New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat Preview
- April 20, 2009 16:38 PM PST
- Email this!
The next New Play Control title for Wii swaps out bongos for traditional controls. Does Donkey Kong Jungle Beat still have the rhythm?
I don't think I'm out of line in suggesting that the GameCube's bongos were one of the more ingenious accessories ever offered for any system. While plastic guitars, drum sets, and maracas were fine enough for music games, their productivity began and ended there.
Nintendo, always looking at games through a creative lens, found another use for the bongos outside of the underrated music title Donkey Konga with Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, a 2D platformer in which you moved the simian hero left and right by slapping the left and right bongos.
The company had another unique premise in mind for another title called Donkey Kong: Bongo Blast, a Donkey Kong-themed racer in which the bongos moved your racer left to right within the tracks. Unfortunately, the game never made it to the GameCube, instead be reworked for the Wii, becoming Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, a game I had no qualms in calling the worst game of 2007. What could have been a cool, bongo-driven experience became an awkward mess of Wii Remote and Nunchuk shaking. When New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was announced, I feared Nintendo would return to Barrel Blasts' failed formula. Thankfully, my hands-on experience of the reworked GameCube platformer has assuaged my fears.
We got the Beat
As with every New Play Control title thus far, the Wii version Donkey Kong Jungle Beat adds 16:9 widescreen and Wii motion controls to a GameCube title. Jungle Beat is notable, however, in that the game is the first New Play Control title to add new content--specifically new enemies and obstacles. That's largely a byproduct of the changed control scheme; since the original was more about using a non-traditional controller to move and attack, the more standardized analog stick movement employed in the New Play Control version allows for a much higher level of precision. Additionally, jumping has been mapped to the A button and ground-pounding is now done by pressing B, which makes the movement much easier than hitting both bongos simultaneously in the GameCube version. For those looking for some level of uniqueness to the control scheme, attacks are done by shaking the Wii Remote or Nunchuk.
- Previous Page Prev
- Next Page Next
- 1
- 2
- 3
More Top GamePro Stories
Comments [5]
-
- Jump To Page:
- [ 1 ]
-
- Apr 20 2009 at 06:51:49:PM PST
-
Why does there have to be a jungle beat game? Why can't it just be a regular Donkey Kong platforming game?
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +2
- report user
I have the game on the gamecube and i liked it mostly because of the bongo's. I think it would still be a good game.
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
for the love of god, can I just play this game with the d-pad and an a and b button like a 2d donkey kong game should be played?
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
I agree, I would like to see a standard Donkey Kong. Nintendo is really starting to piss me off. I would like to see some real games on the Wii. They had better stop neglecting all of their true fans who helped make them what they are, for a few million trendy emo kids. Because when the next trend hits, Nintendo will have pissed off their loyal customer, and they will be left behind. Actually, from today forward I won't be buying anything Nintendo.
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
ahhhhhhh quit your belly aching! i see nothing wrong with Nintendo's games. It's when you invest in playstation this and playstation that for your boys and find yourself bring the darn thing back where you bought it because the darn thing keeps freezing up on you for them to replace it to start all over again with the feeze ups, then you've got a good reason to bitch and bellyache! I've had no problems with Nintendo, you're forgetting one thing here, does times are a changing sound familiar to you at all? You're living in the 2000's now not the 1987-8 and 9's anymore! Quit yer bellyaching
- Vote:
- Down
- Up
- +0
- report user
-
- Jump To Page:
- [ 1 ]
