Explore the jungle and devour lots of bananas in Nintendo's newest DS game, DK Jungle Climber. A sequel to the Game Boy Advance offering, DK: King of Swing, Jungle Climber tasks you with guiding Donkey Kong to the goal by navigating a series of pegs. It's a cute adventure worth experiencing. Just don't expect something incredible or difficult.

This is one of those experiences where the game mechanics outshine the story. For some unexplainable reason, the characters won't shut up. Nintendo keeps shoving this tired story down your throat, something about bananas and the evil King K. Rool and blah, blah, blah. Bottom line, you don't need to pay attention to it, though we strongly suggest watching a few scenes featuring Xananab, the talking banana from outer space. Not only does he screw with your head, seeing as how Donkey Kong's speaking to something he eats on a daily basis, but his language is so ridiculous that you'll probably laugh from shock. Every sentence ends in "fo fanana" and its excellent in the worst way imaginable.

Jungle Climber works like this: each stage has a series of pegs, and you maneuver Donkey Kong by latching onto them. Press both the left and right triggers at the same time to execute a jump. From there, you can grab two pegs by pressing and holding the triggers, or just one using his left or right hand (they correspond to the respective buttons). If he holds onto one, he swings in a clockwise or counterclockwise motion, and releasing the buttons allows you to jump between pegs. Simple yet addictive stuff, and Nintendo litters each stage with enemies to smash into as well as plenty of collectibles to snag, such as coins, jewels and of course, lots of bananas. The game isn't difficult, nor is it challenging. You'll probably run through it in a couple of days. With that being said, it's a very relaxing and fun experience, just not a mind altering one.

In addition to the main quest, you can also earn high scores in a series of mini games which challenge you to dodge rolling logs and grab bananas before time runs out, among other things, You can also hook up with three other gamers via Adhoc in Vs. Battle. It's simplistic stuff (you race in both Speed Climb and Booster Battle), but you can select from a handful of characters from the Donkey Kong universe (Diddy and Funky Kong included), and you only need one cartridge to play.

It gets repetitive, but DK Jungle Climber offers a few hours of fun, especially if you love collecting stuff. So dominate the jungle, pocket lots of coins and make the universe safe for banana aliens everywhere. Fo fanana indeed.