Its quite different, although you are supposed to get to the end of the stage just like any other platformer, the point is to rank up banana points (or beats) by doing combos to collect bananas.
For example, if you see 5 bananas in the air, you could just jump and collect them netting yourself 5 points, or jump in the air near them and clap, which makes DK grab all of them at once which will earn you twice as much. As the game goes on its like an endless chance to keep raising your combo so bananas are worth more as you collect them.
And there's the bosses, such as an old Kung foo kong where you have to clap to avoid his attacks then hammer down on the bongos to attack him.
Its hard to explain how good the game is, but its probably one of the most fun games I've ever played.
BTW:The game is kind of impossible to play without bongos, they deliberately made it so the controls with the normal controller are gimped. You have to keep tapping the A button to run to the right, hit both L and R to jump, use that awful Z button to make the clap move. Best suited to Bongos.