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Donkey Kong Jungle Beat - Includes Bongos (GameCube) | 
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| From: Nintendo
Category: Video Games
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £29.95
You Save: £10.04 (25%)
New (1) Used (4) from £16.00
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 6045
Platform: Gamecube
ESRB: Everyone 10+
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Age: 3 - 18 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 12.1 x 7.9 x 5.9
MPN: dolr g ybe
Model: 45496962784
UPC: 045496962784
EAN: 0045496962784
ASIN: B00077DLXY
Release Date: February 4, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: brand new
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
More madness June 16, 2008
Matthew Bolton
This game is great. The bongos make the game much funner and more interactive than your typical platformer, I would recommend this to anyone who like platform games with a zing.
DUST OFF YOUR BONGOS: DONKEY KONG IS BACK IN TOWN! December 16, 2007
stuart (MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There is something about the SNES Donkey Kong Country that makes us feel nice and snug. Okay, so the later games became quite tedious, but that first game was magic. The Nintendo 64 version completely ripped the heart out of the series and everyone turned their heads to the Gamecube version which turned out to be Donkey Konga.
Now though, Nintendo has finally decided to return to 16 bit form with Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, a side scrolling platformer in which you control Donkey Kong with the bongo peripheral. I know what your thinking: how can you play something as precise as a platformer with a pair of bongos?, we trust me on this one: you can. You knew this already though.
First thing is first then... before I tell you all about the game I'll fill you in on how this whole crazy notion works. In standed platforming mode you simply tap left to walk left and right to walk right. The faster you tap the faster DK moves. To jump you simply tap both bongos. The height of and distance of jump all depends on how fast you are traveling at the time. Clapping makes DK grab or slap (depending on the situation) and pressing both bongos while your in the air sees him performing a bottom bounce. It really is that simple and that's the reason why it works so well.
Onto the story. It appears that Nintendo still hasn't grown tired of the old DK's bananas have been stolen line but at least this time there has been some new elements thrown in.
It turns out that some evil zombie gorilla has taken control of the world's magic fruits. He's also gone and nicked all the bananas and its your job to collect all the bananas and free the fruits from their evil guardians before eventually making your way to the big dark one himself.
The game takes on a simple structure. Any given level consists of of three sub levels, two standard ones where you have to find the fruit and one boss encounter. At the end of the boss encounter all the bananas you've collected get thrown into a big tree trunk. 200 get you a bronze medal, 400 get you a silver and 800 gets you gold. Every level has a number in it, and you can only open up later levels once you've earned enough medals.
This doesn't cause too much of a problem. but towards the end of the game you'll come across levels that require you to go back and get all the medals on every level. You soon discover that there's much more to the game than simply collecting bananas. There are plenty of hidden areas and an entire combo system to master. Every time you jump off a surface without touching the floor you add to your combo. For example:, you might perform a wall jump, use a monkey cannon (a little monkey that literally fires you into the air), land into a spitting flower, then perform loads of wall jumps in order to get you to a chimney, then grab onto a bird before landing at the very top. Every stage in that sequence adds to your combo. Every banana you grab on the way will be multiplied depending on how big your combo is. This is the only way to nab over 800 bananas on each of the 18 levels. The best thing about it is that the bongos and the control system have been so finely that pulling off something as complicated as what I just described is a breeze as long as your reactions are quick enough.
The game takes on a slightly different control system for the boss battles. Some are just standard platform battles, but there are also a load of one on one gorilla match ups. As the game goes on these get really difficult, but they basically require you to dodge your opponent's punches and kicks before countering and then pummelling them into submission.
On the audio visual front the game is lush. Half the time the camera is zoomed out quite far, and it needs to be in order for the game to work properly, but every time you get into a fight it zooms right in to show you the game in its full glory. All the enemies and levels themselves look amazing. The entire game has a lot in common with Zelda: Four Swords and other Nintendo games. The little "you've just unlocked something" sound effect and stylised toon shaded explosions, right through to DK running round holding his bum if he gets burned. Yes ok that's Mario but you know what I'm trying to say.
So it sounds like it's all good. Can I assume Mario Tennis was just a hiccup? Well nearly. Though it may seem like I'm in love with DK's latest outing there is one problem that had me in tears when I found it, Jungle Beat is way too short!. While Jungle Beat is fantastic but with only 18 levels to unlock, a decent player will get through it in a few days. It will last you average player a bit longer but I want more from a DK game. Admittedly getting all the medals is a bit of a challenge but with that done there is no reason to go back for more. Nintendo obviously spent a lot of time on enemy and level design so would it really hurt to delay the game a few months to put more levels in? I'm not asking for much, even if the game was twice as long as it is now I would have been happy.
If you have the money to spare and already own a set of bongos Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat will provide you with a barrel of fun but for a limited time. Rent it, borrow it or beg for money to buy it. You have to play it.
 One of the GameCube's best! CLASSIC. October 9, 2007
Arway (Lancashire, England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm writing this review a bit late (the game's probably hard to pick up new these days), but it doesn't matter.
Definately get hold of this if you loved the old sidescrolling platformers on the SNES, Mega Drive, or the PlayStation. It's great, great fun.
There's a really wacky, charming jungle vibe to this that comes from the gorgeously animated backdrops and rhythmic musical beats. There's even adorable little monkeys that play drums and trumpets at various points in the background. An adorable, fun touch. Levels will also have background jungle noises to set the scene of a level before you clap to begin, which is very nice.
You'll be playing this platformer not with a normal control pad, but with a tiny pair of drums! Once you've pluged them into your GameCube or Wii, you're ready to go. The controls are so simple to learn. You just tap the left drum to move Donkey Kong left, and the right drum to move him right. Tapping both at the same time will make him leap in the air, and clapping (the drums have a microphone inside them) has DK clap his hands together, creating a small shockwave that knocks enemies dizzy, picks bananas up, or activates switches and other triggers. That's it. You're basically playing with only 4 buttons! So you don't have to figure out a million buttons - this is just simple for those that want it to be, but has more depth for players that want depth. This extra depth comes in the form of stringing actions together, without landing on the ground. You might start by running towards a wall by tapping the right drum a few times to get your speed up, then jumping up at it (tapping both drums together), after which Donkey Kong hang to the wall. From there, you'd be able to ricochet from the wall by whacking the right drum, perhaps onto a nearby enemy. Once the enemy's vanquished, you'd land on the ground and recieve 2 combo points - one for the wall, and one for the enemy. That's easy, though; you can build up far more points than that if you want massive scores!
You can even ride various colours of birds, and a whale that can leap out of the water to reach high to reach bananas, amongst about 2 other crweatures. This is really enjoyable - especially the birds. I'm quite sad that there's no returning buddies from Donkey Kong Country. I miss Rambi the Rhino, Squitter, and Squawks the Parrot, and it would've been nice to see them here. I also agree one of the previous reviewers - there are a lot more levels than reviews initially suggested. I was quite surprised as more of them became available to play on the level select screen.
I should give the game 5 starts, but I'm being very nitpicky and knocking one star off, because several of the bosses are re-used multiple times. They're fun every time (and they add slight variations in each battle), but they could've added in more for variety. Particularly of note are the fantastically inventive and cool boxing battles you'll have against various bad monkeys. You'll be tapping the left and right bongos to swing left and right at them respectively, and clapping to dodge backwards and avoid an attack. These are brilliant, and easily the highlights of the boss encounters.
One main aspect I was disappointed with is the fact that - apart from the animal buddies - the makers of the game failed to include any other Donkey Kong Country elements such as barrels, minecart rides, or characters. So Jungle Beat very much feels like a game that stands on its own, seperate from the other Donkey Kong games. As long as you don't go in expecting this to feel and play like Donkey Kong Country, you'll enjoy it a lot more.
Great, great game - one that's sadly been overlooked by the masses, yet is definately a must play with the likes of Pikmin 2, Paper Mario 2, and Zelda: The Wind Waker. If only they could make another sidescroller like this for the Wii, with Donkey Kong Country characters - that'd be nice. Make sure you pick this up with the bongos, though!
The best video game I've played in the last 10 years+ December 13, 2005
PB (London, UK)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Video games continue to get more complicated and multi-layered. That's fine - it's natural, but technical progression doesn't mean you have a better game per se. DK JB is immediately playable and has just the right learning curve - enough of a challenge to keep you coming back for more, but also really rewarding. You get to control this classic character through various challenges and defeat increasingly harder bosses - nothing new in the design, but oh so innovative with the bongo controllers. The last time I got so engrossed in a game, it was Super Mario World on the SNES. I'm a huge fan of the PS and PS2, but I have to say that sometimes, simpler really is better. I'm 34 and I love this game. My 3 and 6 year old kids also love it. A classic.
Bongotastic!!! May 30, 2005
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
My hands are really sore because of this game. It is unbelievable fun. I just can't stop playing it.
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