Donkey Kong 64 Remake Suggestions - Preview

[Alolan_Apples]

After 19 consecutive entries discussing Super Mario 64 and stuff related to SM64, I decided I'm done mentioning the game and how poorly it has aged. Now it's time to explore an even bigger 3D platformer, for its time and for today. Compared to SM64, Donkey Kong 64 shows how much hardware has improved. Super Mario 64 was made during a time Nintendo was transitioning between the SNES era and the N64 era. Donkey Kong 64 (which was made by Rare) was made during the mid-N64 era, where everything was settled into the N64 by then. Even the graphics (which look terrible by today's standards) were great for its time. But here is a success it has made. The levels, unlike Super Mario 64's levels, were really big and have more put in. If they had an HD makeover, the levels don't need to be resized in any way. And we have 200 golden bananas, eight boss keys, 15 moves, five playable characters, and several bonus features like multiplayer and mini-games. And this was all on an N64 game, the same system that Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, which were smaller games than Donkey Kong 64, were part of. Even some PS1 games don't compare to DK64. Heck, even Super Mario 3D World had been outsized by the N64 classic DK64 (but that's because SM 3D World was not meant to be open-world).

Now it's time to go over the problems with DK64. It may be in the top ten best selling N64 games, receive an IGN rating of 9 out of 10, high scores on other critic sites, and won an editor's choice award and Game Critics Awards for best platformer for 1999, it seems to be very controversial by today's standards. Not that it contained objectionable content or that it was made by Rare, but owned by Nintendo, but rather on one of its key features - the excessive collecting. The thing here is that 200 golden bananas is a lot of primary collectibles, especially for an N64 game. Like Super Mario Sunshine, it's a divisive game (where a couple of fans like it a lot to where a high rating is deserved, but has a lot of haters). People have compared this game to Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie, which were made by Rare and not as big as DK64. And most of the time, DK64 ranks below those two games. It was even accused of killing the collection genre of 3D platformers. And it was because of the few, but major, problems it had.

Another problem DK64 had was that it aged badly. Collecting the golden bananas is now rendered simple because each have a few simple steps. The excessive amount of bananas were not spaced out very much. And of course, let's not forget the graphics since graphics are out of date by today's standards. But the bad graphics is only the least of our worries.

Here are the top five issues the remake suggestions entries on the StarFall Press will cover.

1. Excessive Collecting - easily the biggest problem with the game. The thing here is that there are 200 golden bananas in the game. Imagine if Super Mario 64 had that many power stars. Even getting half the golden bananas (which is required to unlock Hideout Helm, the last level) is a lot of golden bananas. Banjo Kazooie had 100 jiggies max, which is just as much as half the golden bananas in Donkey Kong 64. You can even only miss 6 to reach the final boss in Banjo Kazooie. Luckily, you don't have to get the other half of golden bananas, but the fact you have to collect 100 of them is already bad news. Fortunately, about 1/3 of them are earned by doing something very simple. But that's not all. The colored bananas is even worse than the golden bananas. To unlock the final boss, you have to bring in all eight boss keys. To unlock the final level, you need seven boss keys. The bosses don't have a very good formula, and unlocking them requires collecting a lot of colored bananas and redeeming them to Troff and Scoff (a pig and a hippo that blocks the doors to the boss in each level). To get that eighth one, you need both the Nintendo Coin and Rareware Coin. Getting the Rareware Coin requires playing Jetpac, which you can't play without bringing in 15 banana medals to Cranky Kong. To get even one, you have to collect 75 bananas with one Kong in one level, and you have to repeat this 14 more times, meaning you have even more bananas to get. The other one, is worse. You have to play the 1981 version of Donkey Kong, twice, to get. Basically, the game is tedious. I also like to mention that to shut down the Blast-o-Matic machine, you have only ten minutes. Can you add more time? Yes. For every blueprint you bring back, you get one more minute, which means more collecting. And what do you get after all this collecting? A really hard boss that would take weeks to defeat. And it's not even required. Basically, you don't get rewarded very well after a whole lot of collecting.
2. Backtracking - maybe you're okay with the extra collecting, but are you okay with the backtracking? No? Well this game would not be for you then. Donkey Kong 64 has too many character-specific items, character-specific missions, and character-specific switches/pads/barrels, each on one level. And the bad news: you can't switch kongs on the go. You have to find the nearest tag barrel to switch kongs, which leads to a lot of backtracking. Also, all five kongs have golden bananas in every level, but you don't unlock three of them until you pass the first level. Which means tracking back to older levels. If you wanna know something, forced backtracking is bad for video games, and DK64 has a lot of it. This game may be one of the more well-done games back in the N64 era, but in today's gaming world, forced backtracking is not acceptable. I'll be okay with going back to older levels and the character-specific items, but there should be a way to switch kongs on the go.
3. Multiple Types of Collectibles - when I was reading about the criticism towards this game, I never seen anybody complain about this, but this is another problem to go over as well. What is the point with all of these collectibles? The golden bananas have some meaning at least, but look at the other stuff. There are colored bananas, banana medals, boss keys, blueprints, banana fairies, and battle crowns. Battle crowns served only one purpose. Same with banana medals. Banana fairies are only for the special features. And blueprints are just cheap ways to earn golden bananas. If they have this many types of collectibles, I would suggest putting in more use of them. The replenishments have their purpose, but these kongs would be more overpowered than Mario is. Stuff like oranges, banana coins, film, and instrumental energy measures the needless moves. Basically, we have too many limits on what we do, and we don't have limited lives either. I'll go over some ideas later at this part.
4. Simple and ridiculously hard missions - the missions is another problem here. Aside to the inconsistent difficulties, a lot of these missions are just simple now. Some of them you just need to open one door to get, some involve solving a simple puzzle, and some involve simple fighting. I would rather do a complex, but easy mission rather than a simple, but hard mission. And a lot of the simple missions are easy. But there are some ridiculously hard missions that would get you angry. The rabbit race with Lanky Kong is the biggest example here. I can also gripe about the hoops one with Diddy Kong, the cannon one with Chunky Kong, and a few more to talk about. These missions need to be removed. And I hear many people complain about Beaver Bother. Even I don't like the gameplay about it.
5. Dixie Kong - I don't have a problem with her, nor do I have a problem with Tiny Kong, but I do have one problem. Where is Dixie Kong. If there was just only three playable characters, it would be Donkey, Diddy, and Dixie. We have 5 playable characters, but Dixie is not one of them. Instead of replacing Tiny, I would add a sixth Kong to use. Granted, that would mess up on a lot of stuff (Great Igloo having six doors, maze temple having two rows of three doors, K Rool taking six kongs to beat etc), but I would be okay with sacrificing 40 golden bananas from the other Kongs for 32 golden bananas for Dixie Kong and 8 bonus golden bananas.

Now the problems have been covered, it's time to talk about what I plan on for the blog. Each entry is reviewing each level, what should be done, and how to fix them. The assumed system for the remake is the Nintendo 3DS, the same system with Ocarina of Time's remake. The problems may sound like they're discouraging you from playing it, but I still recommend playing it just to see if you like it or not. Besides, it's one of my childhood favorite games, and a good game for those who are waiting for a proper 3D Mario game since Super Mario Sunshine.