The GameCube has many bizarre Japanese oddities, but none are as polished and perfected as this week's Last Dance, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. This criminally overlooked game manages to find the elusive balance between new and familiar along with depth and simplicity. As an example of game developers repurposing hardware for things they were never meant to do, Jungle Beat twists what could have been an otherwise average Donkey Kong Country-styled adventure into something fresh by incorporating the GameCube's DK Bongos. Unlike Donkey Konga, the uninspired and flat game that inspired the peripheral's creation, Jungle Beat engages players by using familiar platformer interactions as a starting point and gives the title a musical slant that results in an experience more welcoming than any other title on the GameCube, including Nintendo's own Super Mario Sunshine. While Sunshine wasn't shown up in the sales department, Jungle Beat certainly outclassed it through breathtaking visuals, well crafted level design, ambitious boss design, and a good healthy dose of clever sound design.

Those familiar with the DK Country series should feel right at home with Jungle Beat's level progression; players gallop from point A to point B through themed 2.5D environments while collecting bananas and bopping bad guys. Moving Mr. Kong is as simple as tapping the left or right drum. Two or three rapid taps on one drum gets him running in that direction. Since this is a platformer we're talking about, you would correctly assume that jumping plays a big part of the action and can be performed by slapping both drums simultaneously. The game gives Donkey Kong a context sensitive "make things happen" clap interaction by, well... clapping near the Bongo's microphone, or giving the drums a swift slap on its side. The clapping mechanic is used to grab onto vines, stun enemies, and generally interact with the environment. If you don't have a set of DK Bongos around, you could play the game with the standard gamepad, but it loses much of the game's infectious appeal and completely misses the point. It takes only a minute to get a good grasp onto the controls and start performing some more advanced maneuvers, such as chaining together jumps, enemy strikes, and banana grabbing. With each of these aspects playing into the game's robust score system, it's replay factor quickly becomes apparent as you'll be playing levels again and again just to push your score a bit further.

Bosses take a variety of forms throughout the game with a few fanservice inspired nods to some of Nintendo's cult hits like Ice Climbers and Punch Out! Through some effective camera work and character animation, this game is able to elevate the scale of these encounters to God of War like "epicness." From time elastically stopping and starting with punches to incredibly gigantic explosions of feathers, the game takes on a visceral quality that few other GameCube games would display. The "formulas" of these battles get repeated through the game's later levels, but remain engaging through different attack patterns and minor mechanic tweaks.

Perhaps the best aspect of the entire game is how precisely paced each and every level is. Hidden behind the title's platform mechanics is one of the most fantastically plotted music games ever created. Taking the notion of a "music-action" game beyond that of a timed Simon clone, Jungle Beat's levels reveal their own set of musical structures, complete with verses and choruses with enemy and obstacle placement. While not apparent on the first play through of each level, advanced players will be delighted to discover these elements on repeated playthroughs allowing them to find the absolute best route through a level by searching for the beat with the game's combo system. The outcome couldn't be better executed as Jungle Beat's subtly allows new players to enter the experience without feeling like they are failing, but lets advanced players find hidden gameplay just behind the design's exterior.

There are so many facets of this title that were years ahead of their time that it's easy to forget each one but carried a substantial risk of being a game breaker. Before Guitar Hero most publishers avoided peripherals like gays avoided Madonna's Candy Shop, music games were mostly made up of Dance Dance Revolution clones, and nearly all "3D" games were played 3D in whether it fit their designs or not. While it may be a small miracle that a game like this was able to be released, it comes to no surprise that Nintendo head honchos saw exactly what they had with the EAD Tokyo Studio and put them to work on the next full fledged Mario title. As their freshman effort, Jungle Beat gave us a perfected taste of some of the trends that would become a focus throughout Nintendo's other projects and the industry as a whole for years to come. Bridging the gap that would become "casual versus hardcore" gaming, the title is perhaps the best living example of Nintendo's "games for all" attitude with the possible exception of the studio's follow up, Super Mario Galaxy.

Most of these Last Dance articles wrap up with me talking about how the game I've just spent way too much time replaying ends on a cliffhanger with absolutely no chance of a sequel. By either sheer luck or evidence of some type of a higher power, Jungle Beat is a part of a shortlist of GameCube games that Nintendo is revisiting on the Wii now that they have console dominance once again. With no US release date for the Wii-make announced yet, lets hope that the game gets the success in deserves the second time around.