Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
GameCube (Games) Media Music Entertainment Games

Donkey Konga - The Drums, The Majesty 31

Posted by simoniker from the how-could-you-not-like? dept.
Thanks to Nintendojo for revealing new details regarding the previously rumored, Namco/Nintendo co-produced GameCube-exclusive rhythm game, Donkey Konga. The site has pictures of the "new Congo Drum peripheral dubbed as 'Barrel Konga Drums'" which will be shipping with the game, and the 4-player, 32 music-track title may include the Super Mario Bros theme alongside "Latin beats, pop music, dance, classical, Anime and children's tunes." Adding to the fun, "the drums will include a microphone that's designed to pick up the sound of claps thus making the game require you to clap as well as bang on the drums", but Nintendojo reckon a U.S. release to be "highly unlikely" since "it caters too perfectly towards the Japanese audience" weaned on games like Taiko No Tatsujin.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Donkey Konga - The Drums, The Majesty More

Donkey Konga - The Drums, The Majesty

Comments Filter:

  • Now... (Score:3, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @10:21PM (#7120425) Homepage Journal
    ..if they'd just make a spanking game like that. They could call it Spanky Kong.
  • Did anyone else notice that those drums pictures are actually plastic bongos and not congas?
  • Americans don't like to play the drums???

    I predict a petition and eventual US release of this game. And I am excited to see it when it arrives.

  • Now that that tab has made me take out my guitar, anyone know of tabs for other classic games? Like Zelda or Metroid?

  • US Release ENTIRELY possible (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Blackwulf ( 34848 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @11:08PM (#7120641) Homepage
    Let me first say that I am a big, biased fan of rhythm games that don't use your legs. Even though my favorite game, Beatmania IIDX, will NEVER see a stateside release because of it's insane difficulty and learning curve (in fact, the home versions aren't all that popular in Japan either) a game like Donkey Konga could so easily be released AND successful in the US. Here's why.

    Nintendo.

    I DO own Taiko no-Tatsujin, and I recently ran it at Anime Weekend Atlanta [awa-con.com] this past weekend...And it was a HUGE BIG SUCCESS with everyone there. And they weren't just Anime fans that are used to the Japanese culture. It's just a FUN game to play. EVERYONE asked me how they could get it for themselves...Unfortunately it's not seeing a stateside release anytime soon...

    ...Or is it?

    Namco also ran the home version of Taiko no-Tatsujin at the G-Phoria awards [g4tv.com] (Yes, I know the awards sucked on TV, but there is a point here) to "gauge interest" of the American audience towards a game like it. And it was a hit there as well.

    THEN I hear about Donkey Konga not long after G-Phoria.

    But, nobody would buy a game based on traditional Japanese Taiko drumming. HOWEVER, they WOULD buy a game base on bongo drumming if it had the right marketing power behind it.

    Enter Donkey Kong and Nintendo. If ANY COMPANY can get an innovative game to sell here in the US, it's Nintendo. Hopefully, they WILL release Donkey Konga in the US and let it open the doors for other rhythm games to enter the market so I don't have to always import the suckers.

    If you have any musical ability at all and have never played a good rhythm game like Taiko no-Tatsujin, Beatmania IIDX, or even the US released Guitaroo-Man, you're missing out. You don't NEED to have musical ability to enjoy it or be good at it. I hope Donkey Konga gives the exposure the genre needs...Realize that the rhythm game genre pretty much stands next to the fighting game genre in Japanese arcades and that's why there's still arcades on every block in Tokyo.

    • We've had one game similar to this released in the US: Samba de Amigo for the Dreamcast. It was the one that was best played with the maracas that could be purchased as an accessory instead of the standard DC controller.

      Samba de Amigo was a blast, and it says something that it is well-night impossible to find the maracas for purchase anywhere.

      Sure, the game may not have sold as much as many others, but having what must be relatively near a 100% sales rate on the maracas should give pause to the nay-saye
      • I might add that the US versions of theses maraca controllers was limited to something like 10,000 sets, which also made them collector's items.

        I have them, and it's a blast to play the game with the maracas, as opposed to a controller.

    • I was pretty disappointed to see that it wouldn't be coming here after reading the headline. Then I RTFA (!), and saw the source (emphasis added):
      It is highly unlikely
      in this reporter's mind that we'll ever see this game domesticated as it caters too perfectly towards the Japanese audience...

      So basically, the submitter took the opinion some idiot "game journalist" (that one still cracks me up) as gospel. What a relief.

  • Maybe Now we can play games online (Score:4, Funny)

    by ePIsOdEOnline ( 711249 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @11:11PM (#7120660)
    TCP/IP over bongo drums [slashdot.org]

    just a thought.

  • I wanna move (Score:2, Funny)

    by Omega037 ( 712939 )
    I wanna move to Japan. They get all the coolest stuff; Anime, Ninjas, Godzilla...
  • Wasn't there just an article earlier this week about how Japanese style games not making the best sellers lists in the US very often?

    This game will sell in Japan because those people are crazy, but it won't sell in the US. It will be a very very small group of people who buy it and then will spout off about how such a great "game" it is and they don't understand why people don't like it.
  • Let me just say this. I've never bothered picking up import games or for that matter figured out how to go about running them.

    But if Nintendo doesn't get this released in the US, I just may have to go hunt an import copy down and figure out what I need to do to play it. I've really enjoyed the rhythm games I've played - I was a serious DDR addict for a while, still enjoy it though my legs STILL hurt from playing one day and going to the gym the next day, and I loved Drum Mania the one time I got to play
    • Absolutely. I would play the freaking game. It sounds like a really fun game that 4 friends would love to play at the same time. I mean, acceptance shouldn't be an issue; these type games have shown that they have alot of potential with U.S. gamers. It would be a terrible mistake for Nintento not to release a game that sounds this fun in the States.

Slashdot Top Deals

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

Close