DK: King of Swing

DK: King of Swing is a puzzle game starring Donkey Kong for the Game Boy Advance. It is the first installment of the DK series. Its gameplay is similar to the NES game Clu Clu Land, but has been re-formatted in certain aspects to provide more of an adventure game feel. In this game, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong must quest across five worlds to win back the Jungle Jam medals that King K. Rool has stolen and scattered across the levels. The game is the first Donkey Kong franchise game developed by Paon for Nintendo, who also made the sequel, DK: Jungle Climber and the racing title Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.

Story
The game takes place during the Jungle Jam Tournament, where a huge festival held occurs. During the tournament, medals (which are actually DK Coins) are handed out as prizes to participants in contests like breaking barrels and jumping pegs, with the winner being crowned the hero of the jungle. King K. Rool, however, steals all the medals before the tournament commences, proclaiming himself the jungle hero. Donkey Kong pursues King K. Rool to get the medals back and restore peace to Donkey Kong Island. After traveling through four different regions, gaining the stolen medals dropped by K. Rool, Donkey Kong arrives on the King Kruizer III. Confronting K. Rool, DK beats the king in both a climbing race and battle, claiming the last medal. He leaves with all the medals on K. Rool's hovercraft while the flying fortress falls out of the sky.

Game modes

 * Adventure: The main mode of the game.
 * Single Jungle Jam Tournament: There are a total of twelve events that can be played in this mode. The player can choose between Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Funky Kong, the player can unlock Bubbles, Wrinkly Kong, King K. Rool, and Kritter too. The CPU uses the other characters. The first accessible events are: Climbing Race 1, Climbing Race 2, Obstable Race 1 and Attack Battle 1.
 * Multiplayer Jungle Jam Tournament: The same as above, but in multiplayer with four players using the GBA Link cable.
 * Extras: It features Cranky's Lectures (the tutorial from the beginning of the game), a Time Attack Mode, and Diddy Mode, which allows the player to use Diddy Kong in the place of Donkey Kong during the Adventure mode.

Diddy Mode differences

 * The tutorial stage is no longer present.
 * Bananas laying out in the open are no longer there; the player can only collect them by destroying enemies or crates.
 * Crystal Coconuts were removed, and as a result, Bonus Barrels and the bonus stages they led to are no longer present.
 * Diddy is slightly faster and jumps slightly higher than Donkey Kong.

Time Attack mode
A Time Attack appears in DK: King of Swing, where it can only be played after the player has completed the adventure mode. It can be found under the Extras menu. When the player selects the mode, they are given a list of every level, each with its only best time that the player can beat. Three other times also exist in the high scores list that the player can beat. However, beating the times are optional and do not allow the player to unlock any new mode or item.

During the mode, the player is given three hearts of life. If all three are lost, they must start the Time Attack over. Additionally, hearts can be restored if they collect ten bananas and use them for Donkey Kong's "Going Bananas" move. Unlike in adventure mode, though, the player is given no bananas to start with and must find them around the course. After the level is completed, the player's time is recorded if it beats a score on the high scores list.

Gameplay
As mentioned earlier, the gameplay is very similar to the NES game Clu Clu Land, and mainly consists of swinging across boards of pegs. However, in this game the player must climb, swing, and even shoot their way to reach the top, all the while collecting the medals. The player cannot face the boss without beating each level; once all levels have been completed, the player may face the boss at the designated boss stage. After the boss is beaten, the player may continue to the next world.

If the player chooses to collect each Crystal Coconut, hidden items concealed inside crates, boxes, nooks and crannies, or even inside enemies, Wrinkly Kong is unlocked as a player in the single player Jungle Jam Tournament. There are twenty Crystal Coconuts in all.

Controls
The controls are made to be simple: swings Donkey Kong left,  swings Donkey Kong right. If the button is held down, DK will swing on a fixed spot from left to right, and vice versa for the  button. If the button is lightly tapped, Donkey will go flying of in whatever direction he is pointing. To get a better aim, DK must swing about until he is facing the right way.

When on the ground, DK can walk about quite quickly using the and  buttons; when they are tapped simultaneously he will lift off from the ground in a flying leap.

Donkey Kong can also Attack by holding down both the and  buttons at once. DK will clutch the pegs, and slowly start to glow red; once he is totally glowing, the buttons should be released and DK will go flying off into an aerial attack.

Finally, DK can either Charge using the Button (uses ten bananas; restores one health unit) or Go Bananas using the  Button (uses twenty bananas; makes DK invincible and able to leap great heights).

Pegs
Pegs are common objects in the game that have many different variants. Each variant performs a different function and assists Donkey Kong in reaching further areas.

Pre-release and unused content
DK: King of Swing went through some changes during its development.

Trivia

 * The Donkey Kong Country Returns level "King of Cling" is named similarly to this game.
 * This game marks the first playable appearances of Funky Kong, Wrinkly Kong, Kritter, and King K. Rool.
 * This is the first, and currently the only game where Dixie Kong does not wear her top tied.
 * This game was planned to release in mainland China by iQue, but left unreleased due to the huge scene of piracy in China at that time. The unreleased Chinese prototype received an ISBN, meaning it was approved for distribution despite the ban on video games from Chinese government.
 * A promotional browser game was released in 2005 called DK: King of Swing -- Hurling for Distance.