Donkey Kong 64

The Good
Big honkin' levels with lots of replay built in. Purty colors courtesy of the N64 expansion pack. Five different characters. Rareware gameplay is always a plus.

The Bad
Rapidly degenerates into your father's Oldsmobile with lots of easter egg hunts. Expansion pack required... damn you, Nintendo, and your obsession with cartridges! Differences in characters largely cosmetic. Large credit card bills from buying new controllers after psychotic fits induced by "fun" racing mini-game. Characters can't fling own poop.

The Bottom Line*
It used to be that Rare was a bold innovator of every genre it touched. Goldeneye redefined the FPS game and is still superior in many aspects to today's offerings. Banjo-Kazooie out-Marioed Mario, and Diddy Kong racing... well, okay, that one was just Mariokart in 3D, so what? It still rocked. Sadly, though, Rare has realized that it's "not getting any better than this" and has simply been rereleasing its old engines with new characters and game concepts. Perfect Dark is Goldeneye, except with better graphics, slower framerates, and a story that makes a good argument for bringing back Mystery Science Theater 3000. Likewise, Donky Kong 64 is Banjo-Kazooie with kiddie guns, jungle themes, and monkeys. The main difference is that in an attempt to keep players involved, the team decided to make you complete tasks in later levels that would unlock items in earlier levels. This is actually a nice idea and would have worked if the whole process weren't so damn tedious. Oh well, welcome to the creativity levels of most developers, Rare. Burnout's a risk in this industry. Oh, and did I mention that some of the mini-games embedded in the larger game are so frustratingly hard that after approximately 457 kazillion jillion tries you automatically (in real life) turn into the Hulk a SMASH CONTROLLER! Ahem. Sorry, flashback. This attempt to up the playing experience and keep players playing to achieve the ultimate ending has done its share to increase the ratio of underage drinkers, is my guess. Not that I am bitter. Still, it's an okay game and if you're a Rare fanatic (understandable, it's hard to top their otherwise solid engines) then you should at least spare it a try.

The Good
A lot of things.It looked very good with large and beautiful levels.Also,the game was fun to play and it's perfect for all ages.Although the camera is a little tricky,the controls work very well and have managed to capture the feel of the old SNES platformers quite well.And,it's a large and challenging game that will make any played have at least 20 hours of gameplaying,probaly more.

The Bad
It's just too complicated.There's some many things you have to collect:Small bananas,muscial notes,coins,big bananas and blueprints.This makes the game very tedious and it can get boring after playing for tens of hours.Also,the very weak multiplayer seemed to be a last minute and it shows.It features poorly designed levels and isn't much fun to play.

The Bottom Line
Even with its problems,RARE has created a very good game.Now,there is many platform games on the 64 and if you don't like them,stay away from this game because it's one of the harder,bigger,and sometimes more tedious than the other ones.

The Good
Great graphics made it a joy to just look around. You had much freedom. For example, you had the ability to choose between Donkey Kong, Diddy, Tiny, Lanky, or Chunky. Also, there were many massive worlds, bonuses (more about them later), and games. Bonuses included: shooting games, brawling matches, and animal contests (these let you become Enguarde or Rambi). The boss battles were the most exciting of any game.

The Bad
There was too much collecting of items (at times). It could have been more challenging. The game was a little too long.

The Bottom Line
A three-dimensional but better "Donkey Kong Country".