Monkey Quest, 8.9 out of 10 based on 33 ratings
The idea for Monkey Quest is an evolution from Nickelodeon’s roots in the gaming space, starting with Neopets, which Viacom purchased almost six years ago. Players who pay have access to additional content, including premium missions and items for your avatar. Parents can enter their credit card online, or they can buy game cards in 40,000 retail locations through a partnership with InComm. Subscriptions will cost $9.95 a month, or users can choose to pay as they go, by buying Nick Cash. Like many social games today, the game is free, and users never have to pay if they don’t want to.īut there’s two premium offers to entice kids. If you give someone a boost, it’s only proper etiquette to reciprocate.
While the game is in beta, they are noticing that a lot of the players are learning how to interact with one another through gestures. For instance if a monkey squats down and puts his hands above his heads, it implies that it is offering to give another monkey a boost up to a higher ledge. Still, they find that doesn’t keep kids from interacting with one another. Nickelodeon monitors conversations around the clock, and parents can even choose to limit chats to a handful of canned phrases, like “do you want to trade x for y.” Players are never allowed to know each other’s real names, and some phrases are filtered out of text-based conversations automatically. The game is targeting 8 to 12 year olds, and keeps things safe by limiting what can be said. The monkeys are also rewarded with bananas for completing tasks. Players never fight one another, and even when shooting monsters, they use silly guns like the Kernal Blaster, which is an ear of corn. Even without a lot of work, the monkeys are very animated and have kid-friendly attributes, like the ability to burp, or take a nap if they aren’t being very active.Ĭhallenges include fighting monsters, or venturing into volcanoes, where they may meet Maurice the Gorilla, a friendly giant that enjoys roasting marshmallows. In the game, each player creates an avatar monkey that can be customized. Initially, there will be 50 levels for players to achieve, but new content will be added daily.Įven after the game launches, the Nickelodeon team will be busy adding missions, characters and other tribes–indefinitely. It spans a vast territory that encompasses five different tribes, which are connected by a network of highways. Monkey Quest takes place in the World of Ook. While it runs in a PC’s browser, it has the quality look and feel of a console game, thanks to a development platform company called Unity, which has been the basis for a lot of other high-quality games. “What we did was take the big adult games and adapt them for kids, which is something you don’t see very often,” Reppen said. Monkey Quest is comparable to other so-called massively multiplayer games, such as the insanely popular World of Warcraft, which has roughly 12 million subscribers.Įxcept for that it is cute and cuddly, and something even parents can approve of.
Kyra Reppen, SVP and general manager of Nickelodeon’s Virtual Worlds Group, who was showing off the game at GDC last week, declined to quantify the investment, but said it will be heavily promoted, much like a new TV show. It represents a significant undertaking for the network. On April 2, the free online game will be unveiled, marking the culmination of two and a half years of development. Nickelodeon, the TV network targeting kids, is launching a virtual world called Monkey Quest that will be unveiled next month at the Kids’ Choice Awards.