Take one portion of baby monkey, add one pig and one of the catchiest meme songs on Youtube and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success. I guess it was unavoidable that someone would eventually notice the video with nearly 10 million views and think “this could be a damn good App Store cash cow”.
And that is how Baby Monkey (going backwards on a pig) was born. Developed by Kihon, this is your run of the mill “took me 30 minutes to develop” high score running game. Featuring a cartoony version of the protagonists from the famed Youtube video, Baby Monkey also has license to use the song that makes thousands of people smile on a daily basis, so while you’re running around on a pig, you’re going to enjoy listening to the song on an infinite loop.
So what’s it like? Well, it’s exactly like every single other side scrolling high score running game out there, except that there is literally no art (one single background), no way to tell how you’re progressing other than by noticing your Game Center achievements, no power ups or special bonuses, and literally nothing to do but run and jump.
So what, there are other games like that out there that are awesome. Robot Unicorn Attack for instance. Believe it or not, RUA had a ton more depth than this game. Forget the MUCH more addictive song and gameplay from RUA, it actually required some skill to play, and involved much more important timing. Baby Monkey has no dash, just a jump for your monkey and a jump for the pig. You’ll be using the monkey jump to either collect floating bananas, or to avoid obstacles that the pig smashes through, and you’ll be using the pig’s jump to avoid pits and to jump up to higher ground.
And that’s about it. While playing the game I quickly found myself bored to hell, the initial campy fun of the song and seeing the characters portrayed in a 2D cartoony environment wore off quickly, and I was left with a runner that is severely lacking.
