Introduction:
In my hunt for new and exciting DS games, I came across ‘DK Jungle Climber’. When I was younger, I used to be obsessed with all DK games. It looked different to how I remember the Donkey Kong games, but having DK in the game, I thought ‘how bad could be?’ So, whilst transferring flights at Chicago, I bought it from a gameshop for a mere $15 (bargain, about 1/3 of the price in UK) and got playing. Did it live up to my expectations? Well, no.
Who is Donkey Kong?:
Donkey Kong is a big gorilla who first appeared on the video game scene with Mario, but as the enemy. He was the oaf who kidnapped Princess Peach from Mario. His popularity grew when he began to get his own games, with his own buddies. Diddy Kong is his little monkey lover who follows him around, and each characters have their different skills and uses (ok, I made up the bit about them being lovers, but they may be, who knows?).
The story:
DK and all his monkey comrades have gone on holiday to ‘Sun Sun Beach’ (why exactly a monkey who lives in the jungle needs to go on holiday to the beach, I have no idea, but mine is not to question). Then they see a big banana (!!!!!) on top of a mountain and obviously they want to ram it down it their throats, so go and get it. But it’s not as easy as that, things get in their way, like a big fat dinosaur/alligator called ‘King-K-Rool’ who is DK’s sworn enemy…will DK get his chops round the mighty banana?? Or will Xananab the alien banana (!!) tempt him away?? Will Funky Kong fly him closer or will Cranky Kong make things too complicated with his many pearls of wisdom??
The Playing:
The main thing that sets this game apart from any DK games in the series, is that you have to move about by grabbing onto and swinging from little pegs. Sounds simple in theory, but in reality, it’s really hard! Not only do you have to practice swinging, but also timing it right to catch onto another peg. In order to kill enemies, you have to ‘fire’ yourself off a peg and ram them, so if you touch them in any other way you die. Which is crazy as in all the other games, you just had to jump on them and they would die…this game has taken quite a bit of getting used to. The one thing that really annoyed me, is that it doesn’t use the stylus at all. Even when the open title comes up, you have to ‘press start’, never using the stylus once. The most beautiful thing about the DS is the gameplay and interaction between the stylus and game and gameplayer…in some games, the stylus is like a way of getting into the game world (for example, in some games, the stylus becomes your sword, so you actually fight with a character). Nor, is the microphone used. I am generally very disappointed by the whole experience of playing this game. The only thing that has kept me going (and I still haven’t quite finished) is that I’m a fan of Donkey Kong, so my loyalty is outweighing my overall patience…aren’t I nice? I also can’t help feeling that this game is kind of pointless, if you collect enough bananas, jewels, or other objects then you can get extra lives, but even if you lose them all and die…you click ‘continue’ and go back to the start of the last level you played…so what’s the point of collecting all the lives anyway?
Graphics:
I must say though, this game looks really good. The animated sequences and overall feel is stunning to look at. The colours are bright and vibrant and style varies from location to location. We have the foggy and murky ‘vampire midnight foresty’ levels (that’s not their actual names by the way) and there’s the fun and bright ‘toyland’ levels. If you’re shallow and only like the look of a game (who in their right mind would spend about 20GBP because a game looks good, I don’t know) then this is for you.
Sound:
Unfortuately, I can’t comment to any vast degree about this as I turned the sound off pretty much whenever I play as the music is so bloody annoying! You can tell this from the second you hear the game, it’s so uptempo and irratic it just adds to the tension and difficulty of the game. I prefer playing the game by taking my time and not stressing that I’ve got to a particularly tricky part, because the music has suddenly become more dramatic. Nah, the music in this game sucks…by the way, I do listen to it occasionally, so I can have an opinion here, before anyone starts wondering how I can comment if I don’t actually listen to it.
Conclusion:
All in all, I wouldn’t recommend this game. There are plenty of other games out there that fully optimize the DS functionality. The game play is awkward and can get some getting used to…it just feels so weird to be moving around as DK by pegs only (well, he can walk, but this doesn’t get you very far). As a fan of the overall Donkey Kong series, this game belongs at the bottom of the pile. Hopefully, the game makers will redevelop another game that brings the essence of the SNES/N64 DK games – utilizing completely, the touch screen elements of the DS.
3/10 – Don’t waste your money
Thanks for reading :)
© MarcoG 2008
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