Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

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JaySevenZero
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Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder to all that where feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but self-editing (brevity) is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mainly reading. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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brazenhead89
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Re: 410: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Post by brazenhead89 »

Criminally underrated for its time, and criminally mispresented in its Wii translation, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is so utterly bananas (thangyouverymuch) that I can't imagine ever parting ways with my Gamecube and bongo controllers because of it.

The platforming controls, while bonkers, encourage exactly the sort of rhythm that the best platformers demand - only now, they’re taken to a comically literal extent. Rapidly swapping between hand claps and bongo slaps and watching Kong leap obediently across the psychedelic stages is at first disorienting, then later empowering. Hammering the bongos to give a stage boss a ruddy good pounding is so primitively fun, and every one of Kong’s movements is given a satisfyingly physical equivalent.

The combo system is fun, and can thankfully be ignored if you’re playing for progress and not points. Yet skilled players can truly wring some awesome runs from it, leaping effortlessly from pillar to post and clocking up some awesome multipliers for their troubles. While a YouTube search proves that these can be exploited somewhat in order to farm for bananas, this is rarely the most fun way to play and still requires a level of skill that the most veterans have already mastered, so it doesn’t detract too much from the fun.

If you’re going to play this, I’d advise staying away from the Wii remake. The Wii controls don’t add anything, and in fact are a lesser experience than playing with the DK Bongos. You’re left with a competent platformer that loses far too much in translation.
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Alex79
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Re: 410: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Post by Alex79 »

I recieved this game completely by accident one Christmas, many years ago. I'd told my girlfriend I really wanted the Gamecube bongos with the Donkey Kong game. At this point I wasn't even aware of the existence of Jungle Beat, and had actually been asking for Donkey Konga.

I opened the present on Christmas morning and was delighted! It wasn't until I actually looked at it properly later in the day I realised the error. But, as it turns out, I wasn't disappointed. I had a blast with this game, and the bongos seemed to work surprisingly well for controlling a platformer. What a novel idea. You might get lunatics these days completing Dark Souls with a guitar, but the concept of controlling games that shouldn't really work with novelty plastic instruments started a long time before that. I've still got my bongos somewhere, I would dig them out but I'm afraid the game will be unplayable on modern TVs. Interested to find out whether that's the case or not on the show.

Three word review: Not Donkey Konga.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: 410: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Post by ratsoalbion »

It’s fine to play on an LCD, Alex. Maybe platinum crests might come slightly harder but just playing through the game is no problem.
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Alex79
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Re: 410: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Post by Alex79 »

Good to know, thanks :)
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NoMoreSpearows
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Re: Our next podcast recording (14.3.20) - 410: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Post by NoMoreSpearows »

Perhaps the greatest irony of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat is that the most difficult task of all would be to sell the game on those who grew up with or otherwise appreciate the Donkey Kong Country games. 11 years after the release of the original game in the series, the way DK moves is almost antithetical to his first foray into the platforming genre. Rather than a certain heaviness that comes from controlling a gorilla, there is an emphasis on aerial movement that gives him a floatiness that feels almost alien. Gone are familiar standbys like Rambi the Rhinoceros and Enguarde the Swordfish, replaced instead by the likes of Hoofer the Wildebeest and Orco the Orca. Whether it be from a sense of nostalgia or a lack of the term "Animal Buddy" (pedantically, they're "Jungle Buddies"), there is definitely a reason why some fans would prefer to play with their old favorites, and why we haven't seen Hoofer and Orco since.

It's not surprising that Nintendo would want to try something new given their shaky relationship with Rare, but when the DKC trilogy was being played by a brand new audience on the Game Boy Advance around that same time, it felt like a step in the wrong direction. It's a very good game, but maybe one that was a little too invested in its uniqueness.
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