Congo Jungle
General
Info
Background
Layout
Hazards
Item Appearance Spots
Character Appearance Spots
Strategies
-Luigi
-Mario
-Donkey Kong
-Link
-Samus
-Captain Falcon
-Ness
-Yoshi
-Kirby
-Fox
-Pikachu
-Jigglypuff
My Opinion
General Info
Congo Jungle is home to Donkey Kong. It looks like a bunch of floating things made of wooden planks, similar to some environments you will find in the DK games that came during and after the SNES (DK Country etc.). You know this is the DK stage by listening to the stage music, which is a remix of the classic DK music. Too bad they didn't have the DK rap back when the game was released. Congo Jungle is considered to be one of the smallest stages in the game.
Background
The background of Congo Jungle consists of a setting sun in the middle and with a lot of palm trees in front of it. This is one of the darkest background of all the stages available in Smash.
Layout
I'll start from the top. On the upper left and right corners there is a platform that slants outwards(3). Between these two platforms are two smaller flat platforms (4) that rotate counterclockwisely in the air. Below all the platforms is the main stage(1), which looks like a wide wooden walkway and it has an edge at each end. Below the main stage there is a barrel cannon (It looks like a barrel with a white arrow on its side) that travels left and right below the stage. Below everything, of course, is the ever present pit.
Hazards
There are no hazards that actively damage players on Congo Jungle, which is probably a good thing. Among the passive hazards, there is obviously that giant pit on the bottom that is present on most stages. The instruction booklet for the game lists the barrel cannon as a hazard, but that's not really true. If a player manages to get into the cannon, the person probably cheated death. Of course, if you don't be careful, it is quite possible to kill yourself with the barrel cannon. Here I will teach you how to operate the barrel cannon. When your character gets into the barrel cannon, press A (I think other buttons also work, but A is more convienient) to shoot your character back out. Simple isn't it? Well, it is pretty simple, but not that simple. Because the barrel cannon will sometimes rotate during its trip from left to right and vice versa, make sure th barrel is pointing upwards when you launch your character. If you press the button when the barrel is pointing to the sides or downwards, kiss your character bye bye. Also your opponents will try to get you while you are still recovering from the barrel blast, so you might want to wait until the barrel cannon move a bit away from opponent before you launch. Oh, one last piece of advice. Don't stay in the cannon too long, because if you do, the cannon will automatically shoot you out, usually in a direction that you don't want it to.
Item Appearance Spots
Items will appear on top and below the two slanted platforms, and will also drop from the centre of the sky on to the stage, usually landing on the two rotating platforms.
Character Appearance Spots
Everybody will start on the main stage during a match on Congo Jungle. 1P is on the leftmost position and then to the right is 2P, 3P and then 4P on the rightmost position. The character reappearance spot is at the horizontal centre of the stage above the two rotating platforms.
Strategies
Here are some strategies I can think of for this stage. They are not
very impressive but they sort of work.
-If you know you can't make it to the edge, then aim for the barrel
cannon. Of course, this doesn't guarantee anything since the cannon
might not be on the side you want it to be, but try your best to get
to the cannon anyways since you've got nothing to lose at that point
and everything to gain.
-Because there is a barrel cannon at the bottom of the stage, the main
stage is semi-solid, so if your character has a good vertical third
jump, you can opt to jump through the main stage to make it harder for
your enemies to edge guard you and also you can attempt to hit your
enemies during the comeback move.
-Since people can come back from below the stage, a character with a
spike move can also send people down without jumping off the stage.
Just hit recovering people with the send down before their whole body
passes through the main stage and they will fall downward into the pit.
Of course, you'll need great timing to do this, but it's pretty cool
if you can get a kill this way.
Lets take a look at some character specific strategies, even though
for there isn't much stuff for each character.
Luigi
Luigi is not affected by the stage that much. His good vertical recovery means he can easily jump through the main level to get back on to the stage. It's an okay stage for Luigi.
Mario
Mario is about the same with Luigi, but he can use bouncing fireball to damage people.
Donkey Kong
DK is not especially good on his own stage, since he doesn't have the vertical jumping to take advantage of the semi-solid main level. The stage is also quite small, which means DK will have a harder time trying to charge his giant punch. DK also can't spike very well here, because people can either jump on to the slanted platforms or come through the main level to get back on stage.
Link
Link is not too good on small stages, because it means that it will be easier to knock him off and his jumping is the worst among all character. Link needs to stay alert so that he doesn't get knocked off, because he has a very hard time trying to recover from hits.
Samus
Samus is okay with this stage. This is not a great spiking stage but Samus will do fine. The stage is a bit small so Samus might not be able to find somewhere quiet to get her charge shot ready to go. The multiple platforms mean that Samus can use her air attacks instead of her somewhat lacklustre ground attacks, which is a good thing.
Captain Falcon
Captain Falcon is like Link, so he is not too good on this stage either. The loads of platforms mean that Falcon can use his formidable air arsenal on his opponents.
Ness
Ness is pretty cool with the stage, since he can spike here and also PK Cannonball himself through the main stage to get back.
Yoshi
Yoshi is okay on this stage. He can egg people who are on the platforms and use jump around to avoid people. However the rotating platforms in the middle makes it a bit difficult for Yoshi to get in an air attack, especially the ground pound since the platforms tend to get in the way.
Kirby
Kirby is pretty good on any stage, so you shouldn't be too concerned about using him on Congo Jungle. Tight quarters is fine with Kirby, having one of the best offenses out of all characters and he can easily send people down and use the final cutter to propell himself through the main level to get back.
Fox
This stage is a bit small for long range sniping, but Fox can still use his blaster fine. This stage is okay for juggling, but the rotating platforms makes it harder to time the jumps and kicks correctly.
Pikachu
This stage is okay for Pikachu. Pikachu can always use his thunder attack to fry people who stand above him and can also quick attack himself through the main level to get back on to the stage. The uneven main stage is no problem for Pikachu's thunder jolt that can crawl along most surfaces.
Jigglypuff
Jigglypuff is okay with the jungle, but he can't jump high enough to take advantage of the semi-solid main level, so you must either land on the stage or grab the edge with Jiggly.
My Opinion
I don't really like this stage, because like Peach's Castle, this stage is a bit cluttered with too much stuff, but the worst thing about the stage is its background. The background is too dark and on many occasions I had a hard time trying to see which one on the screen is my character. This is an even bigger problem if your character is using a dark costume. On some occasions it is almost impossible to see where my character was and sometimes I will accidentally run my character off the stage for this reason. So try to pick a bright outfit when fighting on this stage, or else you will have trouble finding your character on the screen.