10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Fun DS Donkey Kong Game
Date of Review: Dec 12, 2007
The Bottom Line: Great adventure game and mini games to offer hours and hours of entertainment.
I have not played many Donkey Kong games. The only other one I ever owned was the Game Boy Donkey Kong 2 version. I remember loving that game, so when I noticed this game for the DS I decided to try it out. While it certainly is different from that old game, I enjoyed it as well. For one it is fun to be playing in color and with decent graphics, although they still are not the best graphics. The big difference for me in this game was that you move up most of the time rather than the old style of moving just right with the scrolling levels. The up movement gives you the feel of really climbing in the levels, which is probably why they call it Jungle Climber.
The main controls in the game are the arrow keys to move around, a to jump/attack, and the L and R to hold on to pegs and climb. For climbing you hold the L and/or R buttons when you are near pegs. When you let go of one or the other button Donkey Kong also lets go of the associated peg. Basically to climb you alternate holding down L and R to grab the right pegs to move on. In some levels there are other things to hold on to including a sunflower that flings you off and allows you to reach higher areas that you cannot otherwise get to.
The main mode is Adventure mode in which you go through the levels by climbing to the end, avoiding enemies, collecting bananas, and trying to find special items such as oil barrels and the letters to spell KONG. This mode begins with a great in depth training level to teach the game controls. The way it teaches is through fun mini games.
The mini games that are used in tutorial can later be played in Mini Game mode. My favorite is the one where you jump over logs. In the 1st 3 levels of difficulty you try to jump over enough logs to get past a certain point level in a certain amount of time (30 seconds I think). The final level is one where you try to jump as many logs as you can in an unlimited amount of time. In this level it ends when you run into a log or a rock.
Another mini game is one in which you grab bananas as they fall from the top screen. You use L and R to control Donkey Kongs hands and grab the bananas as they fall. The first 3 levels work like in the log jumping game, except you try to catch a certain amount of bananas instead of jump a certain amount of logs. The last level works similarly with you having no time limit for catching bananas and the level ending as soon as you miss one banana.
Overall this game is a lot of fun, although in some parts it is a little confusing what and where you need to go in a few levels. With some patience, though, the game can be worked through without too much frustration. Personally I think the mini games are what really make the game fun and are great for playing as a break when a level is frustrating you.
