Personal Computer News


Congo Bongo

Author: Bob Chappell
Publisher: U. S. Gold
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Personal Computer News #099

BONGO

Sega should have left this official adaption from the arcade game where it was. This version for the Commodore 64 certainly didn't bang my drum.

All you get for just under a tenner is two screens. The first shows an attractive enough series of 3D stepped plateaux, separated by rivers, stairs and a slide. The idea is to navigate your way to the highest plateau where Congo, a passive gorilla, perches.

The only hazards are falling coconuts and prancing monkeys. It should take you all of ten seconds to conquer this screen on level 1. When you reach Congo, the picture slides upwards to reveal the second and final screen.

Congo Bongo

So far, so boring. The next one's hardly any better - it's a Frogger look-alike. You must cross the river by jumping onto the hippos, lilypads and fish. On the far side, the only other danger is a rampaging rhino. The difficulty of this second screen contrasted sharply with the simplicity of the first. Try as I might, my little White Hunter always turned into an angel if he so much as nudged one of the means of transport.

Should you have the patience, persistence or masochism to reach the far bank, it's then back to screen 1 again with an increase in the number of hazards.

Congo Bongo failed to excite. The graphics are nothing to write home about, the sound effects, given the 64's power, are crude, and the content, minimal.

Better to let this sleeping arcade game lie is my advice.

Bob Chappell

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