A collect-a-thon atom bomb from Rare. Five Kongs with distinct abilities, eight enormous worlds and two hundred golden bananas build an outsized adventure. The pace sometimes sags under the weight of content, yet the richness, writing and generosity remain unique on the N64.
Your verdict
Category
Platformer1 player3+
Split screen
Description
Epic 3D platformer with Donkey Kong and friends battling King K. Rool to save DK Island. Developed by Rare, published by Nintendo, released in 1999. Five playable Kongs with unique abilities, eight open worlds, 200 Golden Bananas to collect, and up to 4-player multiplayer. Requires the Expansion Pak.
Donkey Kong 64 review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Donkey Kong 64 unfurls a colorful, teeming 3D world by Rare: lush jungles, factories, aquatic temples and caverns, packed with collectibles galore and five Kongs in distinct hues. The art direction favors density and visual variety, every world saturated with detail and bright colors. A generous art direction, an emblem of the Rare collectathon.
Signed by Grant Kirkhope, the music blends funky grooves, jungle percussion and catchy melodies, right up to the mythic, cult "DK Rap". Each level pulses with a colourful theme, perfectly in tune with the adventure's exuberance. This sonic generosity, full of humour, accompanies the Kong crew's epic with brio.
Gameplay
"Solid"
Fun
"From the very first minutes"
Addictiveness
"Captivating"
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Switching between five Kongs with distinct abilities across eight open worlds opens a collectible hunt of outsized scale. Bananas, coins and challenges number in the hundreds, rewarding the stubborn search of every corner. That generosity of content, signed Rare, earns the title a stubborn reputation as a 3D-platformer marathon.
Japanese pressing from December 1999, distributed locally by Nintendo. The Japanese cover reuses the US artwork but drops the warning about the required Memory Expansion Pak, with its bundled presence simply flagged by an extra sticker on the back. Scarcer than the Western pressings, the Japanese version has become a target for Japanese Rare collectors, as the title shipped in parallel with the GameCube transition.
Is Donkey Kong 64 still worth playing in 2026?
Donkey Kong 64 stands as the culmination, or the excess, of Rare's collectathon doctrine. Five Kongs with distinct abilities, eight huge worlds and over two hundred golden bananas build an outsize adventure. The pacing slows at times under the weight of content and certain trips become heavy, but the richness, the writing and the sheer generosity remain unique on the N64. The art direction pushes the hardware to its peak. For fans of dense 3D platforming and unrepentant collectathons, it remains a fascinating object to explore today.
