It takes some getting used to. But get it down pat, and you’ll feel that familiar tingle - as though Nintendo’s own fingernails were tickling you up and down your spine. The level design is that special brand of just right, every stage a mid-air maze of bananas, barrels, enemies, underwater caverns glistening with crystal treasure, and out-of-reach bananas you have to risk nabbing. True, we were a bit nonplussed to see the hackneyed “kid’s playroom” theme trotted out - but, no worries, DKJC’s level designers don’t stick with one theme for long before reaching into their skulls and fumbling around for a new game-refreshing idea, like spinning corn-on-the-cobs, or giant beach balls that pop open in a shower of jewels, or invisible platforms that you can only negotiate by watching your paw-marks on the second screen, or brain-meddling twin-screen levels that feel more like you’re playing two different games at the same time.

Note: the ideas aren’t just thrown in willy-nilly - they fit. Every time you collect 100 jewels, the game gives you a brilliant gift: the ability to float happily around the sky at will, free from pesky gravity for a precious 10 seconds, with - we actually laughed out loud - big old furry DK swooping and diving like a bird before you. Diddy Kong’s a great addition, too: essentially acting as a “double-jump” by activating out-of-reach switches, stretching to high ‘nanas and - here’s the nice bit - actually breaking free completely to scamper along and up otherwise inaccessible platforms, “remote-controlled” by his big brother.

DKJC also contains what easily rates among the best 10 seconds of our lives - an in-game minigame where you catch bananas falling in a double screen-filling downpour in their thousands. It’s this level of pure fun that extends right through the package: from the surprisingly compelling multiplayer minigames; to the hidden coins and K-O-N-G bonuses that drag you back to play completed levels again and again; to the punch-your-DS-in-the-face tough later levels that make Super Mario World‘s infamous Star World levels seem like winning a game of checkers against a sleeping cow.