Mr Durand Pierre
04-01-2005, 10:56 PM
I have to say I'm a little surprised at what low scroes DK: JB has been getting. Especially when games like Ikaruga score much higher. And I'm not just knocking Ikaruga because I feel it's overrated, but because they're essentially the same type of game. What? You may ask. Ikaruga is a shooter, and Jungle Beat is a platformer. But they're both "Arcade games." What I mean by this is that they're both games where you play for short bursts of action where the main goal is to beat your (or someone else's) high score. Jungle Beat may at first resemble Donkey Kong Country or Mario World, but with those games the main goal was to simply get through all the levels and find all the secrets. And what Jungle Beat lacks in secrets it makes up for with its score system.
The idea is that after each new trick or "combo" you perform your score multiplier goes up by one. This lasts until you hit the ground and cash in all the bananas you've collected while being in the air (and some levels you'll be in the air the entire time), or get hit and lose all the bananas you had on you (which could mean several hundred). In this aspect the scoring system resembles poker where you often have to decide if you should keep what you've got, or keep on going knowing you might lose it all. As a result even though the game is easy to "beat" you'll want to go back and beat your high schores again and again just because completing complicated manuevers and racking up the points is more rewarding than any game I can think of. And I mean that. I could never play shooters solely for points and found it useless and boring, unless there was some kind of unlockable I wanted. But with Jungle Beat it's definitely fun and rewarding.
It seems that everyone rags on Jungle Beat's length. The truth is it's not that short. As an adventure/ platformer it is rather short, but as an arcade game it's a pretty decent length. I mentioned Ikaruga earlier. That was a great game that was five levels long. To watch someone play through the entire thing without dying would take maybe 25 minutes. Rogue Leader, another arcade game is maybe an hour and a half long. So if Jungle Beat is 3 hours of pure gameplay that's really not so bad for this kind of game. More levels wouldn't hurt, but I never felt like I was being gyped or only getting a mini-game. Especially as all the levels are very well designed and different.
The other major complaint that is often levelled against this game is the repitition of bosses. This has some merit to it, but it's not that bad really as all the bosses are so fun. Still the games 4 main bosses are each used 4 times. 3 times is fine, 4 stretches it a bit. Just a bit. The only time the repitition of bosses really bothered me was that the games very final bonus boss is the same as the boss when you get the games first "false" ending. I was hoping for a little more of a reward for unlocking all the bonus levels. Oh well.
Special mention should be made for the simplicity of the game. Not only does it use bongos (which is about the equivalent of an NES controller in how many functions you can do with it), but the game doesn't have a story... at all. The tagline for the game is "Help DK become the king of the jungle!" And that's it. There's no cutscenes, or voice-acting, or dialogue, and I couldn't be happier about it. It's just a pure game through and through.
Which is not to say that it skimps in presentation. The game's manual is well documented, and the game starts off with an interesting "opening ceremony" where you just jump on a tree and beat the living crap out of it. I'm not sure what this means, but it's a pretty nifty segue from the opening credits to the game. Furthermore, the game's art is pretty interesting and well designed. Some of the later levels have real neat concepts to them, like taking place inside a giant clock. I especially liked a level where you're running around on a yak-like beast picking up exploding pineapples and throwing them at birds and a giant ell that slithers across the ceiling. Yeah, it's pretty messed up and awesome like that.
There's not too much to complain about, but I might as well list some minor shortcomings:
There's a curious lack of multi-player. This didn't bother me, as I personally wouldn't invest in a second set of bongos to play one game in multi-player, but I'm sure there are gamers who would, or who have bongo owning friends. But the races, and boxing matches seemed like a shoe-in for good multi-player mini-games, and it doesn't seem like it would've been too much effort to implement them.
I already went over how an extra boss or two would've been nice.
But perhaps the most surprising shortcoming is that the game has no sort of player profile. Usuaully you can create your own player, so when you get a high score your initials will be placed. Or at least some kind of initial placing/ high score list comes into being. Instead the memory card just records the high score and that's that. This didn't bother me much since my friends aren't as good at the game as me, but much like multi-player this seems very curiously lacking in this type of game.
But that's really all I can think of. This game is great. At a high $55 I can understand some reluctance about purchasing it, but if you already have a set of bongos, or can find some other type of sale on it, it's more than worth it. In fact, I'd say right next to Metroid Prime 2 it is my favorite game for the Gamecube.
Pros
-LOTS of FUN
-great replay value
-graphics and art direction
Cons
-could use another boss or two
-no multi-player
-no personalized high scores
Overall
9.5 (out of 10)
The idea is that after each new trick or "combo" you perform your score multiplier goes up by one. This lasts until you hit the ground and cash in all the bananas you've collected while being in the air (and some levels you'll be in the air the entire time), or get hit and lose all the bananas you had on you (which could mean several hundred). In this aspect the scoring system resembles poker where you often have to decide if you should keep what you've got, or keep on going knowing you might lose it all. As a result even though the game is easy to "beat" you'll want to go back and beat your high schores again and again just because completing complicated manuevers and racking up the points is more rewarding than any game I can think of. And I mean that. I could never play shooters solely for points and found it useless and boring, unless there was some kind of unlockable I wanted. But with Jungle Beat it's definitely fun and rewarding.
It seems that everyone rags on Jungle Beat's length. The truth is it's not that short. As an adventure/ platformer it is rather short, but as an arcade game it's a pretty decent length. I mentioned Ikaruga earlier. That was a great game that was five levels long. To watch someone play through the entire thing without dying would take maybe 25 minutes. Rogue Leader, another arcade game is maybe an hour and a half long. So if Jungle Beat is 3 hours of pure gameplay that's really not so bad for this kind of game. More levels wouldn't hurt, but I never felt like I was being gyped or only getting a mini-game. Especially as all the levels are very well designed and different.
The other major complaint that is often levelled against this game is the repitition of bosses. This has some merit to it, but it's not that bad really as all the bosses are so fun. Still the games 4 main bosses are each used 4 times. 3 times is fine, 4 stretches it a bit. Just a bit. The only time the repitition of bosses really bothered me was that the games very final bonus boss is the same as the boss when you get the games first "false" ending. I was hoping for a little more of a reward for unlocking all the bonus levels. Oh well.
Special mention should be made for the simplicity of the game. Not only does it use bongos (which is about the equivalent of an NES controller in how many functions you can do with it), but the game doesn't have a story... at all. The tagline for the game is "Help DK become the king of the jungle!" And that's it. There's no cutscenes, or voice-acting, or dialogue, and I couldn't be happier about it. It's just a pure game through and through.
Which is not to say that it skimps in presentation. The game's manual is well documented, and the game starts off with an interesting "opening ceremony" where you just jump on a tree and beat the living crap out of it. I'm not sure what this means, but it's a pretty nifty segue from the opening credits to the game. Furthermore, the game's art is pretty interesting and well designed. Some of the later levels have real neat concepts to them, like taking place inside a giant clock. I especially liked a level where you're running around on a yak-like beast picking up exploding pineapples and throwing them at birds and a giant ell that slithers across the ceiling. Yeah, it's pretty messed up and awesome like that.
There's not too much to complain about, but I might as well list some minor shortcomings:
There's a curious lack of multi-player. This didn't bother me, as I personally wouldn't invest in a second set of bongos to play one game in multi-player, but I'm sure there are gamers who would, or who have bongo owning friends. But the races, and boxing matches seemed like a shoe-in for good multi-player mini-games, and it doesn't seem like it would've been too much effort to implement them.
I already went over how an extra boss or two would've been nice.
But perhaps the most surprising shortcoming is that the game has no sort of player profile. Usuaully you can create your own player, so when you get a high score your initials will be placed. Or at least some kind of initial placing/ high score list comes into being. Instead the memory card just records the high score and that's that. This didn't bother me much since my friends aren't as good at the game as me, but much like multi-player this seems very curiously lacking in this type of game.
But that's really all I can think of. This game is great. At a high $55 I can understand some reluctance about purchasing it, but if you already have a set of bongos, or can find some other type of sale on it, it's more than worth it. In fact, I'd say right next to Metroid Prime 2 it is my favorite game for the Gamecube.
Pros
-LOTS of FUN
-great replay value
-graphics and art direction
Cons
-could use another boss or two
-no multi-player
-no personalized high scores
Overall
9.5 (out of 10)