were following, or get through the ring you needed to get through, or find the target you wanted to shoot. Again, though, as rocketbarrel courses weren't terribly frequent, it didn't ruin the game. The exclusion of Dixie and Kiddy is, I think, less of a problem and more of a missed opportunity. I feel they could have fulfilled the same functions, and even had the same personalities we got with Tiny and Chunky, and been a nice little nod to the fans, but for whatever reason, they didn't go that route, and I don't think it's that big of a deal-breaker. On the whole, I liked this game when I first got into it, and I still like it. I wouldn't put it on the same level as an Ocarina of Time or even Kirby 64, but it's a good, fun game.

one complaint I saw which was utter horseshit was you got no reward for collecting everything. Either the guy never actually got everything, or they lied, because doing a perfect run in DK 64 allows numerous bonus content from an extended ending, a "audition reel" in the same vein as Pixar's animated blooper reels, Krusha as a playable character in multiplayer mode and other things which assist in standard gameplay.

I honestly think the whining about backtracking is insane. It's one of the funnest parts of tooie too. Returning to a level beefed up with new abilities to use and exploit and finding more and more stuff keeps things nice and fresh despite the length of it all. Being able to fully explore a DK64 level on the first go would mean they'd need to cut like half the content or it'd be obscenely long. There's nothing wrong with leaving it incomplete and returning. Literally the only issue is adding a few more Kong switch spots. "Backtracking" in this instance means breaking up the linear progression with familiar yet distinctly new areas in more bite sized forms. And yeah it's a bit ironic people whine it's too buggy cuz of all the speedrun specific tricks it has...but no one has the same complaints about Ocarina of Time which is one of the most mangled and broken videogames in history. Neither affects a casual playthrough.

DK64 was missing polish in a couple key areas that makes the game too tedious and inconvenient to play in 2024. Obviously it’s a masterpiece in many ways. This game is one of the few that I’d say deserves a remaster so it’s appropriately replayable.

Bro, as a kid, I'd goof around when I didn't know how to collect something(I was dumb.) There was a large movelist, combos, bombs, guns, stomps, coconut abilities, flying with a jetpack, it's all the fun a kid could have. Too many adults see a "point" but platformers knew what we wanted. Also it's been FOREVER since chunk, tiny, and lank have been in a game.

I grew up with DK64, alongside Mario and Rayman 2. I definitely remember having a bit of a hard time with all the minigames, especially the minecart one with the bombs over lava, and Beaver Bother. Never really struck me that the game was a little jank, since I was a kid. But it is something that has shown its age. The whole swapping thing never really bothered me too much. But I can also see the argument for it. I really just chose Tiny and Lanky, since they have more options to move through platforming. I really just viewed the collection aspect of DK64 as its point in longevity. A blockbuster aspect if you will. I don’t think they intended for many to easily beat the game. But modern conventions tell us that this is a pretty dated concept. And I don’t disagree that there is too much to collect at times. Which wouldn’t be an issue if completion of the game wasn’t behind pretty much doing everything in the game. I like DK64, but it does have flaws. I would like a game like it, but not exactly so.

Great video. Just brought out my Wii U and I’m playing DK64. TONIGHT

The backtracking is a bigger problem than too many collectables. In my opinion they should have made it possible to switch characters on the fly.

I bought DK64 for my n64 some months ago but never felt the interest of playing it. I'm a collector of the n64, so this game I must have. I love the n64, I love DK... But with all I read and watch online, I could not put myself into playing it. Now, after watching this single video of yours that is the only one source that said something good about the game, I'm more interested in playing it! Thank you! I've already 100% Banjo-Kazooie, but haven't touched Tooie. I tried, but the game looked big. Kazooie was much more... I don't know how to describe it... Like, I work and have a son, I don't have too much time to play. With this short period of time, I could finish Kazooie, you know? But when I started looking into where Tooie was heading into... It immediately turned me off. I couldn't do much into the time I had to play. And when I returned to play, I usually got some time to get back to where I supposed to be... Whatever. I'll give a shot in DK64 when my n64 get back from the repair shop. I think I'll first focus on finishing the game, then I'll try to 100% it. I never did that, I usually go for 100% first. But again, thank you! Ah, the comments are good, too! :D

The main thing this game needed was the ability to tag Kongs anytime. Once you had all the Kongs and most of their abilities the backtracking and poor collectible placement would’ve been resolved There are mods where you can tag anytime, and people do speedruns and randomizers with them. It speeds up the game significantly

I recently 101% DK64 for the first time and as a fan of collectathons, this game was fantastic! (this is Aiden btw lol)

When critics tally up the collectibles, it is misleadingly high. For example, 200 golden bananas + 40 blueprints is not 240 collectibles because the blueprints are automatically redeemed for a banana - the blueprints are basically just a golden banana in a different form. And the 4000 bananas are not 4000 distinct collectible items; there are bunches of five and banana balloons and even the single bananas are usually in a connected trail. It's like counting a Goomba as 500 enemies in Super Mario Bros because it gives you 500 points or whatever it is.

Thank you for making this!! This was my favorite game as a kid and I still go back to 101% every couple of years! It's so great to see other people enjoying it just as much

I think my biggest gripe with the game, is you can only use a certain Kong to open certain gates, but then that area has different coloured bananas, which doesn’t really make any sense. Still, such a good game

I played this pretty blind for the first time in January and it blew my mind. It’s everything I love in a collectathon. I didn’t even mind switching characters since barrels were everywhere.

Dk64 uses a pretty advanced system to make the game feel smoother. When it detects frame drops, the game logic speeds up accordingly. I learned this through a random bit in a cybershell video on the game, tell me if im wrong.

I introduced this game to my son the other day. He loves it. We played five hours straight together. I remembered why I sat in front of the TV losing track of time as a kid with this game.

I always found this game so adorable, from the voices to the animations to characters like K.Lumsy and the seals. It’s probably my second favorite of Rare’s collectathon trilogy after Banjo Kazooie. That’s not to rag on Tooie, I just grew up with this one more. Hmm, why is that, Kid Me? “BOTTLES IS DEAD WAHHHHHH!” He’s fine.