There has been a prevalence of new music-based titles in recent years. Ever since the runaway success of Dance Dance Revolution in arcades was translated to home consoles, shelves have been packed with titles asking you to move, jump, step and tap to the rhythm. In a saturated market, how does one game stand out? Take a beloved classic arcade character, add an interestingly adorable controller, then sit back and watch the market share grow.

Nintendo’s Donkey Konga does just that. Beyond just a novelty, Donkey Konga’s catchy rhythms, deceptively intuitive controller and classic-kitsch appeal hit a much-needed spot in music-based games. As its name suggests, Donkey Konga relies on the ingenious DK Bongo, a special piece of hardware included with each game. The DK Bongo is just that: a bongo, with an added microphone to catch the sound of the player’s hand claps.

Game play is very much what you would expect when combining any of the music-based games with a set of bongos. Basic game play revolves around hitting the left bongo, the right bongo and clapping hands. But unlike similar games, Donkey Konga offers several different modes of play. Street-performance mode centers around earning coins to unlock special treats — additional songs and minigames. The minigames are a nice addition, but suffer from a lack of depth and quickly become boring.

Then there is battle mode, allowing you to go head-to-head with another player, outscoring each other and striving to reach special bonus icons that help you knock points from your opponent or gain a considerable bonus. Battle mode can be against another human player or the computer, but those who could care less about battling it out will love Donkey Konga’s jam mode. By doing away with points, jam mode allows up to four players to just have fun jamming it out to the music.

While game play is fun, Donkey Konga isn’t without its drawbacks. The controller is notoriously oversensitive. The microphone picks up handclaps, but players can easily deceive it by hitting the sides of the bongo or simply shouting out. The oversensitivity allows players to cheat easier, gaining valuable seconds in some of the harder games. The learning curve, too, could be made easier. The controllers are simple, but it doesn’t seem that the designers at Nintendo played up their strength, instead relying too much on previous experience with music games.

Overall, though, the flaws hardly make a dent in an otherwise solid offering. Easily playable by all ages, Donkey Konga is one of those rare games that everyone can enjoy. It offers variety and challenge in a tight package, and thrusts Nintendo forward to play with the big boys in yet another genre.

Grade: AB