The dry spell is officially over! After 169 days, Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscribers are getting the first Nintendo 64 game of 2026. That's right, next week brings the long-awaited Donkey Kong 64 to Nintendo Classics, finally bringing one of the most-requested games to the service. Yeah, that's cool news, but is this game actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Hyper, Next Generation and more classic magazines that reviewed this game back when it first came out. It's time to dust off that script I wrote two years ago, because this is Nintendo Classics Review Crew!


After taking a decade-long hiatus, Donkey Kong was bigger than ever in the 1990s. Nintendo and Rare had just successfully completed the wildly popular Donkey Kong Country trilogy, which really breathed new life into both the franchise and the Super NES. Now, after three long years of waiting, Donkey Kong was about to make his platforming debut on the Nintendo 64. And Nintendo promised that this was going to be a BIG game. Not just in the amount of content and gameplay, but also in the price. In fact, there was some fear leading up to the launch that gamers may have 3D platformer fatigue and reject the $70 price tag. Just for reference, $70 in 1999 would be nearly $140 in today's money when adjusted for inflation. Compare this to the $40 and $50 games on PlayStation, and many magazines openly wondered if fans would pay the premium for Donkey Kong 64. Of course, consumers showed up and bought Donkey Kong 64 in droves, making it one of the top-selling games of 1999. Let's see if the critics could look past the price and review the actual game.

With so many magazines weighing in on one of the biggest games of the 1990s, we're going to just start with the lowest scores and work our way up. At the very bottom sits Next Generation, who ended up giving Donkey Kong a strong score of 4 out of 5. “Each character has to find five bananas in each level, a total of 200 tasks to complete. In other words, tis game is huge. Maybe too huge: At some points we felt the sheer number of bananas and coins to find made it less a game and more an interactive egg hunt. Luckily, you don't have to accomplish every goal to finish. Still, the tight control, smooth framerates, and fun mini-games, as well as the rich multiplayer options, assure DK64's status as one of the best Nintendo 64 games this season.”

It's worth mentioning that Next Gen's sister magazine, Edge, gave the game the equivalent of the same score – an 8 out of 10. Moving up the scale we see Electronic Gaming Monthly come in relatively low with an average score of just 8.4 out of 10. They had been pessimistic about the game's price and potential throughout all of the previews, so it's not too surprising to see some of that rub off on the reviews. John sums it up this way: “For the very life of me, I just can't get myself whipped up into a Rare-induced frenzy over this. Maybe it's because most of the gameplay ideas have been seen before, maybe this cutie style of game is getting old ... or maybe it just seems that Rare is just out of good ideas.” Shawn gave the game an 8, but admitted that “Donkey Kong 64 is truly the adventurer's dream come true. Even if the graphics aren't the next big thing and the gameplay isn't terribly revolutionary, Donkey Kong 64 is a fun game.”

Nintendo Power ended up giving the game a very similar score, going with an 8.6 out of 10. Game Fan liked it even more than that, going all the way up to a 92. This is where most of the British press hung out, with almost every UK mag giving the game between a 93% and 96%. 64 Magazine is one of those magazines that gave it a 93%, while Nintendo Official Magazine went with a 96%. That's the same score you saw from Australia's own Hyper, who called it “the best platformer available on any machine. This game is tremendous, detailed and smooth. Coupled with the fact that it parades energetic graphics, cool music and sound and tons of gameplay, this is an ESSENTIAL purchase. If you don't own an N64, buy one now dammit!”

Oh sure, 96% is a high score, but if you're looking for a perfect score, then three magazines have you covered. One of them is Incite Video Gaming, who said Donkey Kong was only topped by Super Mario 64, while another was GamePro. However, the perfect 5 out of 5 I want to talk about comes from Computer & Video Games. “It might be too difficult to get killed, but it's even more difficult to put down. It's 100% fun from start to finish. Don't let the steep price tag put you off – when you get this home, you'll forget about your bruised bank balance.”

These days, the argument over the high price point is moot. If you're an Expansion Pack subscriber, then you're getting it with the service. The barrier for entry couldn't be lower. With an overall average of 92%, the critics ended up loving Donkey Kong 64. While some may argue that game hasn't held up as well as some of Rare's other games, there's no question that this was a big release that Switch owners have been wanting for years. Better late than never, I suppose.