Switch Online is getting Donkey Kong 64 next week

Nintendo is adding Donkey Kong 64 to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack tier on June 4. The company announced the upcoming release through a new trailer. The 1999 platformer joins the digital library next week, with full details posted on Nintendo's official site.

Developed by Rare, the game originally launched late in the Nintendo 64 lifecycle. It took the 3D platforming structure of Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie and expanded the scope to an almost absurd degree. Players control five different members of the DK Crew to stop King K. Rool from destroying DK Isle with a mechanical laser.

Color-coded collecting

The gameplay loop revolves around swapping between Donkey, Diddy, Lanky, Tiny, and Chunky Kong. Each character has their own abilities, musical instruments, and firearms. Diddy shoots peanuts from dual pistols. Chunky carries a pineapple launcher.

This character swapping ties directly into the game's massive item economy. There are 3,821 total collectible items scattered across the game's worlds. Every Kong has their own color-coded regular bananas, banana coins, and blueprints to find. A yellow balloon can only be popped by Donkey Kong. A blue blueprint requires Lanky. The main progression relies on 201 Golden Bananas, which act like Stars in Super Mario 64. It is a completionist's dream or nightmare, depending entirely on how much free time you have.

The hardware bump

Donkey Kong 64 is a weird piece of console hardware history. It was the first Nintendo 64 game to require the Expansion Pak. This small cartridge slotted into the top of the console to double the system RAM from 4MB to 8MB. Nintendo bundled the memory expansion with the game at retail.

For years, a persistent rumor claimed the Expansion Pak was required because of a game-breaking memory leak that Rare could not fix in time for launch. The extra 4MB of RAM supposedly gave the game enough headroom to avoid crashing. Rare developers later clarified the situation. They did encounter memory bugs, but the expansion was primarily needed for dynamic lighting, high-resolution textures, and the sheer size of the game worlds.

The original rap

The game opens with the DK Rap. Composed by Grant Kirkhope and performed by George Andreas, the song introduces the cast with lyrics that have been stuck in the heads of players since 1999. The track even made its way into the recent Super Mario Bros. Animated movie.

The game has only seen one other digital re-release. It appeared on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015. That release was a surprise at the time because the game includes a playable arcade cabinet of Jetpac, an early 1980s title fully owned by Rare and Microsoft. Nintendo and Microsoft clearly worked out the rights situation back then, and that agreement holds up for the Switch Online release.

Four monkeys in an arena

The Switch Online release also brings back the game's local multiplayer mode. Up to four players can drop into split-screen arenas to shoot fruit at each other. It is a chaotic deathmatch mode that often gets overshadowed by the massive single-player campaign. The Switch Online platform supports online play for these local multiplayer modes, so you can shoot watermelons at your friends over the internet.