Donkey Konga

My wife got Donkey Konga for the GameCube last year to play at our annual "celebrate new years with the kids and grandparents on east coast time" party. I was, to put it mildly, skeptical. But truth is, this is a really great game --- and a super one for parties where nobody is scared of looking, well, dorky.

Instead of a regular GameCube controller, you plug in a set of bongo drums. There are a bunch of game variations, but they all boil down to this: you pick a song and it starts to play. "Instructions" in the form of symbols scroll across the screen --- yellow means hit the left drum, red for the right one, pink for both, and so on. You're supposed to do the right action exactly when the symbols hit a magic line on the screen. That's it.

The game starts easy, but gets really hard as you make progress! And if you get lost, forget about it. But it's a great game for a lot of different ages, and don't be surprised if the kids, even little ones, kick your butt. Nothing makes for a better game than one that makes the adults look dopey.