Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong 64 is a 3D action-adventure platformer game developed by Rareware and released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. It is a follow-up to the original Donkey Kong trilogy for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; it is the first and so far only 3D platformer game in the Donkey Kong franchise. In the game, Donkey Kong and his friends go on an adventure to stop King K. Rool from using his doomsday device, the Blast-o-Matic, to destroy Kong Isle.

In April 2015, Donkey Kong 64 was ported to the Wii U's Virtual Console service. The game, along with Super Mario 64, were among the first Nintendo 64 games that were released for the Wii U's Virtual Console.

Story
The story begins with a view of DK Isles, which is the homeland of the Kongs. Meanwhile, the Kremlings and King K. Rool are sailing inside a fortified, technological version of Crocodile Isle, which hosts the doomsday device, the Blast-o-Matic. The device was designed by a weasel engineer named Snide, whom K. Rool later fired out of paranoia. K. Rool puts the Kritters in charge of operating the Blast-o-Matic and manuevering Crocodile Isle, but due to the Kritters' incompetence and laziness, Crocodile Isle crashes into a rock. The Blast-o-Matic becomes heavily damaged as a result. Crocodile Isle docks directly in front of Kong Isle, and K. Rool orders three of his minions, a Klump, a Kritter and a Kasplat, to distract Donkey Kong by stealing his banana hoard and imprisoning the other Kongs, to buy them time as they repair the Blast-o-Matic. Klump assures K. Rool that they have already fulfilled his orders.

Meanwhile, Donkey Kong is in his tree house, doing push ups while listening to the DK Rap on his radio. Squawks suddenly flies into his house and tells Donkey Kong that all of his Golden Bananas are gone and that the other Kongs have vanished. Donkey Kong then goes to Cranky's Lab for help, where Cranky Kong, who has the role of a professor, offers homemade potions that each grant a new ability to a Kong. He allows Donkey Kong to have his first potion, the Simian Slam, after he completes the Training Barrels. With the Simian Slam, Donkey Kong exits outside Kong Isle and starts his adventure in stopping K. Rool and rescuing the Kongs.

Donkey Kong goes inside a round, green prison where a giant Kremling, K. Lumsy, is imprisoned. He was locked inside a cage for refusing to help K. Rool in destroying DK Isles. K. Lumsy asks Donkey Kong to retrieve the Boss Keys to unlock his cage and free him. As Donkey Kong recovers his Golden Bananas, he eventually saves Diddy Kong in Jungle Japes, Lanky and Tiny Kong in Angry Aztec, and lastly Chunky Kong in Frantic Factory. Tiny meets the Banana Fairy Princess in Banana Fairy Island, and she asks Tiny and the other Kongs to capture all of the Banana Fairies with the Banana Fairy's Camera.

The Kongs manage to enter inside of Crocodile Isle and manage to shut down the Blast-o-Matic before its power gets fully restored. After the Kongs obtain the final Boss Key, K. Rool retreats into his King Kruiser II. With the final Boss Key, the Kongs free K. Lumsy from his cage. He then chases after K. Rool, who is flying his airship around Kong Isle. As he chases K. Rool, K. Lumsy accidentally trips over a rock and hits the cruiser, causing it to crash into the water. The Kongs enter the King Kruiser II and engage in a five-round boxing match against King Krusha K. Rool. After the match, Funky Kong appears and launches a boot at K. Rool while Candy Kong distracts him. This results in K. Rool being defeated, and the Kongs and rest of DK Isles celebrate over their victory.

Instruction manual text
“Left!” rasped a voice to his left.

“Right!” came back the immediate response from the other side.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now the Klaptrap turning the wheel wasn’t so sure. His little legs were getting tired, and those two incompetent fools didn’t have a clue where they were going.

“Left!”

“Right!”

With a sudden sickening crunch of metal against rock, the King’s pride and joy came to a shuddering halt, knocking all three off their feet. The tough little Klaptrap was up first, dashing eagerly across to the broken bridge window to see what those goons had hit.

“You two are going to be in sooo much trouble!” he barked gleefully.

But that pair weren’t the only ones in trouble. Deep within the gloomy bowels of his latest creation, a furious King K. Rool sat on his throne, glaring down at the quaking generals of his vast Kremling army.

“Well? I’m still waiting for an answer...”

His plan couldn’t fail this time, or so he had thought. But like so many times in the past, he’d underestimated just how useless his scaly minions could be. It had taken years to build, but now his mighty island stronghold lay immobile off the coast of its very first target – Kong Isle. Perhaps all was not lost, though...

“Power up the Blast-o-Matic. Target is Kong Isle. Fire when ready!”

Instead of a deafening explosion, there came only a pathetic whimper.

“I’m so v-very sorry your m-majesty, but I’m afraid the Blast-o-Matic isn’t quite w-working yet...”

K. Rool turned to face the white-coated technician responsible for the bad news. The King began to cry.

“It’s just not fair...” he sobbed. “I really thought I was going to win this time.”

Klump waddled over and put a consoling arm around his distraught leader.

“Don’t get all upset now, your excellency. We’ll go and capture those nasty Kongs for you. Then we’ll steal their Golden Bananas as usual so that if any Kongs escape us, they’ll be too busy looking for them to come and ruin your magnificent plans.”

As King K. Rool watched his generals leave, he wiped away his crocodile tears and began to laugh. His little play acting had worked, and now those Kongs would soon be history. He glared down at his bemused technician.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Get the Blast-o-Matic working. I’ve got an island to destroy!”

Gameplay
The player controls one of the five available Kongs, who must venture into open and vast levels similar to those found in Super Mario 64. Their objective in every level is to obtain the Golden Bananas among other collectibles. Only Donkey Kong is available from the start, and the other four Kongs, Diddy Kong, Lanky Kong, Tiny Kong, and Chunky Kong, are eventually freed and become available during the adventure. The player can use the Tag Barrels, located throughout every level, to switch to another Kong to play as. All five Kongs are required for completing the game because each of them must use their unique abilities to recover the Golden Bananas. There are 25 Golden Bananas in every level, and each of the five Kongs have their own five Golden Bananas to obtain

The gameplay is heavily based upon item collection, and each stage has several items for each Kong to collect. It is not mandatory to collect every single item, but it is required for 101% completion. Many of the collectibles (including Banana Medals, Banana Bunch Coins, bananas, and blueprints) are of a certain color, and can only be collected by a Kong specifically associated with that color:

Banana Bunch Coins are currency used by the Kongs to pay for Cranky Kong's, Funky Kong's, and Candy Kong's respective services. At Cranky's Lab, the Kongs can purchase a potion to learn a unique ability. At Funky's Store, each Kong can purchase their own weapon that fires a certain type of ammo. At Candy's Music Shop, the Kongs can purchase their own musical instrument to perform on a Music Pad. Cranky offers more abilities to the Kongs in the later levels, and likewise, Candy and Funky offer more upgrades in later levels. DK Isles is the hub area from where the Kongs can access the other levels. Every level has its own lobby on DK Isles and a portal leading into the level itself. At first, the level lobbies are blocked or inaccessible by the Kongs. To unlock a level's lobby, the Kongs must use a Boss Key to open a padlock of K. Lumsy's cage. This results in K. Lumsy happily celebrating and creating a tremor that unlocks access into a lobby (with the exception of the first level, Jungle Japes, which is accessed after Donkey Kong meets K. Lumsy). In every lobby, B. Locker prevents the Kongs from entering a level unless they have at least a certain number of Golden Bananas to meet B. Locker's requirement. The later levels require the Kongs to have more Golden Bananas in order to enter.
 * Donkey Kong - yellow
 * Diddy Kong - red
 * Lanky Kong - blue
 * Tiny Kong - purple
 * Chunky Kong - green

Every level has a boss whose arena is accessible from the Troff 'N' Scoff location, Here the Kongs feed Scoff with a certain number of bananas, and as Scoff eats them, he progressively becomes larger. Eventually Scoff becomes large enough for Troff's platform to be raised up to the key for Troff to unlock the door leading to the level boss. Each boss can only be fought by a certain Kong, whose face appears on the door just before the battle. The boss battles are constructed around the designated Kong's abilities. After that Kong defeats the boss, the Kongs obtain a Boss Key.

The game features two Animal Friends, Rambi the Rhino and Enguarde the Swordfish, who each have an Animal Crate located in Jungle Japes and Gloomy Galleon respectively. Only Donkey Kong can transform into Rambi and only Lanky can transform into Enguarde. Rambi can attack enemies and smash crates and wooden walls, and Enguarde can attack enemies and smash open chests to reveal hidden items.

Multiplayer
Donkey Kong 64 has its own multiplayer mode that supports 2-4 players, and has a total of 3 arenas. There are two types of multiplayer games in the mode: Monkey Smash and Battle Arena. There are 6 modes for Monkey Smash, and 4 for Battle Arena. All five Kongs that are playable in the main game are playable in this mode as well as a secret sixth unlockable character, Krusha from Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land, who does not appear in Adventure mode at all.

Monkey Smash
In Monkey Smash, characters engage in a deathmatch-style battle on an open arena. They must collect ammo and shoot them from their weapons to damage their opponents. There are six modes:


 * Survival: The last character standing is the winner.
 * Coin Hoard: Characters compete to collect the most coins within a time limit. If a character loses all of their health, they lose coins.
 * Wins: The first character to reach a target number of monkey smashes wins.
 * Time: The character with the most monkey smashes at the end of the time limit wins.
 * Capture: The character holding the coin at the end of the time limit is the winner.
 * Capture Pad: Characters must try to activate the pads while holding the coin. The first one to activate them all wins. A variant of this mode does not appear in Battle Arena.

Battle Arena
In Battle Arena, the characters must use weapons and explosives to knock their opponents off a platform. There are five modes:


 * Wins: The first character to score a set number of ring outs wins.
 * Coin Hoard: The character to collect the most coins within the time limit wins.
 * Survival: The character who survives the longest wins.
 * Capture: The character holding the coin at the end of the time limit is the winner.
 * Time: The character with the most ring-outs in a set time limit wins.

Six items appear randomly on the arena. Each of them have a different effect than in Adventure mode:


 * Yellow Banana: Temporarily increases a character's speed.
 * Crystal Coconut: Makes a character larger temporarily.
 * Supply Crate: These contain a weapon which, as in Adventure mode, correspond to a Kong. Krusha has his own one, the orange grenade launcher. Unlike Adventure mode, these weapons are temporary and come with five shots, and once all are used up, the weapon disappears.
 * Blue Banana: Temporarily freezes all of the user's opponents.
 * Orange: If touched, the Orange sends out a shockwave across the arena.
 * Question Mark: An item entirely absent from Adventure mode, the Question Mark produces a random effect such as reverse direction or slow motion.

Controls

 * Jump, swim fast underwater
 * Attack, swim slowly underwater, swim faster while floating in the water, grab and throw objects, shoot weapon (with weapon out), hold to charge up Super Slam and release to use it, take a picture with the Banana Fairy's Camera
 * Crouch, dive underwater, activate pad move (when standing on Cranky's Kong Pad), stand still (with weapon out), use Bananaport Pad, release vine
 * Center camera behind the character (hold to fixate the camera in a position), face the other direction when holding vines
 * Move character, move cursor in menus
 * Pause/Unpause, view status screen
 * Rotate camera left
 * Rotate camera right
 * Enter first-person view
 * Zoom out/in
 * + : Pony Tail Twirl (Tiny)
 * + : Jumping attack
 * + : Simian Slam, Super Simian Slam, Super Duper Simian Slam
 * + : Backflip
 * + : Special Move (Diddy, Lanky, Chunky)
 * + : Throw an orange
 * + : Take out weapon/put away weapon, cancel Cranky's Kong Barrel ability
 * + : Take out the Banana Fairy's Camera
 * + : Play instrument
 * + : Running attack
 * + + : Long jump
 * + + : Roll/slide (Donkey, Tiny)

Minor characters
Throughout the game, the Kongs meet various characters within certain worlds. These characters often don't appear outside said world, with a few exceptions.

Cranky's Lab
Cranky's Lab is a location that Professor Cranky Kong resides in, and it appears in every area of the game, with the exception of Hideout Helm. Cranky has seemingly taken up science as a hobby, and in his lab, the player can buy different potions in exchange for Banana Bunch Coins to learn new techniques and abilities needed to progress throughout the game. Also, if the Kongs visit Cranky at his lab with at least fifteen Banana Medals, Cranky allows them to play a game called Jetpac (an early Rare game). The Kongs must get 5000 points in the game in order to obtain the Rareware Coin.

There are three kinds of potions that are available for the Kongs and each type of potion gives them a different ability. The types of abilities are as follows:


 * Pad Move - These abilities are activated when any of the Kongs stand on a circular pad with their face on it.
 * Barrel Move - To activate a Barrel Move, the playable Kong has to enter a wooden barrel with their face on it.
 * Special Move - Most of the Kongs' Special Moves can be used anytime, with the exception of Donkey Kong's, which can only be used near rusty levers.

There are also shared potions which give all the Kongs the same ability - to press Kong Switches with their face on them.

Funky's Store
Funky's Store is a shop owned by Funky Kong where the Kongs can buy and reload their weapons. Each Kong has his or her own personalized weapon. They can use these weapons to shoot a variety of fruit-based projectiles to attack enemies, hit certain switches that have a certain fruit emblem on them, and hit Banana Balloons. Initially, the Kongs can have 50 rounds of ammunition, but this amount increases when the Kongs buy Funky's upgrades. The prices of his upgrades are as follows:


 * Shooter Installment - 3 coins
 * Ammo Belt 1 - 3 Coins
 * Homing Ammo - 5 Coins
 * Ammo Belt 2 - 5 Coins
 * Sniper Scope - 7 Coins

Candy's Music Shop
Candy Kong owns a music shop where she provides the Kongs with powerful instruments that they can use to make a variety of things happen. At certain points of the game, Candy also gives the Kongs an extra melon, increasing their health. Usually, when the Kongs play their instruments on certain locations, doors open or areas that were previously impossible to reach become accessible. The power of the instrument can also defeat all the enemies on the screen, but playing it reduces its energy. The Kongs can touch Candy's Headphones to replenish their instruments' energy, or visit Candy to reload the energy. The instrument, however, does not lose any energy if the Kongs play it when they are standing on a Music Pad.


 * Music Installment - 3 Coins
 * Upgrade 1 - 5 Coins
 * 3rd Melon and Music Energy - 7 Coins
 * Upgrade 2 - 9 Coins

Snide's H.Q.
Over the course of the game, the player may find Kasplats holding pieces of blueprint. If the player takes them to Snide's H.Q., Snide will trade the blueprints for Golden Bananas. There are a total of 40 blueprints in the game, 5 per world along with 5 in DK Isles. If the player delivers all of Snide's Blueprints, he will then allow the Kongs to play the various Bonus Stage games. In addition, collecting blueprints increases the amount of time that the Kongs have to complete the final world, Hideout Helm, by one minute per blueprint collected.

Wrinkly Doors
Wrinkly Doors are found in the lobby of each level (excluding Hideout Helm). As the name suggests, Wrinkly Kong will come out of each door if a Kong approaches it and give the Kong advice on one of their Golden Bananas hidden in each level. The doors are color coded for each Kong; yellow for Donkey Kong, red for Diddy Kong, purple for Tiny Kong, blue for Lanky Kong and green for Chunky Kong.

Bosses
Troff and Scoff guard the doors that lead to the bosses who hold seven of the eight keys to K. Lumsy's cage. By feeding Scoff a certain number of bananas, it allows Troff to reach the key to open the door. The players need to feed Scoff more bananas each progressed level and the combined total of all the Kongs' bananas can be pertained. Once all the bananas reach to 0, the key opens the door and a roulette spins, determining which Kong is going to battle against the Boss. Only the designated Kong can enter the door. The door will close if a different Kong tries to go inside the door at any time. Once the correct Kong enters the door, the door slams shut, and evil laughter can be heard before the screen fades to the Boss Battle.

Note: The final boss, King K. Rool, does not involve help from Troff & Scoff.

Mini-bosses
There are only three mini-bosses in the game:

Switches
There are a few types of switches, which usually affect the landscape when activates. This allows the Kongs to access to new areas and collectibles. The switches are either found on the ground, or in the walls, requiring a special ability to hit them. There are three types of switches:

Mystery
When the players manage to collect a certain amount of Banana Fairies in any file, the Mystery option will be unlocked in the main menu. Depending on the number of Banana Fairies collected, the players will unlock the following things:

Similarities between Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie
As both Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie were games made by Rare, there are a few similarities between them:
 * In an early version, Banjo and Kazooie's faces could be seen on a shower stall in DK's Tree House. Similarly, pre-release material of Banjo-Kazooie shows a picture of DK as he appeared in the original Donkey Kong Country above Banjo's bed, but was eventually replaced with a picture of Tooty, Banjo's sister.
 * The gameplay of Donkey Kong 64 shares many things with Banjo-Kazooie, like the different pads (and their appearance), the Golden Bananas (collected and used in the same way as Banjo-Kazooie ' s Jiggies), some moves (the OrangStand, for example, being extremely similar to the Talon Trot) and the Blast-o-Matic (which is more or less the Donkey Kong 64 equivalent of the B.O.B., the Big-O-Blaster, used by Gruntilda in Banjo-Tooie).
 * Fungi Forest was originally intended for Banjo-Kazooie, but got canned due to time constraints, before being moved to Donkey Kong 64 with minor changes.
 * Donkey Kong 64 was part of the incomplete feature called Stop 'n' Swop. It involved six different colored eggs and a key of ice, found in Banjo-Kazooie, and only two eggs and the key were shown in the ending cinematic (after collecting all 100 Jiggies). Their locations were sealed off, and it was told that they would be unlocked in Banjo-Tooie. After hackers found the codes to access their hiding places, the eggs proved useless. Rare intended to use them as a connection between Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Donkey Kong 64, unlocking secret features in all of them. After accessing a special pause menu, gamers were supposed to stop their current game and swap the Game Paks for another. Stop 'n' Swop got canned by Nintendo, due to concerns about players damaging their systems and the possibility that it would not be possible in some revisions of the Nintendo 64 hardware. Due to fact that the necessary chunk of the code for Banjo-Kazooie was already complete and compiled in the game after its release when Nintendo changed the N64's hardware, Stop 'n' Swop remained a mystery until the Xbox Live Arcade re-release of Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie where Rare completed the contraption they started, replacing Donkey Kong 64 with Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. However, the use of the Eggs and Key for Donkey Kong is still unknown.
 * Donkey Kong 64 holds many cameos to the Banjo-Kazooie series, including the enemies resembling Swellbellies, and the relation between the enemy Gnawty and the character Gnawty, who is a minor character in Banjo-Kazooie.
 * Inside of Candy's Shop are three of the instruments that appeared in the intro to Banjo-Kazooie, which are Banjo's banjo, Kazooie's kazoo, and Mumbo's xylophone.
 * The tune that plays when Troff and Scoff unlock a boss door is almost identical to the tune that plays whenever Banjo enters a room containing a Stop 'N' Swop item in Banjo-Kazooie.
 * In both games, the first three worlds share the same themes; the first being a mountain like valley, the second being set in a sandy like environment, and the third is set in an industrial facility.
 * In both games, World 5 features two races, the first one not requiring a new move, but the second one requires a move that allows the player to run at a very fast speed. In both games, the move must be learned in the next world.
 * In both games, World 7 takes place in a haunted like environment and even share similar music.

Development
Donkey Kong 64 started development immediately after the conclusion of Donkey Kong Country 3's. The original incarnation of Donkey Kong 64 was meant to be more similar in design to the Donkey Kong Country series than the final game, featuring linear levels played through a combination of forward-scrolling and side view sections, similar to . After around 18 months, development was rebooted after Rare took notice of the trend of open 3D games started by Super Mario 64. Transitioning the series to true 3D proved challenging: graphic artist Mark Stevenson noted that "As an artist who was on the DKC games, I used to build and animate the characters from a fixed side-on view. Being able to see this character from any angle, you'd make an animation, put it in the game, and you'd think it looked good side-on, but awful from every other angle! It was challenging from a technical and design perspective. Donkey Kong 64 was among the first Nintendo 64 game to feature dynamic lightning, although its implementation was faked after the first rendering.

Due to the success of , one of the first requests Rare co-president Tim Stamper made was to include even more collectables. Mechanics such as the 5 playable characters and "thrilling moments" such as mine cart and slide sequences were also deviced to differentiate the game from Banjo-Kazooie. Grant Kirkhope, who had composed the soundtrack to Banjo, settled on a darker tone due to David Wise's work on the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Although the realistic gun models sighted in pre-release material were always intended to be placeholder, the final design of the Coconut Gun was only conceived after a mortified Shigeru Miyamoto saw Donkey Kong's shotgun in a demo of the game and immediately drew up a replacement.

In 2013, a story was published that implied Donkey Kong 64 was not initially meant to require the Expansion Pak. According to that story, Rare was unable to fix a memory leak bug discovered near the game's release date; the bug would cause the game to crash after 30 minutes of gameplay, but Rare found that the issue did not occur when the Expansion Pak inserted. As a result, the game was bundled with the Expansion Pak, a move that supposedly took a large toll on the game's profits. This turned out to be the result of a misconception that confused and melded the decision to use the Expansion Pak into the discovery of the game-breaking bug, as indicated by lead artist Mark Stevenson in a 2019 interview. In 2019, Mark Stevenson said in a Nintendo Life interview that the Expansion Pak was in fact the only way to properly run Donkey Kong 64, as the game-breaking bug was eventually patched out, though the necessary game code required to run the game would be provided via the Expansion Pak, further proving that the game was built around it ever since the beginning of the game's development.

Staff
Donkey Kong 64 was developed by Rare Ltd. and published by Nintendo. The game's core development team was largely formed of people who had no involvement with Rare's previous Donkey Kong games, although several Donkey Kong Country veterans such as Gregg Mayles and Chris Sutherland are credited as support staff.

The game's soundtrack was composed by Grant Kirkhope. Initially meant to assist Eveline Fischer, Kirkhope ended up composing the entire soundtrack (including the DK Rap) and also provided the voice of Donkey Kong.

Wii U Shop Channel
"With his mechanical isle stuck off the shores of DK Island, K. Rool kidnaps the Kong family to distract Donkey Kong™. It's up to our furry hero to rescue his friends, reclaim his Golden Bananas, and save his homeland from certain doom. Choose from five Kong members as you play solo in a quirky adventure or with friends in competitive battle arenas!
 * North America

Join Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong™, Tiny Kong™, Lanky Kong™, and Chunky Kong™ as they fight to keep DK Island safe and sound from K. Rool and his Kremling crew. Climb, swim, and jump with each of the five Kong members through treacherous and puzzling areas while taking advantage of their special abilities and upgrades. Encounter friendly aid from other Kongs and a caged Kremling by the name of K. Lumsy. Hunt for collectibles and play wacky minigames while solo, or duke it out in battle arenas with friends in a four-player split-screen view. There's enough fun to go around to make you go bananas!"

"King K. Rool™ has set his sights on conquering Kong Isle, and only Donkey Kong and his pals can save the day! In DK's first 3D adventure, help him rescue his furry friends, reclaim the Golden Bananas and save his homeland.
 * Europe

Take control not only of Donkey Kong and Diddy, but also Tiny, Lanky and Chunky Kong. Each character has unique abilities, from Tiny’s Ponytail Twirl to Chunky’s Pineapple Launcher.

With a massive single-player quest packed with surprises and a madcap multiplayer mode, Donkey Kong 64 is a bursting barrel of fun!"

Reception
Donkey Kong 64 was the subject of universal acclaim at release. Critics praised the game's length and large amount of content, the variety brought about by the game's tasks and different player characters, and the graphics, although multiple outlets expressed disappointment that Donkey Kong 64 did not feel like a massive technological leap over the developer's previous work on Banjo-Kazooie despite requiring the Expansion Pak accessory. A reoccurring criticism of the game was that Donkey Kong 64 was derivative of Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, and not a revolutionary step like the critics judged Donkey Kong Country to be.

In a 1999 interview, Shigeru Miyamoto said of Donkey Kong 64 that Rare "really perfected the art" of making 3D action games and that "I bet you that it turns out to be the absolute best 3D action game available on any hardware - even including .", although he ultimately judged that Donkey Kong 64 would not be a game that would attract new players to the Nintendo 64.

In later years, critical reception to Donkey Kong 64 has been more mixed. Modern retrospectives of the Donkey Kong series and reviews of the game's Wii U rerelease have criticized various aspects of Donkey Kong 64's design such as the excessive gating of collectables and switches by characters, the tedium of having to backtrack to switch characters through the Tag Barrel, and the low quality and frustrating nature of many of the Bonus Stages. Publications such as  blamed Donkey Kong 64 as one of the factors in the decreasing fortunes of the 3D platformer genre. Former Rare employee and Donkey Kong 64 composer Grant Kirkhope was quoted as saying the game and fellow Rare platformer  were "too much", and the game's lead tester Gavin Price mocked its high amount of collectibles in an interview.

In a 2016  poll to determine the "most memorable" games for each console, Donkey Kong 64 ranked 7th for the Nintendo 64 with 129 votes, being the only Donkey Kong game to make the list.

Media
Several course's themes for Donkey Kong 64 are actually unused themes from Banjo-Kazooie that were reused for the game.

Quotes

 * "I've been waiting a long time for this moment. Soon, Donkey Kong and his pretty little island will be no more!" - King K. Rool
 * "Well, if it isn't my good-for-nothin' son..." - Professor Cranky Kong
 * "Snide's my name, revenge is my game!" - Snide

Pre-release and unused content
Early screenshots show that DK's Tree House was meant to have a shower stall with Banjo and Kazooie on it. The Kong's weapons originally resembled actual weapons, such as Donkey Kong's Coconut Shooter resembling a double barreled shotgun.

Glitches
Donkey Kong 64 contains a variety of glitches, to a degree that the game is often considered to be one of the most broken games on the Nintendo 64. Lag issues are common, most noticeably in Frantic Factory and few other places. To keep the gameplay at a steady pace, the developers implemented a movement speed-to-lag system, where the more lag there is, the faster characters move. Due to this, players can frequently clip through terrain. Orange explosions cause massive lag, and the fact that the player can enter first person mode and throw oranges faster allowed the use of many more sequence breaks and wall clips. Most of the lag issues were fixed in the Virtual Console release of the game, which means some glitches are impossible to perform.

References to other games

 * Donkey Kong: A full version of this game can be played at Frantic Factory. Notably, for many years, this would be the only rerelease of the arcade version since the Ikegami Tsushinki lawsuit until it was rereleased standalone in 2018 as part of the Arcade Archives line. Part of the song that plays in Creepy Castle (as well as in the dungeons) incorporates the melody heard while Donkey Kong is climbing to the top of the construction site with Pauline.
 * Donkey Kong Country: The Jungle Japes theme is an arrangement of "DK Island Swing," the jungle level theme first heard in Jungle Hijinxs. Also, King K. Rool has the same appearance as that game, and Squawks has shrunken back down to his original size from that game.
 * Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: Pictures of Kaptain K. Rool can be spotted in the sunken ship of Gloomy Galleon, in the museum of Creepy Castle and in some cabins in Crystal Caves.
 * Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: When the Kongs visit Wrinkly Kong for the first time, she says that she has been deceased since Donkey Kong Country 3. The alarm sound effect from Krack Shot Kroc is used for the K. Rool's Mobile Island Fortress, the conveyor belts in the Jungle Japes mine when they are set to "low," and in the minigame Krazy Kong Klamor.

References in later games

 * Donkey Kong Country: The Game Boy Color remake features several minigames that were included in Donkey Kong 64, while the Game Boy Advance version features voices of DK, Diddy, and King K. Rool that were used in Donkey Kong 64. In addition, the menu selection for the former was taken directly from Donkey Kong 64.
 * Banjo-Tooie: One of the questions Gruntilda asks during the final battle is "What is the name of the first game I appeared in?". One of its three answers, Grunty Kong 64, directly references the game.
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee: The DK Rap was rearranged for background music on the Kongo Jungle stage. Jungle Japes appears as a stage, with many elements from its original appearance.
 * Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour: Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong's voices from this game are recycled from Donkey Kong 64.
 * Donkey Kong Country 2: After the Kongs complete Funky's "Cool Sounds" mission in the Game Boy Advance remake, he mentions the Monkey Rap. Some of Dixie's voices are Tiny's recycled. Tiny Kong appears in Funky's minigames during Kongnapped and Kongnapped 2 where the player must rescue a certain amount of her.
 * DK: King of Swing: Crystal Coconuts made a return, although they served an entirely different purpose. Also, Wrinkly Kong was a ghost in this game, just as she was in Donkey Kong 64. DK and Diddy's 64 voices are recycled yet again, although they are the edited versions heard in Donkey Kong Country for Game Boy Advance. Bats returned as enemies, now known as Flipflaps.
 * Donkey Kong Country 3: Lanky, Tiny, and Chunky make cameos in one of Funky's minigames, in the Game Boy Advance remake.
 * Mario Hoops 3-on-3: Diddy's Special Shot involves the use of his Rocketbarrel Jetpack.
 * Donkey Kong Barrel Blast: Chunky's Pineapple Launcher, Crystal Coconuts, Golden Bananas, and Banana Fairies were usable items. Also, the entire concept of barrel-rocket belts originated from DK64. Lanky was also reintroduced in that game as well.
 * Diddy Kong Racing DS: The game's title logo was similar to DK64's and Tiny Kong was a playable racer.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Diddy Kong was included as a playable character, and his move-set (specifically his Rocketbarrel Boost and Peanut Popguns) came straight from Donkey Kong 64. Also, Diddy Kong, Lanky Kong, Tiny Kong, and Chunky Kong appear as stickers straight from Donkey Kong 64.
 * Donkey Kong Country Returns: Diddy Kong can use a Rocketbarrel Jetpack to slow Donkey Kong's fall and in multiplayer when facing either Mugly or Thugly the player can have Diddy Kong shoot peanuts at them and Mugly or Thugly will eat them being distracted.
 * Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U: Trophies of the Peanut Popgun and Rocketbarrel Pack appear in these games. Trophies of Lanky Kong and Tiny Kong appear in the Wii U version.
 * Mario Party 10: DK's description says "He's finally back to kick some tail!"
 * Skylanders: SuperChargers: Chunky Kong's special ability, Primate Punch, is used as Turbo Charge Donkey Kong's primary ability in this game.
 * Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: A rearrangement of the Jungle Japes theme is used as Rabbid Kong's battle theme in this game. A rearrangement of DK Isles is also heard.
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: King K. Rool's Final Smash, Blast-o-Matic, is taken from the game over scene for this game, although it shows the weapon actually firing at the DK Isles and blowing it up. In addition, some of his moves as well as the near-end of the trailer have him adopting boxing gloves, referring to the nature of his final battle in the game. King K. Rool also cameos in the Boxing Ring arena nearing the end of Ken Masters and Incineroar's debut trailers, alluding to the final battle in the game, which dealt with a boxing match between him and the Kongs. Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, and Chunky Kong also all appear as spirits.
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: Donkey Kong's website description for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 references Chunky Kong's verse in the DK Rap, saying "He's so strong, it isn't funny."

Trivia

 * The game was originally nicknamed Ultra Donkey Kong by the press (although Leigh Loveday denied the game was ever named that internally ) and was rumored to be for the Nintendo 64DD.