Sir Dudley Dashly has a bit of a problem here - his wife, Lady Penelope, has been kidnapped by savage cannibals and is going to be cooked and eaten! Of course, Sir Dudley is going to go get her back - and that's where you come in.
Jungle Hunt is an adaptation of the Taito arcade game of the same name (earlier known as Jungle King, until there was a copyright dispute which caused Taito to change their original Tarzan-esque character into Sir Dudley and also caused them to rename the game). I've referred to the game numerous times as Pitfall! Lite, and while that's not far from the truth, Sir Dudley must tackle several dangers that Pitfall Harry never had to face.
You start off swinging from a vine. What you have to do is jump from vine to vine until you've reached stage two. Now, the vines swing at varying speeds, so you have to time your jumps - the last thing you want to do is miss a vine and go crashing into the underbrush, which will cause you to lose a life. Stage two is an alligator-infested river that you must swim through. You can kill the gators with your survival knife (only from beneath and if their mouths are closed), but don't stay underwater for too long, as you will run out of oxygen and die if you do. Of course, if a gator touches you, you'll lose a life. Watch out for the rogue gators, though!
Once you make it past the river, it's on to stage three. Now you must run across a field of boulders, both large and small, that are rolling right toward you. Jump over the small boulders and duck under the large ones. If any of these boulders hit you, you die. Once you've passed the boulders, you've reached the fourth and final stage. Now you must jump over two cannibal guards (one per screen). They jump back and forth, and should you miss your jump, you will die. Make it past them, and Lady Penelope is saved! Then the game starts over again, at a higher difficulty level.
Jungle Hunt controls exactly like the arcade version. The stick controls Sir Dudley, and pressing the button causes him to jump, or use his knife in stage two. The graphics, while not quite as good as the arcade, are some of the better ones done for the VCS. The sounds are fairly close to the arcade as well, although the "Tarzan" yell that starts the game is gone, as is the bouncy jungle music.
This is definitely one of the best arcade ports the VCS has ever seen. If you're a fan of the arcade version, you owe it to yourself to check Jungle Hunt out.
