Like I need a reason to buy another useless gadget.

Nintendo's own Donkey Konga has been under fire as being 'gay,' 'lame,' 'teh gay,' and other such intelligent critical analysis. However, sit down with it and play for a few minutes, and it's quite fun.

The E3 demo had a jungle beat, a remixed Zelda theme, and a Mario Bros. theme to try out. Each were pretty cool to listen to as well, when the music from the show floor wasn't killing the eardrums, anyway. As far as style and presentation go Donkey Konga has that aspect down, though you'll be far too busy following the beat to pay attention to window dressing.

Konga easy to pick and play, yet truly difficult to excel at. The gameplay consists of playing to the beats layed out across your field of vision as you clap and slap your way to victory. Each note is to be played with the left, right, or both drums, or clapped to, while some notes extend, meaning you have to get down with hitting that beat as fast as possible. Some combinations really test your hand-eye coordination, and nothing felt better than releasing some tension on the drums with three other showgoers.

Shaping up to be simple to jump into yet difficult to master, Donkey Konga would make a great game for anyone into rythm or party games. Only question I've yet to answer is; how does Nintendo expect people to get three other konga drums together? It's like the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles conundrum, only with drums and monkeys.