Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a pretty fun game but it is way to short for its own good.
Well, it sounds like a pretty crazy idea but it works very well. You repeatedly pound the right bongo to move right, the left bongo to move left, and both to jump. In addition to that, the bongos also have a clap sensor so when you clap, Donkey Kong attacks. It has a really simplistic control setup, but there isn’t much to the bongos so what there is, was taken advantage of.
The game is presented fairly well, at the start you are greeted by an intro, which is basically a very, very small tutorial. After completing that, you will move on to the first world. The worlds are called ‘Kingdoms’ and each Kingdom is named after a certain type of fruit. (e.g. the ‘Grape Kingdom.’) Each Kingdom has two stages and then a boss battle, and there are a total of 16 kingdoms, which means that there are 32 levels in the game.
Keep in mind, 32 levels isn’t a whole lot for a platformer. It might have been if this was on the NES or Super Nintendo, but it’s on the Gamecube. Although games like Super Mario Sunshine have less levels, the levels in that game were much longer. The levels found in DK Jungle Beat are very short, only lasting from about a few minutes each. Rarely will you beat a level in over ten minutes. That equals out to be a very short game. In fact, the story clocks in at about 2 to 3 hours and there are no multiplayer options or many extras making it a game with very low replayability. Another problem is that the gameplay will get stale and repetitive before you have even completed the game. At first the game is a blast to play because of the unique controller and really cool boss battles. You’ll soon realize that you were wrong because the boss battles and enemies will start to get recycled a lot later in the game. They will take a boss from early on and make it a tad harder, but it really feels almost identical. That gets annoying and the game could have stayed fresh if they didn’t repeat the enemies and bosses over and over again.
While the level design isn’t too creative, it is still pretty good. You’ll see familiar styles for platforming games such as snow levels, water levels, volcano levels, etc. It’s all here and they’re all still pretty fun to play. However, just like the boss battles, the levels will get recycled later in the game but there are still some fresh designs later too, such as a jello themed level, which I can’t say I have seen done before in a video game.
The graphics in Jungle Beat are downright amazing. It looks about Xbox quality and it has amazing detail. You’ll be able to notice even the tiniest detail, such as the hair on DK’s back. It’s one of the best looking Gamecube games, but at the same time, the level design should’ve been more clever and entertaining than what it is. From a technical standpoint, it looks amazing and from a creativity standpoint, it looks great but not overly innovative.
I don’t have much to say about the music. Most of it is jungle themed so obviously it fit’s the game, but it’s not very creative either. It lacks what a lot of games have in the music department, but it isn’t terrible. It’s just average. Not much can be said about the sound effects either except that they do the job well enough too not be noticed in a negative way.
Overall, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a pretty decent game and it’s super enjoyable for about an hour, but after that everything gets recycled and the fun starts to drain. It’s an enjoyable game, that is available for bargain price now, but is it really worth it for 3 hours of play? You decide.