Developer(s) Virgin Interactive
Publisher(s) Virgin Interactive
Release date(s) 1994
Genre(s) Platformer
Mode(s)
Rating(s) E by ESRB
Platform(s) Game Boy, Game Gear, NES, Sega Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, Super NES
Media Cartridge

Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book is a series of video games based on the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book, primarily released in 1994. Virgin Interactive first released The Jungle Book in 1993 on the Sega Master System. After that, Virgin released the game in 1994 on five different systems simultaneously: Game Boy, NES, Mega Drive/Genesis, the Sega Game Gear, and the Super NES. All six games have the same number of levels. The levels are named the same across all six systems. While the essential game play and mechanics are the same for all six titles, due to the technological differences between the systems the actual level design differs drastically. Essentially the game developers designed a gaming engine flexible enough to be adapted across some very different systems, resulting in six fairly different versions of basically the same game engine. In some cases, the games differ drastically from one another. For NES enthusiasts, this was also one of the last titles released for the then dying system by a third-party developer. Most of the following information is drawn from the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version.

Story Line
The player controls Mowgli, a feral young boy who has been raised by wolves. Mowgli must leave his home in the jungle and go back to the human village, because the tiger Shere Khan is now hunting him. Mowgli must battle jungle wildlife and ultimately Shere Khan himself to make it back to his village. Along the way he meets the charming panther Bagheera, the carefree Baloo (who had Hakuna Matata down long before Timon and Pumbaa even existed), wicked King Louie who wants only to be a man, the hypnotist snake Kaa, and even Shere Khan himself.

Game play
In the game you control a young Mowgli through various side-scrolling levels in a similar mold of Pitfall. It is a vine-climbing, run-and-jump platformer, in which you shoot at or avoid enemies, such as snakes, monkeys, and prickly pear cacti (a North American species which inexplicably seems to reside in this Indian rain forest).

The levels follow this basic formula of collecting gems and then told to find the end character for that particular level. The player scores points by obtaining gems along with having fruits and other items that contribute to the player’s in-game score.

The starting weapon for Mowgli are single banana projectiles. The player can also get several types of weapons, including invincibility masks, coconuts, double banana shots (throws 2 instead of 1), and boomerang bananas.

Level Description
This information is drawn from the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version. While the other two console titles differ in stage layout, they follow the same story arc. Stages are divided into chapters. Each chapter has opening text describing the basic plot of the story, as well as indicating the general nature of the ensuing stage. Some stages have bosses to fight after gaining enough gems. Others have friendly characters you must find after finding the prerequisite number of gems. Each stage has the small elephant waving a flag in different locations. Once the player reaches the elephant, the flag is put down and if the player dies he starts from the flag.

The player has seven minutes to complete each level. Depending on difficulty, the number of gems the player must collect to progress is either eight (easy), ten (medium), or twelve (hard), of a possible fifteen gems spread throughout the level.

Chapter I — Jungle By Day. This opening level introduces the player to the basic game mechanics. This stage is relatively short. The player must collect gems spread throughout the stage by jumping on various platforms. The player can also jump on vines (both swinging and standing still). A player can also catapult oneself to higher platforms with when he jumps on a lever that has a rock at one end. Once enough gems are collected, the player is told to find Bagheera. The rest of the levels follow this basic formula of collecting gems and then told to find the end character, along with having fruits and other items that contribute to the player’s in-game score. Liaison: Bagheera

Chapter II – The Great Tree. Players guide Mowgli through a giant tree while fighting snakes, monkeys, and scorpions. Introduces friendly snakes that when Mowgli jumps on them they send him high into the air. The stage also introduces doors in the tree that send the player either up or down. After collecting enough gems, the player must fight Kaa, the great snake. Kaa attacks by sending swirling circles out of his eyes. Once beaten, he falls from the tree.

Boss: Kaa

Chapter III – The Dawn Patrol. The player has two options. he may either take the high road with vines, or ride on the back of the elephants. However, one will eventually have to climb vines to get enough gems.

Chapter IV: The River. The player guides Mowgli across the river. New items include jumping fish, turtles that once Mowgli jumps on them will move him across sections of the river, and floating rocks that sink as soon as Mowgli lands on them. Anytime Mowgli touchs the water he dies. At the end, he meets Baloo who throws him fruits while Mowgli jumps across two different rocks (these rocks do not sink unlike the others when Mowgli stands on them). The more fruits he misses that Baloo throws him, the more the rocks sink till ultimately he sinks. After this, Mowgli does not die but progresses to the next stage, as this is a bonus round. Liaison: Baloo

Chapter V: Baloo and the River. Mowgli jumps on Baloo’s belly, and Baloo floats down the river. Mowgli can also climb vines, etc, to get the required number of gems.

Liaison: Bagheera

Chapter VI: The Tree Village. This level is much like the Great Tree, with one major exception. This level introduces a new concept in the game. Much like the holes in Level 2, there are now houses dotted that if the player pushes up on the direction pad it takes Mowgli to a different location on the board. At the end of the level, which the player must use the houses to get to the boss, Mowgli must fight the Witch Doctor.

Boss: The Witch Doctor. The Witch Doctor is three monkeys standing on top of each other with a tribal mask that they turn aside to throw bananas at Mowgli. After beating the monkeys the first time, the monkeys break into three portions of mask, one monkey on one high branch on the left side of the screen, a monkey on the ground level in the screen’s middle, and one monkey on a lower branch in the screen’s right side

Chapter VII: The Ruins. Mowgli must now go through several ruins that are falling apart to find the gems. Introduces new monkeys not yet seen in the game.

Liaison: Bagheera

Chapter VIII: Collapsing Ruins. Mowgli must jump on solitary blocks suspended in space, most of which crumble once he lands on them. Some of the blocks that remain solid have spikes that go up on three sides (right top left). Top part of level is a solitary plain.

Boss: King Louie. King Louie has three active attacks. The first attack he bowls balls at Mowgli. Second attack he jumps up and hangs on road and shoots two bananas. The third he shoots three bananas from his hand and two feet.

Chapter IX: Jungle at Night. Essentially the jungle stage at night. Introduces flying squirrels, bats, and owls to the list of enemies. Also includes for the first time a bonus item that appears as Mowgli’s head, but is not an extra man as one may assume.

Liaison: Bagheera

Chapter X: The Wastelands. The final level. Mowgli must contend with monkeys, fire, and lighting along with the normal host of enemies.

Boss: Shere Kahn. The final boss is Shere Khan. He appears at the end of the level. Three columns continually move up and down over a bed of flame, and the player must guide Mowgli over these ever-shifting columns while trying to defeat Khan. If he falls into the flames, Mowgli dies. Shere Khan raises his paw and fire balls come from the flame bed to attack Mowgli. Also, Shere Khan occasionally blows a veritical circle of fire that comes from Khan’s mouth.

In Game Text
Each chapter has opening text describing the basic plot of the story, as well as indicating the general nature of the ensuing stage. All text appears in capital letters.

Game Intro before game begins: Our tale begins when Bagheera first heard a strange sound. The sound came from a man cub washed up inside a little boat. Bagheera knew that the village was too far fro the man cub. He took the man cub to a den of wolves who raised him. Years passed and news came that Shere Khan had returned.

Chapter I: Jungle By Day. Mowgli begins his journey to find the man village.

Chapter II: The Great Tree. Mowgli reaches the great tree where Kaa the Snake awaits.

Chapter III: The Dawn Patrol. The Dawn Patrol help the man cub through the village.

Chapter IV: The River. Mowgli Makes his way down the river where he meets Baloo.

Chapter V: Baloo and the River. Baloo helps the man cub finish his journey along the river.

Chapter VI: The Tree Village. Mowgli gets lost in a tree village as his journey continues.

Chapter VII: The Ruins. The Mischievous Monkeys Kidnap Mowgli and take him to King Louie.

Chapter VIII: Collapsing Ruins. Mowgli must find King Louie at the top of the ruined village.

Chapter IX: Jungle at Night. Night falls as Mowglis [sic] journey nears its end.

Chapter X: The Wastelands. Shere Khan waits at the end of the Wasteland before the Man Village.

Graphics
The colorful Disney characters and lush jungle setting give this platform game its look and feel. The game is similar to Aladdin (video game).

Music
The soundtrack features tunes from the Disney cartoon that it is based on, including the popular “Bare Necessities.”

Robert Provine had this deliciously dangerous idea.

The professor of psychology at the University of Maryland remembered the famous Monty Python sketch about a joke so funny it killed anyone who heard it; The British, naturally, wanted to use it against the Germans, the Germans visa versa, and both sides furiously pushed to develop the first “Doomsday Joke.”

Professor Provine decided to do the same thing, but not with a joke. He proposed a Doomsday Yawn.

Provine, who has spent 20 years studying laughter and is the author of a well respected book why we laugh, is an expert on contagious behaviors. He decided, (since he has tenure and why not?) to try to design a yawn so powerful it would make everyone who saw it yawn back. That was his goal: the 100 percent contagious yawn.

The 55 Percent Barrier

A number of studies (including his own) found that a medley of ordinary yawns on video played to a classroom for five minutes would induce a responsive yawn in 55 percent of the audience. So that was his starting point: could he design a yawn powerful enough to move from a 55 percent response right up to Total Yawn-ness?

He tried.

Our story (just push on the icon up above and cover your mouth) describes what happened next.

Improving the Gape

Provine figured there had to be a particular trigger, a “sort of ultimate yawn stimulus, the supra-normal stimulus” that would increase the response rate.

At first he thought it had to do with the gaping mouth. But when he widened the gape, played with its duration, size, shape, the sound, nothing changed.

He got no extra yawns.

So he focused on the mouth alone, and erased the details of faces, featuring mouths only. The response rate dropped. The Gape, apparently, was not the trigger.

Stretching the Stretch

Next he concentrated on stretching. Yawns and stretches have a long association. In 1923, British scientist Sir Francis Walshe observed people who were paralyzed on one side of their bodies, who couldn’t move a muscle intentionally, yet when they yawned, during the yawn, they could move on their paralyzed side! There is something primal about yawning and stretching and when you listen to our story you will learn about yawing fetuses, yawning vertebrates and how it is impossible to complete a yawn without stretching.

However, a bigger stretch produced no change in the audience.

The rate stayed at 55 percent and, even more embarrassing, when Provine simply had people read about yawning, with nothing to look at, no visual stimulus, they yawned at roughly the usual rate.

In the end, Provine could not build his Doomsday Yawn. He couldn’t even build a Better-Than-Average Yawn. And if you listen, you’ll hear him explain why he failed, and hear his theories on why we yawn in the first place and at the very end of the story, we surprise him yet again.

Can a Person Make a Cat, Dog, Horse Yawn?

It is well accepted that people can catch yawns from other mammals. Cat owners and dog owners routinely pick up yawns from their pets. But, we asked, can a person make a dog yawn?

He wasn’t sure. He was, in fact, doubtful.

We don’t offer our experiment as scientific proof. One example is never, ever enough, but for the fun of it, we asked two humans to yawn right into the face of this little dog here, Cosby.

If you can, if you have a dog, cat, horse or goldfish, please try this at home and tell us what happened. We’d be very, very interested.

Robert Provine described the early part of his quest for the perfect yawn in “Yawning”, published in the November-December 2005 issue of American Scientist, Magazine of Sigma Xi.