Upcoming 2D Platformer 'RastaMonkey'
posted January 12th, 2009 9:44 AM CST by Blake Patterson in Platform, Upcoming Games, iPhone games, iPod touch gamesiPhone developer Nitako has posted a gameplay video of their forthcoming title RastaMonkey for the iPhone and iPod touch. As the developer describes it,
Rasta Monkey is by far the best Iphone 2D action platformer out there. With perfect physics based gameplay that you will love. Coming soon to the iPhone app store.
RastaMonkey is a Unity Engine based game and received special recognition for Action Game Development and 2D Game Design at the recent Unity Developers Game Awards.
A web-based demo version of the game (requiring the Unity web plug-in) can be played at Nitako's website.
At this time there is no indication of when RastaMonkey will make it to the App Store or details in general beyond what you see here. We'll keep an eye on this one and bring additional information as it becomes available.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Wow, that soundtrack is addictive.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Looks Good!
January 12th, 2009 at 10:16 am
And such a modest description by the developer!
Rolando, take note!
(just kidding… it does look good. Nice to see so many options in this genre, as decent platformers are rare on the bigger consoles recently.)
January 12th, 2009 at 10:36 am
absolutely hilarious! gonna get that 4 sure unless it is > $4,99…
January 12th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Great great stuff. That soundtrack is fun, the graphics are also very fun, and a good 2d platformer is hard to find. After playing with the online demo (PLAY IT EVERYBODY!) I am hooked. Hooked. It needs a bit more polishing (or it probably already received that) but it's well on its way to becoming my next addiction.
Off topic:
That Unity Game Engine thing sprouts more fun games like the upcoming FEIST (coming for Mac too! yay!) http://gd08.ch/FEIST/ and the online puzzler tumbledrop that I love: http://www.tumbledrop.com/
The Unity Engine has a export to iPhone option (through xCode) that is very promising.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Cooooooooooooooooooool!
January 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
i'm so sick of monkeys in everything!
January 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
the "indie-stylish-colorful-geometrical" look is becoming a must.
I'm not complaining, I still like it, I just hope it won't start boring me too soon.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Doesn't look anywhere near as good as Rolando, I'm afraid.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
OMFG, this looks to be a genre-bending game. Reminds me a bit of Donkey Kong Jungle Climber…In an amazingly good way.
January 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
@ K
Um…it doesn't look anything LIKE Rolando either….
January 12th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Am I the only one who thinks that the bad guys in the video look exactly like Rolando's shadows?
January 12th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
they really hate black creatures nowadays starting from loco roco
January 12th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Why latest games all look the same one about graphics? I don't think is something trandy…It's just rip off from others!!! Oh folks, let's pay an artist to do that!!! We need always fresh and new graphics!
January 12th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
played the web version. its fun and quite amusing although as far as I played there isn't that much to do. Maybe its just the beginning levels but i really wanted smooth flowing gameplay, something akin the the feeling of flow you get from a really good Sonic the Hedgehog level. Although the tunnels you can slide through do this, maybe they are more prominent int he later levels. The web version runs beautifully smooth, I hope the iphone version does too, its a game that needs to be very smooth and not jerky.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Looks like the Unity 3D engine can work pretty well with 2D too!
January 12th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Looks very interesting. Different enough from other platformers like Rolando and Toy Bot Diaries to be a viable purchase.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
@ tvzoid
That is not a latest game….it came out before Rolando, anyway.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Im kinda getting a little bored with characters just rolling around. I remember the days when I played games when characters could walk and run. Oh those days were grand. I understand devs are trying to make use of accellerometer but you can only do it so many times before….well it gets played out. Ill still give it a shot
January 12th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
It could have been much cooler with some knuckle crawling.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Guess it didn't occur to the Japanese developer that this might be more than a little racist. Well it is. (There, I said it. Pile on with your howls of protest!)
January 13th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Jim it didn't occur the developers that it would be racist because the Japanese have for the longest time have had this type of spin towards black people. It's seen in their anime, and also in their blackface minstrel shows.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:25 am
Excuse me, but why do you guys think its racist? is Madagascar a racist film too?
January 13th, 2009 at 5:30 am
the music itself makes me wanna buy this game.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
BTW, did anyone take a look at that other platformer to which there's a link at the bottom of the Rasta Monkey demo? FEIST. Looks very cool…and since it's developed on the Unity engine, that means it's a candidate for iTouch/Phone.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
played it. loved it. want it.
January 14th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Rasta? What next? Christian Hamster? Jew Frog, anybody?
:/
January 14th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Chris,
You need to understand the history of demeaning and racist depictions of Africans and African-Americans. Turning black people into apes, or implying that they are similar somehow to simian figures, is part of an old line of racist reasoning that was at one time passed off as having some sort of scientific basis. And on the low end of race-hatred, depicting black people as monkeys has always been the first resort of the worst kind of bigots. Trust me: it's harmful and hateful.
I haven't seen Madagascar, but I doubt that any black actors in the film signed on to voice simian characters.
Sorry to go heavy on you, but you asked.
(p.s. If you're interested in the history of scientific racism, check out "The Mismeasure of Man" by Stephen Jay Gould.)
January 15th, 2009 at 7:19 am
I see what you are saying, but I think that this monkey is a likable character and the hero of the game. It dosen't seem to me as a game that promotes hate and racism.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:02 am
That's almost a Rasta Monkey, except that he's missing hanging dreadlocks and puffing on his spliff.
I thought the theory was that all men are descended from apes. I wonder if a Rastafarian would consider this game character racist. Unlikely. The Rasta headgear looks kinda cute.
March 19th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Yes, I think it's racist.
There's a long and nasty history of this sort of thing.
It's not the worst I've seen;
it's not going to offend everybody– I'm certainly not personally hurt–
but I certainly won't be supporting it with *my* money.
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20080110221353data_trunc_sys.shtml
April 13th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Good news, Rasta Monkey Lite Version:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=310591215&mt=8
3 levels, free.
Respecta!