Donkey Kong is back in a fun but generic platformer.
And although Donkey Kong Jungle Climber improves on a few aspects, the game still lacks the charm and personality of other Donkey Kong games.
THE GOOD
+ levels are pretty well designed and fun to play
+ unique control scheme
+ neat visuals
+ tons to collect
THE BAD
- the game lacks the charm and appeal of other Donkey Kong games
- repetitive
- controls can get confusing at times
- Donkey Kong is a wimp
Donkey Kong Jungle Climber takes on the same unique control scheme that King of Swing had, you use the shoulder buttons to climb with Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong can hold on to everything that is shaped a bit like a button. When holding the L- button, Donkey Kong holds himself with his left arm, and so he rotates left around himself the whole time. And the same with the R-button, only this time everything right. However, the controls can get a bit confusing especially in later levels, but they work most of the time really well and are very responsive and unique.
There isn't any real story to it, King K. Rool stole a golden banana and Donkey Kong has to rescue it, that's all it's really about. The scenes are exceptional, but lack charm.
The levels in Donkey Kong Jungle Beat are pretty well designed and are a joy to play through.
The levels do get challenging pretty early and I ran into some difficulty spikes especially later on in the game, but that's a minor gripe.
Seriously though, Donkey Kong is a pretty big wimp in this game. He has no extra health, after getting touched from any enemy, Donkey Kong looses one life right away, and you have to play from the last check point again. That's why the difficulty spikes remain in the game, if Donkey Kong had at least one extra health, some of deaths wouldn't be frustrating. But, luckily, the check point system is very forgiving.
The levels also have a bit of variety to them. The game builds on the climbing idea and adds more and more new ideas, and Donkey Kong plus Diddy Kong also get some powerups during the game. And yes, there are barrels in some levels that reveal Diddy Kong, and Diddy Kong gives Donkey Kong a better attack and one extra health.
But still, the game just feels repetitive. The whole game is just based on climbing, and unlike other platformer/action games, the climbing just doesn't have that much potential and variety to offer, and in games like Super Mario Galaxy 2 there are also some other activities like flying a bird in a race.
So although the game is fun, it can get a bit repetitive and people who get tired of climbing after a while won't find much joy with this game.
However the probably biggest flaw of the game is that it just totally lacks the Donkey Kong charm and personality of other Donkey Kong games that where released before the game.
The characters, including Donkey and Diddy, just feel way to generic (why isn't Cranky Kong cranky anymore), the obstacles and overall look of the levels aren't that interesting and the music also isn't nearly as catchy as in other Donkey Kong games like the Donkey Kong Country games.
However, the games presentation isn't necessarily bad, the menus look neat and the graphics also look great, Backgrounds in levels aren't that varied in one specific world, but there are lots of details and strong colors put into the environments. The world maps don't look very good, though. No, the problem is that the game simply hasn't the same appeal as other Donkey Kong games.
On a last note though is that the game has incredibly lots to do. Every level contains an insane amount of collectibles, from banana coins to the four kong letters and more, the game will have you very long entertained if you have fun with the game.
Donkey Kong Jungle Climber isn't a bad game, it's just that the game lacks the charm and appeal of other Donkey Kong games. The game misses the opportunity to be an awesome Donkey Kong game and turns out to be more of an only generic platformer. But, with that said, the game is still fun. People who are just looking for a platformer action like game to play through, might just have no problem with picking this game up. The game will might just do it for every platformer fan who can accept the control scheme. Just keep in mind that this game isn't the Donkey Kong game you would expect it to be.