Since March Nintendo has been re-releasing some of their Gamecube titles on the Wii with enhanced controls via the Wii remote. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is the latest after Mario Power Tennis and the original Pikmin.
Jungle Beat was a 2005 2D platformer on the Gamecube from the same studio that made Super Mario Galaxy. The Gamecube version was played with bongo drums used for Namco’s Donkey Konga music games.
The combination made Jungle Beat a uniquely engaging, if also short romp through some classic-style game design. This new version remains so for the most part.
Jungle Beat - an old Platformer at Its Core
Each version of the game on the surface just seems like a simple obstacle course given novelty by either unusual control scheme. What lies underneath though is a very well-made, back-to-basics Nintendo platformer.
As Donkey Kong, players run, jump, and clap through different areas of the jungle collecting bananas for points and eventually defeating bosses in one-on-one duels. The controls make the first levels immediately fun, but Jungle Beat gains real value when truly complex levels appear later on. Within that simple framework lies varying levels of gameplay – something that pretty much every Wii game should strive for.
After learning the game’s basic actions, making it through most levels isn’t much trouble at all and can be fun purely because of the novelty of the controls. Players who try to gain more points to unlock secrets however will have to learn more advanced techniques within those simple controls. Mastering these techniques while exploring every inch of each level multiplies Jungle Beat’s replayability making up for its short initial length.
This quality is present in both versions of Jungle Beat. The Wii version however is more than just a simple port.
Is The Wii Version for the Better?
Many older games ported to the Wii have been sloppy affairs muddled by slapped-on motion controls and just an overall lazy development process. Nintendo’s own Wii ports show at least a little bit more work than that.
For Jungle Beat, Nintendo not only added new controls but altered a lot of the game’s mechanics and edited all of the levels to better fit those new controls. The result is a Wii port that shows real effort. Players however will disagree on whether or not that makes it better than the Gamecube version.
The bongo controller on the Gamecube version of Jungle Beat added a uniquely tangible interface to the heart of an old-school 2D platformer, creating an especially visceral experience. It was exactly the kind of experience that’s expected from the Wii but before the Wii appeared.
Ironically, although the Wii version is technically easier to control, which some will prefer, it loses a lot of the Gamecube version’s novelty. In comparison it feels like an ordinary great game instead of a unique great game.
Bottom Line
Either version of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat offers an incredibly fun but forgotten first effort from the team that would eventually bring us the most critically acclaimed Wii game ever. The choice is between a less abstract or more unique control scheme.
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