It's been about two months since my father returned from Japan, Donkey Konga and two Tarukonga Controllers in hand. I couldn't wait!...unfortunately, I had to, seeing as not one store in my area had heard what a FreeLoader was, other than FX, who hadn't gotten a shipment of them in months. Luckily for me, their next shipment came in the following Thursday night, and soon, I was whacking those Tarukongas away.
EYE CANDY
Some people feel that it is unfair to judge a simple rhythm game on graphics, but I disagree. DanceDanceRevolution, better known as DDR, is able to incorporate brilliant visuals into an equally brilliant rhythm game. Of course, being a huge fan of Konami's calorie-burning bonanza, I was a bit...very disappointed at the graphics of our subject, Namco's Donkey Konga. We've got red circles, yellow circles, pink circles, spiky circles...nothing brilliant. The only real visuals are animals dancing and monkies beating the hell out of drums. Transitions between visuals are uneven and aren't smooth at all, in the manner of simple sprite animation. And ignoring that, the actual pictures could have been done on the Nintendo 64 - the textures practically don't exist! Rareware would be ashamed. EYE CANDY gets a shameful * out of *****.
GAMEPLAY
Now we're getting to the good part. Okay, let me break it down: red circle right drum, yellow circle left drum, spiky circle clap, pink circle both drums. Extended circles means go all out. Get it? Got it. Yes, simple, but without giving a rhythm game a shot, you can't imagine what it's like. Seeing...(continued soon!)