Rare Appreciation Thread

[Kosheh]

The big problem with DK64 was that many of the collectables were divided between the Kongs. That made grabbing everything a real pain.

This. Oh my god this. I liked DK64, but compared to games like Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie -- hell, even modern-day platformers like Super Mario Galaxy, DK64 was collectathon fetishist porn.

With a garnish of sadomasochism. Like, as soon as you FINALLY finished getting all 100 bananas as Donkey Kong, you just look at the roster and this "GOD damn it, time to do it with the other four characters" and then know that you have to do this at least fourteen more times. As a teenager, this was just plain grueling.

Lanky's handstand also made him the fastest runner of the Kongs.

Trying to remember back thirteen or so years, heh. I'm pretty sure I used Lanky to get around much like Kazooie-mode in BKZ.

...you mean I wasn't the only one to do this, lol?

I mean, Lanky actually was nowhere as fast as Kazooie but I remember the backtracking being just so much more tolerable with Lanky.

[Phantom Killah]

imagine if they made a new DK64 where all of the characters were equally useful with better thought out abilities and they dialed back the collectathonness a bit.
i think that would be a pretty good game.

[Jermungandr]

A smarter way to have made the game, rather than have characters only capable of picking up items of the colors corresponding to them, would be to simply place items in paths and behind barriers of sorts that only they could bypass with their unique abilities. Most of the frustration with the game comes from passing through areas and spying items that are the wrong color for the character you are currently playing and knowing you're going to have to come back for it eventually.

[Koopaul]

Yeah I discussed a bunch of times how DK64 could've been as good as the Banjo games on other sites. But really I think DK64 can still win me over even with all it's faults. Why? Just like most of Rare's games, it's oozing with charm and personality. From the moment you hear the DK Rap you know you are going to have a lot of laughs with this game.

[E-Man]

Well, it's comforting to know that I wasn't the only one who actually liked the DK Rap.


Anyway, a glaring fault I have with the game is the mini-game barrels in the game. Not only do they take you to a challenge that is out of place for the level, but they also reuse the same mini-game over and over again. The only difference between one version of Barrel Bandit and another is that you have more jackpots instead of actually doing something to make the game harder. I feel that these barrels are just used to extend the game artificially and they break up the flow of the game in a jarring way. It could have been better if they actually use different themes for each of the barrel games appropriate for the worlds they are found in (i.e. mechanical snakes and turtles if there is any Teetering Turtle Trouble game in Frantic Factory) and actually increase the difficulty for each one instead of giving you more to do (i.e. later Kremling Kosh games open more barrels to have more Kritters pop out in random places).

Also, the other problem I have for these mini-games is that I think some of them are harder than they need to be. I don't need to say anything about a certain beaver game, but the one game I found to be impossibly hard to do was the Minecart Mayhem game (especially Diddy's version). If a game is too hard for the average consumer (and some veteran gamers) to complete, then I say it's better to scrap it than just lave it in.

[Ark Kuvis]

I was watching a video of DK64 today, but man no Chunky Kong is awesome. Probably a bit of a stereotype that he's the big stupid jock who's afraid of everything, but his cut scenes are hilarious. Though I do agree that they should've made DK a stronger and more unique character, I can't hate the beefy brother of Kiddy.

[E-Man]

Admittedly, Ark, I don't hate Chunky Kong. He could have been better, but I would rather have him than Kiddy Kong because he has more charm than the latter.

[Kriven]

I don't hate either Kiddy or Chunky as characters... they just don't bring anything to the table as far as gameplay.

[Helmo]

Didnt DK 64 get in guiness world record as the game with the most collectables?

[Koopaul]

Admittedly, Ark, I don't hate Chunky Kong. He could have been better, but I would rather have him than Kiddy Kong because he has more charm than the latter.

True. Chunky's pretty hilarious. All his animations portray him as a cowardly dunce. I think it was the character animations that really shine in DK64 as well as atmosphere.

[Kriven]

I would say the characterization is the saving grace for DK64. It manages to mitigate any sour feelings the poor gameplay decisions cause.

[Terminal Devastation]

Even though I really liked the mini-game barrels (All of them)... I do have to agree with many of the complaints about them.

With that said, I think it wasn't so much that the minigames were jarring in context as much as they didn't set up for for how jarring it was.

I mean, the Classic DK game in Frantic Factory was totally different, but it completely made sense there because of how the context was.

They wouldn't have to even retheme the mini-game barrels if the area they were put or the challenge involved in getting them was themed well enough that you can just say look at the barrel and either say "okay, this is going to be..." or after playing it, okay this makes sense here.

Like having that gnawty round up minigame in an area TEAMING with gnawties.

(Personally it would have been a blast to incorporate several of the minigames INTO the levels)

I wouldn't have minded if they removed all duplicate mini-games for more in level challenges.

Hideout helm needed something to do after it was defused as well. It just seemed... empty. Gathering blueprints early also had the worst payoff, kind of wish it actually added more to do in hideout (or allowed you to break more lessening the damage with each blueprint) instead of giving too much time. Really if you'd skilled enough to seek and hide all of those... you're probably skilled enough to make the intial time limit.

(Also they should have moved Creepy Castle's boss to hideout helm, make that one mine-cart ghost creepy castle's boss, was I the only one disappointed it wasn't?)

Well... more time did mean more time to listen to hideout's better music.

[K0n9]

No love for Conker's Bad Fur Day? Man that game was funny, albeit the references are a bit out of date. It is a bit short, but has awesome multiplayer, sad that they changed the multiplayer and censored the X-Box version.

[Terminal Devastation]

No love for Conker's Bad Fur Day? Man that game was funny, albeit the references are a bit out of date. It is a bit short, but has awesome multiplayer, sad that they changed the multiplayer and censored the X-Box version.

Conker's Bad Fur Day is actually a pretty hit or miss game humor wise.
Sure, it's funny on SOME level, but it's just the same old standard fare crass humor bad movies are made from with a bit of pop culture references thrown in.

So the humor really didn't age well at all.

The game's more significant for beign crass humor based than being funny in my opinion... given when it was made.
Sort of groundbreaking in a way.

[E-Man]

I would say that Conker's Bad Fur Day holds the honor of being the most controversial video game released in that time period. Sure, there are games back then that are worse than that one, but since Rare was basically taking a "kiddie" game and blowing it up with adult humor and references, I could imagine how much attention that got.

Of course, when I looked at bits and pieces of Duncan's let's play of South Park: The Stick of Truth, I would say that Conker itself was very tame compared to that game.