Ever since Tetris introduced gamers to the joys of skydiving shapes, block-dropping puzzlers have fallen into place on nearly every console and handheld under the sun, and for good reason: they're simple to learn, endlessly replayable, and - when done right - utterly addicting. Seeking to fill a simian-sized gap in the Wii U's digital library, newly-minted developer Log Games has brought a primate-themed twist on the falling-block formula to the eShop with Puzzle Monkeys. It's not much to look at, but it's what's inside that counts, and Puzzle Monkeys packs some surprisingly unique mechanics into a fun little budget-priced package.
Puzzle Monkeys has two main modes of play, somewhat uncreatively named 'Mode A' and 'Mode B'. Mode A plays the most like a traditional falling-block game - or more precisely, like a mashup of several of them. Like Tetris, you'll guide and rotate blocks as they fall from the top to the bottom of the screen, positioning and combining them carefully to avoid a game-ending pileup. Like Puyo Puyo, you'll have several different colours of blocks to work with and, like Lumines, these blocks come packaged in 2x2 squares. As per Columns, same-coloured blocks will disappear if you can line up three or more in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line. And finally like Dr. Mario, your primary goal in each round is to clear a set number of pre-placed blocks (here, 'Monkey Blocks') off the screen.
Puzzle Monkeys isn't all borrowed concepts, however, and Mode A introduces a unique mechanic that shakes things up quite a bit. Each corner of the GamePad's mirrored display holds a different colour cube - red, green, yellow or blue - and tapping any one of those colour zones will make all blocks of the corresponding colour disappear from the square that's currently on its way down. It's a simple concept, but it makes a huge difference in how you play the game; provided you can think fast enough and factor in gravity's toll on the newly-wayward pieces, it gives you an incredible amount of control over how the blocks stack up, and pulling off precision combos using your block-chopping power feels great.
As unique as this mechanic is, there's an initial sense that it's not explored as fully as it could have been - you can breeze through the early levels without needing to use it at all, and the primarily horizontal playing field takes much of the pressure off. But airborne block-breaking becomes increasingly important as the difficulty (and speed) ramps up, and even more so in the semi-secret mode, 'Mode A+'. Unlocked by either finishing Level 10 of Mode A or clearing 500 Monkey Blocks, here rows of Monkey Blocks will push up periodically from the bottom of the screen, significantly upping the challenge for confident players.
Mode B is a different beast altogether, and is controlled entirely with the touchscreen. The goal is still to clear away the Monkey Blocks in each level by matching three or more of a kind, but instead of guiding groups of blocks as they fall, here, a series of single blocks parades across the top of the screen from right to left, assembly line style. Tapping any of the coloured cubes in the corners of the GamePad will eliminate all blocks of that colour from the conga line, and cause the remaining ones to fall straight down onto the blocks below; they'll also plummet if the leftmost sliding block reaches the end of the screen.
With less control over the blocks, arranging them the way you'd like becomes much trickier - you'll need to think 'backwards' in terms of which colour you're eliminating, and juggle both positions and timing along the line as you look for an opportunity to drop. It feels a bit like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time, and - especially on higher speeds - it's seriously tough. While this makes for a very different game to Mode A, it doesn't necessarily translate into more fun - Mode B is definitely enjoyable in small bursts, and players looking to prove their puzzling skills will relish the challenge, but we found ourselves playing Mode A much more overall.
In terms of gameplay, Puzzle Monkeys feels remarkably fresh, but it's unfortunately dragged down by a presentation that's anything but. In the touchscreen-only menus and the static, pre-rendered backgrounds, the game gives off a late 90's CG feel that recalls the awkward growing pains of the 32-bit era, while the solid-colour 2D blocks and UI elements could be borrowed from any low-budget browser game. The monkey faces are cute, as are the explosive block-breaking animations, but on the whole the game feels sadly generic - in fact, beyond the smiling simian faces and a mild tropical theme, the monkey motif doesn't play into the presentation much at all. The soundtrack is more interesting, with three appreciably distinct tracks: an uptempo, danceable theme, a surprisingly sombre synth number, and an upbeat melody that calls to mind the cheery chiptunes of Dr. Mario or Wario's Woods.
The controls are also nice and polished - there's even the traditional 'hard drop' assigned to 'Up' on the D-Pad in Mode A - and though the combination of button-based and Simon-style touchscreen inputs take a bit of getting used to, once it clicks it feels great. Unfortunately, Puzzle Monkeys' reliance on the GamePad's touchscreen means there aren't any multiplayer modes. Online leaderboards will help extend the replay value for score-minded players, but the traditional junk-block-trading of multiplayer puzzlers is definitely missed.
Conclusion
With two very different modes of play, innovative mechanics and a budget price, Puzzle Monkeys packs a thoroughly respectable puzzle punch. The lacklustre presentation is a turnoff, as is the absence of any head-to-head play, but veteran puzzle gamers will still get a kick out of the twists it brings to the standard falling-block formula. Players willing to overlook the rough-and-ready packaging will find plenty of genuinely fun primate puzzling here.
Comments 16
I'm actually surprised by the quality here. The trailer really put me off (I'm still hoping for a decent Tetris game or clone, so I checked this out quickly), but your review is making me reconsider.
I do need to put more time into Dr. Luigi, though, so I'll probably still hold off on this, since it sounds similar. That said, if I didn't already have the green physician on my system, I probably would have picked this up after this review.
It does not look bad. I will check it on the TV before buying it, to see if I can tell the green from the yellow.
Oh god those monkeys give me the creeps...
ugly. pass.
I prefer puzzles with monkeys to come from Monkey Island.
This just goes to show how an alright game might be marred by lacklustre audiovisuals.
It's way harder to make Simple 3D look good than simple 2D. Imagine if this game had pixel art or crisp cartoon presentation. It might get a higher score and reception even if it were the same game.
How can the styles of the foreground and the background clash so much 0_0 surprised at the quality tho
Really put off by its cheap visuals. Fortunately the price point prevents harsher crticism.
Yes, gameplay is most important, but... It's like a lady.
If you don't like how she looks you don't want to... go to dinner with her.....
except when you're starving.
Hmmm, looks like it will be more than 3€ here in Germany so it would be higher than the kinda usual 1:1 Dollar --> Euro conversion.
I'll wait for a discount.
Yeah; I didn't think this looked like too bad as an actual video game from what I read/saw previously but I think this guy really needs to get a better artist on board. Those 90s rendered looking backgrounds, boring blank squares/cubes and the tiles with the slightly amateur looking monkey drawings aren't helping the general perception of this game as being anything more than a rough and ready low budget and low experience indie title; even if the underlying game is generally pretty good.
Note to the developer: I think a sequel with some good art could really do this game some justice. Just imagine if you could get art at the quality of something like Tetris Attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAG58aCKrVw
I might even be interested in providing some basic retro style pixel/sprite art, possibly (certainly I'd be happy to give some feedback and suggestions at least), although I'm NOWHERE NEAR as talented as the Nintendo artists. In fact, I'm not even close but I think I'm better than what's currently in the game.
There's a couple random images I did for my recent Kickstarter that you can view here for an example of my work I guess: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inceptional/namespace (particularly any of the more pixel/sprite and gamey looking stuff).
@sinalefa You colourblind? I was wondering if it's different depending on what form of screen you see it on?
@TheDavyStar
Yes, I am. And depending on the TV set it may be easier or harder to tell some colors apart.
This game looks like and ok puzzle game, but I will have to pass because I can't tell the green from the yellow.
@SKTTR You're going to miss out on some great games with that mentality.
@Drumpler I have this game and gave it a 7/10 for its gameplay back then. I'm certainly not passing up good games just because of bad graphics. I just think they'd be more appealing if they wouldn't go for a boring flash style.
@SKTTR Speaking as an indie dev myself, often these games use generic graphics because they can't afford to have custom assets made. So they either go to the App Store or make them themselves. I'd rather have a decent game. I do think graphics have their place, but I look at indie games a lot differently than AAA and make certain allowances.
Tap here to load 16 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...