50 WAYS TO TEASE A MONKEY
Here’s a game that tries hard to emulate the things we all love about titles like WarioWare or the Mario Party series, where you engage in a large and diverse range of “micro games”. Now, personally knowing the nature of handheld device development, something like Noty & Moky (out now, $0.99) with its intuitive, pick-up-and-play design makes perfect sense for developer Erawppa to aim for on iOS!
Noty & Moky wastes no time with a plot or story line and drops you directly into the action. Having tapped the title screen, you are presented with a level selection screen of sorts, which apparently has progression routes depending on where you decide to start. Each mini game you engage in provides you with quick instructions of how you will be required to operate your iDevice to successfully complete the current challenge. If for some reason you are still unsure of what to do (as I was occasionally), you can always click a small exclamation point below the pause button to get more detailed instructions.
Tasks range from un-crumpling a sign on the Monkey’s back to jerking calipers attached to strings on his face. Indeed, over the course of playing this game, I have gone fishing, blown out candles on a birthday cake and brushed away leaves – to name but a small few of the many, many mini games on offer.
The graphics are clean, bright and perfectly suited to the game’s monkey teasing theme. The music fits the motif of jungle antics well and actually put me in mind of early Donkey Kong Country games. There doesn’t seem to be anything I could find to indicate scoring or Game Center achievements, which was something of a disappointment, as I reckon players would enjoy comparing who was the best at unlocking the safe, inflating balloons the fastest and so on. During gameplay, some of the puzzle’s controls were spot on with excellent response and touch sensitivity while during others I found myself struggling to get any inputs recognized. I think with practice players can overcome the challenges, yet the question remains: will you want to invest that much time into those mini games with poor response?
I believe that with an update that included more finely tuned controls and a clear scoring system, Wrawppa Studios could have a real winner on their hands, as Noty & Moky is a decent stab at a genre we haven’t yet seen enough of on iOS. So if you think it might be fun to constantly tease and torture monkeys, this might well be the game for you!
iFanzine Verdict: Noty & Moky is a decent attempt at the “Micro Game” genre, employing funny monkey characters in a wide variety of mini game styles. Despite occasionally bothersome controls and the lack of a clearly defined scoring or reward system, this one is still an entertaining time waster.
[xrr rating=3/5]