It’s one thing for a game to be immersive, but there is no use in it unless it’s mixed in with an element of fun, especially when it comes to virtual reality gaming. In a video game market filled to the brim with violence, profanity and death, it’s nice to be able to play some light-hearted, family orientated games, you know, just for a change. The new PlayStation VR platform library is still in its infancy, but what experiences this awesome piece of kit can muster up leaves no game out of our reach.
One such light-hearted experience is Ace Banana and, as the name suggests, it does indeed surround the much loved, tropical fruit. Protecting them, in fact, using none other than a bow and arrow. In Ace Banana, you play as a Banana Protector tasked with looking after a precious horde of bananas from the hands of thieving primates. It’s an unimaginative premise, but in such a small game, it is fitting. You won’t find any engaging story modes or a deep multiplayer experience here, just protect those bananas from wave after wave of monkeys.
Ace Banana adopts both control schemes of either the Dualshock controller or PlayStation Move controllers with the latter being by far the best option to allow full immersion of feeling like Robin Hood. With the Move controllers, using the bow is easy, mimicking the actual operation of a real-life bow and arrow. You use one controller to aim and the other to draw the bow back. The power of each shot is determined by how far you draw back which is indicated by a target reticle activated as soon as the arrow is held. Using the bow feels great, but the responsiveness is very finicky a lot more often than I would have liked. The onscreen hands stuttered and drifted at times indicating that the controllers were out of view, even though they were in my PlayStation camera’s full field of vision. This made aiming extremely difficult because to hit a monkey, you need to be spot on target. For the most part though, it worked, granting a true recreation of actually using a bow and arrow.
You begin standing in a specific point on the level with your Banana horde right in front of you as a purple Pokémon-looking creature flies down and screeches to mark the beginning of the first wave. Then the monkey bastards cometh, at first following set paths, but as the waves progress, so to do their routes and variations of the little critters. Standard monkeys are soon accompanied by monkeys dressed in workmen outfits and clown costumes complete with helmets and masks that require a few extra shots to take down. There is no smart AI involved here, they simply keep on walking until they manage to grab a banana before scarpering at seemingly super speed, making it hard to retrieve your beloved fruit back.
A few waves in, a monkey operating some form of machinery will enter the fray in a would-be epic boss battle. The frustration levels rise dramatically here as the only way to defeat the boss is by hitting the monkey operating it, with the sheer size of them make it extremely tough. The fact that levels open up after a couple of waves giving you another horde to look after. Flying between locations is easy as you simply hold the top button, aim your Iguana on your hand to another Banana horde, then let go to be zipped over to that location. The screen dims, too so no need to worry about motion sickness.
Ace Banana is a brightly coloured game to match its light-hearted theme, albeit very simplistic. The jungle levels are nicely rendered and look great in VR. The monkeys have a docile look to them, their googly eyes pointing outwards giving them an eerily absent feel. Your bananas dance in unison in front of you as you fend off the thieves. You can get power-ups and power-downs to help or hinder you such as arrows that freeze monkeys or rock tipped arrows that make it tougher to draw power. The power-downs heighten the tension and frustration and are hard to miss at times as they float right in front of you. Bosses look great in VR. Their size make them extremely intimidating as they whip between your hordes using some form of vacuum to steal them. The monkeys operating them are small, so a keen eye and impeccable aim is a must.
Unfortunately, the fun factor is short lived in Ace Banana. Shooting monkey after monkey gets tedious pretty quickly once you have gotten over the fact that you are firing a virtual bow and arrow. With no other game mode available, there is little substance here to keep you playing for an extended amount of time.
Developer: TVR
Publisher: Oasis Games
Platform: PS4
Release Date: 13th October 2016