In 1994 Rare revolutionised the Donkey Kong series and took control of it, making numerous entries. In 2002 Rare were bought out by Microsoft, meaning that Nintendo had to take back control of the series and it’s clear that they didn’t know what to do. Over the next eight years, there were several experimental games, all straying far from what Rare had established. Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat might just be the worst example.

Let me start by telling you what I do like about it. Very uniquely, this is a side scrolling game that uses the GameCube’s bongo controller; hit the left bongo repeatedly to go left, the right, to go right and clap to interact with the world around you. The music goes along with your bongo playing and it sometimes feels amazing when you really get into a level and are hitting the bongos just right so that Donkey speeds through the level and you get as many points as possible (high scores are important). Having Donkey Kong’s movements tied to your own in this way is a great way to make you feel immersed.

I also enjoyed a fair few of the new characters; Orco the killer whale is excellent, Hoofer the ram makes for some of the most fun levels and Ghastly King (or Cactus King) is a very cool villain. Levels are often rather beautiful too.

But what I don’t like about Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat is that it seems to completely disregard all of the work Rare did on the series. Donkey Kong maintains his Rare design, but everything else that they introduced has been forgotten. Where are the other Kongs? Who are these evil Kongs? Where are the Kremlings? Why is the world full of freakish abominations? What does Donkey Kong himself actually have to do with any of this? Many of the characters and creatures seem like obvious replacements for things Rare created, when there was no real reason that Rare’s creations could not be used. I’m especially disappointed with the fact that Donkey Kong is portrayed as an insane, violence-loving maniac, rather than the laid back ruler of Donkey Kong Island that Rare had turned him into.

Plus, while I can appreciate the innovation of the bongo controls and the fact that they do work very well sometimes, when they don’t work well, they are very frustrating. There were countless times when I thought to myself “I’d be having a lot more fun right now if this game had normal controls…” and that’s quite sad, I think.

So, on the whole, this is a very mixed bag. When it’s good, it’s fantastic, but when it’s bad it’s irritating and it’s a shame that it seems to change so often. Nonetheless, for such a unique and experimental game, it’s definitely worth a play. I’m sure somebody else might play it and think it the best the series has ever been, so do go ahead and make up your own mind. Perhaps it’s just devoted fans like me who will have an issue with this.

Rating: 7.7/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today Finger Puppet Show!)

Free to play games are very popular at the moment, so it wasn’t a surprise when Nintendo and The Pokémon Company came out with Pokémon Shuffle – a free to play Pokémon title.

Pokémon Shuffle has you fighting Pokémon through puzzle-type gameplay. On the bottom screen you’ll have a grid with several Pokémon faces and on the top you’ll have a Pokémon. You are given a limited number of chances to move the Pokémon faces around, and each time you match up at least three of the same kind of Pokémon, it will launch an attack on the Pokémon on the top screen. If you run out of moves, you lose the battle, but if you win the battle, you get a chance to catch it.

You can catch lots of Pokémon as you go along and before each battle you choose which ones you want to bring along. As with regular Pokémon games, you then use the Pokémon with appropriate types to deal more damage to your opponents. The game incorporates the concept of Mega Evolution too and (if you have a stone to activate it) some Pokémon can Mega Evolve in battle and then matching them up will cause even more damage. Plus, Pokémon are even able to level up if you make regular use of them, which I quite like.

The free to play element of the game is the fact that you have five hearts and you use one up every time you do a battle. Once a heart is gone, it will take thirty minutes for you to get another. When all the hearts are gone, you can wait to get more, or you can just spend real money to buy crystals which can be used to buy more hearts (or to buy items which will make the battles easier). You might be happy to wait, but then there are legendary Pokémon which appear for a limited time only which might be frustrating to some. Later levels are also ridiculously hard and clearly designed to make you spend money, which I did not appreciate at all.

It’s a fun and very addictive game and you’ll be pleased as you battle and capture more and more of your favourite Pokémon. The minor RPG elements are appreciated and I think this is the kind of game anybody could enjoy, even if they’ve never played a Pokémon game before. Puzzle and Pokémon fans will enjoy this especially, but generally this is a fun game with a broad appeal.

Rating: 8.3/10

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

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a game I’ll always remember very fondly because it was given to me out of the blue as a kind gift from a good friend. So, really, the game got quite lucky, because if it weren’t for that pleasant context, I’d probably not think of it fondly at all.

Ha! I am exaggerating a bit, but in all honesty Sonic Chronicles is very much a mixed bag. It’s a first for the Sonic series because it’s an RPG (rather than a platformer) and since the Super Mario series’ RPGs were always fantastic, I went into this with high hopes. Maybe too high.

As is common for DS games, this game is controlled entirely with the touch screen. This is good and bad; it makes walking around the world frustrating, as it can be hard to make Sonic go where you want him to (boundaries are unclear), but on the other hand it gives the RPG battles a fun and unique edge. Having said that, once I got further into the game and the battles got longer, I got tired of the touch screen controls and wished I could just press buttons.

Speaking of battles, later in the game, these go on far too long when it comes to random encounters. Towards the end, I was running away from literally every single enemy because I couldn’t be bothered to waste five minutes fighting an insignificant enemy. Annoyingly, a large number of later enemies can ‘counter’ a lot of your attacks too, which means that if you hit them they don’t get hurt, you do, and sometimes they regenerate health as well!

But let’s talk about the game’s positives. While the story is a little hard to summarise, I loved the game’s writing. Many memorable Sonic characters appear and are playable. While there is no voice acting, you get to enjoy all of the usual comedic Sonic dialogue in text form. I was especially pleased when I found out that Big the Cat is playable in this game. I shan’t comment on how he is involved with the story, but Sonic Chronicle‘s might just contain my favourite appearance of Dr. Eggman (who I already love). Shadow, Amy, Tails, Knuckles and several other characters also appear in big roles. Also, I won’t spoil it, but I found the ending side-splittingly hilarious; what’s worrying is that I’m not sure if it was supposed to be funny or not!

But then, another negative is the game’s absolutely terrible soundtrack; it’s droning, monotonous and fails to create any kind of atmosphere. Rumour has it that the ‘real’ soundtrack was accidentally lost shortly before release and so they had to rush out another one, and judging by the quality of the finished product, it wouldn’t be a surprise! The bad soundtrack gives you a certain feeling as you play and probably makes everything feel even less fun than it already is.

Ultimately, I am happy I played Sonic Chronicles. The writing was often delightful, there are lots of references and connections to older games and at times it was genuinely enjoyable. But if you do want to play this game, just don’t forget that it does have quite a few significant flaws! Rating: 7/10

Buy it here.