Former US Nintendo boss Reggie Firth-Aime named the 2004 GameCube game Donkey Kong the “worst game” he’s ever played on.
FIls-Aimé continues the media tour for his new book, appearing on G4TV and briefly discussing his dislike of the rhythm-action spin-off developed by Namco’s Taiko no Tatsujin team.
The game comes bundled with a special DK Bongos controller and features music from the Mario and Zelda series, as well as various licensed songs.
“I have to tell you, as an executive, I hate Donkey Konga,” Reggie told G4. “I had a fight with our parent company…I think it would damage the Donkey Kong brand. Personally, I didn’t find it fun to play. I pushed back hard.”
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He added: “But you know what? We launched it and the first game actually sold well. But boy, I’m not a fan.”
The comments are the latest criticism of past Nintendo products from the former NOA boss. Fils-Aimé writes in his new book (transcribed by VGC) that the company’s US arm was “forced” to launch the Game Boy Micro in 2005 due to a lack of consistency between the different parts of the business.
He said the company’s U.S. branch “plans to close down” [Game Boy Advance] That year’s Black Friday sale would clear its remaining inventory as the GBA was in “recession,” and the NOA had turned its attention to making the recently launched Nintendo DS a success.
But in early 2005, not long after NOA planned a big GBA sale, he realized that Nintendo of Japan planned to launch the Game Boy Micro.
“In my opinion, the Game Boy Micro concept didn’t work,” Fils-Aimé says in the book. “The hardware is so small that not only are the control buttons difficult for any adult of reasonable size to operate, but the screen is also small. This goes against the current trend in consumer electronics to make screens larger.”
In the same G4TV interview, Reggie said the Nintendo Switch is his favorite console from Nintendo.
“The marketing is great, the positioning is great, the game lineup is great — not just at launch, but continuing,” he said. “So in my opinion, the Switch is really the accumulation of all the lessons learned.”