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EyeToy: Monkey Mania Preview
Jon Wilcox
23/02/2005
Those primates from Ape Escape make their EyeToy debut in this island hopping, mini-game playing board game…
The mischievous monkeys from Ape Escape have been appearing in all sorts of things lately, including a bonus game in Metal Gear Solid 3, but now they make their debut on EyeToy in āMonkey Mania.ā A rival to Nintendoās very successful Mario Party franchise the gameās format is that of a traditional board game, and sees up to four players take it in turns to spin a roulette wheel to discover the number of spaces their monkey will move.
Starting up the game for the time, you are faced with setting up various player profiles, which also allows gamers the Monopoly-esque option of selecting an accessory for their monkey (these can be anything from a sunflower hat to a knightās helmet.) Following on from Play 2, gamers also get their picture taken at the same time, so cue mass gurningā¦
So its with profiles set and dignity laid to rest that we once again prepare to wave our hands about like mad loons with orange squash addictions, in words, play an EyeToy title. As weāve already mentioned, EyeToy: Monkey Mania follows a boardgame format, so each player waits their turn to spin the wheel (for fans of Wheel of Fortune, this must be your ultimate fantasy), before their monkey moves the corresponding number of spaces.
The āboardgameā is a little more than just making your way to the end space though; one of the aims of the game is to collect mini-monkeys, which act as currency to purchasing various items and traps. Yup, you read that correctly ā“ traps; players can lay traps down for their fellow simian colleagues and put a stop their plans to win the game.
Mini-monkeys can also be won by landing on the appropriate space too, but be aware that a contrasting space can also be landed upon, which will lead to you losing your wealth ā“ but of course, you donāt play an EyeToy game just to spin a virtual wheel with your hand, so what about the mini-games?
Since the game relies on players to land on the mini-game spaces on the āboardā, the duration between playing the manic challenges can be quite long, with seemingly endless plays of spinning the wheel and setting traps forming a great deal of the gameplay. That said, when a player does land on the ācorrectā space, the adjective in the gameās title certainly proves apt. Whether the developers will force some last minute amendments through that will mean more spaces that access to mini-games is yet to be confirmed, however it has to be said that since the game is a boardgame, then such an amendment is unlikely to be made.
There are far too many games to go through each and everyone (around 50); however there were a couple that did get our attention:
Hide The Banana
The monkeys go back to school in this game of timing. The aim is for players to eat bananas at their desks before the teacher turns around and sees them doing it.
Push And Shove
Players compete against each other to push explosive boxes to their opponentās side. If a box hits the floor then itāll explode, killing some of the monkeys. The game ends when you run out of monkeys.
Both of the these were multi-player challenge games that really played with the idea of monkey mania, and the usual side-effect of playing an EyeToy title, namely acute muscle ache, will certainly manifest if you come across these two mini-games.
What seems to be the attraction with Monkey Mania is that itās very much a party game ā“ itās not the sort of title that you play by yourself (like most EyeToy releases with the possible exception of AntiGrav), and youāll want to play with the maximum of four players. Aside from the fact that it makes the competition all the more interesting, the game also has a wide range of mini-games available to play from single player games right up to all four playing at the same time ā“ if that sounds a bit hectic, then youāre not wrong. It has to be said that there is a very good reason for the warnings displayed at the start of these gamesā¦
The games that we played during the course of the overall boardgame were quite fun, but aside from the multiplayer aspects, they so far fail to offer anything radically different to EyeToy: Play and Play2. The fact that the games can are unlocked after playing them so you can access them straight from the main menu may also mean that in the future gamers will just bypass the actual guts of the game and just crack on with the concentrated āfunā. It seems that the developerās strategy to keep players going back to the actual game is by providing enough mini-games for them to unlock, which is almost the old ācarrot and stickā method.
Visually the game is far from being the best on PS2, and even looks weak compared to, and weāre sorry to keep referring to it, EyeToy: AntiGrav. The style is very bright and colourful, and certainly gets across the playful nature of the monkeys ā“ sullen colour ranges are definitely not part of Monkey Maniaās style. In fact, it seems that the style has been developed to make you hyperactive to extent that you might just have to sit in a darkened room for 20 minutes after playing. In order to add some variety, the game will be spread across three contrasting environments from āBubble Islandā and āSlippery Volcanoā, to āRocket Cityā and the final stage, so donāt just expect to be playing the sunny tropical paradise of the island all of the timeā¦
