For the longest time Jungle Beat was my favorite DK game
(I put him even over DKC2, though I find this take to be a bit of a blasphemy).

And there is a reason for it: in my opinion, it's one of the only title in the series that makes you FEEL like you play as the OP gorilla Donkey Kong, if that makes any sense.
Like... in other games, DK's main method of attack is jumping over enemies. And while it works, I feel like punching a projectile back or killing a phoenix with only headbutts fits his physique and overall nature way more. I kinda wish this bombastic and exaggerated vibe can be seen more often in the regular Country adventures. This, unitied with thecontrols of the bongos, really leads to one of your most animalistic gaming sessions, that can literally make you RETURN TO MONKE.

That said, the game lacks a lot of the charm of the other series titles: the lack of the rest of the kong family, kremlins and classic animal buddies hurts a bit, ad the new villains and allies, while original, can feel a bit off sometimes.

That said, I still really like this one. It sort of a black sheep in the DK franchise, but it's a really fun and charming sheep.

Nintendo's last true arcade title. Not like, literally a game made for arcades, but in terms of design. It's no secret that I basically don't like anything Nintendo has put out in almost 20 years at this point. The easiest answer for why is that their new titles are very safe, chaste, inbred games with few new ideas. This isn't to say their new stuff is strictly bad, far from it. There's still a competency somewhere there. It's kind of like the best playing garbage ever though. What defines modern Nintendo games is mainly the lack of any sort of design that approximates 'something.' What I mean is that it's all self-referential to what 'games' collectively are, and what Nintendo games used to be, rather than just simply being fun games with an identity that isn't so tautological. I ponder over this because DKJB has a lot of those 'square-hole' style ideas that went on to plague more modern entries; Being a sort of precursor to Mario Galaxy, by staff and design motivations. Yet this is one of the only modern Nintendo games where the design isn't frustratingly patronizing.

Arcade game design had you fit very dense encounter variety back to back into your games. The nature necessitated it. Time was literally money, but it was also a good way of keeping a game fresh in the eyes of venue frequenters. There were all kinds of flashy games, which due to primitive tech, had to come up with unique ways of executing a usually simple idea. Back then, there weren't many standards in place, so a game more naturally became what it wanted to be. Putting it super succinctly so we aren't here all day: Back then arcade games were inherently more engaging because the concept had to be front and center, and that 'flashiness' was delivered through gameplay density. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a sidescrolling score attack game with a lot of ideas. From callbacks to the original Donkey Kong game with the logo font; To the barrel graze jingle, this game's explicitly introspective on the nature of arcade games. I see that even in how it controls. Just 3 inputs, Left, Right, and the 'Clap', which can be triggered by tapping the side of the bongos too. The somatosensory element of the controls are complemented by the frantic nature of the game as well. It can be very difficult to keep most combos going, and when DK grabs hold of enemies he beats the ever living daylights out of them. I'm pretty sure it was so violent it forced the ESRB to make E10+ because they didn't want this game to be rated T.

There's even an arcade game it actually closely resembles, in spirit and operation. Mach Breakers: Numan Athletics 2. A game about a superhuman decathlon. Mach Breakers also only has 3 inputs, insane mashing that really makes you FEEL the action of your characters, and above all extremely arcadey. I draw this comparison because there's even more DKJB could be paying homage to, that I may not be fully aware of because it's not exclusionary in that way. It's not some reference that exists solely for it's own value. It's kind of a more natural one, that I'm sure began during development as a coincidence and then they leaned into it as a genuine inspiration. I haven't even gone into the scoring system yet, which I find very interesting and well designed. Everytime DK does a unique action, such as backflipping, wall jumping, swinging, sliding up onto a ledge, etc; It adds to a combo trick meter. The combo stays going as long as you're in the air, unless you get hit. The combo counter acts as a multiplier for each individual instance of a banana you collect. Which bunches being their own multiple of 3. Additionally, when you grab many stray bananas at the same time using the clap motion it adds an additional amount by 1 per banana you caught. There's a lot they do with this. With all the unique enemy and banana layouts, it adds a lot of strategy to routing particular areas, without turning it into a chore necessarily. Because there's a lot of freeform stuff you can just try and do in the moment.

Not a whole lot of the game is up to scripted events. Even though you'd think there'd be a reason to add many of them because of the game's limited controls, the game uses them sparingly. Even when you grab a melon that was thrown at you as a projectile, there's still a chance it can miss when hit back because of poor positioning. But like, also, it has physics that do matter when being juggled by the claps soundwave. The game plays out mostly setpiece to setpiece, and the 'breaks' are still fraught with heavy mashing. It's a very involved game, but I love it for that.

I want to meet the maniac who played this game on the bongos.

This is a weird game. Fun, sometimes, but weird. It's like Nintendo saw Donkey Kong Country and surgically removed all of Rare's DNA from it to make...this.

If you don't want to murder your palms on a bongo controller, you can stick with a Gamecube controller, except you have to nudge the stick forward rapidly to move. The bosses are fun to wail on, and keeping your banana combo is actually kind of addicting. Probably better experienced on the Wii though, I dunno.

Tl;dr Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is still one of my favorite Donkey Kong games of all time. I still hold it dearly to my heart and I'm really glad I was able to play it again properly with a pair of DK Bongos I bought again (which were the same ones I sold off to a local store ages ago). Only main critique I have of the game is the short length but that's really it.

Jungle Beat is one of those games my dad's side of the family owned when I was a kid and would play when I would go over to their house. When I was a kid I was completely out of the loop regarding the Rare buyout, I just saw this as another cool DK game, and it was definitely a pivotal game from my childhood that made me fall in love with Donkey Kong with DKC2 and DK64 being my main entry points.

And I'm very happy to say that Jungle Beat is still a really fucking fun ass game for me, probably even more fun for me now after mastering the DK Bongos as an adult. The game feels so satisfying to control, play, and my god its so rewarding to string long combos and finally land on the ground netting a ton of beats. DK's a mad powerhouse in this game and it really shows in the levels and boss fights too. Levels are so tightly designed around it's limitations that it feels exquisite to master movement and find the most optimal routes to keep your combo gauge going.

I love this game so much man; Jungle Beat, Jungle Climber, and Tropical Freeze are definitely my favorite 3 Post-Rare DK titles.

I highly recommend it to people especially since DK Bongos aren't in any demand right now, it's better time than now to get them before they fetch higher prices.

Trivia Time!

Contrary to what you may have heard, this is actually the best Donkey Kong game we've ever released. Why didn't you buy it? Koizumi-san was so SAD.

It should have been a hit! You all should have played it! We could have been 8 games deep in the Jungle Beat series by now! DK Bongos should have been littering tens of millions of basements across the globe just like sticky Wii Remotes and busted Joy-Con®! WE COULD HAVE ACHIEVED TRUE GREATNESS, BUT YOU LET KOIZUMI DOWN

Stay tuned for more Trivia Time segments in the near future!

I had Jungle Beat as a kid, and I distinctly remember enjoyed the Bongo controls. But I also hold much clearer memories of Konga than of this game. In returning to it as an adult, I see why. Although I really enjoy Jungle Beat, I don't enjoy it as much as I should.

I'm sort of banana split down the middle. Sorry.

The Bongo controls of this game are so joyous and embody a commitment to invention that flows throughout the entire experience. We massively under-evaluate how standardizing control has flatted design possibility. Jungle Beat's ability to force me to rewire the neural pathways that typical fire when I'm trying to platform, because my hands literally have to do something different, is immensely special. And it really works - Jungle Beat should not be as initiative as it is.

But by the end it's also somewhat frustrating, ideas like swimming feeling a bit ill conceived. There are also a few ideas in Jungle Beat's bag of tricks that it leans too heavily on - bosses being a critical example. There are really three bosses that end up being remixed ever so slightly, reducing the dozen-plus bosses to the same trio of gimmicks. It's a bummer, because each fight is framed as this huge crescendo to every Kingdom, but then they're always just some minorly adjusted encounter.

I ultimately can't be overly mad as slapping the Bongos until my hands sting while careening around Jungle Beat's stages is immensely novel. I just wish this game almost was even shorter, pared down to its best hour of ideas, channeling its arcade spirit into something super refined and replayable, stripping what tedium there is from this bone.

"I want to meet the maniac who played this game on the bongos."
I PLAYED IT ON THE BONGOS. I BEAT IT ON THE BONGOS. I KNOW SOMEONE (my cousin) THAT 100%'D THE GAME WITH THE BONGOS. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? They were surprisingly responsive, and fun to control, and it was a great platforming experience. My only real gripe is the easy boss fights and how they get kinda repetitive overtime. Other than that, I recommend getting this game on the GameCube, buying some bongos, and whacking and clapping the shit out of your enemies.

This weekend I went to my hometown and I tried this game, which I recently bought in a second-hand shop. At first, I was so surprised this game is INCREDIBLY GOOD.

The bongo controller is crazy fun, it felt like when I tried first time the wiimotes. The stages are original and well designed, if you play well you can make sick combos jumping over the world and making a fun rhythm with the bongos and claps. The game also makes you trying your best to get the more score you can get to earn gold medals, which makes the game more replayable and challenging.

On the other hand, last levels could be frustrating due the difficulty and the bongos, which aren't the most precise controls. Also if you play for a long time your hands will turn red from slapping so much.