Monkey Shines – Fantasoft - 1996 - First time playing?: Yes!

Once upon a time a pacifistic bright red gorilla wearing sunglasses called Bonzo got extremely drunk on Jungle Juice and woke up the next morning in a haunted mansion. That’s the most plot you’re getting in Monkey Shines, a simple but nonetheless rather charming little platformer seeming primarily inspired by the likes of Montezuma’s Revenge and Jet Set Willy. Simplistic mechanics and controls hiding surprisingly non-linear and labyrinthine level design.

In Monkey Shines you can walk left. You can also walk right. You can also jump. That’s all. Thankfully, Fantasoft were competent enough to make sure that the three things Bonzo can do feel pretty good. Controls are precise, Bonzo moves at a good pace that while a little slower than other platformers allows for more precise positioning, the jump gives you full control to move left and right in mid-air as much as you please and in general the game feels tight to control. This is assuming you can get it running smoothly however. More on that later. Adding to those simple mechanics are crumbling platforms, conveyor belts which impact your jump momentum and can be used to make jumps you wouldn’t be able to otherwise, alongside two powerups, one of which grants invincibility from enemies while the other nullifies fall damage. While the mechanics may be simple, these elements result in a puzzle platforming kind of feel to a lot of the game, figuring out how to use your limited tools to make a safe route through the level.

Each of the game’s five worlds involve exploring large dungeon-like level designs made out of dozens of interconnected single-screen rooms. Your objective in any stage is to find all of the red keys, with the level exit opening up once you’ve collected the last key. In addition, there are also blue keys which open up a bonus room filled with extra items which are worth seeking out if you’re playing for points or 100% completion. The levels are sprawling, filled with plenty of branching paths and routes that loop back in on themselves, resulting in a lot to explore and see in your search for the keys in addition to a surprising amount of non-linearity. The level design for the most part is honestly one of Monkey Shines’ biggest strengths, it’s fun figuring out what routes and order of doing things works best and most efficiently for your play style and it adds a level of replay value, especially if you’re interested in the scoring system.

An example of the non-linearity would be this room above. There’s a red key in this room so you’ll have to come here if you want to beat the level. If you enter the room from the left you’ll have to dodge your way through the sawblade which is moving up and down right in front of the entrance, requiring a well timed jump. Alternatively, it’s more roundabout but you can also enter this room from the top instead, standing on the crumbling platforms in the chimney until you safely drop down onto the key, bypassing the sawblade entirely. This method is safer but more time consuming, so it’s up to the player to decide what route is preferable to them personally.

Even if just playing the game casually to beat all the levels like I did, you’re likely still going to be doing some replaying of levels as the difficulty in this game ramps up hard. You die in one hit to nearly everything, the only exceptions being fall damage and bees. As Bonzo is a pacifist you have no attack, requiring you to weave through enemy patterns. The jumps can get pretty precise as does the timing required, and the cherry on top is that you have limited lives, starting with only five, and running out means starting the level over, which is definitely a gut punch with levels as big as these. Monkey Shines is hard but for the most part it’s fair. There’s a few instances of a hazard being right next to the entrance of a room but these moments are rare, while other examples of deathtraps are much better telegraphed.

The reason I say “for the most part” however is World 3, Around the House. It’s only the third level but bizarrely it’s the hardest in the game by far. I breezed through World 4 and 5 no problem, heck I did World 5 on my second try, but World 3 is rough. It’s got some of the tightest jumps, the hardest room in the game, the only instance in the game of completely unavoidable damage and a confusing layout with some really hard to find keys to boot. The room depicted in the screenshot below was the main source of my struggles. Due to the ceiling being too low it’s impossible to pass by the bee without soaking up damage, then immediately after that bee you have a near pixel-perfect jump over some sticks of dynamite where you’re still having to deal with your jump being cut short by bumping your head on the ceiling. Don’t think you can come in from the other side either, you’ll just get immediately hit by the hammer if you try.

Graphically, well, I’m sure some people would say this game has terrible graphics. Those people have no taste. Okay, jokes aside, yes the graphics are sparse and low-tech but I can’t deny I find them extremely endearing. Bonzo is honestly an adorable character design to me partially due to the simplicity of his model, further making the few details they could cram in like the sunglasses and big toothy grin stand out more. The sprites are fluidly animated too, not only Bonzo but the wide variety of enemies of which there’s literally over a hundred of. Some only appear for a single room and are just there for the sake of visual design and keeping things fresh and interesting. There is a bit of an issue with the backgrounds however. Some of them are pretty busy and can be distracting and make it difficult to see the items you need to collect clearly. Thankfully this isn’t an issue with the enemies, which are animated enough in gameplay that they immediately stand out, but stuff like trying to spot keys in World 4 can be a pain in the neck. Though likely that was intentional, the way they camouflage in feels far too deliberate. The sound meanwhile is undeniably superb, wonderfully catchy synthy tracks and fairly lengthy loops too. If the visuals don’t charm you the same way they charm me, the music might make up for things.

Overall Monkey Shines is a fun and simple platform game that while not world-shaking in it’s scope is still an enjoyable experience with a ton of replay value, further enhanced by the presence of a level editor and user-made content. However, technical issues were a constant issue for me with Monkey Shines. At first, the game would just crash the second I’d load a level. Turns out this was caused by virtual memory being turned on, which taught me an important lesson that virtual memory is useless. After that it was mostly smooth sailing but on occasion the controls would just lock up on me. I’d keep holding the right arrow and Bonzo would walk right for a while but then just stop dead in his tracks and not start moving again until I let go of the key and pressed it down again. I couldn’t find any record of this being a common issue, I even checked defunct fansites via Wayback Machine to no avail. After reinstalling drivers, swapping out keyboards and controllers repeatedly, changing every setting I could think of and so on, it turned out that the solution was embarrassingly simple. By default, Monkey Shines has its controls set so in addition to the keyboard and gamepad, you can also move Bonzo by moving the mouse. My computer's mouse was a touch too sensitive and as a result was reading inputs when I wasn't touching it, which caused any input on the keyboard or gamepad to be cancelled out. So if you're having this same issue, try disabling the mouse in the controls setup.

Recently there was a fan-made Java port of Monkey Shines allowing it to be played on modern PCs. The port isn’t perfect, missing some sound effects and music and seemingly not having the high score system being functional, but the core gameplay is well recreated.

- Page written by MSX_POCKY, 12th March 2023 (Updated 16th March 2023)