Gamebar

Darwin the Monkey

Vitals

Developer: Rock Solid Games Publisher: Rock Solid Games Genre: Puzzle & Casual > General Released: Apr 17, 2007 Players: 1 Website Download Purchase

Related Articles

- Darwin the Monkey Review

Download this game Now!  

Mike Hommel: 6

Very stylish and polished, but not very fun for me. Of all the kiddie-looking games I can recall reviewing, this is the one that feels the most like it's purely for kids. The gameplay is just too simple and repetitive to engage my purportedly adult mind. But it's well done for what it is. I just couldn't get into the gameplay. For the kids I recommend it, for the gamer, not so much.

John Bardinelli: 5

Visually stunning, musically enticing, but in terms of gameplay, Darwin the Monkey leaves something to be desired. The single-screen platformer is part puzzle, part action and takes a lot of pages from a lot of books from gaming's vast library. Unfortunately it doesn't meld them together in an intriguing way, leaving dodgy controls and tedious tasks to try and carry the game. It's a real treat to look at, but not so much to play.

William Usher: 6

Platform hopping in classic Donkey Kong fashion (i.e., from the old arcade) wouldn't seem like a great way to sell a technically sound game, yet Rock Solid Games did just that. The single-screen action that has players collecting bananas, fruit or battling bosses, aims to work well as a fun-loving platform game. But sadly, it just doesn't click. The first five or so stages breeze by with easy-going fun, but after the seventh stage things start becoming stale. While the boss fights and air balloon flights mix up the gameplay, I just couldn't escape from the irking boredom of repeating the same thing over and over and over again. Unlike Turtix or Snaky Jake, Darwin just kind of lingers on a geriatric formula that gets old quick (pun intended). At least, though, it had an excellent soundtrack and drop-dead gorgeous graphics.

Russ Carroll: 6

A new first for me. This is the first time I've beat an end boss without doing anything. I noticed that occasionally he would hit himself with his bullet, so I simply moved out of his target distance and let him kill himself! Darwin is a decent game, albeit a short one. There is some variety of level types, but only 30 levels, which altogether took me about 45 minutes to finish off. Some minor control issues, but nothing too troublesome. The graphics and sound are first rate, which made me wishing that there were more level settings and of course some additional levels. It is really above average in every way but its length, but it's hard to make up for being over so quickly.