Irascible apes from the legendary Donkey Kong series of games forego the platforms and continue their exploration of the rhythm genre in Namco's new addition to the Donkey Konga series. Similar to various Bemani games and Namco's own Taiko no Tatsujin, players watch the screen cues like a hawk and perform like Pavlov's dog as follows:

CUES AND REQUIRED ACTION
Red Circle - Smack the left drum
Yellow Circle - Whack the right drum
Pink Circle - Thump both drums simultaneously
Electrical Spark - Clap your hands everybody
Long oblong (color specific) - Smack the corresponding drum(s) quickly

All this makes for some modicum of fun and two players may join in the action - for example, one person takes care of the right drum while the other takes care of the left drum. Another variant may be that one person does all the drumming while the other claps when cued by the game.

The song selections in Donkey Konga 2 pretty much mirror the same categories that were found in the original game. There's Animation Theme Songs (Doraemon, Gundam Seed, Naruto, Mazinger Z), Game Themes (Zelda, Super Donkey Kong), Television Themes (Mini Moni, Pikmin 2 commercial), and many more. Just in time for the July 4th weekend, Yankee Doodle is also one of the selections available. Similar to the original, 32 songs are featured in Donkey Konga 2 and the full song list is as follows:

ANIME SONG COLLECTION
Danzen! Futari ha Pretty Cure
Doraemon no Uta
Hustle
Mazinger Z
Odoru Ponpokorin
Oshiete
Realize
Viva Rock
Wild Challenger

CHILDREN SONGS
Yankee Doodle

CLASSICAL RIFFS
Habanera (Carmen opera)
Ko-inu no Waltz

GAME SONGS
Donkey Kong A Go Go!!
Super Donkey Kong Theme
Zelda no Densetsu Theme

J-POP MUSIC
Ambitious Japan!
Dynamite
Go Girl ~ Koi no Victory
Monkey Magic
Over Drive
Wai ni Natte Odorou
Secret Base ~ Kimi ga Kureta Mono
Yeah! Me-cha Holiday
Zenbu Dakishimete

LATIN
Guantanamera

TV THEMES
Lucky Chachacha
Sakuranbo
Shu no Uta
Tokusasentai Deka Ranger

FREELOADER NOTE:
Please note that although Datel's Freeloader will boot and play Donkey Konga on a USA Gamecube, the data save function does not work properly and you will not be able to save any data.