Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (New Play Control!)

For all you people that loved New Super Mario Brothers (Wii) and want some more great 2d platformer action fun for your Wii then Donkey Kong Jungle Beat should be your next stop. You play Donkey Kong using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls. Our hero has some cool moves such as the "Clap Attack" which is done by shaking the Wii Remote or Nunchuk and you can tilt the control stick when clapping to direct the sound wave. The "Hand Slap" is done by shaking one of your controllers too but you need to press down on Nunchuk control stick so that Donkey Kong is crouching down. The "Wall Jump" is done the same way as Super Mario's wall jump and "Air Grab" is easy, you just press the A button when you are in mid-air which good for grabbing all those bananas. To do the "Backflip" press the A button while crouching and for the mega "Ground Pound" press the B or Z button in mid-air to hit the ground which creates a big sound wave.
Some of the boss battles against the evil Kongs are similar in style to "Wii Sports Boxing". Donkey Kong has a wide range of friends that he can ride through the jungle, snow, sky and the sea. Flurl, Hoofer, Helibird and Orco are all great fun companies that make this excellent platformer even more of a blast to play. Jungle Beat has wonderful 2d graphics and the music is really catchy too. The only thing that would have made this game a bit better is for it to be longer in length.

As some of you may already know, this game is a remake of a classic on the previous Nintendo console, the Nintendo Gamecube. Unfortunately, the Gamecube was unsuccesful, so Nintendo decided to port some of their best titles to the Nintendo Wii, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (DKJB) is one of them.

The game's gameplay mechanics are quite easy to explain, yet they work extremely well. For starters, it's a platform-game, which basically means that you try to make your way from the start of a level to the finish point, while making your way past various obstacles.
Your second goal is to get as many bananas on your way through as possible, preferably in a "combo" (a long streak of banana-grabbing whilst jumping) and by making Donkey Kong clap near the bananas, you get an additional score-bonus.

Platform games, and especially platform games in which you have to collect certain objects, rely heavily on decent controls. Luckily, NPC! DKJB has almost perfect controls, however, you will find that the controls are still subject to debate on many "professional" reviewers.

Many of these reviewers have played the Gamecube version before playing the Wii version, and they are having a hard time moving from the Gamecube control-scheme to the Wii control scheme.
In the Gamecube version, this game was bundled with "bongo-controllers" which basically only had three buttons: left bongo for moving left, right bongo for moving right, both bongo's for jumping and a sound-sensor so you can actually clap your own hands if you want Donkey Kong to clap your hands. This worked very well, and I can realise that once you have played this game through it's original unique control scheme, you feel disappointed having adapting yourself to these "regular" controls.
However, this does NOT mean that the Wii controls are bad or "not fun", as described in some reviews. As I have said before, the Wii control scheme works really well, and is just -different- from the Gamecube version, but not worse. In the Wii version, you simply move around using your nunchuck, and clap using the motion sensors, which is very responsive.

Next up is the presentation. The graphics are amazing, especially considering that the Gamecube version was made so many years ago. This version features widescreen support, which makes the game look even better.
Also, I'd like to point out that the soundtrack of this game is amazing. In fact, it is the most epic I have ever seen in a platformer, and that includes 10/10 titles such as Super Mario Galaxy. I know that most people do not really care about the soundtrack when buying a game, but it is definitely one of the best parts of this game, they are extremely memorable and they really keep you going throughout the game.

Now, on with the difficulty. I have seen many reviewers complain about this game being too easy. In my opinion, that's only because they have not really experienced the game as they should have. Yes, it is really hard to die, but dying is not what determines the difficulty here.
I have played through the Gamecube version three times getting all the crests (these crests represent a ranking in each level, think of them as medals), and this has always been challenging yet extremely rewarding.

Let my finish this review by talking about the length of the game. According to some reviewers, this game is too short. In my opinion, this game being so short is what makes it brilliant. There is never a dull moment in this game, and while you COULD finish this game in 5 hours, getting all the crests will keep you going for hours and hours on end, and this is the only game I have ever played that I played through again after finishing it.

This truly is a brilliant title!