I’ll give it to Nintendo, they come up with some of the wackiest ideas for game controllers. Remember the Super Scope? That thing was sort of like a rifle and game controller mixed. Now they have Donkey Konga for the Gamecube and since our youngest has been looking for drums, it seemed to be a good test to see just how good his rhythym was. Below is a numbered picture with notes on the game session:

1. What’s that doing here? The Neo Geo game: King of the Monsters 2
2. Donkey Konga drums ($49.99 with game) are just about the right size for younger and older players
3. Nintedo 64 sadly gathering some dust
4. Turbografix-16 not sadly gathering dust
5. Dreamcast - once a contender, now a pretender
6. This shows which Konga drum players are supposed to tap. Red for right, yellow for left, blue to clap (yes, it can “hear” players clapping) and fuschia for both drums at the same time. A long line means do a drum roll, which is one of the funnest things to do.
7. This meter shows how many coins players have racked up. You can rack up these coins to buy/unlock arcade games and additional tunes (well, Donkey Konga arcade games anyway)
8. Every game has to have a player score. Well, almost every game, anyway.
9. This is the beat meter which shows you what you need to do, similar to Dance Dance Revolution showing you the notes, but vertically, Donkey Konga shows instructions conveyor-belt style horizontally.

Parents wanting a quiet present for their kids this Christmas then drum your way out of the aisle Donkey Konga is on, because this one is a bit on the noisy side. There’s a nice variation of tuneage and it could be helpful in burning a few calories. But will it tell whether your kids could hold a professional career as a drummer? Don’t think so. It’s better than most of Nintendo’s wild controller inventions, but it’s not an Eye Toy. Grade: B-

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