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DK Jungle Climber Review
Written by Chris Goldberg on Thursday, September 20, 2007
Fresh concept with excellent level design
How many banana jokes can you possibly tell?
You know, maybe it's time for Nintendo and Paon to come up with new ape jokes. I mean, there's only so many times they can talk about how much they love bananas. In Donkey Kong Jungle Climber, you start the game by lounging around dreaming about bananas. Just then, you see a crystal banana. You climb the first island while collecting tons of bananas, in order to reach that magical banana. When you get there, you see a giant banana spaceship which attacks you. Then, when you defeat it, you make contact with its interesting banana aliens. It's really quite disconcerting after all this banana stuff you find out that the evil crocodile King K.Rool still holds a grudge against you for not letting him have the banana horde. Wouldn't an ape be more tasty to a crocodile than the bananas themselves? Perhaps they could throw in a jib about tossing poop around or something, just to switch things up.
Fortunately the game itself, outside of its endless banana puns, is quite original. Beside the original game King of Swing for GBA, there's really nothing else out there that plays quite like it. This lends the game a refreshing feel that really helps set it apart from the plethora of other mascot action games out there. The closest comparison would probably be Clu Clu Land for the NES, and even then the description is only vaguely accurate. Jungle Climber presents level after level filled with conveniently placed pegs, which you must use to swing yourself around and launch yourself higher or further to reach the exits. The L and R buttons mostly act as an extension of your hands, L being for Kong's left, and R for his right. They function also as the jump command, as you press L+R at the same time to launch yourself. For the most part, the controls work flawlessly, and don't offer any problems to a person who has practiced. It's pretty intuitive and lends itself well to the non-stop climbing you'll be doing. But during the few moments you do have to jump from the ground to reach another platform, the design seems to falter slightly. Since jump command is mainly used as a way to grab onto pegs, you awkwardly side jump with your arms reaching upward and it's hard to judge how far you will go and where you will fall. All considered, this is an extremely minor complaint.
Swinging around and climbing, which is what you'll be doing 99% of the game, is a pretty enjoyable thing to do here... unlike most games where you just jump onto a rope and press up, here you'll factor into your movement trajectory and arm placement and more. Attacking enemies from the ground requires you to press A, although when you're swinging you must hold yourself in place with the pegs by holding L+R and then launch yourself in that direction using the A button once again. This is also tends to be used as a fast way to travel and it also covers more distance than your typical swing jump, so this will become second nature after a level or two. Very early on, the game adds in twists to the mechanics with lots of barrels which have various functions (soon shoot you to a bonus game, others allow you to aim yourself and break through walls, etc) as well as your faithful companion Diddy. This will be the most significant addition, as you'll consistently need him to reach areas and items you can't quite make alone. It all comes together very nicely and works like a charm.
The best aspect of Jungle Climber, outside of its core swinging mechanic, is the level design itself. The original game had some moments of brilliance, but never really seemed to put forth that extra effort to really shine through. Here, you'll encounter moment after moment of cleverly laid out swinging and jumping obstacles, and well hidden items that will often take some level of skill to grab. It's also always adding in new curveballs to keep you on your feet, which manages to keep things fun and engaging. The bonus levels you'll reach for collecting oil barrels are particularly devious and will provide that "son of a bitch" challenge that the rest of the game tends to lack.
Speaking of collecting, I realize it's become a staple of the franchise now to lay out tons of floating icons for you to hit along the way for full completion, but is this much REALLY necessary? Bananas, Gems, Oil Barrels, Banana Coins, DK Coins, K-O-N-G letters... it goes on and on. If you're a perfectionist like I am, it may drive you crazy to see all these things litter the levels. Occasionally, though, some of the items are hidden in places which provide some of the best challenges of the game in order to reach, which is nice incentive if you're in it to get your money's worth.
DKJC also returns to its Country roots with the use of pre-rendered 3D for everything, which in my opinion has always been an incredibly ugly looking. Although King of Swing wasn't exactly something to write home about stylistically, it is definitely preferable to what they've done here and I hope someday soon Nintendo sees fit to give the Kong a meaningful makeover. It's not going to ruin your experience, but it's worth noting.
In the end this Donkey Kong probably won't strike anybody as a instant classic, but it doesn't need to be in order to be very fun to play. I'll spare your the banana puns ("speaking of bananas, why don't you SPLIT down to Ebgames and pick this up", har har!), and simply say that if you have 30 bucks lying around you could do much worse than purchase Donkey Kong Jungle Climber.
