SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We got to spend a little time with this new rhythm game, Jungle Rumble, at the Indie Megabooth area deep within the Penny Arcade Expo showrooms. The game features monkeys and music, a great combination for fun and challenging gameplay, of course.
There’s a definite Patapon-style mechanic here, too, where specific rhythm patterns must be tapped out on the screen in time to the music. One set of rhythmic taps will move the monkey to another branch, while a different combination of beats will throw coconuts at invading monkeys who want to steal your bananas. It’s great fun, and founder Trevor Stricker tells us, pretty darn sophisticated. The music is generated on the fly on the iPad itself, something that only a few Android tablets can even do.
Here’s a few seconds of game play that we took while on site:
https://vine.co/v/h5W1A25Jtjm
It’s tough to hear the soundtrack, of course, but that’s Stricker’s finger there, tapping away, moving his monkeys, and defending his banana stash. That all sounds vaguely dirty, but it’s pretty family friendly. A few minutes with it on our own and we were hooked.
Look for Jungle Rumble soon on iPad (and a few Android tablets soon after), and we’ll keep an eye out for more details as they happen.