Crypto Apes Preview: Monkeying around with GRANDLIFE’s simian mobile puzzler

Crypto Apes might sound like a new breed of finance bro with a special interest in digital currency, but it’s actually a fun new mobile puzzler from the folks at GRANDLIFE.

With logic and physics as their greatest assets, players must guide a band of lost apes back to the jungle, avoiding an assortment of traps and hazards along the way. Crypto Apes has been fine-tuned for short play sessions on the move, and with an in-game open market for trading prizes with other players, it has all the hallmarks of your next addiction.

Welcome to the jungle

In Crypto Apes, all of the action takes place from the top-down perspective, atop of a grid layout. Your job is to guide a pack of lost apes back to their jungle homes from a place called the Forbidden Wilds. It’s an ancient ruin full of toxic slime pits, ape-eating plants and toxic oil pits. In other words, not the kind of place you’d want to book a holiday to.

But returning the titular primates to their natural habitat is a simple matter of a few strategic screen taps. Although there are hazards everywhere in the Forbidden Wilds, players have plenty of moves in their repertoire to overcome them. For example, tapping on an ape in close proximity to those bitey plants will see them neutralise it with a well-aimed banana.

A pair of apes beside each other on the grid can also be merged into a golden ape, a shiny simian with the smashing potential of the Incredible Hulk, which you can harness to demolish obstacles like boulders. Moreover, mushroom power-ups in this universe don’t turn playable characters giant, they rotate them on the board so they can travel in new directions.

That’s how your apes navigate the in-game world. You help them rotate, smash and banana toss their way around death traps and barriers to the nearest jungle entrance.

These skills are drip-fed to players throughout the first eight levels or so, after which Crypto Apes lets go of your hand, confident it’s equipped you with the survival skills to usher those apes through the Wilds, even though you only have a set number of moves on each stage.

Like all good mobile puzzlers, Crypto Apes is simple to learn but the in-game physics and logic-based conundrums take time to master. Luckily you’ll feel compelled to keep at it, as the game has been primed to be played in short, regular bursts - the ideal companion for a quick commute, lunch break or waiting room stint.

Monkey business

While the lifeblood of Crypto Apes is logic and reason, it’s also about mountains of loot, and the spoils of your gorilla warfare can be traded with other players too.

On the main menu screen, you’ll see the option to spin the Fortune Wheel to be in with a chance of winning in-game power-ups, like the aforementioned mushrooms but also CAB-s - the in-game currency - and Treasure Chests, which are packed with rare loot.

Crypto Apes players who aren’t lucky enough to win these chests when they spin the wheel will get a free one every 50 levels, or if they encounter a Silverback Ape on the grid and merge with it. The loot these chests contain can then be traded on an in-game open market.

Back on the menu screen, there’s a Shop right next to the Fortune Wheel, and this is where you can use your hard-earned CAB-s to buy snazzy new primate avatars, name frames and treasure chests from other players, while flogging your own hauls there too.

Gorilla networking

It’s clear that GRANDLIFE wants Crypto Apes to be more than a simple mobile puzzler. The studio has gone to great lengths to encourage a community to build up around the game ahead of its launch, with the open market sure to be a stand-out feature.

Moreover, there will be a competitive element to the game for members of that community who are seeking more than just casual jungle japes. Two main online leaderboards will track all-time high scores from players who have mastered every level, and one of these will be a weekly ranking with bonus CAB-s and Treasure Chests up for grabs for those who top it.

Whether you’re looking for a simple mobile puzzle romp or to be part of something bigger, Crypto Apes combines simple conundrums with extensive community features to check both boxes. Already going bananas about it? You can keep tabs on the game’s official website as well as pre-order the game right now from the App Store and Google Play.