Pummel the shoulder buttons
Ok, let’s just jump back to the control system a second as this is central to the gameplay itself. As I said, there’s precious few platforms as such and, as Donkey Kong, you’ll be spending nearly all your time swinging from pegs liberally placed throughout each level. These come in large groups, smaller groups and even individually and, using the left or right shoulder buttons, you grab make Donkey Kong grab them using you’re his left or right hand.If he’s only hanging on with one hand, Donkey Kong will swing around the peg, which gives you enough impetus to let go at the right moment and fling yourself to another peg… or you can grab a release quickly to crawl across a load of pegs, a bit like scrambling across a cargo net. Now although you can control Donkey Kong’s movement with the d-pad too, I suggest sticking with just using the shoulder buttons as they control left and right and once you’re on the pegs, the d-pad has no function. In mid fling you have a modicum of control and trying to use d-pad and shoulder buttons at the same time often ends up with you missing your aiming point and falling off the screen for a loss of life…
Now, a game based on just flinging yourself from peg to peg is going to get stale pretty quickly so Nintendo have thrown in plenty of variety to keep you playing. Some pegs disappear after a short while, others spin around flinging you further, some more only appear after breaking certain barrels and others yet either have to be cranked into position or will spin the whole level through ninety degrees, giving you access to new areas.
In each level there’s a load of collectables, the basic one being bananas, 100 of which earn you an extra life. Collect the requisite number of banana coins earns you bonuses, the K,O,N,G, icons earn you an extra life and so on. All in all, there’s loads to try and achieve on each stage. Also dotted around levels are barrels which fire you to previously unreachable areas, reveal more pegs or, if you’ve not got him already, release Diddy Kong to help you out.
Diddy Kong is essentially your way of using the various power-ups dotted through the game and is essential in some of the levels. As both your hands are full climbing around on pegs, it’s up to Diddy to do the extras when he’s not piggy backing on Donkey Kong. You can use Diddy as a weapon with his spin attack reaching farther than you can on your own, but also, if he lands on a platform at the height of his jump, he can be controlled to collect unreachable items.
The various power-ups Diddy can use are, for the most part, fairly obvious in their uses. The hammer sees Diddy spinning around Donkey Kong, smashing unbreakable barriers and wiping out any nasties that come too close. One important one is the map, in a level where it’s too misty to see the pegs, you’ll have to rely on the map Diddy hols to see where you have to jump to next. But also, if Diddy provides a buffer to losing a life as he’ll drop off on the first touch from something deadly, leaving you and Donkey Kong to carry on… handy on some of the trickier levels.
