You have a set of bongos. You put them on the floor or between your legs or whatever. A song starts to play. When you see one color, you hit the left drum. Another color, the right drum. A third color means both drums, and a final color means you clap.
Got it? Good. Now you know how Donkey Konga 2 plays.
You're probably asking yourself, "What? Why would I want to do that?"
Frankly, it's because it's stupid fun. It's stupid and fun. It's a flat out great party game.
Let's break it down, a bit - that is, if I can stop playing drums on my desk.
There are several different modes you can play. You can just drum along with songs, if you want, in an effort to get better and better scores on harder and harder difficulties (such as monkey vs. chimp vs. gorilla). There's a hyperactive gorilla in the corner bongo-ing along with you. It's actually kind of surreal. That's kind of the default mode. It's probably the best one to try if you haven't played Donkey Konga before, or if you've only played it in a GameStop or somewhere.
There are challenge-type modes. I'm not going to list them all, but they include a variety of different things. One, for instance, requires that you clear a number of songs in a row. Another makes you memorize a rhythm and play it back without visual clues. (And let me tell you, that one is hard! I've played percussion instruments of all sorts for close to 20 years, as well as cello, and that mode kicks my sorry butt up and down.) There's a tetris-like mode where you play rhythms that fall down from the top of the screen.
Most, if not all, of these modes can be played multiplayer as well. There are some modes that are only multiplayer. Supposedly, you can play with a game pad as well as the bongos, but in my opinion that kind of takes away from some of the game play and also is just a bit cheesy. So, you'd need extra sets of bongos, which tend to go for about $40.
There are also "stores" where you can buy new sound effects, new versions of songs, etc. You buy them with the same coinage that you buy challenges, but it's always easy to get more.
The songs: there's a wide variety of songs. There are classical ones, and electronica remakes of classical. There is the "theme song." There are modern tunes, from REM's "Losing My Religion," to Smash Mouth's incredibly overplayed "All Star," to Stain and Good Charlotte. There are also more techno-oriented songs that sound like they could also be used in a popular line of dancing-oriented games.
To be completely honest, I wished for more songs. I like playing to modern music, but the selections feel very limited after a while. In addition, they don't sound like the original versions - I'd need a lot of hard evidence to be convinced that it's Michael Stipe singing the REM parts. A friend who likes Stain a lot pointed out the same thing about their song, "It's Been a While." Also, if you're looking for more songs based off old Nintendo songs, you'll need to go back to Donkey Konga (the original).
Graphically, it's not the greatest in the world, but hey - what the heck do you want? It's a game about gorillas playing the bongos! The only hugely annoying thing I've found is that sometimes it seems like the hyperactive gorilla playing along with you while you drum will play the "clap" animation when I haven't clapped, which makes me nervous that I might have read something wrong, but it doesn't seem to register that way.
If you have a GameCube, either this game or the original are games that are definite "must owns" in my opinion. This is the epitome of a party game. It's a game that's easy to get into for almost anyone, but hard to master. It's light hearted fun, and it can turn into an event all its own.
The version I own came with the bongos. I'm worried about the durability of said bongos; they're less sturdy than they look, and it's very easy to get carried away and hit them much harder than recommended. As a drummer, I know first hand how regular use can wear through drum heads, so I'm curious if I'm going to be out another $40 for another pair any time soon.
There's also the fact that you need more sets of bongos for the multiplayer. We haven't played much of the multiplayer yet, simply because I'm the only one with a GameCube in my group of friends, and no one else is interested in buying another pair of bongos.
Oh, and this is also an incredibly kid friendly game. I'd highly recommend it for kids of just about any age that I can think of - it not only is bright, fun, and non-violent, but it also promotes the love of music. Music is an important thing for kids to get into and everyone knows percussion is the greatest part of music.
(Heh heh heh.)
Right now, as far as I know, there are only two other games (the original Donkey Konga and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat) that use the bongos. However, you can get the game plus the bongos for $50, so that takes the sting out of the price of the bongos, as that's about the price of the average new game. I, for one, will also be going out looking for a copy of the original now, too …
I'm a 29 year old senior network and systems engineer for a consulting firm in the DC area. I'm mostly into MMOs and FPSes (on the console), and I'm a big pro football fan. In my other spare time I like to write and tend to read copious amounts of history and military sci-fi. I'm also into cooking and bad action movies.
