Jungle King / Jungle Hunt

Jungle King Arcade Game

Jungle King was a left to right scrolling game released by Taito in 1982.  In later years, the name of the game was changed to Jungle Hunt.  The early versions featured a loin-cloth clad Tarzan character, while later versions featured an explorer wearing khakis.  The change was due to a lawsuit filed against Taito stating that the character’s likeness to Tarzan was a copyright infringement.  The ultimate goal of Jungle King was for the character to rescue his girlfriend from cannibals.

Jungle King Arcade Game Cabinet

There were four total gameplay scenes.  In the first scene, Tarzan had to swing from vine to vine (or rope-to-rope in the Jungle Hunt version), timing the jumps just right.  In the second scene, Tarzan had to swim through alligator invested waters, armed with a knife, and occasionally to get oxygen by resurfacing.  In the third scene, Tarzan had to dodge various size boulders as they rolled down a steep hill.  In the final scene, Tarzan had to keep away from the cannibals while attempting to rescue his girlfriend, who was being lowered into a boiling cauldron.  If all four levels were successfully completed, gameplay re-started at level 1, with each level becoming increasingly more difficult.