Space Monkey

Developer: Glu
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0

Graphics / Sound [rating:5/5]
Game Controls [rating:3/5]
Re-use / Replay Value [rating:4/5]

Overall Rating:

Space Monkey, the first iPhone game ported by Glu, is a nicely animated but simple action game. The story behind the game is that you are a monkey in space collecting garbage with your hands and feet. You collect the good items while staying away from the bad items. Catch too many bad items and your game is over.

The controls are simple, you move your finger across the screen to rotate the monkey to position the hands and feet to catch the garbage that's coming toward you from up to eight different directions. Your other method of moving is to quickly rotate to push the bad pieces away from you. There is one simple problem with the controls though. If your hand is on the screen to control the rotation you can't see about 1/4 of the screen. I think accelerometer control might have been more interesting for this game -- though if it would have worked out is just theory.

The game itself is fun, though repetitive. There are variations in the later stages to provide some interest. The animations and sounds are very well done for this simple little game. The initial level includes a well done tutorial that gives you all the info that you need to play.

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While this game is an obvious port, I would have expected the developers to put a little more thought into the conversion. The controls aren't great -- you have to cover a good portion of the play field to move. The menu buttons are too close together -- it's a touch device, fingers are bigger than the buttons. The price of this game was recently reduced to $1.99. A that price this is an easy to recommend game. At the original price it was much less so.