Kingdom Hearts: Rumble In The Jungle in Gamer's Gaming

The Road So Far…

Sora, a young boy who has been chosen by the Keyblade, is journeying through the worlds in search of his friends Riku and Kairi after their homeworld, the Destiny Islands, had been swallowed by the darkness. In Traverse Town, a way station for refugees from other worlds, Sora met Donald and Goofy, who were searching for their king, Mickey. The three adventurers joined up to find their lost compatriots and left Traverse Town in the gummi ship. Their first stop was a world known as Wonderland where up was down, in was out and everything was backwards. Here they met a young girl named Alice who was accused of trying to steal the heart of the Queen of Hearts. The keyblade allowed Sora to sense a great light coming from Alice’s heart and he offered to help prove her innocence. So the trio set out into the Lotus Forest in search of clues using the guidance of the Cheshire Cat. With the Cat’s apocryphal help, the crew found proof that the Heartless were behind the attack on the Queen. They presented to proof to the Queen herself but, as she hated being contradicted, the Queen ordered her card soldiers to attack. Sora and crew defeated the soldiers, but in the fracas, Alice was kidnapped by the Heartless. Sora and crew set off in search of her and managed to confront and defeat the Heartless threat, led by the Trickmaster. With Riku, Kairi, and Mickey still missing and Alice now in the hands of the Heartless, the trio set off to the next world. Landing, they came upon the Coliseum, site of the great Olympic Games, and Phil, a satyr and trainer of heroes. Phil was not convinced that the group had what it took to be heroes and put them through some training. Afterwards, though believing they had showed potential, Phil would not let them enter the Games as he did not feel they were ready. Dejected, the crew made to leave the world only to be stopped by Hades, God of the Underworld. Hades wished for them to enter the Games and gave them an entrance ticket. With ticket in hand, Phil had no choice but to allow Sora and company into the Games. Sora, Donald, and Goofy fought through wave after wave of Heartless to reach the final match against Cloud, a mysterious mercenary that Hades had brought in to kill Hercules. After a long fight, the trio managed to defeat Cloud. Realizing his plan had failed, Hades switched to Plan B, siccing Cerberus on the trio and Cloud. Hercules appeared to confront the beast and managed to rescue Cloud, leaving the trio to finish off Cerberus. Though the deadly three-headed monster attacked with a multitude of deadly attacks, Sora and company fought together and defeated Cerberus. Back in the vestibule, Phil dubbed the trio “junior heroes” with the right to compete in further games. However, the crew would need to journey and search for what it meant to be true heroes before Hercules and Phil would recognize them as such. At the exit to the world, they met up with Cloud again, who was also in search of someone. Sora challenged Cloud to another match, this time without the powers of darkness. Cloud smiled and declined, though both knew they would meet again some time in the future. As the group left the Coliseum, once again on the search for their friends, Hades appeared and lost his top before reminding himself that everything was in place to destroy both Hercules and Sora. Maleficent appeared, but Hades shooed her away, saying he had everything on his world under control. Back with the group, they had arrived at a planet covered entirely by jungle. Sora and Donald both suggested landing on the planet as their lost loved ones might be there, but Donald felt the planet was too far out of the way for the king to be there. An argument ensued in which Sora pressed a button on the control board by accident, which sent the gummi ship in a free fall toward the jungle planet…

Now…

Sora plummeted through the air and right through the roof of a wooden house in a tree high above the jungle canopy. As he rubbed his head, he realized he was completely alone in the house…or so he thought. Suddenly, a leopard sprung out of nowhere and attacked Sora! Sora managed to jump backwards and draw his keyblade. Sora managed to knock the leopard, known as Sabor, for a loop, but the angry, crazed looking cat came back around and prepared to attack again. However, a wild man in nothing but a loin cloth wielding a spear leapt through the ceiling of the house and dropped down between Sora and Sabor, blocking the leopard’s attack with his spear and knocking him backwards. Sabor, realizing he was outmatched, crashed through a nearby window and escaped, leaving Sora with the wild man. Sora listened as the man said “Sabor, danger.” The man seems to know a few words, but mostly chooses to communicate in grunts, as if he had lived around the animals of the jungle his whole life. Sora thanks him and the man parrots his words. Sora asks where he is. The man replies, “This place, this place.” Sora, confused, asks where the others have gone. Realizing the man may not understand him fully, Sora slowly informs him that he has become separated from his friends and asks if he has seen them. He repeats friends very slowly and the man parrots his word back again, though seems to understand what Sora means, at which point Sora launches into a speedy description of Donald before remembering that Donald and he had been fighting as the ship crashed. Sora sighs and tells the man to forget it. He then changes course and says he is looking for his friends Riku and Kairi. The man tells Sora that his friends are here. Sora, stunned, asks him if they are really here at which point the man grunts. Sora is not sure what the man is talking…umm, er, grunting about, so he tells him to show him where his friends are. At that point, the man points to himself and says “Tarzan”. Sora points to himself and introduces himself as Sora and says he will go with Tarzan. At that point, Tarzan opens a door and walks out onto a deck overlooking a vast jungle from high above as Sora walks out behind him. The scene cuts to find Donald and Goofy sitting on a rock in the middle of the jungle somewhere. Goofy seems distraught, wondering where they are and wondering if Sora is okay. Donald, the grump that he is, yells that they don’t need Sora to find the king. They can find the king themselves. Suddenly, Donald looks down and finds himself face to face with a young gorilla. Both Donald and the gorilla scream, causing something in the bush to rattle. As the gorilla runs away, he appears to drop a gummi piece. Donald and Goofy gulp as a man appears from the bush carrying a hunting rifle. The scene fades back to see Tarzan leap from the deck of the tree house and down into the jungle. Sora decides to explore the tree house some more before launching himself into the jungle. He finds a chest with a mega-potion in a netted area underneath the deck. Finding a barrel near the door they exited the tree house from, Sora grabbed it and brought it inside to a broken staircase that he could not leap to. With the help of the barrel, Sora made his way to the house’s second floor. Climbing all over the house, Sora discovered a treasure chest on the roof with a Protect Chain accessory inside. With that bit of monkeying around completed, Sora jumped into the jungle after his new found friend, Tarzan. Sora found Tarzan in an area with a chest that contained a Mega-ether and an open tree trunk tunnel. In the tunnel, Sora found himself sliding down a viney path. At high speed, Sora and Tarzan launched off the path and down into a camp.

As Sora looked around, he spotted an area that resembled a science lab with beakers and burners. He also spotted multiple tents and a multitude of crates sitting around. Sora took notice of a blue trinity mark nearby. Sora spotted a stove, a telescope, and found four slides lying around the camp, which he picked up. Finally, Sora made his way into one of the tents that Tarzan seemed to be guiding him towards. Inside, Sora came face to face with a beautiful woman. Tarzan grunted to get the woman’s attention. When she spotted the duo, she addressed Tarzan and asked who was with him. Sora began to introduce himself, but the woman stopped him, surprised that he spoke English. She deduced that he was not related to Tarzan, and so asked if he was there to study the gorillas. A man’s voice sounded out from behind Sora, claiming that it was highly doubtful. It was the hunter from before, followed by Donald and Goofy! Sora, Donald, and Goofy had been reunited. Donald and Sora locked hands and danced before remembering that they had been having a fight, huffed, and turned away from each other with their arms crossed. The man called the trio a circus of clowns and said that they were not much use for hunting gorillas. The woman reminded the man, who was named Clayton, that they were there to study the gorillas, not hunt them. Gee, I wonder who the asshole is going to turn out to be in this area? The woman turned back to the group, claiming the more, the merrier and told the trio to make themselves at home. Both Donald and Sora exclaimed that they were staying, and then Goofy showed Sora what they had found in the jungle: the gummi piece. The trio figured that the appearance of a gummi piece in the jungle could mean that the king was there. Donald claimed that since the king could be there, they should work together for the time being. Sora agreed to let Donald and Goofy tag along. With their uneasy alliance formed, the group began the search, albeit nearby. They found a chest containing a mythril shard inside the tent. Speaking to the woman, who’s name turned out to be Jane, she explained that Tarzan had been raised in the jungle by gorillas. She had been trying to teach Tarzan how to speak English and how to find ways for herself to communicate with him. It hadn’t been easy, but Tarzan was learning. Sora seemed to understand and asked Jane if Tarzan had been speaking “gorilla” back in the tree house. Jane confirmed this then asked if Sora was looking for his friends. He told Jane that Tarzan had said that Riku and Kairi were there and then some word he hadn’t understood. Jane showed the trio a projector and explained that they would show Tarzan some slides and see if he recognized anything. However, the slides had disappeared. Fortunately, Sora had found four of them outside the tent before entering. Sora handed the slides to Jane. The first one was a picture of a grand castle. Sora seemed startled and Goofy asked him if something was wrong, but Sora claimed everything was okay, just that the place seemed so familiar somehow despite never having been off of his island before. The second slide showed a man presenting a woman with flowers. The third slide showed an old woman holding a child. The final slide showed a gorilla. She claimed that there may be two more slides hiding somewhere. Back outside the tent, the trio activated the blue trinity mark that Sora had seen on the way into camp. A chest appeared containing three more of the dalmatian puppies. Donald used his magic to transport them home. Twelve down, eighty-seven to go. After a little searching, the trio found the final two slides and brought them to Jane. Slide number five showed a schooner and slide six showed two men preparing to face off in a fencing duel. After showing all the slides to Tarzan, Sora asked where his friends were. Tarzan shook his head, indicating he had no clue where Riku and Kairi might be. Clayton barged into the tent and claimed that Tarzan’s response meant there was only one place Sora’s friends could be: the home place of the gorillas. He reasoned that they must be there, but explained that Tarzan refused to take Jane and Clayton there. Clayton told Tarzan to take them there to see for themselves. As he saw Sora as a friend and wished to help, Tarzan relented and agreed to bring the trio to the gorillas. Tarzan said that he would go see Kerchak, who Clayton assumed must be the leader of the gorillas. Clayton offered to act as an escort on the expedition to see Kerchak. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place. Yeah, right. As if we weren’t smart enough to figure out the guy’s plot without that evil asshole smile he just gave. Well, I guess we just have to play dumb for now and let him tag along. Outside the tent, Sabor appeared once more to attack the trio, but was easily defeated and went running back into the jungle. Sora and crew searched around the camp some more and found notes for cooking a Hi-potion and creating an ether. Using a potion in the beakers and following the notes directions to freeze it, Sora created an ether. Using another potion on the stove and lighting it allowed Sora to create a hi-potion. With some new items under their belts, the group set off into the jungle in search of Kerchak.

In a nearby lagoon filled with hippos, the group found a few more chests, one of which contained three more of the dalmatian pups. Fifteen down, eighty-four to go. After a brief tour of the area, Sora and company climbed up some nearby vines and into the canopy. Sora and crew made their way through the jungle, swinging from vine to vine like…well, like Tarzan I suppose. After a little high flying through the jungle canopy, Sora and company came upon the gorillas. Tarzan pleaded with Kerchak to allow him to bring Sora, Donald, and Goofy to the nesting grounds because the group needed the gorillas’ help. Kerchak, however, turned away and headed back into the jungle. Tarzan slumped, but Goofy pointed out that Kerchak had seemed distracted by something. Donald thought he might have been looking toward the tree house. Intrigued, the group decided to make their way there. At the tree house, the group found Clayton with a gorilla in his sights. Donald ran up behind him and began yelling, distracting Clayton and making him miss his shot. The young gorilla leaped up to the second floor and came to rest beside Kerchak, who had seen the incident. Tarzan pleaded with Kerchak once more, but with his distrust of the humans deepened, Kerchak turned away and left with the young gorilla beside him. Clayton began making excuses for his actions, but nobody in the group bought it. Dejected, the group decided the best course of action was to make their way back to camp. After another trip on the jungle slide, the group landed back in camp only to be attacked by Sabor once more. Nothing had changed, though, and the group dispatched the murderous leopard once more. Inside Jane’s tent, Jane was berating Clayton for his actions. Clayton attempted to keep up the lame excuse that he had seen a snake near the gorilla, but as before, nobody in existence was dumb enough to believe that story. Jane forbade Clayton from going near the gorillas again. Clayton continued to argue until he relized (finally!) that nobody could possibly be stupid enough to believe him. The fact that the entire group, Jane and Tarzan included, looked like they wanted to kick his ass made that point pretty clear. So Clayton backed his way out of the tent, vowing to hunt down every last gorilla. What a total mustachioed dick this guy is! In the surrounding jungle, something was stirring up the brush. Startled, Clayton reached for his gun. Back inside the tent, the group heard the gunshot and went outside to investigate. Outside, the group couldn’t find Clayton, but they did find a gorilla surrounded by Heartless. After defeating the monkey Heartless, known as Powerwilds and Bouncywilds, the appreciative gorilla gave the group a gummi piece and took off back into the jungle. It appears the Heartless have finally appeared in the jungle. With Clayton gone and little choice but to search for him given the newly arrived Heartless threat, the group strikes off back into the jungle.

In the bamboo thicket, the trio came across another set of Powerwilds endangering a gorilla. The group dispatched them handily and the appreciative gorilla gave the group yet another gummi piece. Further along the trail in the cliffside area, another trapped gorilla awaited rescue. The group jumped in to help and defeated the Heartless threat once more. The supportive simian gave up yet another gummi piece. Making their way back to the camp to investigate the other side of the jungle, the group came across a new Heartless known as a Black Ballade. This Heartless created projections of itself and forced the group to identify the real one prior to attacking, lest they be counterattacked with magic. After a brief battle, the Heartless ran away, leaving the crew most perplexed. On their way back through the jungle while swinging on the vines, the group found another chest that contained three more dalmatians! Alright, eighteen down, eighty-one more to go. Back in the climbing trees area, the group came across yet another gorilla being attacked by the Heartless. The group was becoming more experienced in dealing with the Powerwilds and Bouncywilds, however, and made short work of their foes, receiving yet another gummi piece. Finally, the group arrived back at the tree house to find yet another gorilla under attack. Though the numbers were greater, the group dealt with the threat and subdued the Heartless once more, saving a final gorilla and receiving one last gummi piece. With all the areas of the jungle investigated, the group decided it was time to head back to Jane at camp. Jane, gentle though misguided soul that she is, sighed and said that she hoped Clayton was safe. I would just as soon see his hunting rifle shoved into his nether regions and let a gorilla pull the trigger, but it is Disney. So let’s go find the assho- er, hunter. Exiting the tent, the group heard a shot coming from the cliff area and ran off to find Clayton. In the bamboo thicket, they came across Clayton’s pipe sitting on a nearby rock. As they went to take a look at it, they were attacked once more by the psychotic-looking leopard, Sabor. Sabor attempted to use the thicket to disguise his attacks, but Sora and company had grown far too powerful for Sabor to handle and the leopard passed out, giving up a White Fang accessory to the crew. Meanwhile, back in camp, one of the young gorillas charged ahead toward Jane’s tent through the throng of Heartless enemies and tackled Jane. However, something must have been chasing it, because the tent opened and, as Jane sat their holding the young gorilla, a horrified look came upon her face. The trio made their way back to the camp, through the waves of Heartless enemies, to find Jane missing. Tarzan tensed and Goofy asked him what was wrong. Somehow, Tarzan seemed to sense that Jane was near the tree house. The four friends took off immediately to discover what had happened to the lovely Ms. Porter. After swinging from vine to vine back in the direction of the tree house, the group found Jane and the young gorilla trapped in a leafy prison in the climbing trees area. A giant black fruit seemed to be growing nearby. Whilst fighting off waves of Powerwilds, Sora went to work on the fruit, finally destroying it with a slash of his keyblade. Destroying the fruit released Jane and the young gorilla from captivity. Jane then told the group the last thing she remembered before waking up in their jungle prison was Clayton coming back to the tent. Time to head back toward the camp to search for Clayton. After jungle sliding once more, the group found themselves back in camp.

Crossing through the bamboo thicket and to the cliffside area once more, the group found a great gathering of gorillas. They were being herded and cornered in the area by Clayton and a gaggle of Powerwilds. Clayton took aim at the gorillas as Sora and company ran into the area. Sora yelled and distracted Clayton long enough for the gorillas to escape. Sora went to berate Clayton, but Tarzan said that it was not Clayton. Sure looks like him… In any case, Clayton launched an attack, but Sora and company made short work of him…or so it seemed. After taking a little bit of damage, the rock wall behind Clayton exploded. Tarzan attacked, but was repelled by some invisible force that also levitated Clayton up into the air. However, a shadow appeared on the ground underneath whatever was holding Clayton aloft. A chameleon of some sort. Whatever the case, the group took to attacking both the invisible entity and Clayton. The Stealth Sneak, as the invisible chameleon was called, attacked by dashing and jumping at the group as well as shooting light bolts out of its eyes. Clayton continued shooting and jumping around the area. Sora, after maneuvering his way around the battlefield, managed to knock the Stealth Sneak for a loop, ending the giant Heartless’ role in the battle. With a coordinated effort between Goofy’s shield strikes, Donald’s magic, and Sora’s new Sonic Blade move in full effect, the group finally managed to take down the dastardly hunter. Clayton stumbled backwards and prepared to fire once more, but the Stealth Sneak collapsed on him before releasing a heart back into the world. As a result of the battle, Sora learned the power of healing and obtained the Cure spell.

On the nearby cliffs, the gorillas gathered. Kerchak approached the group, as if to congratulate and thank them for saving his brethren. Instead, he flung Sora, Donald, and Goofy up onto another nearby cliff. Tarzan bounded up the cliff on his own and looked back to Kerchak. Apparently, Kerchak had granted them access to the nesting grounds. Tarzan gave an unspoken thanks to Kerchak before turning back to the group as the gorillas all made their way back into the jungle. As Tarzan and the rest of the group gazed at a nearby waterfall, Tarzan indicated that the waterfall was his home and led the group in that direction. Inside the cavern that lay behind the waterfall, the group found multiple treasure chests containing things like a mythril shard and three more of the missing dalmatian puppies, which Donald promptly sent home. Twenty-one down, seventy-nine to go. The group also found whole pieces of both mythril and a stone known as orichalcum. With these new tresures in tow, the group made there way to the highest part of the cavern and found a path that went deeper into the cave. Inside the deepest part of the cave, Tarzan stopped and started grunting. The entire group, including Jane and Terk, who is the young gorilla, looked on as Tarzan listened to the sounds of the jungle. Jane was amazed! The roof of the cave was open and the sounds of the waterfalls could be heard even in this place. Tarzan grunted once more and, looking forward, told Sora that friends were there and told Sora to see them. Jane had finally managed to decipher the bit of grunting that she had yet to understand. Tarzan’s grunts meant “heart”. Tarzan was telling them that they could always find their friends within their hearts. Sora disappointingly consented, realizing that he would not be finding Riku and Kairi there. Tarzan pointed out that Clayton had lost his heart and that without a heart, one could not see their friends. Tarzan simply meant that if a person gives in to darkness, then nothing could bring their friends back. Sora and Donald realized that they had been fighting over something petty and apologized to each other, prompting Goofy to put his arms around both of them and proclaim, “All for one, huh?” I guess we have our own version of the Three Musketeers after all. Nearby, a group of blue butterflies shown brightly on the cave wall. As the butterflies flew away, they revealed a keyhole. Once again, Sora’s keyblade reacted and shot a beam of light into the keyhole. Something once again clicked within the keyhole and another gummi piece popped out. The group was happy to see a gummi, but Donald disappointedly pointed out that it was not the king’s gummi. As Terk rubbed up to Donald, Jane stated that someone had a new admirer. Donald freaked out, yelling that Daisy would kill him as the scene faded out.

The scene fades back in on a dark hall where many figures are meeting. One of the figures questions what drew the Heartless to the Jungle. Maleficent proclaimed that it was Clayton’s lust for power that drew the Heartless to the jungle, but that the darkness was too powerful for Clayton to control. Suddenly, a new figure stepped out of the darkness. It was Jafar, the evil vizeer of Agrabah. He pointed out that while Clayton was a weak fool, Sora had proven to become a problem, as he had found one of the Keyholes. Maleficent seemed unconcerned, figuring it would take Sora ages to find the rest of them. Besides, as she pointed out, he remained unaware of their other plan which Jafar revealed to revolve around some princesses. Apparently, these dark figures had been capturing the princesses one by one, at which point Alice appeared before the dark figures as the scene faded back out.

Back with Sora and company, the crew has found themselves back in the camp tent with Jane and Tarzan. Sora tells them that the group needs to get going. When Jane questions where the ship is, Donald tells her that it’s not too far away. Tarzan then declared that he and Sora were friends and gave Sora a key chain which morphed the Keyblade into a new form, known as the Jungle King. Their new friendship also gave the group the ability to activate the red trinity marks. With a new, more powerful keyblade in hand and their ship ready to go, the group left the Jungle and made their way back to their ship. On board, Sora commented that the gummi that had come from the keyhole was different from the other gummis and wondered what it could be for. Donald was just as stumped as Sora, so Goofy suggested that they head back to Traverse Town and ask Leon. As Sora and Donald argued over who should drive the gummi ship, Goofy just rolled his eyes as the ship sputtered back in the direction of Traverse Town…