Game:

Donkey Kong 64 (1999)

Duration: 0:00

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0

Originally recorded: November 7, 2021
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Relatively successful stream this time. I think this is the first time I managed to get all 5 of a specific Kong's Golden Bananas for a set area. Having just finished that sentence, I understand just how insane it would sound out of context. Yet, I must press on.

Having said that, I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome for Mighty No. 9. I had to replay that for my own purposes recently... and it didn't come across as bad as I remembered it. Don't get me wrong, it still wasn't good... but I guess it came across more as "okay" than outright terrible. Considering the only other game I've been playing lately has been DK64 for these streams, I'm wondering if this is what people who went from obviously abusive relationships feel like when they start seeing people that are less obvious about their abuse.

For this stream, I ended up tackling the fourth world, a.k.a. the underwater area. I always kind of hated that designation for games. Referring to something as the "water" level tends to imply that it's the only time you have to put up with whatever mechanics are associated with those areas. That seems to only RARELY be the case in most of these games: Hell, even DK64 had that underwater segment in the Aztec level.

I think it's particularly devastating to see Donkey Kong 64 botch this type of level so much, because all three of the DKC games offered what were probably the best examples of "good" underwater level design present in the 16-bit era. Hell, I can't even think of many modern games in general that could surpass them -- and one of those is just Tropical Freeze, which feels like a bit of a cheat.

On the plus side, I absolutely managed to inflict some psychological damage on Dari with this stream... by taking out the boss on my first try, with essentially no difficulty. He literally started throwing a temper tantrum and then went radio silent after that. Serves him right for constantly gloating about Rare ruining their take on Donkey Kong for this abomination of a game.

After this stream, I was met with a bit of a surprise. Turned out KI had broken before I had: apparently watching these streams is more draining for him than it is for me to actually do them. Have to say, I wasn't expecting that... especially since he essentially mastered watching them on his preferred set-up. I did almost immediately take him up on his offer though... until he mentioned that I should get as many blueprints as possible. It was at that point that I came up with a suggestion. I'd avoid doing new content on Tuesdays, opting instead to backtrack for collectibles I skipped in the earlier worlds. While KI didn't see the point, since I couldn't grab anything, it feels like a good way to create "filler" streams. Besides, I doubt that getting everything I missed in the first place won't be easy, even with every ability at my disposal. Just whittling down what I have left to obtain feels like enough of a benefit anyway.

Maybe I'll manage to get that N64 coin next time. I doubt it, but I'm definitely dreading that the most right now.