Known as a breakthrough title during the last generation of consoles, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was very popular among Nintendo gamers when it was released back in 2005 on the Gamecube. Bundled with a pair of bongos, the player would control Donkey Kong throughout levels by simply hitting on them. If you were a huge GameCube owner, chances are you’ve played this game like there was no tomorrow. We could almost say that Donkey Kong Jungle Beat was an early introduction to Nintendo’s next big thing: the Wii.

Now that the GameCube is history, Nintendo thought that bringing back some games with an adaptive motion-controlled scheme for the Wii would be a great idea and what best game to test it out than this one but does the new controls make up for the bongos?


Jungle Beat was not your simple “Point A to Point B” platforming type of game. It required players to use chain moves and attacks while collecting bananas to increase their number of beats all by hitting on the bongos. Simple gameplay idea, quite complex and frustrating at certain times but enjoyable to the maximum. Did the Wiimote control scheme change the overall look and feel of the game that made it become an instant classic? Well, you’re still controlling Donkey Kong throughout the stages, make him collect as much bananas and earn beats while eliminating your enemies as in the first game. However, those who played the Gamecube version will find out that the Wiimote/Nunchuk control combination has reduce the degree of difficulty and increased the precision response of the game, making it more accessible and adaptive to those who not only couldn’t stand to hit on the bongos but complained about how imprecise they were during certain action scenes.

The change of controls does bring something positive to the table but also brings its little grey cloud. First, I was a big fan of the bongos so these new controls completely removed the satisfaction I had of hitting on them. Second, being a game on the Wii, the hitting has been replaced by lots of waggling so prepare yourself to be physically challenged as it will require moving your arms and shaking the hell out of the controller in order to play the game. Now, if you play all your games on the Wii, another game that needs you to waggle won’t hurt you but I found it more exhaustive to play it than its GameCube predecessor. This does not mean that the controls are not efficient because the New Play Control system in this game works perfectly.


Graphics and Sounds

Without saying that the game’s visuals are a huge step up compared to the Gamecube version, we can safely say that DK Jungle Beat has been not only successfully ported to the Wii but also slightly improved to accommodate the game to its new technical environment that is the Wii. We know that the Wii isn’t capable of incredibly high quality visuals but what amazed me is that even four years later, Jungle Beat’s art and visual style still very solid.

In terms of sounds, the game features the same audio build as the Gamecube version. Not impressive but solid enough to get you by.

Value

Being an updated version of an existing game, your DK Jungle Beat experience on the Wii remains as short as what it was on Gamecube. The only difference is that with the Gamecube version you would end up replay it again just for the fun to hit on the bongos and have a good time with friends. Not to say that the Wiimote controls won’t make you come back to the game once you’re done but that little bit of charm the bongo peripheral brought is nowhere to be found here. On the other side, the Gamecube version was expensive because of them peripheral so the fact that you can buy the Wii version for 30$ definitely makes it up for it. There’s no question this title would have sold for 50$.


Conclusion

Despite the absence of the bongos, this Wii version of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is fun, charming and will sure give you the most interesting bang for your buck on a Wii game. Instead of buying crappy third party compilation games, add this one to your Wii collection…yes even if you’re still playing with the GameCube version.