Donkey Kong 64 is a 1999 video game produced by Rare and Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It's either a sequel to the renowned Donkey Kong Country trilogy on the Super Nintendo or the fourth installment of said trilogy, depending on how you look at it. The game is a 3D third-person action-platformer set within the continuity of the Donkey Kong Country games; it was also the first of two Nintendo 64 to require the Expansion Pack to play it (the other being The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, though Perfect Dark was crippled to the point of being barely playable without it), but fortunately it came bundled with the package. Structurally and technically, Donkey Kong 64 is very similar to Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, especially when it comes to the enormously high amount of items to collect (each stage features, among many other things, five hundred bananas; that's five stages' worth of musical notes in Banjo terms) and in that the player characters must learn special moves before being able to use them by triggering specific button combinations at once.The plot concerns the return of the Kremlings, three years after the end of Donkey Kong Country 3. Once again under the leadership of King K. Rool, the Kremlings have decided that if they can't have the Kongs' Island, nobody can, and so they plan to blast it right off the face of the earth with their secret weapon, the Blast-O-Matic, which is stored within an enormous, high-tech armored warship version of Crocodile Isle that towers eerily over the Kongs' homeland.As expected, Donkey Kong leaps into action, ready to bust some Kremling heads and foil their evil schemes, only to find that four of his best friends have been kidnapped and his hoard of solid-gold giant bananas has once again been plundered. As DK, the player must rescue the four other Kongs (all of whom become additional player characters after rescue) and recover all the stolen bananas. Much running, jumping, brawling and dancing ensues, along with a few subplots involving an imprisoned Kong-sympathizer Kremling, a shifty technician named Snide who once worked on assembling the Blast-O-Matic but has come to hate K. Rool, and a magical Banana Fairy whose daughters have mysteriously gone missing. All of these must be resolved in order for the player to achieve 101% completion and witness the true ending of the game.According to the July 2012 issue of the magazine Nintendo Gamer, Hiroyuki Takahashi (the president of Camelot Ltd., which produced the Mario Golf and Mario Tennis series which Donkey Kong has been involved in) has expressed interest in making a sequel to this game.
The first phase, Donkey Kong launcheshimself at K. Rool from a barrel.
The second phase, Diddy Kong uses a jetpack to fly up high and shoot at the lighting fixtures, causing spotlights to fall on K. Rool's head. The fourth time it happens, he can't pull it off on his own.
The third phase, K. Rool still has a spotlight stuck on his head, blinding him. Lanky Kong drops banana peels on the floor, then tricks K. Rool into tripping on it. Four times.
The fourth phase, K. Rool starts off by ground pounding the floor until his butt hurts. While he cringes, Tiny Kong enters through a hole in his shoe and shoots feathers at his toes until he loses his balance and falls over.
Anthropomorphic Shift: In this game, Donkey Kong tiptoes, walks, and runs like a human, but otherwise stands and acts like a gorilla.
Artistic License - Music: Two of the playable characters' instruments don't sound like their real life counterparts. Donkey Kong's bongos are much more melodic than real bongos, but it's particularly egregious with Chunky Kong's triangle. It actually makes the sound of a celesta, a completely different instrument!
Background Music Override: Hideout Helm's climactic theme keeps on playing even when using the Tag Barrel or Transformation Barrels. The only time it stops is if you pause the game, or during Hideout Helm's minigames (Which have their own, different theme anyway).
Badass Adorable: Tiny Kong definitely qualifies for this. Diddy Kong also to a certain degree.
Blackout Basement: One small area in Jungle Japes is a homage to this. Also the interiors of Gloomy Galleon's sunken ships are lit by lantern fish that swim behind you.
Boss Arena Idiocy: For a Donkey Kong Country game (or, hell, a Donkey Kong game in general), this game is very light on barrels to grab and throw. However, every boss in the game that can be damaged by a barrel throw has an unlimited number of barrels in their arena. The boss of Gloomy Galleon even has electrical pylons that can electrocute it hidden beneath the water. The only one who averts this is Mad Jack, because he can't help the location of the fight (he was thrown there from a higher area of the factory).
Boss Remix: All the boss themes (except K.Rool's) take their respective level's leitmotif and escalate it to epic proportions. K.Rool's boss theme is actually an intense version of his own leitmotif.
Camera Screw: Basically any time you need to make a precise jump (Frantic Factory and Creepy Castle come to mind), expect to spend ten seconds lining up the camera.
Canis Latinicus: The "scientific" names of the Kongs' special abilities. To name a few:
Simian Slam (Buttus Bashium)
Super Simian Slam (Big Buttus Bashium)
Super Duper Simian Slam (Bigga Buttus Bashium)
Baboon Blast (Barrelum Perilous)
Monkeyport (Warpum Craftious)
Canon Immigrant: Crystal Coconuts, which originated from the show. Though, there was only one in the show.
Cranky's role as mad scientist also originated from the show.
Also similar to the show, Klap-Traps now have "dentures". If you try to beat them by jumping, their teeth still come after you.
Convection Schmonvection: Several areas of this game have lava where they probably shouldn't. The "lobby" to Crystal Caves, an ice cave, has lava at one end. The second battle against Dogadon takes place inside a lava-surrounded arena inside a tree. Also, it's unclear if that green stuff in Creepy Castle is Palette Swapped lava, or acid. And the lava in one section of that temple in Angry Aztec with the llama acts just like the quicksand in the main level.
Crack! Oh My Back!: If you lose a round at any point during the final battle, Cranky's attempt to encourage you not to give up ends with this.
Distracted by the Sexy: Candy Kong does this to K. Rool while Funky sneaks up behind him with a boot-bazooka. Also happens to some Kremlings in the complete ending.
Fungus Humongous: Fungi Forest, which has a big mushroom that you can go inside, but not that many mushrooms overall.
Game-Breaking Bug: A late-game bug can cause the mechanical fish to become nearly impossible to beat. This bug can be worked around by disabling the Sniper scope while the fan is spinning; however, this bug is so obscure that most people won't know to do this.
K. Lumsy, a colossal Kong-sympathizer Kremling. Also Dumb Muscle.
Chunky, bordering to parody. He carries a bazooka and is stronger than DK, yet he plays the triangle and is afraid of heights. Also put the controller down and watch his Idle Animation.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: One of the lines in the DK Rap is "but this Kong's one hell of a guy!" This was later censored to "heck" when the song was carried over to Super Smash Bros Melee.
Hammerspace: Where do the Kongs keep their guns? Diddy, for one, manages to store two handguns the size of his head somewhere while wearing just a hat and shirt.
Hello, Nurse!: Candy Kong. Even K. Rool goes nuts over her. The fact that her dialogue (sounds like it) contains a lot of innuendo contributes. Her theme song in her store supports this even more.
Interface Screw: When Chunky boards the sailing ship on the Gloomy Galleon level to get his Golden Banana there, this happens after his dance. The screen wavers wildly, he leans back with his arms down (while walking), and the directional controls are reversed (implying seasickness).
Lost Forever: Generally averted, but Hideout Helm's Banana Medals (Which must be manually picked up after completing each section of disabling the Blast-o-Matic will disappear once you finish Hideout Helm. Failure to pick them up also makes getting 101% completion impossible, so be wary.
Due to a glitch, one of Diddy's Golden Bananas in Gloomy Galleon (The one in the robotic fish) can practically become this if you try for it once you have the Sniper Scope upgrade. There are ways around this, but they're very difficult to pull off, so it practically becomes this.
Lovable Coward: Chunky. On the character selection screen, highlight anyone else and he'll start to taunt the camera; roll over to him, though, and he'll freak out and try desperately to convince you to pick Tiny instead. When you pick a different character, he'll go "whew!".
No Fair Cheating: Using any Gameshark code in this game will cause DK to spasm uncontrollably throughout the game. Even in the opening. Also, your cartridge will be permanently damaged if you save.
Nostalgia Filter: As expected of the character, Cranky reminesces about how much better games were in his day.
You can swim through walls, dive under islands, and walk around in voids without any cheating device if you manipulate the first-person view. Beaver Bother's mechanics are also quite unpolished.
Especially notorious is Hunky Chunky, who can clip through almost anything.
Shout Out: One area has you climbing up a tower using platforms that move in and out- the first part of this climb follows exactly the same pattern of moving and stationary platforms as Super Mario 64 did in Whomp's Fortress.
Theme Tune Rap: The "DK Rap". Composer Grant Kirkhope would like to make it perfectly clear that the rap was supposed to sound really lame.
Timed Mission: Many Golden Bananas involve switches that only remain active for a period of time, and all minigames are timed (Though sometimes you have to survive out the timer, rather than accomplish a goal). The most notable example, however, is deactivating the Blast-O-Matic at Hideout Helm, which you have a timer of anywhere from 10 to 50 minutes during. Then there's the Kremling sniper in certain puzzle rooms, one of which as a timer of one second.
Time Keeps On Ticking: As just mentioned, shutting down the Blast-O-Matic at Hideout Helm. Cutscenes? Tick. Unskippable animations? Tock. Minigames? Tick. Messing up and having to redo a portion? Tock. Nothing short of outright pressing start to pause the game will halt it.
Toy Time: Frantic Factory, the Kremlings'... toy factory. Though it has more in common with your typical factory area than with a toy factory.
Unexpected Gameplay Change: Oh so very many. Not even counting the various races and slides, over half the Golden Bananas have to be earned from Bonus Barrels, which transport you to Bonus Stages, many of which don't even feature you directly controlling the Kongs.
Urban Legend of Zelda: Several, the most notable being an inaccessible room in Creepy Castle with a glass wall. If you stand on the hallway outside of it and use a first-person perspective, you can see a tall, carved stone pillar with a Monkeyport (teleportation) pad for Tiny nearby as well as a purple banana balloon floating over it. The room appears to be useless. King K. Rool's control room also features five steel kegs with the Kongs' faces painted on them. Probably nothing more than a little detail, but it sparked some speculation back in the day.
Until people learned how to get to the room. The Monkey Port pad is in the Stock Car Race room across the hall, behind the Frantic Factory model. In order to get into that room, you need to get Tiny into the ballroom. All Tiny has to do to get in there is have Diddy open the door and switch characters before it closes.
The fact that this was the first Donkey Kong game since Donkey Kong Country not to feature a Lost World sparked a lot of urban legends back in the day.
You Have Imbibed The Research For Breathing: Donkey Kong needs a potion before he learns how to pull a lever, Lanky needs one before he can do handstands, Diddy needs one before he can perform a charging headbutt, and Chunky needs a potion in order to throw a haymaker.
Though they COULD be justified as giving strength to pull highly rusted levers, stamina to stay in a handstand, the skull toughness for it not to hurt and the ability to punch hard enough. The Rocket pack thing is beyond me though.
Heat resistance. Heck, Diddy practically roasts his own feet and tail in the exhaust flame if you turn too fast.
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