[Metal-Geo]

What was the final boss? I know I finished it, but I can't remember anything besides playing the original Jetpack in the game together with a friend beating each others highscores lol.

Finalboss was the boxing maths. A sequence of using all the Kongs to kick K. Rool's arse.

I remember it being tough as shit.

[-TK-]

I don't care what people says about this game, because I love Donkey Kong 64 so much. Banjos are even better, but this game is awesome.

[AkimbO_Arcana]

Finalboss was the boxing maths. A sequence of using all the Kongs to kick K. Rool's arse. I remember it being tough as shit.

Huh, still nothing. I don't even remember it being difficult. Guess I have to youtube it to refresh my memories...

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EePxnbmwHE

ok, it's back. Don't know if it was especially hard, but long for sure :)
But my frustration tolerance was much higher these days than today.

[Red UFO]

I could never get 101% because I couldn't do the last beaver hearding mini-game. I had every other golden banana in the game.

fuck that mini-game.
fuck beavers.

[_machine]

I don't care what people says about this game, because I love Donkey Kong 64 so much. Banjos are even better, but this game is awesome.

Same here; I thought the game was absolutely brilliant right from the start with all the characters, huge worlds, shitloads of content and just right amount of challenge. In retrospect there's probably a bit too much content and some of it is tough as shit, but I still play it once in a while even though I've only completed it once. I definitely like it more than Banjo-Kazooie (Can't say for Tooie as I've never played it).

[bomma_man]

I'm still waiting for a release on the VC.

Unlikely to happen due to licensing issues surrounding Jetpak

[Anfony O]

I absolutely loved this game. Surprised no one has mentioned the multiplayer. Had plenty of laughs chucking melons at friends as they tried to swim their way out of a death.

[BramVD]

I really really hated that boxing end battle so much. Fuck this game

[Varjet]

Those damn coins are the second worst bullshit ever in a game to unlock the final boss.
Number one is of course JFG.

[Mistle]

I remember playing the hell out of it when I was young. It's one of the few games that I haven't gone back to however, for no particular reason. Kind of worry to though as I'm afraid all wreck my good memories :O

[Banjoman]

Unlikely to happen due to licensing issues surrounding Jetpak

I didn't know. what's the story?

[TRHolmes(y)]

OOOHHHH BANANA

[Chuckpebble]

I liked the game but never came close to finishing it. Last thing I remember was jumping around on the ends of logs sticking out of some murky water and a whole lot of frustration. I also remember there being some big submarine thing that I was swimming around and feeling that that was pretty cool. Guess I should hunt down a nice LP.

[DonMigs85]

I actually fully completed this game and collected every single item. Same goes for Banjo Kazooie and Tooie, and Diddy Kong Racing. It probably helped that N64 was the only then-current system I owned from 1997 to 2000.

[Madao]

i got 101% back in the day when it came out and never ever replayed it.

saw a speed run recently where the game was completely destroyed. had a lot of laughs but didn't fully enjoy it because some parts of the game were completely gone from memory.

[Henke]

OOOHHHH BANANA

YES!

[Diddy Kong]

Sadly I never got to finish this game. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Banjo-Kazooie, but it is definitely a solid title.

[Shotgun Kiss]

I had no problem with all the item collecting required. You just need to accept it's a very different game than Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, and tackle one world at a time. You can't power through this game like you can most others.

I really really hated that boxing end battle so much. Fuck this game

What? The last boss fight was amazing. Really clever, funny, and an inventive way of using all of the characters.

[HawksWinStanley]

I had no idea this game was hated by so many.

To this day I still consider it one of the best N64 games ever.

[Astrosanity]

DK64 is weird in that it's an incredibly polished, nice looking and great sounding game, but the core game-design is god awful. I'm not even sure how it managed to get as monotonous and dull as it did since I loved BK enough to personally rank it higher than Mario 64. The only Rare-made DK game (besides Land which is buggy as hell and has some bizarre issues like saving) where I feel most of the internet hate is completely justified.

[Bjoern the Smexy]

It's the ULTIMATE collectathon.
The collectathon of collecathons.

Also fucking beavers. Fuck them beavers.

Still got that 101% savefile on my cartridge. All of that without a guide or anything. I was so proud of myself.

[Nocturnowl]

I prefer to think of this game as the Banjo Tooie before Banjo Tooie, it feels more like that from music, gameplay and visuals to any DK game.
And unfortunately it's not as good as Kazooie or Tooie.

But I did get 101% completion and loved it as a kid so I can't hate on it, never ever ever, except Beaver Bother because fuck those Beavers. There's still quite a bit of good stuff tucked away in this game and Creepy Castle was awesome (bar having two of the hardest versions of Beaver Bother) but I don't think I could play it now.

I do feel people overstate how much of a pain the collecting is though, so much grief directed at switching characters for bananas but whatever.

[Anth0ny]

I still love this game. It gets way too much hate. It was like a sequel to BK before BT was released, and that was awesome.

Unlikely to happen due to licensing issues surrounding Jetpak

Bah, really? That's such a small thing holding the game back. I wish they just dropped it and released the game on VC anyways. Pretty sure Earthbound has the same problem.

[bomma_man]

I didn't know. what's the story?

I still love this game. It gets way too much hate. It was like a sequel to BK before BT was released, and that was awesome. Bah, really? That's such a small thing holding the game back. I wish they just dropped it and released the game on VC anyways. Pretty sure Earthbound has the same problem.

Well I don't know that for sure but it seems like a pretty obvious reason. Can't think of why else it wouldn't be on VC (unless Nintendo are ashamed of it). When Rare were sold to MS they kept all their IPs, including Jetpak, which features in DK64. Nintendo probably can't be arsed replacing it.

[BHZ Mayor]

over-abundance of minigames
Beaver Bother
fly swatting minigame
the beetle races
rocket barrel controls
having to beat Donkey Kong twice on a single life each (to be fair, you can get a 1up the second time)

The game would have been much better if these issues didn't exist and even if the rest of the game was left as is.

[Diddy Kong]

Bah, really? That's such a small thing holding the game back. I wish they just dropped it and released the game on VC anyways. Pretty sure Earthbound has the same problem.

I recall reading somewhere that Rare tweeted that Nintendo could replace Jetpak with Cement Factory or something, and that they don't know why Nintendo hasn't done so. Hopefully we'll get it somewhere down the road..

edit- Here's an article.

[hosannainexcelsis]

Donkey Kong 64 was a poorly designed game in many ways (though with a few neat touches, such as the final boss). Still, I have a nostalgic fondness for 3D collectathon platformers, so I'll always have a special place for it in my heart.

[Alrix]

I really loved it, although I was too young at the time to really be a serious judge of game. Before DK64 I had only played one of the DKC games and just in parts, so this was essentially my introduction to DK. I have fond memories of it.

[djlr181]

I do not have fond memories of Donkey Kong 64. I was extremely disappointed by the game. My favorite part was playing the arcade version of Donkey Kong.

[BoxcarWalrus]

This is the game that turned me off to item collection. They threw everything at the wall and at the end of the day decided to include all the ideas, even the ones that didn't stick.

[Kirbyguy]

This is the game that turned me off to item collection. They threw everything at the wall and at the end of the day decided to include all the ideas, even the ones that didn't stick.

Pretty much.

[EatinOlives]

Tried playing this game again a couple of years ago and yeah...it didn't age well. Turns out a lot of the appeal was delivered through the (at the time) really good graphics and massive scale, but gameplay wise the game is actually very boring by today's standards. You spend more time than you'd like pushing the control stick in a single direction, staring at your character moving ever so slowly over ridiculously large worlds and hearing the POP POP POP POP POP of bananas being collected. Then you walk ever so slowly to the Kong barrel and change your character so you can do it all over again.

It got absolutely ridiculous in areas like the wooded area, where for every single gate you opened to access another area of the world you had to press two switches that belonged to different kongs. Walk slowly to a gate, shoot at it with your weapon, walk all the way back to a barrel, come back with another kong, shoot at it with your other weapon just so a barrier opens. Maddening busywork.

Let's not forget the annoying minigames like Beaver Bother. GOOD GOD BEAVER BOTHER. I don't think I ever beat that piece of shit minigame but I hate it with a passion.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I had no problem with all the item collecting required. You just need to accept it's a very different game than Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, and tackle one world at a time. You can't power through this game like you can most others. What? The last boss fight was amazing. Really clever, funny, and an inventive way of using all of the characters.

Rare's knack for a satisfying endgame is underrated.

[Proven]

DK64 was probably the last collectathon I could enjoy. I played the Banjo's a few years after and couldn't stand them. But I loved the hell out of DK64.

[DragonGirl]

Yeah, I thought the game was pretty awful. There was so much crap to collect, which was bad. They spread that crap around very large, difficult to navigate levels, which was worse. Then they required that you switch between 4 different characters to travel to all the places in the levels and pick up all the crap, which was the worst. It was one of the most obnoxious games I'd ever played, but I did beat it. The only positive aspect of the game was the boss battles. Game did have awesome boss battles.

[Brera]

IMO this game killed the 3D platformer until Mario Galaxy came along (sunshine pissed on its corpse).

[PetriP-TNT]

I couldn't beat the final boss fight. Well at least DK Rap ruled

[Starwolf_UK]

99% and proud. Ice Slide and DK Arcade were all that were holding me from 101% and actually being able to complete the game. Well it sure put me off 100%ing games first time round if my award is going to be "but you couldn't 1CC DK arcade...twice...no ending for you". Also the DK Arcade game having the outrageously long intro (I can see why the NES version skips it unless you wait on the title screen) not helped by the DK64 cutscene of the wrench animation pan camera etc...put me off trying more (never could get 75m timing down).

saw a speed run recently where the game was completely destroyed. had a lot of laughs but didn't fully enjoy it because some parts of the game were completely gone from memory.

If its one that takes advantage of glitches (out of bound etc) that fun stuff. A 100% speed run is tedious due to the fact the game auto saves any time you pick anything up.

[olimpia84]

This game marked the beginning of the downfall of Rare in terms of A+++ quality games (with the exception of Conker which was released later). The whole collecting every single piece of crap you could find ruined the game and the level design and platforming was just average.

[OmnipotentO]

The hardest part was beating the Donkey Kong and that jetpack game machines on the harder modes. FTS.
Also I had the strategy guide so I cheated in getting all bananas.

[The Dutch Slayer]

I still have a save from that year and I still can't beat the game.
I have all the items but I can't beat the classic DK game twice in a row.

<3 the game its awesome.

[Myriadis]

IMO this game killed the 3D platformer until Mario Galaxy came along (sunshine pissed on its corpse).

I see you never have played Jak and Daxter.

And I personally love that game. I didn't have problems with the collecathon stuff (and I still don't mind it, as I really loved the tons of collectables in Assassins Creed 2). The only downside is that some of the levels are just way too confusing (Level 3).

[Lijik]

I played this a friend's copy of this game a few years ago, and loved it but I remember that the second I got Lanky I just used him to glitch my way through B. Lockers so I could ignore the golden bananas. I played through as many worlds as I could and was satisfied.

I bought the game at a Play N Trade about a month ago. I'm missing the video cables for my N64 so I cant play it yet, but I feel like if I legitimately played DK64 I'd hate it from top to bottom. Im kind of excited to find out what my response would be.

[Crub]

I still have a save from that year and I still can't beat the game. I have all the items but I can't beat the classic DK game twice in a row. <3 the game its awesome.

You have to beat the arcade game twice. But not in a row. It's not that hard once you get the hang of the first level (which is the only one that's really hard).

[dekline]

I thought this game was good but banjo will always be the superior games.

Still play a little DK64 from time to time.

[clutch.as.it.gets.]

DK64 is Rare´s worst N64 platformer.

[MisterHero]

I have lots of fond memories of Banjo-Kazooie. DK64 was fun too, but was very empty in comparison. There's not many enemies. You have a bunch of fighting moves but you barely need them.

Including the arcade game was a pleasant surprise.

[VerTiGo]

I only remember bits and pieces of this game honestly. What I do recall though is thinking that the last boss battle was one of my most hated gaming experiences ever.

[jwhit28]

I have nothing but fond memories. Would love to see a sequel that maybe sticks to DK, Diddy, and Dixie. Still a ton of collecting but less repetition. Strength route, speed route, platforming/flight route.

[DonMigs85]

I often wonder if I still have the skills and dexterity to fully complete this and the Banjo games again today. Damn those 2 beetle races, they demanded pinpoint precision.