Legit the first ever game I have ever have memory played. While I am pretty sure I trued other titles before this, Donkey Kong was the first one where I went "I like this one! HE monke!"... so much so that when I saw him in games like Mario Kart, I thought Mario was not the protagonist and it looked weird.

Eheheh funny that this is where it all started for me, because King of Swing is a weird one: it takes the Donkey Kong world in a moment in time where the series didn't really knew what it was, and turns into a... Clu Clu Land sequel? (Bubbles from Clu CLu Land is even playable)

First of, the best thing: the artstyle: in an era where most of the Dk characters and villains got removed off the scene, King of Swings brings back every major character with an incredible pixel-art, that makes everyone shine with personality and charm... even K. Rool, which looks fantastic in 2D. Even classic enemies are all here after being shafted in titles like Jungle Beat, and they are adapted pretty well to fit the new gameplay formula.

The graphics and music is also really memorable, and accompany really well the level themes: its start with classic jungle levels, but you are soon sent to travel pirate ports, menacing ice castles, mazes of giant cactus, and THE INSIDE OF A TORNADO IN THE DESERT.

Now the gameplay is.... divisive for sure: it's a puzzle platformer, where you use the side buttons of the GBA to control, DK's hands and climb dozens and dozens of platforms. While the idea is weird, especially for a DK title, this formula is used really well: every level has a cool gimmick that is introduced and evolved fairly well for most of the adventure. Once you will see yourself holding a platform with hone hand while throwing a rock or a bomb with the other, then using a similar movement to pull leers, then chasing Kritters that climb and move exactly like you. Even the bosses uses specific interesting gimmicks (except the first one that is a literal nothing) that plays really well and makes for really cool encounters.

The moveset can be clunky for a lot of people, and especially the final levels can require you too much, but overall I will suggest this short but sweet DK spinoff to all the fans of the series.... or at least look for the sprite work, it's really great!

Certainly a game of all time. Weird to have a platformer on the GBA that only uses the L and R buttons, but go off anyways I guess. The main gimmick of this game is how levels revolve around these floating pegs that rotates DK depending on which hand the peg was grabbed with, and swinging using the momentum from the rotations to clear levels. There are actually a solid amount of interesting ideas they use with this concept, like throwing rocks, twisting valves, and pulling levers, but the general control of everything just feels too slow and unwieldy for much of it to be that much fun. The level design can also be a bit on the punishing side of things, and the boss fights can be frustrating as combat with DK's moveset isn't the most intuitive. I still had fun with this game in a masochistic sense plus it was neat to actually see what this game was all about, but it's def not something I would really recommend.

bonus points for having bubbles from clu clu land as a secret unlockable character though

The first out of the 2 Peg related adventure games made by Paon. While the hand drawn art style is incredibly charming as well as the company's respect for the Donkey Kong Canon that Rare made, the gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag. Don't get me wrong, it can definitely be fun at times, but they were still very much feeling out the core gameplay mechanics, which can make some things a bit clunky at times. Combine that with some frustrating bonus rounds, and big difficulty spike in the last world, and a really short adventure mode, the game can definitely feel underwhelming, but at the same time, if you decide to play it, it shouldn't take you that long. In the end, it's still a neat but of DK history to check out.

Qué raro que nadie hable de este juego, porque es una de las propuestas más creativas que vi en Nintendo. En lugar de jugarse como un Donkey Kong convencional, la idea de este juego es que escales un muro para llegar a la cima mientras coleccionas bananas, gemas, medallas y derrotas enemigos. Lo interesante es que utiliza los bumpers del control para escalar, cada uno representando un brazo del jugador. La curva de dificultad es increíblemente orgánica, en cada nivel siempre se te presentará una mecánica nueva que aumentará el desafío, y las mecánicas viejas ya conocidas se convertirán en la normativa en los próximos niveles. Primero empiezas con muros estáticos, para luego ponerte unos móviles. cajas que debes destruir, switches que algunos se activan utilizando ambas manos y otras manteniendo una y jalando repetidas veces con otra, muros que desaparecen y aparecen, cintas móviles, hielo el cual te puedes resbalar, y una infinidad de cosas más. Nunca se siente que repetitivo en este aspecto. Lo más criticable de los niveles es que hay algunos que se extienden demasiado y los niveles bonus tienen un cronometro muy justo, pero de resto me parece lo mejor del juego.

Los jefes son un 50/50, algunos se me hacen geniales como la serpiente marina o el yeti, que explotan demasiado las mecánicas de agarre y las trayectoria de los objetos que lanzas, pero el resto ya no son tan memorables o de plano son muy sosos, tristemente el jefe final cae en esto al cheesearlo muy fácil.

Aún así, fue una experiencia corta pero muy disfrutable, y probablemente le dé un replay ya que al terminar el juego principal se desbloquea un modo para jugar con Diddy Kong, que vuelve al juego más difícil quitándote las bananas (que servían para rellenar tus puntos de salud y conseguir invulnerabilidad) y es algo más resbaladizo. Voy a ver si en algún momento probaré su secuela.

Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (19th Sep. – 25th Sep., 2023).

The 1980s and 1990s saw a significant evolution in the practice of climbing in Japan, with the newfound popularity of free climbing correlating with environmental concerns. It was the widespread construction of climbing gyms at the end of the century that cemented this development, compensating for the poor rock durability of Japan's mountain ranges – Osaka's City Rock Gym was the first to be established in 1989. The practice of free climbing spread throughout Japanese society, creating a veritable subculture with its own codes, traditions and rituals [1], while Japanese sports institutions promoted the discipline in various competitions [2]. This has culminated in the inclusion of sport climbing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Cultural production followed suit: the first high-profile production was Baku Yumemakura's Kamigami no itadaki (1997) and its manga adaptation in 2000. Shinichi Ishizuka's Gaku: Minna no yama (2003) and Shinichi Sakamoto's Kōko no hito (2007) followed in its wake, before the more adolescent slice-of-life works of recent years. Burabura Donkey seems to fit into this trend: Atsushi Kaneko explained that it was the most natural concept for him to experiment with the use of the GBA's L and R buttons [3]. The project was originally intended to use 3D assets and original characters, but Nintendo pushed for 2D and the inclusion of the Donkey Kong characters. The project was consistent with Nintendo's experimental philosophy regarding its hardware and its desire to create a tangible link between the player and the gaming experience.

Burabura Donkey demonstrates the strength of the climbing concept, but also the limitations of such a system. The title does not quite manage to balance out its difficulty due to some uninspired level design. While the physics of spinning and throwing are well recreated, the game is rather cumbersome when the player is facing enemies, and there are times when they can be caught off guard by erratic movements and permissive hitboxes. Burabura Donkey leans heavily towards the arcade variety, with timed challenges to collect Crystal Coconuts and missions in the bonus mode adding to the difficulty of the title. Nevertheless, the Adventure mode provides a good opportunity for players to familiarise themselves with Donkey Kong's movements, a necessity as the title tends to be rather painful on the fingers as the buttons have to be held down for long periods of time.

Although the concept is fresh, Burabura Donkey suffers from contradictory ideas. The presence of enemies and bosses serves to mimic the progression of Donkey Kong Country, but is sometimes superfluous or contrived. The bosses all explore different ideas, attempting to use the various concepts introduced in previous levels – the boulders Donkey Kong can grab or the bombs he can throw – but the execution is often rather awkward: the fight against Davy Bones is particularly slow and suffers greatly from the complexity of the controls. Paon's concept is solid, however, and despite disappointing sales in Japan – Burabura Donkey was a GBA exclusive – Nintendo seems to have been satisfied enough to commission Donkey Kong: Jungle Climber (2007) for the DS.

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[1] On the success of free climbing and the creation of a homosocial and hierarchical subculture, see Wolfram Manzenreiter, 'No pain, no gain: embodied masculinities and lifestyle sport in Japan', in Contemporary Japan, vol. 25, no. 2, 2013, pp. 215-236.
[2] In particular, following the announcement in 2016 of the inclusion of climbing in the 2020 Olympic Games, the joint work of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Monbu-kagaku-shō), the Japan Sport Council (Nihon supōtsu shinkō sentā), and the Japan Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Association (Nihon sangaku supōtsukuraimingu kyōkai), has led to the inclusion of climbing in high-level sports curricula, as well as the construction and renovation of facilities needed to prepare athletes. On the topic, see Ruizhi Chen, Yuan Li, 'Development and Revelation of Japanese Sport Climbing', in Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, vol. 571, 2021, pp. 873-878.
[3] '『ぶらぶらドンキー』開発スタッフインタビュー', on nintendo.co.jp, consulted on 11th June 2007.

Donkey Kong is a happy, friendly little ape and he'll take you on a fun adventure with cute sprites and bright, colorful worlds, but as you near the end of your quest, Donkey Kong is no longer your friend. Instead he traps you in labyrinthine nightmares from which there is no escape and then laughs at you as you keep falling down ravines over and over again. What's that? You're twisting in the air and your controls have inverted? Go to hell, here's a spike pit for you to fall in. You're in Donkey Kong's world now, loser.