Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber

Developer: Paon Corporation
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: Sept. 10, 2007
Systems: Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web Site

In a nutshell: Climbing DS

0:01 "Welcome to Sun Sun Beach on beautiful Sun Sun Island." Cutenes.... overpowering.... cant'... take it!
0:02 Impressive 3D animation in the cut scenes. I love the bright primary colors and Donkey Kong Country throwback music.
0:03 The overall goal seem to be a giant banana on top of a mountain. Sure... why not?
0:05 Interesting: You can use the d-pad or the R and L buttons to move DK. Nice of them to offer two options.
0:06 The tutorial mini-games are actually fun, and use the extended playfield of the dual screens very well. I especially like juggling with the R and L buttons. Simple and fun.
0:09 Holy crap DK can fly if he collects 100 gems. That is all.
0:12 Cranky Kong, on banana coins: "Collect a bunch (heh heh) for something special." Oh Cranky. You ham.
0:14 The bonus games are the highlight so far. The latest one asks me to collect as many falling bananas as I can in a barrel at the bottom of the screen.
0:16 Man, there's a lot to collect in this game. DK coins, banana coins, bananas, gems, the letters K-O-N-G. Sheesh!
0:18 It only took 18 minutes and more than two levels before I saw my first enemy. Talk about a slow build up.
0:20 The grab-and-release controls take some getting used to. I keep wanting to play it like a Mario game, but I have to be much more deliberate about my movements if I want to reach the next outhanging peg.
0:22 The levels are super-basic so far. Can't wait to try more complex stuff.
0:23 One little touch from an enemy results in a death. Not only that, but DK wails like he's being mauled by a tiger. Come on DK. Take it like a man!
0:25 Donkey Kong can't swim... he just sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Funny... I know I've seen him swim in other games. Is this a new Donkey Kong or something?
0:35 The levels are getting more interesting now. Boulders that roll when DK unbalances them, and a telescoping Diddy Kong attack help keep things fresh.
0:40 Finding everything so far has been pretty easy. I hope they learn to hide things better in the later levels.
0:43 The game makes DK automatically jump when he goes off a ledge. This is pretty annoying... sometimes you just want to fall.
0:45 You haven't lived until you've seen 470+ bananas flying from a barrel at super speed.
0:46 "Those no good thugs. I'm sure they're up to no good, as usual." Now that's inspired writing.
0:49 The first boss is a giant, flying banana. How freudian.
0:50 The banana ship is flown by half-peeled banana-person name Xananab from the planet Plantaen. Kill me now.
0:56 Yay! Those tutorial mini-games from earlier are available for replay (complete with extra levels) in the Challenge mode. Screw the normal game, this is where it's at.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.
Why? An interesting concept, if hard to grasp initially. I hope the level design continues to improve.

This review based on a retail copy provided by Nintendo.