grim_tales

Has anyone played this game? I was thinking of buying it (maybe get it for my birthday) so wanted some opinions

Most reviews I've read (on places like Gamespot etc) like the game and say its great fun BUT one of the things that makes it fun is the bongo controller, the USP of the game. Take them away (its possible to play with the standard Cube controller) and its not as good.

The Bongos certainly sound innovative, IMO

What do you think?

nickdawgy

Haven't tried it, but I am getting Donkey Konga 2 in a few days

grim_tales

That the one where you play tunes with the bongos (or at least beat them in time to the music)? I'd like to try that as well

nickdawgy

Yes, and it's very addicting.

grim_tales

Does Konga 2 have songs by the original artists or Nintendo remixes? I think one of the Konga games deserves a rental at least, not sure if I'd buy it though.

sdcrym

I rented DK Jungle Beat. It's pretty fun, and it's nice to look at, but it gets a little repetitive. I was able to get gold medals in every level during the rental period, so I'm glad I rented it.

Outlaw

yeah it's a side-scrolling action game (similar to DKC) but you use the bongo's to control the game. it's a neat idea and pretty fun and they use the controller in interesting ways, especially in th boss battles.

the game was designed with the bongo controller in mind, i don't recommend playing it without it (you can buy it in packs with the controller though), it would be like playing DDR without the dance pad.

grim_tales

Thanks Yeah I'm sure when you buy the game you get the bongos with it

Goldberg74

$49.99 w/ bongos

$39.99 w/out bongos

$29.99 for extra bongos

I don't get their logic, but I'd get it Jungle Beat w/ the Bongos.

We have DKonga1 and an extra set of bongos.

So if we get DKonga2 and Jungle Beat, we'd get them with bongos and then have 4 sets... and then when the next game comes out, I'll get another set of bongos with it and eBay the oldest set (or keep it as a spare).

I wish they would sell the games seperately for $30, but it won't happen... unless they hit a bargain bin.

grim_tales

Its £25-30ish with bongos where I live too. I dont think I've seen it sold without bongos...

Josh H

I picked it up the other day, along with Donkey Konga.

I haven't played Jungle Beat much yet though, too hooked on Donkey Konga. The most fun and addicted I've been to a game in a good while.

I'll defintiely pick up Konga 2 down the road after I'm done with these two.

darkside

I have Donkey Konga and love it, but I still haven't picked up Jungle Beat. I will get it and Konga 2 at some point.

Just to note, Jungle Beat was a very poor seller with less than 40,000 copies sold its first month of release. I would not be surprised to see a major price drop on it soon.

http://cube.ign.com/articles/604/604674p1.html has details on this in case anyone wants more info.

Josh H

BTW, I belive Jungle Beat with Bongos is $54.99, at least that was the case at Best Buy.

I ended up picking up Konga with Bongos for $49.99 and the standalone Jungle Beat for $39.99 to save $5.

I'll probably pick up Konga 2 with Bongo's at some point, I was tempted with JB, but I didn't want to spend the extra $15 until I saw if my g/f liked it. Now that she does I'll get an extra set whenever I pick up Konga 2.

~~ PAL ~~

With the poor sales the price slash might come sooner than expected.

tomwaits

I really like Jungle Beat. Some interesting ideas in using the bongos and hand claps for control. I wouldn't bother playing without bongos.

It's pretty short if you just want to get through with enough silver / gold medals to open all the levels. You can breeze through during a rental. If you like to complete everything, getting all platinums can take a while. I think all platinums unlocks an uber-boss and different ending. You really need to string together long combos on some levels to reach platinum, so they can require a lot of replay. It's also a real workout. There are levels riding on creatures like in DKC, but the faster you beat the bongo, the faster the creature runs or further it jumps.


I was going to pick up Konga 2 until I saw the songlist. I don't even recognize about half the songs, and the ones that I know don't seem like a good fit for bongos. Konga 1 has such a great set of songs that the Konga 2 list is even more disappointing...

grim_tales

Whats the Konga 2 songlist? I bet theyre not done by the original artists then? (That was one peeve I read about in most reviews of the first Konga).

xVladx

From ign.com:

Habanera
The Minute Waltz
Donkey Konga 2 Theme
Trepak
Rock The Boat
Why Don't We Fall In Love
Hit 'Em Up Style
Full Moon
Send The Pain Below
Born Too Slow
High Roller
Predictable
The Anthem
Come Clean
Pieces
Drive
Wish You Were Here
No More Drama
Trouble
La Bamba
Boombastic
It's Been Awhile
Road Trip
Sidewalks
I Don't Want To Know (If You Don't Want Me)
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
Unpretty
Headstrong
U Don't Have to Call
Contact
All Star
Losing My Religion
Shiny Happy People

Much like tomwaits, I don't recognize a whole lot of those titles, and the ones I do recognize are just plain bad for a bongo-based game.

Pretty much killed any anticipation I had for the title.

darkside

Yeah the Konga 2 song list is terrible compared to the 1st. Whoever choose those songs at NOA is hopefully unemployed by now.

xVladx

What's really bad is that the song list in the first wasn't really all that great to begin with. There were a few good songs (the stuff like Oye Como Va, for instance), but there were some real stinkers (Bingo, Diddy's Ditties, etc). While the second game seems to be straying further away from kid's music (unless "Send the Pain Below" is some new campfire song I'm unaware of), I'm not a huge fan of the direction.

Especially since the Japanese version had the Pikmin 2 theme, and the PAL version of the first game had the Smash Brothers theme...

grim_tales

Blimey I know hardly any of those songs (by title anyway) Maybe I'll just go with the first game then...

Josh H

Yeah, definitely pick up the first one.

I'll probably get the second one anyway as I have fun even with the cheesy songs in the first game, but the list does kind of suck. But who knows, maybe some of the songs none of us have heard of will be decent and a lot of fun to play along too.

I hope they have Konga games on the Revolution too. With it's HD it could be the first game to make good use of the custom sound track feature, where you could import songs and it would add the beats to them for you to play. Or it could just be an editor thing where you import them and the put the beats in yourself and share the tracks online.

That would be awesome and add endless replayability.