Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber features the same sort of gameplay as DK: King of Swing, but has really refined the formula in many ways.  It was the main Donkey Kong game for the DS and is a solid game all round.

The story has the Kongs enjoying a holiday on Sun Sun Island, only to spot a banana shaped spacecraft which starts to attack them. Before long they find themselves caught up in an adventure involving an alien called Xananab and the latest plan of K. Rool and a few of his Kremling underlings. There are quite a few scenes of the Kongs chatting together and even talking with K. Rool and I appreciated the fact that there was quite a lot of dialogue.

Just like King of Swing, every level is based around climbing. The good thing is though that many of the levels feature things to climb on which are perfectly natural. I like levels to feel like places and not levels and this game achieves that (most of the time.) Donkey Kong and Diddy now both go along through levels together like they did in older games and when you have Diddy he can be used as a projectile. The climbing feels very intuitive and it’s really fun to build up momentum while doing it and to speed through a level.

What I also liked a lot about Jungle Climber is that the art style is quite similar to that of the Donkey Kong Country games. I love the Donkey Kong Country games and in the especially well designed levels, I could imagine that I was playing another of them. It was lovely. They have these spooky swamp levels and some beach levels which I thought looked very nice.

There were only one or two things I didn’t like about it. Firstly, Cranky Kong stops to talk to you all the time, but he’s now a helpful mentor instead of a bitter old man, making him boring and a bit annoying. Secondly, Dixie Kong is in the game, but for some reason not involved in the Kongs’ adventure, which doesn’t make sense to me. It would have been nice if she’d had a key role. Finally, at times the difficulty could be rather frustrating and when it is it’s usually down to things which are out of your control. Thankfully, this problem isn’t too regular

But on the whole, this is  a very solid entry in the Donkey Kong series and one which I enjoyed very much. It’s very fun and definitely worth a try. Rating: 9/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

Conker the Squirrel. He was the friend of Diddy Kong. His birthday was once ruined by the Evil Acorn. Nobody could ever have imagined the strange turn his life would take in Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

Aesthetically, this game is just like a lot of other Rare platformers of the time. It looks like Donkey Kong 64 or Banjo-Kazooie and a lot of people might have expected it to be similar in tone too, but it’s not. It’s really not. Personally, I find it amazing that these things are all connected.

So how’s it different? Well, you see, this game is very adult. At first, you might think that the only thing which sets this apart is that it features crude humour and has characters swearing, but there’s so much more to it. The story is often very dark and even profound. I don’t really want to say too much about what happens in the game, because it’s often quite effective because of how unexpected most of what happens is. Sometimes you’ll laugh out loud at the humour, other times you’ll be stunned by something absolutely harrowing.

But beyond the huge range in story, there’s also a huge range in gameplay. Sometimes it will be the platforming you’re used to from Rare. Sometimes it will be a third person shooter. Sometimes it will be survival horror. Things never get dull and there are a ton of movie pastiches along the way too. Occasionally, however, the controls are slightly frustrating, but thankfully not too often. There’s also a multiplayer death match mode for up to four people, which was a nice little addition, but not much more than a bonus, in my eyes.

One thing I found especially interesting about Conker’s Bad Fur Day is how Conker evolved as the story went along. Conker is a very flawed person, but we get to see him progress somewhat throughout the duration of the game. I also found that I really disliked him at times, because many of his actions were just plain awful, but it was always interesting to see how he’d react to the situations he found himself in.

I also want to take a moment to say that Conker’s world felt really beautiful and I really enjoyed exploring it. I know it only has Nintendo 64 era graphics, but I think that just adds to the charm. With all the natural scenery, peaceful sound effects and the fantastic soundtrack, the world of Conker’s Bad Fur Day was a delight to explore.

Overall this game was a masterpiece. It’s very sad to think that it isn’t better known. I know it may appear to just be something that just childishly makes cartoon animals swear in an attempt to be funny (and I’ll admit, there were one or two bits of sexual humour which were too ‘on the nose’ for me), but it’s got so much more depth to it and is definitely worth a try. One of Rare’s best games.

Rating: 9.8/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

Sabre Wulf is one of the very early games made by Rare during their Ultimate Play the Game days. You play as Sabreman and have to find four pieces of an amulet in order to escape from a labyrinthine jungle (avoiding the titular Sabre Wulf in the process.)

First things first, I just want to say, I love this game. It may be old and simple, but it’s fun and that’s what’s most important. The game allows you to move around in all directions and you’re essentially exploring a massive maze. Something about the old graphics (with a lot of black) helped to set the feeling of the mysterious jungle for me. There’s also no background music (just blips for sound effects) and I also think that that helps to set the tone of a secluded jungle.

The jungle is pretty huge and you may find it hard to find everything, but I think the difficulty added to my enjoyment. It never really felt too hard, but was satisfyingly difficult. Having said that, there were occasionally things which were a bit unfair: for example, Sabreman’s controlling is ever so slightly slidey, which occasionally meant that I died because he moved further forward than I wanted him to.

Throughout the jungle, you’ll find animals (like rhinos and hippos), deadly insects and a hostile tribe of people. There’s also the unstoppable Sabre Wulf, which is always after you. Of course, to keep himself safe, Sabreman has a trusty sabre which he can use to destroy smaller threats and to keep people and bigger animals at bay. There are also various plants you can eat, each of which have different effects on you and make you immune to the damage of enemies.

When you first play, it might feel too hard (and I certainly felt that way), but after a few tries you should get into the swing of things. It has no save feature (other than scores) so you’ll have to do it in on sitting, unless you’re playing an emulation, such as the one in Rare Replay. Other than a few things like that, for a game of its age, this is very good indeed and I feel like later (more popular) titles, such as The Legend of Zelda, owe it a lot.

Rating: 8/10

Buy it here as part of Rare Replay.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)