Look at that tasty SEGA logo!

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That’s some good-looking cover art.
This arcade port was made and published by Sega.
I’m pretty sure I’ve played this before on a different system but I can hardly remember.
That’s not a good sign.

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You’re a hunter on a jungle safari. The jungle is full of creatures
determined to give you a run for your life but none of them can match
the mischief of CONGO BONGO, the jungle gorilla.

Somebody got really creative with the name there…

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The game is played from an isometric view.
In the first stage, you have to climb a mountain while dodging barrels. At the top, you have to jump a small river while ignoring a few monkeys.
They don’t do sh*t except flickering like crazy.

Stage two is pretty much “Frogger lite”.
To cross a large river you have to jump on a lilypad, then on a crocodile, a log and finally a hippo.
Fairly easy since none of the animals dive down hence allowing you to take your time.
That’s it.

The last screen sees the hunter picking up a torch and setting Congo Bongo on fire.
That’s kinda f*cked because this gorilla did nothing wrong. It’s obvious that you are the bad guy here.
After that its back to square one…over and over until you’ve run out of lives.

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Which, like so often, is my biggest gripe.
You’ve seen everything after two to five minutes. No kidding.
Gameplay isn’t that fun either. Stage one is frustrating since you never know if the barrels will hit you or if you are able to make a jump. The Atari 2600 was not the best candidate for an isometric view.
Stage two is just a worse Frogger. Let’s leave it at that.

Its a bit sad because the game could be alright with more stages and on stronger hardware.
Its colorful (love the rainbow crocs) and the background music is surprisingly not that annoying but that’s just not enough to warrant a purchase.

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Congo Bongo? More like No-go Sh*tshow! (help)

3/10