Hands on with Monkey Pole Climb

Everybody loves a monkey. Whether you're the wan-faced former King of Pop, a fat northern comic earning a living peddling ITV Digital or a hard-bitten movie star trying to shake the Dirty Harry persona, monkeys are, and always have been, where it's at.

Game designers know this, obviously; consider the raft of Super Monkey Ball games, Ape Academy on PSP, and Monkey On Your Back for mobile. Let's not forget the King Kong and Curious George movie tie-ins, either.

Now, we're not saying that there's a conspiracy here or anything, but when Paul Carruthers entered his independently-developed game into the 2006 International Mobile Gaming (IMG) awards, he must have had an inkling that he'd do well.

You see, it was called Monkey Pole Climb, contained the essential simian element, and subsequently won the award for Best Gameplay.

Paul will argue that it was the simple one-thumb dynamics of the game that impressed the judges most. But we think the monkeys stole it for him, really.

We think that they'll also garner him some serious support as he continues to look for a publisher to step up and sell the game for him.

It's a move that they'll not regret. A puzzle game with a difference, Monkey Pole Climb uses the familiar 'objects-dropping-down-the-screen' routine to novel effect.

Coloured balloons, released from boxes above the monkeys, drop down, and you can switch their order by pressing left and right on your handset. Red balloons make the monkey they land on climb up its pole, blue ones make it climb down.

The aim of each level is to get all of your monkeys to the top of their respective poles before the time limit expires. Along the way your primate chums will be distracted – to your benefit or disadvantage – by water melons, bananas and bombs.

It's a simple-sounding premise for a game, like most successful puzzlers are, and it's surprisingly easy to get into. The version we played, which scooped Paul his award earlier in the year, starts off with just three monkeys to manage, but later levels add another two to the mix.

As you're forced into dropping a balloon onto each of your climbing monkeys, you can't rely on getting one to the top of its pole and then focusing on the others; any monkey that reaches the top of its pole is able to swat away two balloons (useful for soaking up blue balloons that you don't want falling on any other monkey) but after that it's as susceptible to the blues as its friends.

As a result, your monkeys will be rising and falling faster than the London Stock Exchange and the challenge lies in balancing them all. Ending up with three dejectedly-dropping monkeys that have made scant progress since you started the level 60 seconds prior is incredibly infuriating but also fires you up to do better.

The cute visuals are also a big draw to keep you coming back – there's no denying that these furry fellows are some of the cutest chimps to grace a screen since PG Tips switched to using claymation pigeons in its telly adverts for tea. The animations look very slick, with just the balloons needing touching up.

That's something we hope investment from a publisher can remedy; Monkey Pole Climb is a breath of fresh air in the often-stale puzzle genre that's dominated by coloured gems and falling blocks and we look forward to seeing it released soon.

Paul hopes to get it picked up in the next two or three months. Click on the "Track It!" button above to stay informed!