Jungle Hunt

The Good
If there was a game made in 1982 which was advanced for its time, it would be Taito's Jungle Hunt. Other coin-op games at that time presented the action in only one scene, whereas Jungle Hunt is split into multiple scenes. The plot is simple: you control an African explorer who is trying to rescue his girlfriend from some cannibals. All the action is split into four scenes.

In the first scene, you must safely travel from vine to vine without falling onto the ground or you lose a life. In the second, you need to swim through a crocodile-infested river and use your knife to kill crocs (you kill them only if they have their mouths closed) and occasionally going up to the surface for some air. Be careful not to get caught among the bubbles, as they might make you come in contact with a croc. In the third, you need to jump over boulders that come rolling down the hill at you. Finally, in the fourth, you must deal with the cannibals before they decide to eat your girl for dinner.

Once you do all this, you do it all over again, but this time with increased difficulty, as monkeys will go up and down the vines and will make you slip off if they touch you. Furthermore, some of the cannibals will throw spears at you and you need to avoid them. I got up to this difficulty, and I found it rather difficult going from vine to vine while the monkeys move up and down on them. It would have been good if they threw bananas at you, then you would have to move up and down.

Jungle Hunt can be played with two players. Furthermore, you can play at three levels: "Beginner", "Regular", and "Advanced". The difference is that in "Beginner" mode, you have six lives, while playing the "Advanced" level not only give you only three lives, but it allows you to bypass the first set of scenes. Jumping over boulders and the cannibals can be difficult, even with the easy difficulty setting. The difficulty setting cannot be selected in the coin-op version.

The Bad
In the C64 version, this music, which was included in the coin-op version, including the "ritual music" from the final scene of the game, is missing.

The Bottom Line
Overall, the C64 version of Jungle Hunt remains close to the coin-op version. The only thing that is missing is the two pieces of music that I enjoyed listening to.

Rating: **½