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Show HN: Konga Beat – A custom track editor for Donkey Konga 2 and 3

(www.kongabeat.com)
113 points CIARobotFish | 7 comments | 13 Nov 24 16:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.418s | source | bottom

Howdy HN!

For those who don't know, back in the early 2000s, Nintendo and Namco developed a series of music rhythm games for the GameCube featuring Donkey Kong called Donkey Konga: https://www.mariowiki.com/Donkey_Konga_(series)

The Donkey Konga games borrowed heavily from Taiko no Tatsujin (another music rhythm game by Namco). However, instead of taiko drums, the player would use DK Bongos to jam along with music from different eras and genres.

Long story short, I figured out how to add custom tracks to some of the Donkey Konga games (Donkey Konga 2 and 3) but found the entire process cumbersome, so I decided to make a dedicated editor. It was a lot of fun to make, and I hope others get some enjoyment out of it too!

1. AdmiralAsshat ◴[13 Nov 24 18:06 UTC] No.42128434[source]▶
Nice to see someone doing something to try to get some additional leverage out of the DK bongo drums. They're one of my favorite stupid/unnecessary videogame controller peripherals. They felt like such a missed opportunity, especially in the US. We only got three games that actually supported them, and despite my effort of actually tracking down a second pair of bongos so that my siblings and I could do multiplayer, we discovered that Donkey Konga's multiplayer mode was crap. We then got Donkey Konga 2, which was more of the same but with a worse setlist, and Donkey Konga 3 was never released stateside.

The sole redeeming feature of it was Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, which at least used the controller in a novel way to make an exciting platformer.

replies(3): >>42128626 #>>42129161 #>>42133060 #
2. dole ◴[13 Nov 24 18:30 UTC] No.42128626[source]▶
Interesting there's no tracklist on wikipedia for DK3 but if it's any consolation, it was very heavily J-Pop and I think maybe 5-8 at most of the tracks were notable or recognizable by a typical westerner, but then again I'm not a massive videogame OST fan so it may have been missed on me. I remember the minigames were pretty cool but all menus were in Japanese and tough to navigate.

Edit, ah there's a tracklist on the mariowiki link. Ah well, this quote on the page: "You can import it from our partners at Lik-Sang." Lik-Sang, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

replies(1): >>42128886 #
3. AdmiralAsshat ◴[13 Nov 24 19:06 UTC] No.42128886[source]▶
It had the Japanese opening to Dragon Ball Z in the tracklist, which was enough to make teenage me disappointed that we didn't get it.

Having decided to look up a run of it on YouTube, however, it's probably just as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkyd_nR4DqE&list=PLNS5TsLf66...

4. jhap ◴[13 Nov 24 19:39 UTC] No.42129161[source]▶
I like to use the bongo drum controller to play super smash bros with my friends! It's a fun and goofy time!
replies(1): >>42129499 #
5. memco ◴[13 Nov 24 20:16 UTC] No.42129499[source]▶
Haha! I did the same thing. If I recall its button mapping is wonky (and maybe missing one?). It does mostly work as a regular controller so it’s possible to play games that aren’t specifically designed for it albeit in a limited fashion.
6. Affric ◴[14 Nov 24 04:02 UTC] No.42133060[source]▶
Donkey Konga is a huge missed opportunity.

Guitar Hero/Rock Band are probably best in show for the genre.

Weird that they were so huge for such a short time. Probably the death of popular instrumented music.

replies(1): >>42133974 #
7. CSMastermind ◴[14 Nov 24 07:52 UTC] No.42133974[source]▶
I think it was more that companies way over invested in the concept and saturated the market combined with licensing fees making a lot of the games unprofitable.