DKC Atlas Forum

Remember all those reviews where people complain about the game being a collect-a-thon full of giltches?
Well after all these years I found that with some simple alteration to the game design I feel DK64 could have been a great
game, but Rare made things so..awkward sad really. Anyway here are some things that could have made the game better.

1. Removing the color coded collecting system and incorporating a global collecting system-
This one would have made the game more streamlined and faster paced simply because if there
was a global banana,coin,blueprint and golden banana system it mean that, because of Kongs being
able to collect any bananas or coins there would be no need to switch guys every two minutes to
collect little things like that. It would save time and help the pacing of the game a lot.

2. simpler collecting-
What do I mean by simpler collecting I mean just let the Kongs have the golden banana already we don't need to play a
mini-game each and every time we get close to finding a banana, as like reason #1 it just slows the pacing of the
game. Worse still is that some tasks like beating the owl in a race in Fungi Forest will only get you a mini game
barrel and not a banana tedious to say the least as it could just be made simpler by getting rid of the mini game
and just giving the Kong the golden banana.

3. Smaller worlds
I think a lot you will agree on this one don't get me wrong the levels are nice and well designed,
but it's easy to get lost sometimes (levels like Crystal Caves come to mind) if they smaller like B-T size
(IE: big but not too big with easy to recognize areas) it would be a little easier the find your way around.

Anything you think would have helped the game out?

How could they have made DK64 better? Well, for starters they shouldn't have had so many Banjo people working on it while the DKC people made Dinosaur Planet. In fact, they should have turned Dinosaur Planet into DK64 and everyone would've been amazed. It started out as Diddy Kong Racing 2 anyways, so if they would've turned it into DK64 early on before they fanned out the plot and world it would've turned out great. Imagine Dinosaur Planet's music and world but with Donkey Kong in them. Pretty much perfect. Thorntail Hollow, the snow world, the Waterfall world; all of them feel perfect for a 3D Donkey Kong game. Besides, David Wise's music is a no brainer. I liked Kirkhope's DK64 music, but most of it just doesn't fit in with the world. Great music, but just not right for DK's world.


Now, if you're looking for more specific changes then "Change it to a completely different game", then this is what I would say:
-The multi-character system was poorly implemented. If a challenge requires a specific character, it should be because of that characters abilities, not because they stuck their face on a switch just to make you need that character for no reason. If every character could collect all of the items, then you'd only need to switch characters when you need that character's specific abilities, which is how it should be.
-The music, as I said before, was hit and miss. Some of it was good, but most of it just didn't fit. It didn't help the feeling that it was a Banjo clone to be using the Banjo composer for all of the music.
- Dixie and Kiddy should've been in rather than Tiny and Chunky. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind new characters, but there's no reason to create new ones when there are perfectly good ones that can fill their places. Hell, they even could've kept Chunky exactly the same, and just called him Kiddy. That would've been hilarious, Kiddy aging into Chunky between DKC3 and DK64. Either way, they didn't need to get replaced.
- No Guns. The guns didn't do anything for me and felt really out of place.

I think Donkey Kong 64 was perfect and I firmly believe that Jesus Christ plays it in his downtime.

Tiptup Jr. wrote:I think Donkey Kong 64 was perfect and I firmly believe that Jesus Christ plays it in his downtime.

If this site had a like button, I'd press it for this post.

How could it have been better? Not making the bananas in every world after Jungle Japes hard to get.

How could it have been better? If they had made it able to switch Kongs whenever you liked (outside certain one-Kong-only places, of course) Smarter use of all those different monkeys' abilities and items would've been better too.

And they should've added a little map in the corned of the screen, a lá Zelda. It's very easy to get lost, especially in Creepy Castle and Frantic Factory... Last time I played those levels I barely knew where I was going.

In general, it looked, played, and felt more like Banjo-Kazooie than DK to me. However, it's still enjoyable to play. The thing I like most is how you can just romp around a level and pick up as many golden bananas as you like, without being launched back to the beginning again. Games nowadays lack that exploring-feel... I mean, take Super Mario Galaxy, for one. Each star has its own mission that sends you back to the hub once you collect it, leaving little time to enjoy the stage's gimmicks and scenery. You never really get the feeling you're on an adventure. Rare's old work is still legendary to me.

Jomingo wrote:- Dixie and Kiddy should've been in rather than Tiny and Chunky. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind new characters, but there's no reason to create new ones when there are perfectly good ones that can fill their places. Hell, they even could've kept Chunky exactly the same, and just called him Kiddy. That would've been hilarious, Kiddy aging into Chunky between DKC3 and DK64. Either way, they didn't need to get replaced.

I've nothing against Tiny (pre Diddy Kong Racing DS anyway) and Chunky but, I agree, it would of been a more fitting sendoff from the Country games to assemble the protagonists for one major 3D game.

aperson98 wrote:1. Removing the color coded collecting system.

Originally I was going to agree with this one as well but, as I got to writing, I realized the banana collecting was possibly the easiest part of the game. The color coding never really bothered me, and by time I was ready to fight the boss, I usually already had enough collected to unlock the door. I also feel like had they designed the worlds, and placed the items in a way that enforces collecting them by the character's own merits it would of ironically restricted the free roaming aspect.

What I think they should have done with the characters is you pick a team of two, and have it like DKC. You can slap in between the two characters at any time, and if you want to trade characters, then you go to the barrel and pick which two you want to play as. I think that would speed it up a bit. I didn't like how you'd have to keep going back to the same area with different Kongs to get certain items over and over again.

I agree with Jomingo about the guns. Guns just don't seem to belong in a Donkey Kong game... at least not with the Kongs, maybe with the Kremlings.

I wish Donkey's main attack was still rolling. I thought it was weird that they changed it to the kicking thing (I don't know what you'd call it.)

I would have liked to see more ropes, vines, and chains. I think they also should have had hooks like DKC2. It would have also been cool if they would have had a level that was a pirate ship (more than just the little one in Gloomy Galleon.)

They should have also had more animal buddies. I would have loved to see Winky, Expresso, and maybe even Squitter. Rambi and Enguard were just okay. Their roles weren't that important, which was disappointing. It would have been better if the Kongs rode the buddies, rather than transforming into them (which would have made sense, since the buddies were in crates and not barrels.)

My problems with the game:

Kong Overload

Tiny istead of Dixie

Not traditional enough (DK Island is wierd, there's a mechanical Crockodile Isle, It doesn't pick up were DKC3 left off, and the game doesn't have a theme)

No replay value at all

Feels like a game for 5 year olds at times (Blast-O-Matic?)

K. Rool is pretty anoying, and his voice acting is bad

Too mutch backtracking

Lack of animal buddies and I would rather ride them

I think everyone agrees that the guns were a bad idea (I never use them) and the homing amo stinks

The plot of the game is kind of bad.

Levels are too long, but there are not enough of them

Fix all these things and it would be better.

From what I've read of this site (especially this topic), it seems to be mainly made up of people who like the DKC trilogy & who think the DK64 game could have been improved on & wasn't as good as them. So, I figured this forum's the best place to tell people about my DK64 remake that I've been obsessed w/ working on in the last several months...

I'm not actually trying to put this into production & make into a playable game like the other fangames here -- don't worry about doing that; this is just an idea written to have fun reading. This didn't get attention on deviantart when i tried posting there (except 1 comment just saying "o'', what the heck?); this is crazy (felt like it should have got more attention). If you're one of those users like Chibisai Kong who is fine w/ the real game & don't think it neeed a remake.. ignore this topic. But hopefully the majortiy of Atlas users (who'd like this) will be the ones who read & understand this.

I've filled in the DK64 worlds w/ more creative intresting tasks different than mostly just stompin' on switches for most of the game. (Examples of tasks I added:- sort evil crabs outa smbody 's shell collection; search various holes in the ground w/ Expresso; shooing elephants off tightropes which you then climb; freeing kongs from insde giant spikeshark mouth instead of just them behind gate). Worlds & gold banana tasks are much easier to complete, also easier to find & their locations are pointed out in more clear ways. A few of the more interestng tasks from the real game (eg: minecart rides, climbing fungi tower) are left in too, but most of the less-imaginative switch-shooting ones are removed leavin only these & ones I made up. No 1980's DK arcade minigame is required to be played during this -- it would distract too much from the main 3D adventure you are playing it for.

Other users (see above) agreed DK64 had no theme, & so all the Kremlings are boxers (since the real game's final boss was one) -- some new kind of Kremlings I made up include: -Kickboxer (standard krem, has huge kicking legs), Kombiner(combines boxing w/ other sports like waterskiing & indoor climbing), Kounter (who blocks your attacks from the front, with his enormous gloves), Katapult(launches himself from elastic/vine slingshot borders of rooms), & crabs wearing boxing gloves. also the king K Rool's renamed Ring King K Rool (maybe he wants to use his machine to suck the power out of all of DK island so that he's as powerful as the kongs & so that he wins the annual boxin' championship). There's no K Lumsy keys, you're just needing battle crowns to prove yourself worthy (to the event managers) of facing K Rool; you get 1 crown for each boss fight in each world & when you got all crowns, fly plane to where the K rool match takes place (insted of inexplicably falling into planewreck to enter ring, which I belive the real DK64 did).

Custom kongs I invented include Dynamighty who has infinite TNT & who can levelup so that he can survive foes' explosions, & Domino kong who forms bridges (for others) over chasms w/ his long thin body (& Lanky, Donkey & Diddy still in it. I felt Chunky was unnecesary cuz his main skill was superstrengh & Donkey's already well known for that.) (I've thought of having the player be able to switch Kongs anytime by pressing R to bring out the "Barrel-o-Monkeys" at anytime, & when in it, you can recap a description of each Kong's abilities to remind you, so you know who to use)

Instead of Troff & Scoff requiring the coloured bananas & B Loker requiring gold ones, this version just has you feed monster hippos thruout maps so they dont gobble you (feed them either variety of banana, gold ones are just worth more in weight). The small bananas can be collected by any Kong, not colour coded (the colour coding never bothered me but I've heard lots of others complain about it)

I'll post more about it only if people show interest, otherwise this will be the last post I ever make about a game idea in my life.

(You'll have to go to my deviant art page (emeraldeditor.deviantart.com) to see the drawings I drew of it. I tried uploading attachments here but they were too big. The pictures below may look sketchy & faded colour, this isn't meant to be masterpiece drwngs of it, just showing off the ideas in pic's, obviously the game would have better graphics than this

Nice ideas. I'm definitely one of those who believes DK64 should have been so much more...

I look forward to reading/viewing your ideas in full when I get a chance.

In the meantime, remember that you can always embed your art from dA here by putting the image URLs in [img]image URL[/img] tags, like so:



That's just a thumbnail (which I've linked to the deviation), of course. You can use larger (or full) versions, too.

The only other real idea I have is a world called Kroc- Aid Korporation- it's a factory on the Krems' territory , & Kroc-aid that it makes is the Krems' sports drink (for when they get thirsty during all that gym boxing etc). It's sort of a combo of factory& water world as it's full of lime-green pools of such a drink, & the Kongs can swim thru it (it's not poison) but there's a constant Krem security crosshair aiming & shooting at the invading Kongs, to try to kill&make the Kong bits mixed in w/ the drink (until you reach the room w/ the security Krem & fight him as the boss). Enguarde appears here too. The music's a remix of the Frantic Factory track, in fact this factory replaces Frantic Factory in my remake, since a toy factory has nothing to do w/ the DK universe