Taito hit a home run with this one back in the day. Still holds up!
Jungle Hunt is an arcade game from Taito from 1982 that was ported over to all of the big systems of the day the following year. In this game, you play as Sir Dudley Dashly, and you'll have to swing from vine to vine, swim across a river while stabbing sharks, and running up a hill while avoiding boulders before outwitting cannibals to rescue Lady Penelope from being boiled alive in a cauldron.
At the top of the screen, you'll have your current amount of lives on the left, your current score in the center, and the bonus timer on the right. The faster you get through one loop, the bigger the bonus you'll get.
The first part of the game has you swinging on vines. You'll be moving from right to left here. The vines swing back and forth at various speeds, and you'll need to time your presses of the fire button just right so that the vine ahead of you is angled to the right while the one you are on is angled to the left. If your timing is way off, you'll fall to the ground below and lose a life, but if you catch the vine, you'll be able to jump to the next one. As you're doing this, you'll want to pay attention to where you are on the vine. It's better to be higher on a vine than in a lower position, as that gives you more room for error and makes it easier to jump to the next vine in case something goes wrong.
You'll eventually end up in the river. You can swim around in eight directions with the joystick, and the fire button allows you to stab the crocodiles with a knife. If your upper arm is in the extended position, that means that you're stabbing with the knife, although it can be a bit hard to tell. As you swim across the river, you'll also have a "Diving" meter, which is your oxygen. If you run out of oxygen, you'll lose a life. You'll also lose a life if you run into a crocodile while not in the stabbing animation.
You'll soon reach dry land, and you'll have to run up a hill, although the hill is flat on the Atari 2600 version of the game. Left and Right on the joystick allow you to move back and forth, Down on the joystick allows you to duck, while the fire button allows you to jump. If you're holding Up on the joystick while you press the fire button, you'll do a higher jump than normal, and that can sometimes allow you to jump over the bigger boulders. The smaller boulders roll along the ground, while the bigger boulders will bounce up and down as they advance towards you. You'll have to jump over the smaller boulders, but you can superjump over or duck under the bigger boulders depending on your position as well as the boulder's.
Finally, there's the cannibals. The cannibals will jump back and forth, and you'll want to time your movements carefully so you don't run into them in any way. Approach them as they jump backwards, then jump over them before they jump forwards again. If you don't get close enough to jump over them, back away, then approach as they hop back to the left. Be ready to hit the fire button when you close the distance. If you use the superjump, this can be a little easier. When you jump over a cannibal, head left with Left on the joystick to head to the second cannibal, who you'll have to deal with the same way that you dealt with the first one. After getting past the second cannibal, keep holding Left on the joystick, especially when you reach the screen with Lady Penelope. You'll reunite with Lady Penelope, and the game starts all over again at a slightly higher difficulty.
The only game modes are selectable with the Game Select switch. Game Mode 1 is the default easier difficulty, while Game Mode 2 is the harder difficulty. Pressing the switch will show one of the two numbers - 1 or 2 - in the upper-left corner. The difficulty switches are not used for this game.
I had fun with this port. The colors were of the darker variety, but it definitely feels like you're in a jungle with the hues that the colors come in. I also like that there is also parallax scrolling with the treetops. The sound and music is pretty arcade-y, and the jingle you get for completing a section of the game never gets old. The controls are responsive, and while you'll get them down pretty quickly, getting through and beyond the second loop will take a little bit of doing. As for replay value, your mileage may vary due to the arcade-esque nature of this game much like all others of the era, but don't be surprised if you spend some serious time with this one just because of how fun this is. If you see this one, try it out. You won't be disappointed.
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