Jungle King

One of the more obscure games by Atari, Jungle Hunt is a decent PC port of Taito's coin-op classic.

The goal: swing from vine to vine and avoid boulders and crocodiles to save your fair maiden from the clutches of cannibals. Like the arcade version, the game consists of 4 stages, all of which are quite different from each other. The first stage is reasonably fun: catch the next vine to swing from while avoiding menacing apes. After this you’ll face hungry crocodiles in the river. You can use a knife in this stage to deal with them. The third stage has you climb up the mountain while jumping over or ducking under boulders (reminds me of the action sequence in Black Cauldron here). Finally in the final stage, you will face spear-wielding cannibals who are about to eat your girlfriend.

Unfortunately, the transition of this ambitious game from coin-op to PC screen is not without flaws. Unlike other Atari classics, Jungle Hunt suffers from ugly graphics (even by 1984 standards), cumbersome controls, and insanely difficult gameplay. The boulders level is parcularly very hard – I must have spent more than 30-40 tries on this level to no avail. The detailed environments of the coin-op and Atari 5200 version are also missing in this version. Still, if you like challenging arcade games and can put up with blurry graphics, check out this underdog.

Note: an interesting anecdote: the original arcade game was released after Taito was threatened by a suit filed against them by the trustees of Edgar Rice Burroughs' estate, the people who own the rights to Tarzan, for copyright infringement for using Tarzan's likeness in Jungle King, their earlier game based on the same theme.

Review By HOTUD