Monkeynauts: Merge Monkeys
By Paul Semel,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Dull, simple puzzler slips on its own banana peels.
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Monkeynauts: Merge Monkeys
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What’s It About?
In MONKEYNAUTS: MERGE MONKEYS, you're trying to help some monkeys to go to outer space so they can eat a space banana. Technically, there's very little plot going on, and the game doesn't explain much for the monkeys as far as their goals. But then again, there's not much to the gameplay, either. Using simple touch controls, you have to tap on tubes to unlock baby monkeys, then combine two monkeys to make a more grown-up monkey, and so on and so forth. Eventually, you'll hopefully be able to help these monkeys with their goal, and bring banana eating to the final frontier.
Is It Any Good?
This is just a waste of some good monkeys. In Monkeynauts: Merge Monkeys, you supposed to help some monkeys go to outer space so they can get a space banana or something. The game isn't really all that clear about what's going on. But then, it's not real clear about what you're supposed to do, either. When it starts, you see a baby monkey in a giant test tube, and after tapping the glass to release them, you're supposed to wait until a second arrives, then slide your finger to merge the two together to form a more evolved form of monkey. You then continue to merge monkeys of the same kind until you have enough to pilot a spaceship and fly to the moon...where you have to repeat the process while also keeping track of monkey production on Earth.
As adorable as this may sound, though, it's kind of pointless. You don't really do anything. When a tube with a baby monkey appears, you just have to tap it to break it open, and then you just drag one monkey to their twin to form a new monkey. That's it. There's no puzzles to solve, nothing to shoot or figure out, no challenge whatsoever...you literally just sit and wait and occasionally tap the screen and drag your finger across it. In fact, the only reason you may play it is to see if there's more to it. But there isn't. Even worse, the game's greedy with ads -- one even comes up if you try to access the options menu -- and while those ads have sound, the game does not, so the ads stand out even more. As a result, you'll probably want to eat a banana or do any other monkey business instead of play Monkeynauts: Merge Monkeys.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about managing your money. In Monkeynauts: Merge Monkeys, you earn coins just by waiting, but you can also buy them with real money, so does it make sense to spend money on a game when you don't need to? Why do you think games are made with these features included?
How do you balance the time you spend playing a game with doing something else? Does it matter more if you're playing a game that's easy versus a game that's challenging?
App Details
- Devices: iPhone , iPad , Android
- Pricing structure: Free
- Release date: October 10, 2019
- Category: Arcade Games
- Publisher: HyperBeard Inc
- Version: 1.2
- Minimum software requirements: Requires iOS 8.0 or later; Android 4.4 and up
- Last updated: October 14, 2019
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