Bonkies (Nintendo Switch) Review

Developed by Studio Gauntlet, and published by Crunching Koalas, Bonkies sees players working together as astronauts; jetpack wearing, giant metal arm wielding, cute and cuddly monkey astronauts. The mission of these space chimps is to travel from planet to planet, working together to build structures within a specific outline, within the allotted time limit.

Things get chaotic quickly, as the chimps battle against weighted physics, breakable block pieces, and maybe even each other. It's not as simple as it looks to get these space junk cairns to stay still. One wrong magnet pull, or misjudged jetpack boost is all it takes to trigger a Jenga-like collapse that will have the whole couch groaning with that "we were so close" kind of frustration. With quick load times and minimal fat between levels, jumping back into the challenge is swift, and working together, while learning from mistakes, will soon have the couch going bananas with every victory.

The team over at Studio Gauntlet did a great job with the tone they built in Bonkies. The space themes are charming in their simplicity, the character art is wholesome, and the puns are excellent. As heavily cared about as this world is, the developer never forgets the main pull of the game, putting emphasis on the gameplay and couch co-op experience above all else. As players progress, the levels grow in scale and difficulty, adding unique cube types and crazy tower templates to keep things fresh.

Unfortunately, the attention to creating a great couch co-op experience has left Bonkies with an underwhelming single player mode. The gameplay in the solo campaign just isn't great without friends. The levels are frustrating, and quickly outstay their welcome. In the co-op mode, one false move can have the couch erupting in laughter and groans whilst making the same mistake in single player just leaves a defeated taste in your mouth. It's difficult to want to play "one more round" in single player. There currently isn't any online multiplayer, so those who don't have people to sit and play with at home can find better single player puzzlers.