Picked up Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and Yoshi Touch & Go this week. I'd call both games sort of medium level... they're far from AAA titles but still good enough. More importantly, they're different enough.
Jungle Beat is the long awaited second game to use the DK Bongos. And it's the more ambitious title of the two, since the first one (Donkey Konga) is just a rhythm game. I know lots of gamers go all fashion snob on the bongos, but it's exactly the kind of bizarro crap I enjoy, so bleah. I'm always on the lookout for games that play to wide audiences. Ever since the 32-bit era and the birth of the million button controller, the average non-gamer has developed an blatant fear of video games... usually citing complexity as the main reason to never bother playing. So I like seeing games like Donkey Konga, Katamari Damacy, WarioWare, EyeToy, DDR... games that can be easily explained and easily played. Maybe not played great, but still played and enjoyed. These games are helping video games stay on the option list for families and casual gamers (just like board games and card games) and avoid falling wholly into the kneejerk abyss of "all video games are played by pale sociopathic teens."
Although I'm not going to say Jungle Beat is as easy to jump into as Donkey Konga. Jungle Beat is a side scroller played with the bongos... beat on the right drum to run to the right, hit both to jump, clap to attack. Because there's so much jumping and clapping, it looks like a ballet onscreen but sounds like a construction site in your living room. You'll beat until your arms hurt, which isn't a sensation I'm accustomed to. I can see why the game is relatively short; I doubt your doctor would approve of extended play periods.
Wasn't there some dumb kid in Britain who used a vibrating controller until he developed permanent tremors in his hand? Wait until he gets his copy of Jungle Beat.
I'm only five kingdoms in - I couldn't take any more in one sitting - and my favorite bits are the boss fights. Particularly the very first one, where you have to box another ape. You clap to dodge, which is followed by hammering the boss's weak spot... bongo style. That's some satisfying boss beating.
Everything you read about Yoshi Touch & Go is true: it is an arcade game. There is no story, not much to unlock, and the nothing to beat. It's like Pac-Man; you just play it to play it. That said, I'm becoming a big fan of DS games (like Yoshi) that are entirely stylus-based.
First of all, it's easier on the hands. I find that my hands go numb faster when holding a DS than on my GBA SP. Which makes sense, the DS is bigger and horizontal. So when a game doesn't require the shoulder buttons, or the traditional left-thumb-on-d-pad / right-thumb-on-button-array, a miraculous thing happens. You put the thing down. You can sit the DS on the table, the bed, the couch and click away with the stylus. Or you can assume a non-traditional grip with the left hand comfortably holding the DS in such a way that you'd never attempt if you actually needed the d-pad or left shoulder button.
So, using the stylus, you tap when you want Yoshi to throw an egg, draw clouds for Baby Mario to float around, circle enemies and turn them into harmless bubbles. Your only goal is to travel X yards, get a high score, or beat a clock. You're playing it because you want to play it, not because you're wading through a storyline or struggling to collect all the gemstones. Yep, it's an arcade game.
As cute as it is, I'm still not sold that it's enough for one $30-$35 game. I think it would have been a better sell had they combo'd it with a couple other stylus-based games... like a DS version of Yoshi's Cookie or some revamped Game & Watch stuff.
Even better, it should have been hardwired into the DS a la PictoChat. Because a simple (albeit good) arcade or puzzle game isn't something I may have stuck in my cartridge slot on a regular basis for pick-up-and-play gaming. It's more likely I'll have a primary game, a longer game, an action-adventure game in play... and something like Yoshi Touch & Go will be in the carryall as a backup. Idea for the next DS hardware revision: add in two more DS cartridge slots so we can have three active games in the unit at all times. Four if they keep the GBA slot.
