Kobun Heat
Member
Donkey Konga 2: Hit Song Parade arrived this morning, and I just spent the last couple hours messing around with it.
Songs
I'll get the most important thing out of the way - we're dealing with mostly hit J-pop and anime songs here, so if you're not into either, there's an excellent chance you won't like much of the track list.
I don't know many of the songs - I know Dynamite from Guitar Freaks, but that's it for the J-pop. I think Odoru Ponpokorin has been in every other music game ever, so that one I know. The theme to Gundam Seed and the ending to Naruto are in here too.
There are also Classic songs. One of them I knew, but couldn't place. It was credited to kurumi-wari ningyou which translates to "walnut-dividing doll"; it took me a couple seconds before I realized it was from The Nutcracker. And yes, the Japanese version of Yankee Doodle is in here. Just in time for Sunday.
Alright, anyway I understand the reasoning behind putting in the anime, J-pop, TV, and kids' songs. I got it. No problem. Roger. But yet again, the two genres that you'd think would best fit this collection - game music (Donkey) and latin music (Konga) - are given the shit end of the stick again. There are only two game music pieces, although they are admittedly good ones - a Latin version of the Zelda theme, and the theme from DKC (aka Jungle Hijinx).
(Which really, really should have been in the first game.)
And then there's one Latin song - Guantanamera. It works really, really well. It's the one song where the game really makes you feel like you're playing the bongos in a tiny salsa club. Why is there only one of them?
Menus
...have been totally reworked, and thank goodness. They were pretty awful in the first game, to the point that you had no idea where you were at any given time. Now, you can see all the menu options at once so it's easier to skip to the one you want. As the menu options zoom in and out it's tougher to read them, but everything is color-coded. And there's even an omakase (random) option if you want the game to pick a song for you. Overall the menus fix all the problems from the original.
Modes
Pretty much identical to the original, although some names have changed - the one to four player mode is called Concert now, and Donkey Town is now Shopping Mall, which better reflects what it actually is. There's also a place called Adlib Square, where you can just screw around on the kongas. Haven't tried it yet.
The main use of your cash is still to unlock the Expert level songs, but you can also use it to play minigames. You don't pay one price to unlock them this time around; you pay a tiny amount every time you want to play them. The one I tried is kind of like Konga Tetris; a line of symbols falls from the sky and you eliminate them one by one. If you beat the computer you can play a matching game to unlock badges that have little Nintendo character designs on them. You use these when you get a high score - you can stick a little Wario badge next to the score if you want.
Gameplay
Identical to the original, with a big difference - the difficulty level has been ramped up considerably in the Hard and Expert modes. It's still not a particularly difficult music game, but it took me a few tries to beat one of the harder Hard mode songs, and I don't remember losing EVER in DK1. Most of the Expert songs I'm just barely able to scrape by, and forget about a gold medal. So that's awesome, actually, because now there's some challenge. Lots of alternating claps and beats, confusing stuff that'll take a while to master. Well done.
The ending of the rounds has been streamlined as well; there's no more hitting Start over and over to get the Clear! message and your points. Now it all appears immediately. Another good improvement.
Overall
I think Nintendo's pretty much addressed the major problems with the first game's interface and difficulty. The unlockables are still pretty skimpy, although Expert versions of the songs I like are a good reward. That's the major problem for me with DK2 though... there are really only a handful of songs that I like so far. I haven't played them all yet, though (there really are a LOT of them), so who knows?
I think Nintendo's pretty much covered the J-pop angle with DK by this point. For the next release I'd really like to see a disc full of remixes of Nintendo classic hits, which they could pull from the Zelda rearranged album, the Mario and Zelda concert, the Mario 64 soundtrack, the SSBM concert... they have a lot of choices.
By the way, the Euro version of DK is supposed to have stuff like Green Greens and Rainbow Cruise on it. So I guess I'll be getting that come September too.
6.8
Songs
I'll get the most important thing out of the way - we're dealing with mostly hit J-pop and anime songs here, so if you're not into either, there's an excellent chance you won't like much of the track list.
I don't know many of the songs - I know Dynamite from Guitar Freaks, but that's it for the J-pop. I think Odoru Ponpokorin has been in every other music game ever, so that one I know. The theme to Gundam Seed and the ending to Naruto are in here too.
There are also Classic songs. One of them I knew, but couldn't place. It was credited to kurumi-wari ningyou which translates to "walnut-dividing doll"; it took me a couple seconds before I realized it was from The Nutcracker. And yes, the Japanese version of Yankee Doodle is in here. Just in time for Sunday.
Alright, anyway I understand the reasoning behind putting in the anime, J-pop, TV, and kids' songs. I got it. No problem. Roger. But yet again, the two genres that you'd think would best fit this collection - game music (Donkey) and latin music (Konga) - are given the shit end of the stick again. There are only two game music pieces, although they are admittedly good ones - a Latin version of the Zelda theme, and the theme from DKC (aka Jungle Hijinx).
(Which really, really should have been in the first game.)
And then there's one Latin song - Guantanamera. It works really, really well. It's the one song where the game really makes you feel like you're playing the bongos in a tiny salsa club. Why is there only one of them?
Menus
...have been totally reworked, and thank goodness. They were pretty awful in the first game, to the point that you had no idea where you were at any given time. Now, you can see all the menu options at once so it's easier to skip to the one you want. As the menu options zoom in and out it's tougher to read them, but everything is color-coded. And there's even an omakase (random) option if you want the game to pick a song for you. Overall the menus fix all the problems from the original.
Modes
Pretty much identical to the original, although some names have changed - the one to four player mode is called Concert now, and Donkey Town is now Shopping Mall, which better reflects what it actually is. There's also a place called Adlib Square, where you can just screw around on the kongas. Haven't tried it yet.
The main use of your cash is still to unlock the Expert level songs, but you can also use it to play minigames. You don't pay one price to unlock them this time around; you pay a tiny amount every time you want to play them. The one I tried is kind of like Konga Tetris; a line of symbols falls from the sky and you eliminate them one by one. If you beat the computer you can play a matching game to unlock badges that have little Nintendo character designs on them. You use these when you get a high score - you can stick a little Wario badge next to the score if you want.
Gameplay
Identical to the original, with a big difference - the difficulty level has been ramped up considerably in the Hard and Expert modes. It's still not a particularly difficult music game, but it took me a few tries to beat one of the harder Hard mode songs, and I don't remember losing EVER in DK1. Most of the Expert songs I'm just barely able to scrape by, and forget about a gold medal. So that's awesome, actually, because now there's some challenge. Lots of alternating claps and beats, confusing stuff that'll take a while to master. Well done.
The ending of the rounds has been streamlined as well; there's no more hitting Start over and over to get the Clear! message and your points. Now it all appears immediately. Another good improvement.
Overall
I think Nintendo's pretty much addressed the major problems with the first game's interface and difficulty. The unlockables are still pretty skimpy, although Expert versions of the songs I like are a good reward. That's the major problem for me with DK2 though... there are really only a handful of songs that I like so far. I haven't played them all yet, though (there really are a LOT of them), so who knows?
I think Nintendo's pretty much covered the J-pop angle with DK by this point. For the next release I'd really like to see a disc full of remixes of Nintendo classic hits, which they could pull from the Zelda rearranged album, the Mario and Zelda concert, the Mario 64 soundtrack, the SSBM concert... they have a lot of choices.
By the way, the Euro version of DK is supposed to have stuff like Green Greens and Rainbow Cruise on it. So I guess I'll be getting that come September too.
6.8
