| Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat review |
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Life is full of surprises and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is host to two of them.
Surprise Number One: Drums aren’t just for music! Who would have thought that a pair of drums could be used to control a platform game? But they can, and they do it brilliantly. As has been well documented by now, tapping the left or right drum will move DK in either of those directions, smacking both together will make him jump and clapping will trigger context-sensitive actions and attacks. Tap the drums at a slow pace and Kong will edge cautiously in the chosen direction, hammer the drum and he will sprint at full pelt at the expense of short stopping distance. That’s all there is to it really and within minutes of getting over the shock of moving a monkey with a musical instrument most players will find themselves traversing the jungle with instinctive ease.
A typical level of Jungle Beat might see DK backflip onto a wall, bounce off onto a nearby vine and swing through the air only to release and tumble into an angry warthog, which will explode into bananas for Kong to gobble mid-air as he gleefully flies off to his next confrontation. This is all done so naturally, so intuitively through the drums that it feels not unlikebeing an actual gorilla. The physical exertion delivers a feeling of actually performing the on-screen actions and this is never more apparent than when locked in combat: the drums must be rapidly beaten in much the same way as Kong pounds the snot out of his foe. Never has a game transformed its player into such a brutal savage than Jungle Beat does.
Surprise Number Two: The jungle has hidden depths. Once the control system has been mastered each level can be finished in a few short minutes but to do so though is to miss the point entirely. Completion of a level rewards one of four medals depending on how many bananas are collected; merely finishing a level without losing bananas from conceded hits will result in a bronze or silver medal but achieve anything more precious will require the use of combos.
Accumulative combo multipliers are achieved by chaining together several acrobatic stunts without touching the floor or taking damage. Backflipping, ground-pounding, swinging from vines and ricocheting off walls: all these tricks and more will add to a multiplier. By clapping when near a group of bananas DK will grab all of them at once and this will significantly multiply his final 'nana tally too. These combos could not be achieved if the control system was not perfectly tuned: every tap, clap and pound is recognised with acute responsiveness with no delay whatsoever, limiting the speed to only how fast the player can drum up the correct commands.
The boss battles, ranging from Super Punch-Out-style brawls to more elaborate encounters, equip Donkey Kong with an energy bar built from his stock of bananas. If he takes a hit then his total score decreases. This makes the boss battles more than just an entertaining level finale: they must be bested perfectly in order to preserve that all-important high score.
Without the combos Jungle Beat would be an enjoyable platformer but with them it becomes an obsessive score-attack game and every five-minute level becomes a separate game in itself as weeks could be spent on each one to find out exactly how to squeeze every last banana point from it. No-one ever expected an in-house Nintendo game to have a combo system to put even Viewtiful Joe to shame (now there’s something not to be said lightly) but they’ve pulled it off expertly and without losing any of their classic appeal. Indeed, for all its hardcore, score-attack credentials Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is not without Nintendo’s typically endearing charms.
Before the title screen has even appeared players will be forced into a tutorial mode that oozes that classic Kyoto charm: easing the player into an unfamiliar control method with gentle prods and cues. It teaches the basics of Jungle Beat without ever using a single written word, opting instead for theatrical techniques and visual clues that allow the player to almost teach themselves. It makes a refreshing change to the cumbersome, text-heavy tutorials of other titles and is a promising signpost of the healthy direction that Nintendo seems keen to take gaming in.
The game’s presentation breathes the same air of accessibility. The camera is purposefully zoomed far out so that as much of the landscape can be seen as possible and allows for a considered approach to platforming rather than having to rely on guess work. The resulting tiny Donkey Kong model is remedied by placing a zoomed-in image of the beloved character near the front of the screen. This allows Kong’s emotive cartoon expressions to be seen at all times and although combo hunters won’t have time to see them all, they provide a welcome dose of humour for spectators. Graphically, the game is nothing exemplary but does play to the GameCube’s strengths to create an appealing style: Kong and company are textured with that realistic-looking fur that the Cube does so well and when enemies are beaten they explode in Wind Waker like swirls of cell-shaded dust. There is some enjoyable original music as well as a few tunes that have been lifted from Donkey Kong Country but the best music of the game comes from the act of play: the rhythm of the real-world drumbeating complements the background music and when a high combo is accumulated the background monkeys begin to chant and beat their own drums... the whole thing melds together to create an exciting cacophony of sound that rewards skilful play.
Back to those surprises then. Jungle Beat was never going to be a bad game but the innovative control scheme and the deep combo-mechanic have elevated it to a genuinely excellent one. The first few hours will be spent marvelling at the way it all works and enjoying the pure charisma that it exudes but even once the game is finished it will only truly begin as every platinum medal needs to be earned and every high score pushed to its limits. Let it get under the skin and Jungle Beat will rewards hours of play and should remain one of the greatest reasons to return to the GameCube time and again. |
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System: Nintendo GameCube
Genre: Rhythm Action
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1
Version: Japan
Reviewed: May 2005
Writer: Ashley Day
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Pros:
- Perfectly implemented control
- Compulsive replayability
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Cons:
- Your palms might sting a bit
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