Donkey Konga 3 (US Release)

Donkey Konga 3 (Known in Japanese as Donkey Konga 3: Tabehōdai! Haru Mogitate 50 Kyoku (ドンキーコンガ3 食べ放題！春もぎたて50曲, Donkey Konga 3:

All-You-Can-Eat! Springtime Freshly-Picked 50 Songs), is a Donkey Kong game released on the Nintendo Gamecube in Japan on March 17, 2005 and released on March 16th, 2006 in the United States and Canada. It is the third and final installment of the Donkey Konga series. Like the first two Donkey Konga titles, Donkey Konga 3 is playable on the DK Bongos but can also be played on a standard Nintendo GameCube controller. Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong reappear from the previous two titles as playable characters. Funky also appears as a new and fourth playable character, specifically by player four.

Story
Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong, were playing the Bongo's together. Diddy and Dixie get the idea to become a bongo band, from how much they were harmonizing with each other. Donkey Kong thought it was a great idea if they only had more member to join them. They looked around to find anybody who would be a perfect fourth member of their band. but they couldn't find them. Meanwhile, Funky happened to run into the Bongo's and started to play them. This caught the attention of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong while they were taking a break from finding another new member. They run back to where they left their bongos and noticed funky being really good at playing the Bongos. Donkey decides to go tell Cranky Kong the news, and Cranky Kong agrees. However they can only become a band under a few conditions. They must learn how to harmonize with each other, they will have to compete against other bongo bands and each other, He mentions of the whole world with music, and that the Kongs should tour off the island to practice on their bongos. Diddy expressed his love for the idea while Donkey Kong was unaware of the entire situation. He asked what the big deal was and if they would have a tour guide. DK and Diddy fantasize and excitedly shout in unison of all the Bananas they would be able to eat. Dixie decides to join the Kongs, and says that they cannot leave the island without her bongo skills. Diddy gets annoyed at her statement and professes to be good at playing bongos. The opening ends with the three Kongs leaving the island, and Cranky asks himself if they are prepared for a world tour, hoping they would "break a leg".

Gameplay
Donkey Konga 3 has largely similar gameplay to that of the previous games. It retains it's Taiko-no-Tatsujin based gameplay style. The player must hit the notes in conjunction with the song playing. A few unique modes appear in this game, including "Musical Mission" and "World Tour". Aside from the story introduction, Funky Kong has her role as "The King of the Congos" Sometimes, after completing a mode, Funky provides advice to the player, known as "Funky Says". Each bit of advice he provides is catalogued in the "Museum of Records" for the player to review.

Classic Street Performance
In this mode, the player performs a song while hitting the corresponding musical notes to collect coins. Aside from some minor HUD differences, Street Performance has some differences from the predecessor. The coins are now stored in a DK emblem chest, a counter showing the number of coins, and a weight scale. Coconut fairies sometimes appear in the mode, and momentarily grant the ability for each note to have a value of three coins. Coins are used to purchase extra features in the Shopping Mall.

Concert
In this mode, players synchronously perform a song, each with their own notes to hit. There is a Share Mode that allows multiplayer from a single DK Bongo Controller. Concert is also playable in single player, where the player (as Donkey Kong) rather performs with a computer player (as Dixie Kong).

World Tour
This is the games story mode. Players perform at concert venues from the Jungle to the Mushroom Kingdom to the rest of the world while facing rival bands.

Musical Mission
Clear various missions to get enough coins. Musical Mission is divided into five different areas called "stages", Stage A, Stage B, Stage C, Stage D and Stage E. Each stage is more difficult than the last.

Freestyle Zone
This mode freely allows the player to perform their own beats on the DK Bongos (or GameCube Controller), hence the name "freestyle". They can also press the START/PAUSE Button to access a menu allowing them to change the scenery and background music. Each time a button is pressed, an image displays on screen, usually of an official artwork. A "Hit Count" meter is at the top-right, which counts how many times the player pressed a button. The meter resets after exceeding 1,000 hits.

Shopping Mall
Shopping Mall allows the player to purchase unlockables if they have enough coins. There are two categories: "Jungle Jams" and "Bongos-A-Go-Go". The former option sells each song individually to be played on Gorilla (expert) difficulty level. The latter option sells different sound sets, which create different sound effects than the default bongos, and can be changed in each mode.

Bongo Conga
Bongo Conga is the successor to challenge mode. The player performs a number of songs in a row. There are three options: the "6-Song Set", "12-Song Set" and the unlockable "Full Set".

Battle Mode
In this mode, players perform a song to compete for the highest score.

Bongos-A Go go
Despite having the same function, each sound set is at a different price. Every sound set has three sound effects based on its title, and they each correspond with clapping and the left and right bongos.