Game #1034: Disney's Tarzan - Return to the Jungle

 Loincloths are back in vogue.

 Not one to stop playing dated, licensed garbage on the GBA, here we have Disney's Tarzan: Return to the Jungle, a platforming game that gives Sonic a run for is money when it comes to speed.

 The game has short proper animated cutscenes which I think are borrowed from the show considering Tarzan's loincloth is a different shade of brown from the one in the movie clips from the PS1 game. That said, midway through the game Jane and her father introduce themselves to Tarzan so it's hard to pinpoint just when this game is supposed to take place. Not that it really matters, all things considered, but it definitely doesn't follow the plot from the movie.... even if it covers Tarzan growing up and Tarzan meeting Jane, albeit in very different ways.

 The first few levels were surprisingly fun. The game is incredibly fast paced, to the point that it's entirely possible to get hit by stuff you just couldn't see coming. It also threw me off just how janky it can feel considering it's a 2-D game. Climbing edges or jumping on vines can sometimes look very spotty, but, in a weird way, it compliments the game's speed so I didn't really mind it. If anything, I think that performing high jumps seems like luck of the draw, sometimes Tarzan will make it to the edge of the platform and climb on top and other times he won't, so if you can't jump up a wall... keep trying a few times, you just might make it.

 You start the game as child Tarzan and his boomerang, but after 3 or 4 levels you get downgraded to adult Tarzan... Downgraded, because he trades the boomerang for spears that run out. Which sucks until you realize that you have a rolling attack. The game NEVER tells you about it, but pressing the attack button while running will let Tarzan perform Sonic's spin attack. Would've been nice to know a few levels ago while I was counting my precious spears.

 Sadly I think the game gets worse as it goes along, because level design takes a dive. Midway through there's a mazelike level in which you have to find 8 monkeys. If you make it to the end without finding them... tough luck, go back on your tracks and try to find them. The next maze-like level is the final one, and it's a bit easier but still entirely possible that you might miss a Dinosaur Egg before you reach the end, and the end of the level has you running from a Giant Dinosaur in which not landing the high jump fast and well enough will cost you a life. Oh, and in one level there's a gate that requires a key... I was able to simple jump over the gate through the ceiling. Speaking of keys, levels that require finding keys are usually the worst, because levels are huge, both horizontally and vertically. There's one in which a special blue-coated Pirate holds the key, and you don't even know you'll need a key to finish the level or that an enemy might hold it. While I was backtracking to search for this key I felt this enemy looked special enough so maybe, JUST maybe it had the key. I was right. But I could've just avoided him, because... why not? It's not like enemies held keys before.

 It's kinda disappointing because Return to the Jungle starts off really fun, but the level design just becomes more and more annoying the further you go through the game. For as many tutorials as the game has, why you are never told about the rolling attack is beyond me. Still, at least the game has a few decent levels here and there, so it's not a complete loss.

 4.5