Space Monkey

Long before man took that big flight and claimed the moon as his own, animals were the caretakers of space. Experimental vessels full of monkeys, rats, pigeons and other such highly capable scientists would be shot up into the big blue/black to careen around the solar system before inevitably being incinerated on re-entry.

Space Monkey moves the idea of animal space explorers forward a generation or two. You play as the eponymous space monkey, floating about in space and collecting space debris with your hands and feet.

This being zero gravity and all, you only get to spin the little ape around with the '4' and '6' keys as the cosmic flotsam goes on its merry way around him.

The debris enters from the edge of the screen, heading from eight possible directions towards our space janitor. As the frequency of the items increases, Space Monkey becomes just as much about timing as facing the right direction.

So far, Space Monkey may sound like run-of-the-mill casual fare, but the number of different space junk behaviours, along with a learning curve far longer and more involving than you first expect, makes it a real winner.

Some objects can only be grabbed using your hands, some only by your feet. Some need to be avoided altogether, while others need to be repelled by spinning your character around.

Holding onto ‘4’ or ‘6’ sends the monkey into a spin, so there’s no complication of the controls involved - it's all about those two keys.

There are also items that you hold onto such as the yo-yo, which the little chap starts spinning out into space. These sorts of item give you points continually, as long as no other item crashes into the limb holding them.

Space Monkey takes its time to introduce these new elements, even when you’re quite some way into the game - and with four ‘worlds’, each featuring a handful of levels and a boss fight, the game’s not short on play time.

Although the new features are curve balls, you're eased towards them in a way that won't alienate the casuals or put off the hardcore mob.

However, Space Monkey really comes into its own when it throws everything you’ve learnt so far in your direction during a single level.

Rather than descending into a mad two-thumbed rush of monkey swivelling at these points, there’s a strange rhythmic feeling to the action that seems almost like conducting an orchestra - like a one-man version of Stomp set in space.

We’re not even talking about sound, but rather the way each of the different trash types’ behaviour plays into each other.

You might be spinning to repel a boomerang only to twist to grab a sock before twisting back to catch the boomerang on the rebound, then finishing with a quick half-beat spin again to suck in a passing paper plane.

Getting a whole level spot on causes a zen-like satisfaction to swell in your cheeks, as if you're some sort of furry Keanu starring in his own interplanetary version of The Matrix.

It all adds up to a gameplay experience more satisfying that a glance at the screenshots would suggest, which is a pity considering how many mobile gamers often have little more than a single in-game shot to go on.

Space Monkey looks a lot better in the flesh, too. Your monkey moves in fairly sharp 45 degree increments, but the fluidity of the other animations more than makes up for this lack of smoothness. The little guy really charms in the way he flings a yo-yo and with his little victory dance at the end of each level.

It would almost seem a pity he’s consigned to a slow death in deep space, if the process weren't so enjoyable.