Monkey Bash and Lucky 11′s Reviews

Posted on January 12th, 2009. Written by trentiles.

In this article I will be reviewing two games from the developer Megatouch, Lucky 11′s and Monkey Bash.  Megatouch is definitely not new when it comes to creating games.  They are known for the “gaming system” I’m sure many of you have seen in bars.  It uses touchscreen technology and has hundreds of games.  WIth touchscreen technology experience already under their belt how does Megatouch fare with it’s entry into the iPhone gaming world?

For those who aren’t very familiar with Megatouch they are actually the original touchscreen game company who have been around for 30 years!  They have over 200 titles under their belt and over 300,000 touchscreen game systems in taverns and restaurants around the world.  The games they develop are ones in which can be played in three minutes.

Monkey Bash

Gameplay

Monkey Bash is a game in which you literally spank a monkey.  It takes place in a circus setting and you play the circus leader guy who has to spank the monkey which sends him flying across the screen.  The purpose of the game is to bash the monkey as far as possible.  Along the way their are obstacles that will either propel the monkey further or stop him dead in his tracks.  There is a time limit to the game, which I haven’t timed, but if I had to guess I would say its right around Megatouch’s famous 3 minute mark.

Controls

The controls are very simple.  You just tap the screen.  That’s it, nothing less, nothing more.  Oh and you have to time your tap correctly if you want to send the monkey flying as far as possible.

Overall

The game is very short hence why my review of it is so short.  There just isn’t all that much to say about Monkey Bash.  With a library of over 200 games I have no idea why they would pick this game to bring to the iPhone.  It is extremely repetitive and offers very little replayability.  When the monkey is in flight there’s no controlling him, it’s just luck of the draw how far he goes.  This gets really dull.  Also the leaderboards within the game are only local, if online leaderboards were included it would help the fun factor a little bit.  After playing through it a handful of times, which probably took no more then 10 minutes I grew tired of it.

Current status: Not Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 6.8MB
Released on: 31st Dec 2008
Retails for: $1.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G

Lucky 11′s

Gameplay

This game is where Megatouch went right.  Lucky 11′s is a puzzle game where you have to remove chips by creating groups of numbers that equal 11.  Remove all the chips and you open the vault gaining you more points.  The levels are timed so you have to be quick.  You can use any amount of numbers as long as they all eventually add up to 11.  The more numbers you use in a group the better it is for you.  When you have a group that adds up to 11 those chips are removed from the board and reveal more chips that were underneath.  If you get to a point where you can’t add anything up to 11 you have a couple choices.  Use a single wild card chip, but use this wisely as you only get one, or dive into the pile of extra chips.  The extra chip pile may or may not help you.  One thing to keep in mind when clicking through the extra chips is that you can only go through the pile once.  When you have reached the last extra chip, thats it, theres no going back through.  Lucky 11′s like Solitaire can not always be beat.  You will have many frustrating games that end when you have no more number that you can add up to 11.  It’s all part of the fun.

Controls

Just like Monkey Bash the controls are very simple.  There’s no tilting, no shaking, just tapping.  Simple is good in this game and it works perfectly.  You tap on the chips you would like to group together, once they hit 11 they are removed.  Tap quickly and accurately though because as the clocks winds down so do your points.

Overall

This game is addictive.  There are two main levels and a bonus level that is unlocked at 175,000.  To make it through all the levels takes very little time.  The fun is getting through all three levels.  I must have played at least 20 games before I was able to beat all the levels.  There were times when I was ready to throw my iPhone across the room!  Once you manage to beat all three levels the game still remains fun.  I have loaded the game numerous times to try and beat my high score.  It’s quick, addicting, and fun.  The only downside is that, like Monkey Bash, the leaderboard scores are only local scores.  It would be nice to see an online leaderboard in a future update.  Lucky 11′s is what Megatouch is all about.  I enjoyed this game very much and can see myself playing it whenever I have a few minutes to kill.

Current status: Recommended

Reviewed at: v1.0
Reviewed on Firmware: 2.2
Download size: 11.6MB
Released on: 9th Dec 2008
Retails for: $1.99

Compatible with: iPod touch Gen 1 & 2 / iPhone Classic / iPhone 3G