That Nintendo loves new toys isn't news - whether it's stuff like the e-Reader or Game Boy Camera that they do a few odds and ends with then forget about or things that they keep around forever, like the um . . . er . . . yeah, anyway. Coming out soon for the GameCube are the Donkey Kong bongos, and though Donkey Konga was widely known about prior to E3, another gem was a bit more hidden. Nintendo debuted Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat at this year's E3, and I have to admit to being immensely entertained.

Jungle Beat looks to be a standard action platformer, but its big twist is that it's controlled with the bongos. Bopping the left bongo makes DK run left, right makes him go right, both at the same time makes him jump (and you have a certain amount of air control too), and clapping your hands registers with the sound detector in the middle of the bongos making Donkey Kong clap for assorted in-game effects. It sounds like a limited control scheme but, in typical Nintendo fashion, a lot is done with it.

The E3 demo had two levels: a free-roaming jungle level and an auto-scrolling winter one, with the same boss fight at the end of each. You could also choose to fight the boss without going through the hassle of negotiating a level, but what's the fun in that? Both levels were set up in the style of a standard 2D side-scroller, although with those modern 3D graphics I've heard tell are all the rage nowadays, and the game camera would go close in or pull back depending on the challenge of the moment.

The opening jungle level was pretty easy, getting the player used to the controls and also reinforcing the need to clap whenever something interesting was on screen. Clapping sends out soundwaves which can do everything from collecting otherwise unreachable bananas to making flowers grow to stunning enemies. It even makes little glowing butterfly-things line up into new platforms to walk on or walls to rappel off of. Level one provided a good variety of things to do at a nice easy pace, and showed exactly how much fun you could have (a lot) playing a classic-style game with a new controller. Level two, the ice level, stops being so friendly and starts putting those skills to work. You start off riding some kind of yak-beast, bongoing away to make it run faster and jump at the appropriate time, and then you start getting chased by - and I'm pretty sure I'm not imagining this - an arctic ice land fish. Still pretty easy to escape, just bongo away and run like mad while jumping and clapping to get the banana bonuses. Easy, that is, until it puts you between a fish and a snowball place - which is kind of like between a rock and a hard place except you're an ape riding a yak being chased by an arctic land fish with a snowball ahead of you while maintaining an even tempo on the bongos. At this point I feel I should mention that I can think of no other medium where this kind of activity is considered even somewhat normal.

Adding to the fun is a combo system where grabbing bananas and flower bonuses adds to the combo meter, and the more you can get in one go the better. With all the things to see and do at E3, I came back twice to this game just because that combo meter was telling me that I could do better on the next play-through, nicely adding a feeling of replayability to the proceedings.

The combo meter also ties directly into your health in the boss fights. Get a good combo score and your health will be off the charts, get a low one and expect to have to exercise a bit more care. There was only one boss fight available in the demo. Though pretty easy, it was also an absolute blast to play. Donkey Kong and another ape dispense with all the running and jumping and get down to beating the living tar out of each other. Left bongo throws a left punch, right throws a right, and clapping makes Kong dodge. You could just throw out a flurry of punches, but only about one in five would get through the enemy ape's guard. Seeing as the boss ape had 200 health, this would take all day, so instead you waited for him to pull back to hit you, then clapped. This threw him off guard, at which point you wailed away on the bongos leftrightleftrightleftrightleftright like a lunatic, taking off 25 points or more a go in a flurry of ape fury. Good times all around.

I don't know what else Nintendo may have planned for the bongos beyond Donkey Konga, but Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat shows a very promising start. Here's hoping that these are just the first of a solid library of titles for this unique new controller, because what we've seen so far looks to be a ton of fun.

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· · · James Cunningham