When I first stumbled onto the trailer for Monkey Labour, I was immediately reminded of my childhood. I’ve always had the gaming bug in me, even at an early age. My parents couldn’t buy me all of the games that I wanted, because quite frankly, I wanted a lot of them. So, from time to time, they’d buy me an LCD handheld game to keep me entertained.
Monkey Labour is a tribute to all of the LCD handheld games that were popular from the late 70s all the way up to the early 90s, and just like those old LCD handheld games, Monkey Labour is really good.
In Monkey Labour, you control Mobot who has the mundane task of moving objects from one side of the screen to the other. All the while, his large and probably sexually frustrated monkey boss is throwing obstacles in Mobot’s way in order to get him to fail in order to replace him with a cheaper model. I’d have to question what kind of facility hires a giant monkey to be the boss of a robot named Mobot, but that’s another concern for another time.
When the game is first started, the monkey boss doesn’t offer much of a challenge to allow the player to get accustomed to the very simple Left and Right buttons which controls Mobot. You’ll need to move Mobot all the way to the right of the screen to pick up an object, and then all the way to the left to drop it into an ever growing fire. As Mobot throws more objects into the fire, a pipe over the head of the monkey boss will begin to exhaust flames, which can be used to burn the monkey boss to clear the stage for a couple of seconds. But be aware that once the monkey boss returns to his managerial duties, he’ll be pissed and challenge Mobot even more so.
The sights and sounds of Monkey Labour offer a truly amazing throw-back to how LCD handheld games looked and sounded. The game offers a variety of beeps that let you know exactly what is going on by their tone. Graphically the game is amazing as not only the dark LCD sprites look great, but you can see light outlines of the other LCD sprites when they’re not in use. What’s especially impressive is when you tilt the device and the sprites become more clear. Dawn of Play even went as far as to accurately recreate the bit of rainbow color that occurs when you place your thumb on an LCD screen.
FINAL THOUGHT: If you’re a fan of LCD handhelds and wish you had one on you at all times, then I highly recommend Monkey Labour as it successfully recreates everything I love about old LCD handhelds. The sights, sounds, and gameplay all amaze me each and every time that I turn the game on.
Monkey Labour for iOS ($.99) – [iTunes Link]