Blast Monkeys

Summary

Let me make this short and sweet: Blast Monkeys is a neat little game, which is why I thought I’d share my experience with you all today. It’s one of those games in which an easy gameplay was successfully combined with that infamous high addiction risk factor. So it boils down to this: is this game a blast? Find out in today’s review.

Test device:
Samsung Nexus S
Android version: 2.3.4
Root: No
Modifications: None
Network communications, phone calls

App details:
Runs as of: Android 2.2 (Please note: the app description claims the app won’t run under Android 3.0 but we found that Diversion runs very well under 2.3. That being said, 2.2 is a bit of an estimation.)
Apps2SD: Yes
Permissions: Network communications

I’ve come to realise that there a few games for the mobile platform that have what I refer to as the' Angry Birds factor'. That means: a new kind of game play (or a new take on an already existing gameplay), which has to be relatively simple. That’s the key to success, because playing easy games when you’re on the go just makes the most sense. What’s more, it’s important that the game on the whole has a good look about it. And that’s where Blast Monkeys struck gold!

So what’s Blast Monkeys all about? The answer is Moki, a little monkey who’s terribly hungry. All he wants to do is eat tons of bananas, but that’s not as simple as he would want it to be, because the bananas are inconveniently floating around in the air. If that isn’t enough, there are lots of obstacles preventing easy access to them. So imagine yourself as a young, confident monkey: what do you do? You got it: you start blasting away at stuff. It sounds weird –and, truth be told, it is if you think about it – but that’s just the way Moki rolls.

Every level starts off in the same way: Moki sits on a canon that swings from left to right and back again. You have to wait for the right moment to fire so that you can get all three bananas in one go. On the one hand the bananas are little more than a bonus and you don’t need them to complete a level, on the other you will need them in order to activate the following levels.

Moki is an athletic little thing: he jumps, rolls and bounces through levels. He can even levitate—ooh, is there a yogi in our midst? He needs to get hold of the bubble in order to gain the ability to float. Burst the bubble when you want to set him free again. In later levels there will be more canons for Moki to juggle with, just mind the spikes as they will send you back to the beginning of the level.

The biggest challenge is trying to beat the highscores. You receive 15 MokiCoins for each level in which you managed to collect all three bananas. You get a whopping 150 MokiCoins for rating Blast Monkeys in the market, tweeting via Twitter or installing ZooClub (another game). But you needn’t do any of the above is your banana hunt was successful in every level.

Bottom line:
The great thing about Blast Monkey is the easy, fun gameplay and that there are 120 levels to get through. Still, the game is missing that cetain something—not enough diversity.

 

Blast Monkeys‘ design is cute, but it doesn’t go any further than that. The controls are really simple.

Be prepared: the first time you start Blast Monkeys you will have to wait for ages for the game to start. Way too long if you ask me! Granted, this only happens once, but the app’s stability is not exactly exemplary (it crashed twice during our test runs). The game starts all over again every time you navigate away from it.

Blast Monkeys is available for free from the Android Market and there aren’t any ad banners.