From the mid to late 90's through the early early 2000's, Rare was on FIRE!  When teamed with Nintendo, they were a powerhouse developing blockbuster games 1 after another.  Donkey Kong 64 is no exception to that.  While it's totally different than Rare's original Donkey Kong Country series, this game definitely holds it own.  First off, this game is HUGE!  It's basically an open world platformer.  Very comparable to The Banjo Kazooie games on N64.  Lots of exploring, collecting, defeating enemies and bosses to advance the storyline.  The graphics are beautiful and actually required the Nintendo 64 to have an upgraded memory pack installed (which was included with the game.)  While the music isn't quite as memorable as the DK Country games, it's still very well done and fits the specific environments. I would highly recommend this to anyone who was a fan of Banjo kazooie or Mario 64 type gameplay.