I do. I love it. And I'm not ashamed to admit it. Well, I'm a little ashamed, but not much. Because it's awesome. This game, Yoshi's Touch and Go, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat are similarly wondrous games to me, in that they invented a novel mechanic and just nailed the fuck out of it on the first try. All of these overlooked gems recall my favorite parts of the dearly departed arcade experience.
But most of you have experienced Jungle Beat and Touch and Go by now. Let's focus on King of Swing, one of the GBA's unsung heroes. Developed by Paon (who just brought us Glory of Heracles), a company apparently made up of bits of Data East, King of Swing takes the basic premise of Clu Clu Land (swinging around pegs) and throws in gravity and the deep, physics-based precision of something like Bionic Commando NES. The basic mechanics are easy to grasp, but very difficult to master, and holy hell, does the game encourage you to master them. It gets
pretty challenging, but mostly in a "I'm going to get you this time, game!" way, rather than a "I'm never, ever going to play you again, game." way. Finishing levels isn't
too difficult, but picking up the Crystal Coconuts and Medals adds a nice dose of optional challenge. And the host of little mini-levels that unlock at pleasant intervals make facing up to that challenge extra-satisfying.
Mostly, I love how this game takes its simple, novel mechanic and exploits it to the very fullest, so that the experience remains fresh and challenging until the very end. It's very arcade, very fun, and, although it was developed by Paon, very Nintendo. Yeah. So I encourage you guys to try out this series, if you haven't. Nothing else feels quite like it (except, perhaps, for Aura Aura Climber,
which is also awesome). There's also a DS iteration, called Donkey Kong Jungle Climber. Yep.