Poll of the Day > I just got 101% in Donkey Kong 64 for the first time ever

(+) Yeah! (+)

This game is underrated, but I get a lot of the main complaints.

Backtracking to pick up collectables with 5 different characters that can't pick up other character's collectables is incredibly tedious.

A lot of the minigames are straight up unfair. Beaver Bother is so notoriously awful that I'm convinced it somehow was missed during testing. The beetle races are also miserable.

The worst thing in the game however was a race with a rabbit. He gets a head start and it's actually impossible to beat him through skill alone, you need to be lucky and have him get caught on an obstacle. I found a YouTube video showing a glitch exploit where you no longer give him a head start, that was the only way I could win.

Mostly everything else was great though. It feels way ahead of its time. The dynamic lighting is a very impressive technical feat for the N64.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/8/AAM4lZAADkHq.jpg

so lanky's best right

agesboy posted...

so lanky's best right

Chunky has always been my favourite. It's a shame neither of those characters have ever really come back.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/3/AAHsOgAADkID.jpg

Congratulations on the 101 percent!

I also think the rabbit race is the most miserable part of the game.

I've heard stories about Beaver Bother

faramir77 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/8/AAM4lZAADkHq.jpg

Man Donkey and Diddy clearly being renders from the SNES game while the others are just N64 models is really jarring. I gotta show my brother that he'll hate it.

Yup, all those minigames fucking suck.

But other than that I really do love that game.

Congrats! I feel the exact same way you do about Beaver Bother, the scarab races, and the cheating bastard rabbit. They even decided to put two Beaver Bother games back to back in the castle level. Absolute misery

But I still love the game though

I played the Wii U virtual console version a while back and save states make the minigames soooo much better.

HarbingerofHope posted...

I played the Wii U virtual console version a while back and save states make the minigames soooo much better.

Yeah this is what I did when I replayed it last year. Definitely made it a lot more bearable lol

The races are easily my least favorite part of that game. They seem to require quite a bit of luck as well as (imo) an almost ridiculous amount of precision for a game that was clearly aimed at younger players. I have chronic hand pain and slow reflexes so I don't think I was able to win any of the slide races or the rabbit one. I *think* I beat the owl? Can't remember.

I've actually played that game a lot, though. It is WAY too repetitive, but there's something almost meditative about it when it's at its best. I feel the same way about Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild, actually, though both of those are without question better games than DK64.

Come to think of it, a lot of the game's problems would be solved by making it like... split-screen co-op, so two players could play as different kongs and go after different parts of an area at the same time.

i just did this last month as well for the first time, reaching 101% on my N64. congratulations.

i must have got lucky on the rabbit race, but yeah... those beetle races and many mini-games, especially the beaver bother ones ugh.

i thought the game was going to take me a lot longer, but i think i finished around the time you did. early 20 hour range.

I never played DK64 but I have always wanted to.

Zareth posted...

I've heard stories about Beaver Bother

Probably all of them are true. You play as a Klaptrap and the goal is to bark at beavers and herd them like sheep into a hole in the middle of the round arena. It's like the devs forgot to disable edge detection on the beavers though, because they will refuse to drop into the hole unless you can get them to run at it at a sharp angle (like 60 degrees or more). You have to herd like 15 beavers in 60 seconds.

Gaawa_chan posted...

The races are easily my least favorite part of that game. They seem to require quite a bit of luck as well as (imo) an almost ridiculous amount of precision for a game that was clearly aimed at younger players

Yup, my thoughts exactly. I forgot to mention the required Donkey Kong arcade game that you need to beat to get the Nintendo Coin required to beat the game. And if you fail, you need to pull a switch and watch like a 20 second long transition all over again.

RJP_X posted...

i thought the game was going to take me a lot longer, but i think i finished around the time you did. early 20 hour range.

I was stunned by this, too. I wasn't particularly rushing or anything. I remembered a fair amount of Golden Banana locations but for the most part I was problem solving on the spot. I think we've been spoiled with how long modern games are, but 22 hours to 101% a game that won a world record for number of collectables still is surprisingly low.

BUMPED2002 posted...

I never played DK64 but I have always wanted to.

It has its highs and lows. If you like platformers or Donkey Kong in general, you'll enjoy it. Most of the minigames you need to play are fine, but towards the end of the game they become straight up unfair. You don't need to beat all the minigames to beat the game, only if you want to 101% it.

Basically, I'd fully recommend playing the game, but I wouldn't recommend to most people trying to 101% it. I doubt I ever will do that again.

faramir77 posted...

I forgot to mention the required Donkey Kong arcade game that you need to beat to get the Nintendo Coin required to beat the game. And if you fail, you need to pull a switch and watch like a 20 second long transition all over again.

Oh, and I also just remembered, you have to beat it TWICE. Honestly fuck whoever decided that was needed, easily one of the top 3 worst parts of the game, and much less forgivable since it's REQUIRED. All the other bad minigames can be ignored if you just want to finish the game.

faramir77 posted...

I was stunned by this, too. I wasn't particularly rushing or anything. I remembered a fair amount of Golden Banana locations but for the most part I was problem solving on the spot. I think we've been spoiled with how long modern games are, but 22 hours to 101% a game that won a world record for number of collectables still is surprisingly low.

I wonder how long it took me to to completely finish DKC3 way back then.

faramir77 posted...

Chunky has always been my favourite. It's a shame neither of those characters have ever really come back.

at least the brought back tiny. kind of.

.. :|

faramir77 posted...

This game is underrated, but I get a lot of the main complaints.

I am almost done on a replay of the game (22 years later) and I would say it is overrated, at least compared to what I thought back in 1999/2000. This game definitely is no longer in my top 10 N64 games.

Backtracking to pick up collectables with 5 different characters that can't pick up other character's collectables is incredibly tedious.

This... I could see backtracking with say Donkey and Diddy or maybe even 3 Kongs, but 5 was beyond excessive. Felt as though Rare was trying to extend the length of the game and took a big shortcut in that department.

A lot of the minigames are straight up unfair. Beaver Bother is so notoriously awful that I'm convinced it somehow was missed during testing. The beetle races are also miserable.

The worst part about the mini-games was how repetitive they were. Here beat this mini-game, ok now beat it 5 more times! I inexplicably had no problem with Beaver Bother. The first Scarab/Beetle race easily took me an hour though, second one probably 30 minutes. They're both so unforgiving.

The worst thing in the game however was a race with a rabbit. He gets a head start and it's actually impossible to beat him through skill alone, you need to be lucky and have him get caught on an obstacle. I found a YouTube video showing a glitch exploit where you no longer give him a head start, that was the only way I could win.

This isn't true! The key to beating the rabbit the second time is to just "tap" the jump button each time. You save a ton of time this way, as every moment Lanky is in the air he's much slower. I also read that the main issue with this race is the design of the N64 controller and older controllers becoming "loose" as one user put it. More info here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/191702-donkey-kong-64/78760338

I followed the tips in that thread and couldn't believe how easily I won the next time I attempted the race.

Mostly everything else was great though. It feels way ahead of its time. The dynamic lighting is a very impressive technical feat for the N64.

So many 2D objects though, bad camera angles and I really didn't feel the game was graphically that much better than Banjo-Kazooie (1998), while Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001) was so much better.

IDK, maybe I'll play the game in another 20 years and see how I feel then. That is a really good 101% time btw, or at least for the first time getting 101%.

faramir77 posted...

Oh, and I also just remembered, you have to beat it TWICE. Honestly fuck whoever decided that was needed, easily one of the top 3 worst parts of the game, and much less forgivable since it's REQUIRED. All the other bad minigames can be ignored if you just want to finish the game.

This is another nice callout. Fortunately, I'm almost as old as Cranky, so this wasn't a huge problem for me. Still have those Donkey Kong classic skills, even today! I'd imagine most gamers would definitely be frustrated though, not a great requirement, let alone for one of the bananas in that stage.

101%? game messed up

Zenithian_Legend posted...

I am almost done on a replay of the game (22 years later) and I would say it is overrated, at least compared to what I thought back in 1999/2000. This game definitely is no longer in my top 10 N64 games.

Fair enough, personally I'd put it in my top 10. The N64 didn't have much.

Zenithian_Legend posted...

The worst part about the mini-games was how repetitive they were. Here beat this mini-game, ok now beat it 5 more times!

Repetitiveness doesn't really bother me personally. I was a fan of the original Assassins Creed, which a lot of people hated for being repetitive. I was also a huge fan of Metal Gear Solid V, which was pretty repetitive as well.

Zenithian_Legend posted...

This isn't true! The key to beating the rabbit the second time is to just "tap" the jump button each time. You save a ton of time this way, as every moment Lanky is in the air he's much slower.

I tried that probably 10 times, didn't work. That was the last Golden Banana I got. I even got it after the secret Banana Fairy one, on purpose, so I could unlock infinite crystals. I had to use the glitch where you start the race in Lanky's speedy mode.

Zenithian_Legend posted...

bad camera angles

Oh God yeah, that took forever to get used to. There's a button that lets you reorient the camera behind you like in the N64 Zelda games. I used that a million times.

Krazy_Kirby posted...

101%? game messed up

I think the percentage counts how many Golden Bananas you get. There's a hidden Golden Banana you get if you rescue all the hidden Banana Fairies. It's kind of weird but it fits the quirky nature of the game.

Krazy_Kirby posted...

101%? game messed up

Cant tell if serious, but it was very much intentional.

faramir77 posted...

Fair enough, personally I'd put it in my top 10. The N64 didn't have much.

It really didn't, at least if you didn't like Mario everything and THQ wrestling games! Not sure what my exact top 10 would look like off the top of my head, but probably both Zelda games, Mario 64, Mario Kart, F-ZeroX, No Mercy, Conker, Banjo, Goldeneye & Rogue Squadron. Harvest Moon 64, Space Station Silicon Valley, Perfect Dark and Blast Corps probably could be swapped onto that list as well.

I tried that probably 10 times, didn't work. That was the last Golden Banana I got. I even got it after the secret Banana Fairy one, on purpose, so I could unlock infinite crystals. I had to use the glitch where you start the race in Lanky's speedy mode.

I wonder how much of it is the controller, or maybe I just got lucky and attributed it to what I'd just read. No clue how I beat that rabbit all those years ago... other than a new-er controller!

Also the 101% thing is a call-back to Donkey Kong Country having 101% if you found all the hidden barrels, etc. I think DKC2 was 102%, DKC3 103%. Should just be glad this game wasn't 164%.

Zenithian_Legend posted...

It really didn't, at least if you didn't like Mario everything and THQ wrestling games! Not sure what my exact top 10 would look like off the top of my head, but probably both Zelda games, Mario 64, Mario Kart, F-ZeroX, No Mercy, Conker, Banjo, Goldeneye & Rogue Squadron. Harvest Moon 64, Space Station Silicon Valley, Perfect Dark and Blast Corps probably could be swapped onto that list as well.

I wonder how much of it is the controller, or maybe I just got lucky and attributed it to what I'd just read. No clue how I beat that rabbit all those years ago... other than a new-er controller!

Also the 101% thing is a call-back to Donkey Kong Country having 101% if you found all the hidden barrels, etc. I think DKC2 was 102%, DKC3 103%. Should just be glad this game wasn't 164%.

No top 10 for me since I never had one but Perfect Dark was my favorite multiplayer.

I don't think I did 101% but probably did 102% on DKC2 and most definitely had 103% on DCK3. My favorite animal was Squawks.

faramir77 posted...

This game is underrated, but I get a lot of the main complaints.

Backtracking to pick up collectables with 5 different characters that can't pick up other character's collectables is incredibly tedious.

A lot of the minigames are straight up unfair. Beaver Bother is so notoriously awful that I'm convinced it somehow was missed during testing. The beetle races are also miserable.

The worst thing in the game however was a race with a rabbit. He gets a head start and it's actually impossible to beat him through skill alone, you need to be lucky and have him get caught on an obstacle. I found a YouTube video showing a glitch exploit where you no longer give him a head start, that was the only way I could win.

Mostly everything else was great though. It feels way ahead of its time. The dynamic lighting is a very impressive technical feat for the N64.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/7/8/AAM4lZAADkHq.jpg

You got a link to the rabbit glitch video?

Tbh, I never mined the backtracking in this game

EvilResident posted...

You got a link to the rabbit glitch video?

This was it. It's also worth noting that you should use Lanky to block the rabbit, so that instead of passing you, he just pushes you forward.

https://youtu.be/TtAWzXiVBh8

Did you tickle the donkeys kong?

Ogurisama posted...

Did you tickle the donkeys kong?

Yeah but it was a tiny kong

faramir77 posted...

This was it. It's also worth noting that you should use Lanky to block the rabbit, so that instead of passing you, he just pushes you forward.

https://youtu.be/TtAWzXiVBh8

Thx