Simon Carless mentions a fracas about a heavily edited Donkey Konga 2 review for IGN GameSpy (look somewhere under the 12th here if you want a permalink), and while that's not too terribly interesting, that prompted me to look for some other reviews of the game. Unfortunately they're not very positive. While this actual-IGN review says it merely matches Donkey Konga in quality (more or less), this CNET GameSpot review says much what Nich Maragos wrote for IGN GameSpy: the music selection is apparently sub-par for folks with actual musical taste—enough so that the pop/hip-hop pandering makes the game less fun. Bummer:
Donkey Konga 2... seems more concerned
with being hip than providing a selection of songs that complement the
percussion-based gameplay. But to this end it's not particularly successful, as most of the modern music included in the game is just old enough to be dated, as if the songs were picked off the radio from two years ago. Certainly there are plenty of people who still enjoy Incubus, Mary J. Blige, Good Charlotte, Pink, and The Crystal Method, and some of these songs do work well in the context of the game, but it just feels like the game is trying too hard. —
I would suppose we have Donkey Konga 3 to look forward to, between "a whopping fifty songs" and "fifteen classic Famicom themes" to unlock—but I had heard Donkey Konga 2 had cool music based on the Japanese release, and GameSpot seemed to think so too, 10 months ago. Hopefully that's not just Japanophilia at work; I sure enjoyed the music in Band Brothers, even before hearing the actual songs, and maybe a little more in some cases. Regardless, depending on the effect on sales of, well, selling out, if there's a Donkey Konga 3 US, it may get the same sad treatment as 2.
