Donkey Kong 64 is a 1999 platform game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the only Donkey Kong game to feature 3D gameplay. As the gorilla Donkey Kong, the player explores themed levels to collect items and rescue his kidnapped family members from King K. Rool. The player completes minigames and puzzles as five playable Kong characters—each with their own special abilities—to receive bananas and other collectibles. In multiplayer modes, up to four players can compete in deathmatch and last man standing games.

Donkey Kong 64 was Rare’s final Donkey Kong game prior to its acquisition by Microsoft in 2002 and the last major Donkey Kong game until Jungle Beat (2004). It was rereleased on Nintendo’s Wii U Virtual Console in 2015. Retrospective reviews of Donkey Kong 64 were mixed; critics considered it emblematic of the tedium in Rare’s “collect-a-thon” adventure platformers. The “DK Rap“, a song featured in the introduction, garnered notoriety as one of the worst songs to feature in a video game.^[5]

Gameplay

Donkey Kong 64 is a 3D platforming adventure game in which the player, as Donkey Kong and his friends, explores an island and collects items to progress through minigames and puzzles.^[6][7] The game follows a traditional storyline for the series: King K. Rool and his reptilian Kremlings invade the idyllic DK Isle and kidnap Donkey Kong’s friends, planning to power up their Blast-O-Matic weapon and destroy the island.^[6][8] After a tutorial, the player embarks as Donkey Kong to rescue the others from their kidnappers and stop K. Rool’s plan.^[7] While exploring the in-game world and completing puzzle minigames, the player collects two types of bananas: colored bananas, which are color-coded differently for each Kong character, award the player with banana medals and can be traded for access to each world’s boss fight; and golden bananas, a certain number of which are required to unlock each new in-game world.^[8] Of 3,831 total collectible items, 1,810 (1,680 colored bananas, 100 golden bananas, 8 boss keys, 1 blueprint, 15 banana medals, 4 K. Rool crowns, the Nintendo coin, and the Rare coin) are required to complete the game.^[9][10]

A separate multiplayer mode has six^[16] minigames for two to four players.^[6] Monkey Smash is an open arena, deathmatch-style minigame in which up to four players find ammo and use their respective projectile weapons from the single-player game to damage other players before losing all their own lives. Battle Arena is a king-of-the-hill minigame in which players use weapons and explosives to knock each other off the edge of a platform.^[7] Each mode has several sub-types in which players can compete based on time or score.^[15]