The Jungle Book: Day of the Dragon

The Jungle Book: Day of the Dragon is a video game destined to be released in October 19, 2018 for Wii and PlayStation 3 and 4. Developed by Rhino Studios and published by Natsume, the game is based on “The Jungle Book” stories.

Plot
Set in the jungles of 2090 India, where barely no more humans are around, and animals from zoos have escaped and returned to their wild instincts, a young boy is at an airplane wreck and investigating it. He knows other humans (besides him) had been on this plane, but now the plane is wrecked and the others are gone. The boy wants to figure out who made the mess, so he sets off alone to find the mystery. Along the way, it gets pretty dark, and he finds a skeleton with a lantern. The boy finds that isn’t enough to solve the mystery, but he picks up the lantern and moves on. Soon he comes across a dark cave and encounters a tiger! The boy swings the lantern in the tiger’s face and it runs out of the cave into the dark jungle. The boy leaves the cave and finds a waterfall to spend the night.

The next morning, the boy continues his mystery to find the mysterious animal, because he feels the tiger he encountered last night couldn’t have been the one behind the plane wreck. He spots a trail of three-digit footprints, even larger than an elephant’s, and follows it. Soon he meets a capybara caught in a bear trap and, when he frees the animal, it becomes a shaman named Akbar, who in turn grants him the power to talk to any kind of animal in the world. The boy returns to his waterfall camp and spends yet another night there, all alone.

Next morning, the boy starts to go for another walk and encounters an enormous brown bear! The boy offers the animal some raspberries and stops being scared. The bear, whose name is Baloo, learns about the mystery and offers to help, also calling the boy Mowgli, because he thinks the boy lives near water because of his waterfall camp. While Baloo and Mowgli are looking for their mystery guest, they meet a black leopard named Bagheera, and ask her to help with their search. She agrees, and by the time they are finished with their search, they spend the night at Mowgli’s waterfall camp together and decide to help Mowgli find a new home.

The next day, the trio walks to Council Rock, where a gray wolf pack was gathering and observing the leader Akela’s newest pups to try to choose the best ones who will lead the pack after Akela. But a tiger named Shere Khan (the tiger who attacked Mowgli in the cave at the beginning of the game) and his two minions, a spotted hyena named Tabaqui and Yellow Dog, a dingo, are gathered there too. When Mowgli is presented to the pack, Shere Khan demands them that unless four of the pack speak for the boy, the wolves would give him to the tiger. Baloo asks Akela permission to allow four animals to speak for Mowgli and is granted. First, Baloo vows to teach Mowgli the ways of the jungle, since he’s the teacher of the pack’s wolf cubs. Second, Bagheera offers the pack a fat, newly-killed buffalo at the waterhole for Mowgli’s life. Third, a lioness named Nala tells the wolf pack that one day, Mowgli would have to hunt Shere Khan. Fourth, a red-billed hornbill named Zazu offers to tell Mowgli when Shere Khan is on the prowl for the boy. The wolves, happy about the four animals who spoke for Mowgli, accept the idea of keeping a man-cub in the pack. Shere Khan, Tabaqui, and Yellow Dog leave, as the tiger tells his assistants they have a secret, extra-large minion to help them get rid of Mowgli, a huge, red, fire-breathing dragon named Smaug (the mystery animal who destroyed the plane with the people, including Mowgli inside).

One day, Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Nala, her younger cousin, Simba, and their friends Pumbaa the warthog, and Timon and Billy the meerkat brothers, are resting by their waterfall camp, the Bandar-Log (a group of vervet monkeys, olive baboons, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas that Baloo and Bagheera had warned Mowgli to stay away from because those primates are liars and thieves) steal Mowgli and bring him to the Cold Lair. Then Baloo, Bagheera, Nala, Simba, Pumbaa, Timon, and Billy go to Kaa the anaconda for help, and Kaa agrees since the Bandar-Log had called her a footless yellow earthworm and a fat, slow, legless caterpillar and she had not eaten for a long time. Thanks to Chil, the bald eagle, the animals learn the whereabouts of Mowgli and the Bandar-Log. Kaa, Bagheera, Nala, and Simba hurry ahead, and when they reach the Cold Lair, Bagheera and Nala ask Kaa to let them go first and the anaconda to keep them covered. Before the big cats attack, Nala pushes Simba into a hole and warns him to stay there until they save Mowgli. Nala and Bagheera attack the Bandar-Log leader, a gorilla, but are then attacked themselves by the minions! Baloo, Pumbaa, Timon, and Billy arrive. Pumbaa tells the meerkats to guard Simba and, expressing anger when a Bandar-Log vervet called him a pig, charges along with Baloo to the rescue, but they themselves get attacked too. Kaa arrives and waves a stick from side to side, hypnotizing the Bandar-Log primates to not make a move no matter what anyone tells them. Baloo, Bagheera, Nala, and Pumbaa rescue Mowgli, Simba, and the meerkats and run out of the Cold Lair, while Kaa devours on the Bandar-Log leader and ties one of the Bandar-Log vervet minions to a tree branch with his tail; then kisses him awake, daring him to escape and kiss the remaining Bandar-Log awake and tell them they have no leader.

Days later, when the wolf pack (along with Mowgli and Nala) hunts a herd of Thomson’s gazelles, Shere Khan tells Tabaqui, Yellow Dog, and Smaug that when Akela misses, he will not be leader of the pack anymore. Nala chases the gazelles to the wolves, but Shere Khan roars to attract Akela’s attention and the herd tramples the wolves and Mowgli. At Council Rock that night, the animals gather and Shere Khan reveals Smaug to them and the tiger and dragon tell the wolf pack that Akela has missed his hunt and will be leader no more. Mowgli engages Smaug in a fight and wins. Smaug tries to finish Mowgli off with one last fire blow, but Mowgli dodges and the fire strikes Shere Khan’s tail instead, causing the tiger, along with Smaug, Tabaqui, and Yellow Dog to retreat into the jungle. Mowgli tells the pack that Akela will always lead them as long as he lives, and that also he was tricked by Shere Khan during the hunt.

At Shere Khan’s den, the tiger blames Smaug for burning his tail and forgives the dragon when he insists he will help kill Mowgli tomorrow when the man-cub is all alone. Shere Khan returns to his cave to dine on one of the many humans Smaug had helped bring to his den, leaving the rest for Tabaqui and Yellow Dog.

Next morning, Mowgli is asking Bagheera and Zazu to join him for a swim in the river, but Bagheera insists that she is a cat, and cats and water don’t mix. Zazu adds that he would ruffle his feathers if he got wet. As Mowgli goes on alone, he is encountered by Shere Khan and Smaug! Mowgli tells Shere Khan that the boy is lucky because cats and water don’t mix, but Shere Khan retorts that he is a tiger, and that they love to swim, and dives into the water after him. Mowgli finds a floating log and climbs aboard, leaving Shere Khan to dog-paddle after him. Bagheera and Zazu see this and warn Baloo and Nala to help save Mowgli. Meanwhile, Tabaqui tries to follow Shere Khan by swimming after him, but they are headed for a huge waterfall! Baloo jumps on some river rocks and manages to successfully reach Mowgli. Meanwhile, Mowgli saves Tabaqui from going over the fall, and Shere Khan is left to go over the waterfall. When Mowgli and Baloo reach dry land, Smaug engages Mowgli in another fight and this time loses by blowing fire in Yellow Dog’s face, causing the dingo to run away in the jungle, yelping. In a final attempt to kill Mowgli, Smaug dives for him, but fails by jumping into the water and drowning. On the way back to the wolf pack, Baloo and Mowgli encounter a herd of Cape buffalo and plains zebra guarded by a giraffe named Treetop Tom and a llama named Kuzco and asks them to help get rid of Shere Khan, who survived the fall but is mortally wounded. Mowgli jumps on the leader’s head and half the herd stampedes toward Shere Khan while Kuzco and Treetop Tom drive the second half of the herd toward them, killing the tiger. At Council Rock, Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Nala, Zazu, and Tabaqui present Shere Khan’s lifeless body to Akela and the wolf pack. The wolves are proud of Mowgli for killing Shere Khan and invite the boy to live with them. They celebrate when Mowgli accepts the invitation.

The next morning, Mowgli, Bagheera, Nala, Baloo, Zazu, and Tabaqui are having breakfast. Mowgli is concerned about Shere Khan and expresses how close he was for being killed by the tiger. Baloo explains they would never be bothered by Shere Khan again now that the tiger is dead. Tabaqui thanks Mowgli for saving the hyena’s life and asks for something in return. In reply, Nala and Bagheera throw some bones to Tabaqui and he eats them with his bone-crushing jaws.

Gameplay
The player mainly controls Mowgli the boy, while in other levels the player can control Baloo the bear, Bagheera the leopard, Nala the lioness, or Pumbaa the warthog. Each character in the game has his or her own ability. To gain their abilities, the player must first find three cards, known as power cards, to gain the character's ability.

Mowgli has a special ability to throw mangoes to defeat enemies, and a sneak ability that helps him get through small holes. Both Nala and Bagheera have the long jump ability, which they can use to jump far distances, a roar to scare small creatures, and the claw ability, which they can use to defeat enemies. Pumbaa has the ability to run fast when he eats a chili pepper. This ability can be used to charge logs and rocks and enemies. Baloo has a punch ability, which he can use to stop enemies.

Additional to the actual gameplay are unlockables such as various footage and real-life snapshots of the animals (both footage and snapshots from National Geographic, BBC, Discovery Channel, Partridge Films, Getty Images, Image Bank, IBM Multimedia Studio) that can be encountered, which are collected and stored in the “Animal Library”.

Mammals
Impala (Aepyceros melampus)

White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer)

Plains Zebra (Equus quagga)

Gemsbok (Oryx gazella)

Llama (Lama glama)

Thomson's Gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii)

Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)

African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)

Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus)

Okapi (Okapia johnstoni)

Baird's Tapir (Tapirus bairdii)

Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)

Lion (Panthera leo)

Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)

Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis)

Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta)

Black Leopard (Panthera pardus)

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

Dingo (Canis lupus dingo)

Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)

Olive Baboon (Papio anubis)

Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

Common Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

Vervet (Chlorocebus pygerythrus)

Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla)

Raccoon (Procyon lotor)

Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus)

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)

Red Kangaroo (Macropus rufus)

Malayan Flying Fox (Pteropus vampyrus)

Kinkajou (Potos flavus)

Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)

Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)

Cape Pangolin (Smutsia temminckii)

Meerkat (Suricata suricatta)

Crested Porcupine (Hystrix cristata)

Two-Toed Sloth (Choloepus didactylus)

Birds
Keel-Billed Toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus)

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)

African Gray Parrot (Psittacus erithacus)

Blue and Gold Macaw (Ara ararauna)

Green-Winged Macaw (Ara chloropterus)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Red-Billed Hornbill (Tockus ruahae)

Ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Black Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina)

North Island Brown Kiwi (Apteryx mantelli)

Red-Billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus)

Secretary Bird (Sagittarius serpentarius)

Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)

Reptiles
Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus)

Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)

Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis)

Frill-Necked Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii)

Leopard Tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis)

Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)

Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)

Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta)

Characters
Mowgli the Man-Cub

Akbar the male Shaman

Baloo the male Grizzly Bear

Bagheera the female Black Leopard

Shere Khan the male Tiger

Tabaqui the male Spotted Hyena

Yellow Dog (male) Dingo

Smaug the male Dragon

Nala the Lioness

Simba the male Lion Cub

Akela (male) and his Gray Wolf Pack

Zazu the male Red-Billed Hornbill

Pumbaa the male Warthog

Timon and Billy the male Meerkats

Hathi the male African Elephant

Kajini the female Asian Elephant

Heeta the male African Elephant Calf and Apu the male Asian Elephant Calf

Bandar-Log Common Chimpanzees, Vervets, Bornean Orangutans, Olive Baboons, and Western Gorillas

Krebbs the male Koala

Red (male) and Faloo (female) the Red Kangaroos

Icky the female Crested Porcupine

Kaa the female Green Anaconda

Chil the female Bald Eagle

Jackala the female Nile Crocodile

Treetop Tom the male Giraffe

Kuzco the male Llama

Herd of Cape Buffalo and Plains Zebra

Meeko the male Raccoon

Darzi the male Keel-Billed Toucan

Rocky the male Black Rhinoceros

Iago the male Scarlet Macaw

Waddlesworth the male Green-Winged Macaw

Trivia

 * While some teaser posters named the dragon Eragon, real posters replaced the name with Smaug instead.
 * While some of the trailers showed the game to be released in April 15, 2016, now the release date's pushed forward to October 19, 2018.