Short & light but fun & innovative
For the former, King of Swing offers light, intuitive gameplay with a moderate amount of difficulty; short but inventively designed levels, long enough to wet the appetite but short enough to finish in a few subway stops; and a handful of fun multiplayer game mods that can be played with just one gamepack.
For the latter, you'll get a unique and innovative control scheme that will get you to change your definition of what a platforming game should be like; several pleasant surprises on how that scheme gets used in the game; and a number of single player challenges that will keep you entertained long after you've ripped through the main adventure mode.
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King of Swing feels both old and new at the same time. The cartoony 2D graphics, platforming/puzzle action and game length make it feel like an old arcade or NES game you played and loved long ago. However, the new control scheme creates new challenges for your platforming skills and allowed the designers to come up with really creative ways to use that scheme to solve puzzles and move through the game world.
Honestly, it's just plain fun to whip around a level, swinging from peg to peg; it's actually as much fun just controlling DK in the gameworld as it is just playing the game. If the developers had given DK a few more moves, a whole freestyle "jungle gym" game mod would have been a great addition.
As it is, the game already has an assortment of extras and unlockables that add to the game's value. Several single-pack multiplayer game mods are available to be unlocked as you play through the single player adventure, and once you beat the adventure, there's a harder "Diddy Kong" mod for playing through the adventure again, upping the challenge. Lastly, there's a time attack mod for each level in the game that I just recently started playing and that I'm finding to be a quite a fun combination of skill (executing quick hand to hand swings) and intellect (finding the quickest route through each level takes some hard thinking and practice)
The graphics are bright, colourful and clear, which might turn off some at first but you'll be thankful for as you move through the environment. DK's hands are oversized a little so you can always see them clearly and know when you're in the right position to grab something, and determine what's a grabable item and what's not. The animations are fluid and cute as much as they are spartan (not a complaint), and the audio does the job and makes the game fun.
Summary:
You're an experienced platforming/puzzle veteran, you'll probably chew through this in a couple of days and want to trade it back in. But if you're in the mood for something unique, fun, creative, are looking for something for a casual gamer, or looking for good value for your buck, then King of Swing's your game.