Time to go bananas

Renegade Kid's sophmore outing onto the 3DS eShop added another genre to the developer's repertoire, the puzzle genre. You control a monkey who drops blocks in from the top of the screen on top of a slowly raising layer of blocks at the bottom of the screen. The goal is to place blocks of the same colors next to one another to create combos. The more blocks of the same colors next to each other, the bigger the combo. What makes Bomb Monkey different from most puzzle games on the market is that the blocks don't disappear upon making a combo. Instead you drop bombs onto the blocks, potentially causing massive chain reactions leaving the screen void of any blocks.

Adding into the chaos are speical red blocks with either vertical or horozontal arrows. When a bomb hits one of these, the explosion causes all blocks in the row or column to be destroyed at once. Another form of special block to hinder your progress are locked blocks. These blocks need to be bombed twice opposed to unlocked blocks. Hidden, surrounded by other blocks are the letters B, O, and M. Collect two B's an O, and a M will cause a very chaotic, extremely fun 10 seconds.

Just like the special form of blocks, there are special bombs as well. These blocks have a three second timer displayed next to them. The bomb has a bigger explosion effect the less time there is left on the timer. Proper planning of these bombs is essential, as the reward of a bigger explosion comes with the risk of the bomb blowing up in the Monkey's face and stopping your progress for a few seconds. This is fun for a while, but like most puzzle games, Bomb Monkey is best enjoyed in small increments, such as stop and go gaming.

Bomb Monkey features a collection of gameplay modes, from Endless, to a three minute version of endless, to Rescue where you must rescue a caged monkey by bombing its cage fifty times. There is also a more strategic mode, Numbers. To be sucessful at numbers, gamers must bomb the numbers in the proper order. This mode doesn't allow you to go bomb crazy and feels different then the rest, but not as different as the control scheme.

Bomb Monkey is played with the 3DS system turned sideways, and features no 3D effects. The game can be played with either the Circle Pad/D-Pad or the touch screen by tapping. Bomb Monkey even features multiplayer in the form of co-op and competition. Co-Op allows player two to take control of a second monkey and work together or compete against one another in  traditional puzzle battle, by outlasting the other player.

Bomb Monkey has gorgeous sprite work when displayed on the touch screen, but the top screen is usually wasted space with the exception of multiplayer rounds. Instead of displaying your high score, a big blue monkey parades around on the top screen. It is also worth noting that the only way to check your high score is to remember it, as the game only saves the top score. The music matches the jungle theme going on in the game and doesn't sound out of place at all.

Bomb Monkey is a great little puzzle game for its asking price, well worth the amount of content provided. With a multitude of modes and an aptitude for bombing, this game is fun when enjoyed in chunks. Currently Bomb Monkey is on sale for 1.99 until April 3rd, so all potential Bomb Monkeys hanging on the ledge should jump in.

Overall: 7/10