Donkey Kong 64 is Scarier Than You Remember

[@rubberbandba11craft]

1k in 2 days?! You guys… can we shoot for 50 likes? This is blowing up and I’m already brainstorming the next one. What’s a video you guys would like to see me tackle?😊

[@Jinxanator66]

Your video essay was compelling to say the least. I still see the game as a colorful chaotic stressful rareware collectathon if my copy of the game guide has anything to say about it. (Over 200 golden bananas?! Rare y'all were on crack!) However you did make some good points what with thalasaphobia, and with the fungi forest going from cute and colorful to dark and creepy with the clock. I forget if you mentioned how isolating the game can feel at times where you have to seek out a swap barrel to change characters unlike the old games where it was DK and Diddy Kong on screen or Diddy Kong and someone else. But its the same feeling I got when playing the forest temple in OOT like if Link dies there no one knows where he is unlike the fire temple or something. At least there's no creepy ass wallmasters dropping down to fuck your ass up and drag you back to the dungeon entrance

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@Jinxanator66 thanks for the feedback! Yeah wall masters are definitely a creepy foreboding element of the temple. The isolating feeling is something I never noticed until you mentioned it… that’s also a great point! Kroc with the “get out” in some sections is definitely something that I can compare to the feeling of wallmasters. I need to figure out a good idea for another video… the expectations from having a video somehow succeed like this is similarly surprising.

[@Jinxanator66]

@rubberbandba11craft if you would like a suggestion if you decide to continue with this topic talk about the liminality of a lot of n64 games. Glover, mario 64, donkey kong, pokemon snap, so many more where you are just by yourself with enemies and nothing else

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@Jinxanator66 the isolation and liminal nature of games as a whole from that era, good suggestion

[@warioland523]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the final world. While it's no Creepy Castle, Hideout Helm is scary for a different reason. After you arrive K. Rool has had enough of this. With all his top minions thwarted he activates the cannon despite pleas from his Kritters that firing the laser in it's current state can cause a chain reaction that can destroy Crocodile Isle but K. Rool doesn't listen swearing goodbye to DK Isles. For most of the level you are on a timer. Even in the tag barrel and the mini games you are being timed. And if that timer reaches zero you lose. Game Over. This is the only way to get a true game over in this game that doesn't involve quitting the game. And it's made even more unnerving by K. Rool's laugh as the timer gets close to zero. After shutting down the machine the place simply goes silent with an ominous track playing as you enter the now abandoned throne room of K. Rool and even the bridge of the mechanical island finding at the end a key unguarded without any boss to fight. It really gives the vibe that this place is the end. You reached K. Rool's lair and the instant you put the final key in the cage the final battle begins aboard a a new version of the Flying Kroc.

[@rubberbandba11craft]

I cant believe i didnt include the unnerving parts of HH... i will rectify it if i remake this one with better audio. Thank you for that. tho thats more of an action thriller type horror which is why i dismissed it this time around. sorry about that, i also forgot Wrinkly Kong TwT

[@thatchesterguy]

I thought you were going to rug pull and tell me Luigi's mansion or Crash Bandicoot were the scariest game on the N64 despite telling me the whole time what this video was. Scary. Good job. 10/10 3 spoopy 5 me.

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@thatchesterguy Thank you so much! I’ve wanted to Make this for a while now. More people need to realize this sleeper horror’s potential.

[@PomLamb]

Speaking of dreams the greenhouse maze in Creepy castle is a scene that feels like it came out of a dream. Really drink in the envrionment of the room and look at your surroundings. Its raining inside the roof is just a void and the room even has artificial lightning and thunder. There are many rooms like this in dk 64. They all feel like a scene from a lucid dream.

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@PomLamb I know right? For me the mad jack arena is similar, those pillars are so much higher during the fight. And the disjointed geometry of the factory certainly aides in this liminal feeling

[@PomLamb]

@@rubberbandba11craft One of the things I love about the Frantic Factory theme is that it sounds like it is playing from an old casette tape. The static hiss that acompanies the music is so good and has a creepy feel. In my experiance in n64 games many have scenes that come from dreams and inspired new ones. I would be lying if I said that I never had dreams that were inspired bi some aspect of the n64 games I have played. And that is really awesome. 💛❤🐑

[@tylerfortin3239]

Fantastic editing, great commentary and I was blown away when I looked and saw you had less than 300 subs. I'll be adding myself to that list

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@tylerfortin3239 thank you so much for this!

[@DetournementArc]

Something that keeps coming back to me is how arbitrary everything in DK64 feels? There's been no shortage of ink spilled on "The Liminal Elegiac Aura Of Mario 64", and in both cases you can peg a lot of it to "Technical Limitations forces us to give you Just Enough Of A World for the game to work" For DK64 though, it FEELS even weirder. In Mario 64, Bowser has stolen the Power Stars and enchanted the princess's paintings as a way of guarding them. In Banjo Kazooie, the Worlds are what you'd expect to see in a Witch's magical lair & in Tooie the worlds are just diegetically connected. ...so what is HAPPENING in DK64? What are these DK Portals? The ones on the K. Rool Ship are industrial, pirate & castle themed while the ones on the DK side are all more naturalistic so it FITS; but like what ARE they? Who is this wood block dude just waiting to see your Collectable Count? Why do you go to a separate pocket dimension to indulge the Hippo to get bounced back to the world you came from for a boss fight? What's going on??? It's a known fact by now that the version of DK64 we wound up with was a pivot from a more linear platformer, and I think if Super Mario 64's eerieness owes to it being such an early 3D title, DK's owes to its weird fumbling pivot to something Neither Country Nor Kazooie. From Kirkhope's score darkening from his work in Banjo to start approaching David Wise's work in the DKC games, to the way the structure of the game FEELS bolted together with bubble gum. It all leads to these worlds, dark and largely unexplained, that someone dumped collectibles all over so you can Do A Video Game in it. The Donkey Kong Land series on Game Boy operated on the premise that the very game you were playing was a bet or competition, and I wonder how much different DK64 would feel if Troff, Scoff, B. Locker, et al, were all some kind of cosmic referees like Rare would end up doing with Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts's character L.O.G. IDK. I adored this game growing up, came to despise it as I got older; and now my opinion of it wildly oscillates between love and hate, clinical interest and morbid fascination. It absolutely Has A Vibe, I can say that much.

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@DetournementArc this just adds to the horror-ness of the game. Who are the feederism hippo and pig and why do they keep the gates to the boss arena?

[@spoti321]

Sir, take my subscribe. I'll be looking forward to more of your videos :D

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@spoti321 thank you I appreciate it greatly!

[@christianmccarty8052]

Need to tone down that music, man, can't really hear you.

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@christianmccarty8052 I will definitely work on the line delivery and levels next time, thank you for the feedback! Fortunately this time around the closed captions picked up the mumbling surprisingly accurately

[@thatchesterguy]

Surprisingly, all the audio issues helped sell the horror.

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@thatchesterguy thanks for the reassurance

[@mikejones-zi5et]

Absolute classic

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@mikejones-zi5et Thank you!

[@rubberbandba11craft]

Wow cc is accurate

[@UmutKursawe]

You should turn the music down or your voice up. The music is way too loud to hear your voice.

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@UmutKursawe balancing was a losing battle but this is definitely on my radar

[@rubberbandba11craft]

Almost 100 views in a single day! This is awesome! Remember to comment you advice for the next video below,

[@rubberbandba11craft]

400 views in barely 2 days is insane for a small channel like mine… THANK YOU SO MUCH 😭

[@jackpiotrowski6217]

@@rubberbandba11craft Great video man! I gave you a subscribe!

[@rubberbandba11craft]

@@jackpiotrowski6217 Thank you!