We’re always in for games that make us swing (See Sway). How fun exactly is it to swing a stretched out monkey with a Jamaican hat?

Rasta Monkey ($0.99 – On Sale; Free)

Rasta Monkey is full of colors, fun gameplay and a dedicated developer. The first version of the game wasn’t as solid as it can be. Some in game image compression was implemented making the graphics look really dodgy. There are also those people who got accustomed to Sway’s controls and thought Rasta Monkey’s physics were off. The swing in Rasta Monkey now has directional arrows for better throw orientation. Matter of frankly, we don’t think it was physics more so than control differences. It’s somewhat unfair to expect all games to have the same control schemes across the board.

Point being: Nitako’s working hard on this game. We started off the bat explaining these improvements to keep everything in check before we go into detail with the review.

Bob Marley Yo!

You can definitely feel the Jamaican theme the game’s got going. From the Jamaican flag inspired hat Rasta is wearing, to the colorful and lively graphics and sounds. It’s really well put together from top to bottom. We appreciate unorthodox graphic design, and Rasta Monkey’s one of them. The backgrounds change per level so there’s definitely something new to see everytime.

Let’s Get Swingin’

The gameplay is similar to Sway in a way that the goal is to collect fruits (as to Sway with stars). The difference being there is more than one kind of point to collect: bananas, cherries, strawberries and that one red apple looking fruit we don’t know the name of ;p. The game starts off easy as you fire it up. You simply touch any of the four corners of the screen to move in that direction. You hold two fingers in any two directions to keep swinging 36o in that direction. As we told you previously, Rasta Monkey has been updated to include directional arrows that tell you where Rasta’s going when you let go.

Enemies are also introduced later in the game like this little bugger below. He’ll try to kick you off the poles twice or thrice until you eventually fall down and start from your last checkpoint. Yes! Checkpoints are in place to prevent starting over from the very beginning.

New dynamics like a swinging ropes…

…and narrow bridges get added as you progress making the game a lot more fun and challenging:

Besides the endearing and fun gameplay, Rasta Monkey also comes with smart camera tricks. When you’re swinging 360 degrees more than once, the game zooms out for a bigger view of the level. Once you let go of circling, the game zooms back in to the regular camera style. Neat huh?!

Also, there’s this Master Jedi monkey that pops up once in a while to give you useful tips in game:

Suggestions

Here are a couple suggestions that can make the game better:

1. Adjust Difficulty. This is something we personally struggle with. We’re stuck at Level 4 because we can’t get past that rope thinggy. So we ask you’re opinion… do you think two difficulty options is a good suggestion?
2. Respect the Vibrate Switch naturally. The game does have a mute button. See that speaker icon on the screenshots? How about we naturally respect the iPhone’s vibrate switch.
3. Take off the image compression on Loading Screens. Simple… it seems you left this one off when you took off the in game compressions.

Verdict

Grab it! Especially with the HOTT sale Nitako just put up. You’d lose big time if you don’t get this game at this insanely low price. It’s fun and sure would keep you occupied.

More levels, monkeys and unlockables are promised through updates. Trust us, Nitako will come through with it.