Donkey Konga 2 [GC]

But if that's not your thing, you can also take your sack of coins over to the Shopping Mall, where you can buy themed-sound sets for your bongos. You can purchase everything from party-themed to safari-themed sound sets to alter the default bongo sound effect. Finally, you can purchase harder arrangements of every song in the game. These "Gorilla" arrangements supplement the easier "Monkey" and "Chimp"-level arrangements. Folks new to the series will want to stick with Monkey or Chimp while those well-versed in the ways of the bongo will need to fork over the dough to receive more of a challenge.

Street Performance mode in Konga 2 is nearly identical to "Street Performance" mode of the original. But that's not saying there's nothing new. You can now play with another drummer, for one, plus there's the all-new Banana Fairy, which rewards you with coin multipliers when you're drumming well and earning combos. "Jam Session" makes a return disguised as "Concert." Apart from the name change, not much has changed. There's no real pressure, apart from you not wanting to sound like a rhythmically-challenged ass. The only real concern is sounding good by jamming harmoniously. One new element though is the "Synch" score, which earns you extra cheese for, well, jamming harmoniously.

Konga 2 still includes "Challenge" mode, which is essentially a marathon play session. You'll need to clear a set number of songs while trying to keep your "Phonograph Gauge" full. The Phonograph Gauge fills up when you're playing well, and dwindles to nothing when you suck. Keeping with the whole "If it ain't broke don't fix it" thing, "Battle Mode" feels just as it did in the previous game. You still use POW blocks to reduce your opponents score, for example, and you can change your own score (for better or worse) depending on your performance on the Vegas-like slots that appear above of your stanza. Chances are you'll spend most of your time playing with friends in Battle Mode since it's just as fun as it was in the original. Playing with three friends (or strangers) is still good fun and one of the best multiplayer experiences on the Cube.

Still, there's the all-important song selection to consider. Konga 2 tries so very hard to strike a balance between unabashed cheeriness and contemporary cool, but fails miserably. Seriously folks, it's very hard to drum to R.E.M's "Losing My Religion" with a poorly animated simian thrashing about on-screen. Hell, it's just plain hard to drum to "Losing My Religion." And it's not a matter of difficulty, it just doesn't feel right. Bottom line, Konga 2 sacrifices overall coherency for the sake of supposed cool, and winds up the lesser game for it. People who own GameCubes may want to drum along to Good Charlotte (and that's a mighty big may), but for the love of Zeus don't make Nintendo fans live without their most cherished theme songs.

Any other game and this decision may have made some sense. But not here. Sadly, the decision may increase sales. But at what cost? It would have been different if there was some kind of balance between the "cool," trendy music and the "un-cool," videogame music, but there is none. All you get in Konga 2 is the Donkey Konga 2 theme song, and it just so happens that it's one of the best songs in the game. Not because of the lyrics or rhythm, but simply because it makes sense. You'll know when you play it. It's a fun song to play. The developers structured the song to work with the bongos, and it shows. Chances are you'll play through every song at least once, maybe even twice. But you won't return to most of the songs in the Rock/Pop category for the fun it, but just to show your friends and neighbors that their *cringe* favorite song is in a Nintendo game. This isn't to say all contemporary songs in the game feel forced. For example, "Hit em' Up Style" is actually pretty good, and "Habanera" features that beat-heavy, whimsical feel well-suited to Konga 2.

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