I don’t know if it’s just the nostalgia, so you are completely entitled to disagree
with me, but 16 bit Disney games were great.
Absolute classics like Aladdin, Lion King and this one, The Jungle Book, were some very
good times.
The Kipling collection of short stories explored themes that dealt with concepts like what
society does to human instincts, survival of the fittest, and the distance between man
and beast.
Does this game go into these deep concepts?
Not really, but it is a really fun platformer based off the movie.
You play as the feral child Mowgli, the young boy raised in the forest and a part of the
forest.
Bagheera the panther wants to introduce Mowgli to human society while other animals like
Baloo, Kaa, and King Louie fight against this, all the while Shere Khan the tiger is hunting
Mowgli.
The levels are pulled right from the movie, and convey the film perfectly.
Each level looks and feels like what it is supposed to be, right down to the fantastic
music that I found myself singing along to.
How can you not be overcome with the desire to sing when you hear songs like, The Bare
Necessities, and I Wan’na Be Like You.
Truly classics of our time.
The levels are big open areas, and littered throughout them are 15 gems.
Mowgli has to explore the areas and find a certain amount of the gems and then make it
to the end of the level.
Sometimes the level just ends, sometimes you have to fight a boss.
If you find all the gems, you are rewarded with a bonus level.
The gems can be tough to find in big levels like these, but you are gifted with a nice
little radar system in the corner, that helps out big time.
But if it not a simple fetch mission.
There are tons of enemies from monkeys, to snakes to parrots, to bees and scorpions that
are all waiting to attack.
Mowgli can either jump on their head to kill them or attack them with one of his weapons
that he finds in the levels.
These mostly include types of fruit or things you find in the forest.
The standard are bananas, but you will find boomerange, double bananas, coconuts, and
an invincibility mask.
The Jungle Book is an example of a Disney game done right.
It is challenging, fun, and brings all the character and appeal of the source material
to life in an interactive way.
It’s simple but fun gameplay with great style.
Definitely worth playing.