You know when you see a game and it says it’s “suitable for all ages”? Instead of thinking, “yay! that’s for me!” you know that it really means it’s designed for kids? Well, Chimparty is unique in the way that it is actually, genuinely suitable for all ages. It’s amazing.
a bunch of 20 – 40 year old kids played in this game. And we all enjoyed ourselves
When I first saw the trailer for this, I thought, this is exactly like Frantics. Oh how I was wrong. Chimparty takes all that was good in its predecessor and makes it fun and ridiculous. It’s like the devs looked at Frantics and thought, you know what would make this game better? Farts. And you know who think farts are funny? All ages.
Up to four players race their assigned chimp, each of whom possess majestic powers of flatulence, to the banana couch at the end of the game board. Jump, swing, and “toot” your way to victory in games where you dunk coconuts, swab decks with paint and see who can fart-fly the furthest (not Di). There are even a few that rely on teamwork to win, pitting you and another chimp against the others, mixing up the competitive vibes with a bit of cooperation, which is really nice.
The mini games were a lot of fun. I thought I would be amazing at them. I felt like I was amazing at them. I was dunking coconuts and shouting BONGO TIME with the excitable voice over man all the time! And yet, to my surprise, I always found myself either in third or last place.
It reminded me of a sad time in primary school during swimming sports. I had entered myself into the flipperboard competition and I was going to beat everyone because flipperboard was flippin’ easy. When the whistle blew I paddled my little heart out to the end. I was so proud of my performance that when I got to the end I looked up expecting to win first place. I waited because no one was there. It took a little while before I realised I was the only one in the pool.
Much like little Jaz during the flipperboard race, I felt awesome while I was playing Chimparty. So when it came to look at the scores, I could only be impressed at those who beat me (which was everyone).
Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely a kid’s game. But the fun doesn’t have to stop when the kids go to bed. Grab some prime mates and pop open the wine, because Chimparty is a whole ‘nuther experience while inebriated.
If I’m to be completely honest, I really didn’t think we’d enjoy this game. Frantics (which was made by the same developer) was fun, but it got a little tiresome. Changing the format from tournament to board game definitely spruced things up for the better.
A small amount of chance was added to the game, where landing on a certain tile could mean boosting you higher up the board or way, way, waaaaay behind everyone else. We would holler at our opponents who jumped over our heads and mourned (who am I kidding, we cheered!) with anyone who landed on a “back four spaces” tile.
Looking back, we got pretty loud with this game. So if the kids are in bed, just be aware of that.
