Total Game Boy


The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Wild Adventures

Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: Ubisoft
Machine: Game Boy Color

 
Published in Total Game Boy Issue 14

What? Even more cruelty to monkeys?

The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Wild Adventures

When Rudyard Kipling delivered the first manuscript of his timeless masterpiece The Jungle Book in 1894, little did he know that one day we would be controlling his central character, Mowgli, on a small plastic screen as he embarks on an electronic adventure. Which is good, because if he did know, and told people, he would have been locked up.

Woo Hoo Hoo!

You control little Mowgli, the man-cub brought up by wolves, as you make your way through the jungle and back to human civilisation. To help you on the way are Bagheera the sensible panther, Baloo the jazz-loving bear, Louie the Monkey King and Kaa the snake.

In your journey you must defeat the villainous tiger Shere Khan, and to do this you must learn many tricky moves. Far from being a simple Technicolor version of the old run-and-shoot-bananas platformer, there is a rather clever problem-solving element to the new game.

I Wanna Be Like You Hoo Hoo!

The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Wild Adventure

As you make your way from level to level, the various guardians teach you different moves and test you on them in tricky races. To reach the final level of each section, you must collect badges with the guardian on, and it takes a brain-teasing series of switch flicking to unlock all the doors to do this.

The problem is, there are only five sections, with about four levels in each. You reach a secret fun section after completing the game, but with surprisingly no UbiKey options or anything remotely similar, it's a poor show for folks who've paid the full whack. Oh yeah, and the music's rubbish as well.

Second Opinion

Jem might have found The Jungle Book really easy to play, but in my opinion this makes it perfect for the younger Game Boy Color players out there. The game has got great cartoony graphics, all your favourite characters from the movie are in here and it's from those nice people at Disney. What more could you want?

Verdict

The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Wild Adventure

Graphics 80%
Excellent Disney action.

Sound 40%
Awful tunes - they're not Disney.

Playability 80%
Fast, furious, fuming fun!

Lastability 40%
Only the bare necessities.

Overall 66%
A great game to borrow