I got my first taste of DK King of Swing for the GBA last year while sitting in a movie theater waiting for the previews to start. We arrived early and I managed to get 20 minutes or so in. I was immediately pulled into the novel premise of the game and enjoyed it until I was forced to stuff the GBA Micro into my pocket. When getting a chance to play later, the game was still fun, but things started to feel a little stale after a while. With this follow up title on the DS, however, Nintendo has gone to great lengths to keep the play fresh. So how does DK: Jungle Climber fare overall? Keep on reading to find out.

The gameplay in DK: Jungle Climber is simple. You control Donkey Kong as you navigate vertically scrolling levels by swinging from peg to peg. The L and R buttons control DK's hands. If you press the L button, DK's left hand will grasp down on a peg if it is within reach. If you press the R button, he'll grasp with his right hand. If you have both hands grasped, DK will remain in place, and charge up a jump. If you only have one hand grasping a peg, DK will rotate either clockwise (right hand grasping) or counter-clockwise (left hand grasping). You'll need to use DK's rotating, grasping, and jumping abilities to avoid obstacles as you climb steadily toward the goal at the end of each stage.

To add some difficulty to your ascent and some variety to the gameplay, you're encouraged to gather up items like bananas, coins, and letters to unlock special bonuses that range from simple things like extra lives to unlockable levels. Gathering up everything on the board is pretty challenging, and takes some patience and dedication. For those that love to collect items in their platformers, they'll find plenty to seek out here. For those that aren't fond of collecting, you're free to progress at your own pace.

One vast improvement that DK: Jungle Climber benefits from over DK: King of Swing is the level design. Both games use the same basic gameplay mechanic, but Jungle Climber has some very creative levels. The variety of obstacles and challenges really helps to make the simple gameplay mechanic to keep from bogging down and growing stale; even after extended and repeated play. The dual screen setup also allows for a much better view of the level as you ascend.

The replay value in Jungle Climber is much higher than you'll find in a typical platformer. If you wish, you can revisit levels to try to pass them faster, to collect more items, and to perfect your routes. A ghost replay feature allows you to challenge your best runs on each level, much like you see in racing titles. Multiplayer is a lot of fun as well, and thankfully Jungle Climber supports local wireless play for four players one a single cartridge. It's always appreciated when devs manage to squeeze this in as it greatly adds to the longevity of a title.

There are some minor gripes I have with the game, but the overall experience of Jungle Climber is enough to satisfy both casual and hardcore Nintendo fans. While some may tire of the constant climbing, I found that the level design was clever enough to keep the constant L and R tapping from getting old. At times you might wish you could just get down and run around for a while, and that's understandable. For those that keep on swinging until the end will most likely find themselves wanting more.