Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé hated Donkey Konga and thought it would ruin the series' brand.
As is the case with most major Nintendo properties, Donkey Kong has had his fair share of spin-offs over the year, ranging from puzzle games like Mario vs. Donkey Kong to music-focused adventures like Donkey Konga. If you somehow missed the Donkey Konga hype, it was a Game Cube rhythm game that had players smacking bongo controllers to the beat, similar to something like Taiko no Tatsujin.
Despite a generally positive reception upon launch and the beloved bongo controllers that are still used to this day, it turns out former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé wasn't so keen on the spin-off. In fact, he's admitted that he "hated" the idea in a recent interview with G4TV.
When asked about some of his biggest regrets from his time at Nintendo, Fils-Aimé brings up Donkey Konga, saying, “I have to tell you, as an executive, I hated Donkey Konga. I hated it. I fought with our parent company. I thought it was going to hurt the Donkey Kong brand. Personally, I didn’t find it a lot of fun to play. I pushed back hard. You know what? We launched it. The first game actually sold reasonably well, but boy I was not a fan.”
Interestingly, despite the generally positive reviews and decent sales, only the original Donkey Konga and its sequel Donkey Konga 2 saw a release outside of Japan, with the third game, Donkey Konga 3, never seeing a worldwide release. That likely didn't have anything to do with Fils-Aimé's dislike of the original game, but it's interesting to note that it did see a more limited release structure as time went on.
Although Fils-Aimé was worried that it would hurt the Donkey Kong brand, Donkey Konga ended up inspiring Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, a much more popular Donkey Kong game that used the bongo controllers to make Kong move through platforming levels.
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