Yes, it’s a bad game. You’re allowed to like it anyway, I love it as well. It is charming, and I have fond memories with it, but it has pretty major technical and design flaws. The tag barrel system and the ability to only collect certain collectables as certain kongs (namely the blueprints) adds hours of pointless backtracking. Then there’s also the fact that it barely runs on the n64 and lags all the time. Rare introduced a crude delta time implementation that sped up the player’s movement to compensate, but that causes all kinds of jank and issues with the collision. A common saying in the speed run community is that “walls are optional” in DK64. Now from what I understand, you do have to try to clip through a wall, but not very hard (and I have seen people clip out of bounds accidentally in certain areas as well).
If you must play that game nowadays, I recommend using the “tag anywhere” patch, which lets you switch kongs with the dpad, and the “free trade agreement”patch, which makes it so blueprints and golden bananas can be picked up by any Kong. And play it on Project64. It cuts out most of the lag which circumvents most of that weird speed up jank, in addition to just being a smoother experience.
I tried replaying Mario 64 on an emulator, and it made me realize what I really miss are the friends I had and the place I was in my life, moreso than the game itself. Memories are nice, but there’s no going back. At least, that’s what I’ve found.
This is exactly how I feel about DK64. Except I’m aware that I’m delusional and nostalgic and would not leave a recommendation for it lol
Donkey Kong 64 was bad? What makes a game “good” other than it being fun?
Nothing. Games are meant to be fun, and that’s it.
If I enjoy it, then it’s a good game to me.
Yes, it’s a bad game. You’re allowed to like it anyway, I love it as well. It is charming, and I have fond memories with it, but it has pretty major technical and design flaws. The tag barrel system and the ability to only collect certain collectables as certain kongs (namely the blueprints) adds hours of pointless backtracking. Then there’s also the fact that it barely runs on the n64 and lags all the time. Rare introduced a crude delta time implementation that sped up the player’s movement to compensate, but that causes all kinds of jank and issues with the collision. A common saying in the speed run community is that “walls are optional” in DK64. Now from what I understand, you do have to try to clip through a wall, but not very hard (and I have seen people clip out of bounds accidentally in certain areas as well).
If you must play that game nowadays, I recommend using the “tag anywhere” patch, which lets you switch kongs with the dpad, and the “free trade agreement”patch, which makes it so blueprints and golden bananas can be picked up by any Kong. And play it on Project64. It cuts out most of the lag which circumvents most of that weird speed up jank, in addition to just being a smoother experience.
Oh man. That’s on my short list of games that I 100%ed when I was a kid, alongside the banjo kazooies and Mario 64.
Now I’m itching…
I tried replaying Mario 64 on an emulator, and it made me realize what I really miss are the friends I had and the place I was in my life, moreso than the game itself. Memories are nice, but there’s no going back. At least, that’s what I’ve found.