DK Bongo Blast (GC)

Adam Wolf · 06-19-2006, 08:48 PM

IGN.com

We try out Nintendo's latest mascot racer.
by Anoop Gantayat
June 19, 2006 - Nintendo is doing its best to make sure you get your money's worth from the DK Bonga controller that came with Donkey Konga. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat proved to be one of last year's most unique games, using the special controller for a platforming experience like no other. This year, Nintendo is trying to do the same with the racing genre. We sampled DK Bongo Blast at the World Hobby Fair in Chiba, Japan, this past weekend.

At a glance, Bongo Blast appears to be your typical mascot racer, with a cast of Donkey Kong family characters and stages filled with traps and gimmicks. The big catch here is that the control is handled via the Bonga controller. While your vehicle automatically coasts forward, you can alternatively tap the left and right drum for extra speed. Clapping makes your character jump, a move that's useful for avoiding obstacles and collecting items from balloons floating above the course. You release an item by pressing L and R simultaneously. By holding L and R, you charge your character up for a banana-fueled dash. A standard control scheme is also available, but we weren't able to try it out.

There's certainly a lot happening in the stages, from blowing vents in the jungle stage to a giant octopus and its moving tentacles in the water stage. The game also includes a large selection of weapons, ranging from a bazooka to banana bombs. With four player split screen play, this could make for a fun, competitive racer.

The World Hobby Fair version had some problems, though. The game's controls felt unresponsive, and movement was, on the whole, slow. The demo build also had some visual defects, with a choppy framerate in two player split screen. If Nintendo addresses these issues, you may have another reason to dust off that DK Bonga peripheral.

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DK Bongo Blast (GC)

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