Monday, February 14, 2005

Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat

Game have an offer on at the moment, of any chart game for £29.99. This makes Game as cheap as, if not cheaper than, online retailers. It's not good news for small independent shops - Game have managed to secure lower wholesale rates due to the volume of stock they purchase, and as a result are able to decrease prices and still make a profit, while their competitors make a loss.

Anyway. I took advantage of this offer to buy Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. It's a game that's controlled with bongos - indeed - and is utterly fabulous. It does, however, have a disadvantage. You can only buy the game packaged with bongos, and I've already got two sets of drums. I bought Donkey Konga when it came out, see, and bought a second set of drums then so my girlfriend could join in.

Nintendo UK, in its infinite wisdom, aren't letting you buy the game seperately for, say, £20. Instead, you must buy the game plus bongos for £40 (or, as I did, £30), and then sell the bongos on. This means that the market is flooded with cheap "second-hand" (but as new) bongos, and nobody's going to pay full price for a second set for Donkey Konga any more. Nintendo has, in effect, lost themselves some money, since they could have sold the game for £20, additional bongos for £25 (as they are actually priced), and not destroyed the market for the latter.

But, in any case, Jungle Beat is an excellent game, thoroughly recommended.

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