Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong 64
Developer	Rare Ltd.
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo 64, Wii U Virtual Console
Release Date	Nintendo 64 US October 21, 1999 EU December 6, 1999 JP December 10, 1999 Wii U Virtual Console PAL April 2, 2015 JP April 2, 2015 US April 16, 2015
Gallery	GH Gallery
Rating	ESRB: E

Donkey Kong 64 is the first and only game on the Nintendo 64 starring Donkey Kong. It is also Donkey Kong's only fully 3-D adventure to date and the last original Donkey Kong game to be made by Rare.

Story

K. Rool has returned to wreak vengeance on Donkey Kong and his friends. This time, K. Rool uses a giant mechanical island with the Blast-o-Matic, a cannon that could be used to completely destroy Donkey Kong Island. However, the Blast-o-Matic is accidentally disabled as Rool approaches the island. In order to stall Donkey Kong until his cannon is repaired, King K. Rool has his minions capture all of Donkey Kong's friends and steal all his Golden Bananas.

Gameplay

The game plays similarly to Super Mario 64 and Rare's previous hit, Banjo-Kazooie. The player must explore the overworld (Donkey Kong Island) which acts as a hub that is used to access all the other worlds. These worlds contain items like Bananas, Golden Bananas and keys which must be collected to either complete the world or unlock a new world. The Kongs also have a variety of weapons such as wooden firearms and musical instruments. Several supporting characters appear as in most Donkey Kong games, although there is much less emphasis on the animal buddies, which are only found at two areas in the game.

The game also has five playable characters and starts with only Donkey Kong himself being playable. The other four (Diddy Kong, Tiny Kong, Chunky Kong and Lanky Kong) become playable only after they are rescued from the Kremlings. The kongs can all learn different sets of special abilities from potions that can be bought by Cranky Kong, and they can also buy weapons and musical instruments as well as related items from Funky Kong and Candy Kong.

The game also has its own multiplayer mode (a first for the series), along with a variety of minigames.

Legacy

Although this game would never receive an official follow-up, some elements of this game did carry on into other Donkey Kong games. Diddy Kong's peanut popguns and jetpack have been used in many of his future appearances, especially for the Super Smash Bros. series, and Donkey Kong's bongo drums in this game may have inspired the Donkey Konga games. Some of the characters introduced in this game, particularly Tiny, have also gone on to make future appearances in other games.

Remakes

• In 2015, the game was released for download on the Wii U as part of its Virtual Console.

Sequels

Rare initially worked on a follow-up to Donkey Kong 64 for the Nintendo Gamecube. This was hinted at in a secret ending of 64, which featured the various characters taking part in auditions near the portrait of a dolphin (with "Dolphin" having been the original code word for the Gamecube). Nothing is actually known about this potential game, as it was canceled after Rare was bought out by Microsoft.

The next Donkey Kong adventure game to be made would end up being Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, which followed a different style. Many elements of the Donkey Kong franchise introduced by Rare were later re-introduced in DK: King of Swing and Donkey Kong Country Returns.