Ookibloks is an action puzzle game where you play as a cute little monkey trying to get back all of his bananas and save the island from evil.  Defeating each of the evil bosses will earn you a special stone that you must return to a giant stone monkey god and the more stones you return, the more levels you get.  The way you have to beat the game is by bouncing off the walls and try to get all the banana blocks before the timer runs out, if you run out of time then the evil Devil Cat will be after you.  It's not just the Devil Cat you must worry about, you also have to deal with killer crabs, snappy sharks, and other horrors found on the island.  Are you brave enough to defeat evil and get back all your bananas in this off the wall game?  (Click on "Read More" to read the full review).


Story in the game is very minimal, you won't even notice that this game has one, you also won't care due to being too focused with the gameplay.  The way this game plays is that you start off on a brick on the level, you can then choose to go one of three directions to get to another block (preferably a banana block, rinse and repeat until the stage has been beaten.  You will get a rating at the end of each level, depending on the your score you will get a rating with S rank being the highest rank.  You can get a killer score by hitting the banana blocks in a combo but you only have a short time in-between hitting each banana block or else the combo will end, so wasting time is a no go in this game.

You will have enemies that'll block you although you can get rid of them, however it isn't going to be easy as you must first stun them.  To stun enemies you must get a huge piece of fruit to drop in on their heads, then you must fly though them to defeat them.  Trying to get the timing right is the tricky part and sometimes they can get stunned in positions right out of your reach, so it takes some patience to get it just right.  As I said before, you only get a certain time before Devil Cat gets summoned and this mean old puddy cat can not be killed and is always following you until it has you.  It is possible to beat a stage with him following you but it's very tricky to do so.


At the end of each set of stages there is a boss battle and they all have different ways of defeating them, I really enjoyed that as it added variety to the game.  If you think you are a master, you can go play the bonus master levels where things really become hard and frustrating but they were also fun and will make you determined to beat them.  You do get power-ups to help you along your journey and they were all very helpful but this feature has its problems.  The first problem being that you only get a certain amount and this amount doesn't recharge on  its own.  The way to get more power-ups is that you first must beat a special level that appears daily, once you've beaten this level you must then win a mini-game called Ookiballs.

Ookiballs is a crane game where you get three attempts to get three capsules that contain special prizes.  The difficulty is on the medium side, you have to be very precise on how you grab them but it is easy to get the hang of Ookiballs on the second and third attempts.  The prizes you will get include extra lives and power-ups and all of these help a lot (as I've said before).  It's just a shame that you can play this mini-game once a day as it is an incredibly fun mini-game that defiantly feels rewarding for getting to it and playing it.


The gameplay itself is very responsive, smooth and works well with a controller and you won't even tell that this game was originally created for a touchscreen mobile device.  This game is also incredibly addicting due to the game being very fun, plus the levels/puzzles were very well designed and they will really get you thinking on how to beat them as quickly as possible to get those sweet combo points.  The setting is also very enjoyable with its cute and cuddly island theme, it makes it impossible to play this game without having a smile on your face and that's even when you are losing on the tougher levels.

Difficulty starts off as easy but it will gradually become harder with each stage but no matter how hard it'll get, it is a very beatable game to where any gamer be that of the hardcore or casual kind will be able to beat this game.  The length of the game is decent, it isn't too long or too short but just right.  Controls are incredibly simple as you only need to hit the arrow keys to go the direction you want to go and hitting 1,2, or 3 number key will activate the power-ups.


Graphics in this game use 3D cel-shaded models and they look incredibly cute and cuddly looking to where you'll just look at them and say, "Aww, how cute".  The character designs don't have much detail in them but that's not a problem as the characters are very clean in design and look good.  Backgrounds in this game are very colorful and are designed well and gives each stage a very appropriate feeling that will put you in a great mood.  The soundtrack has a tropical theme that suits the game really well but it is also on the generic and unmemorable side.  This game also gives you the entire soundtrack in MP3 form as a bonus feature, so if you want to listen to this soundtrack wherever you go, you can.

Overall, this is a very fun and charming little action puzzle game that'll turn that frown upside down.  I do recommend giving this game a play, especially on a cold, miserable, wet rainy day as it will warm you up greatly.  I do also want to see this game get an arcade release as it has that certain vibe and fun factor to where I want to play this on an arcade cabinet.  Cool bananas.

Game: Ookibloks
System: PC/Steam
Developer: Studio Work3, Lampert & Sons, Skyboy Games
Publisher: Skyboy Games
Genre: Action, Puzzle
Price: $4.99
Recommended: Yes