Tropix 2: Quest for the Golden Banana gets chops just for having “banana” in its title. Everything about the game is pretty silly - you’re a monkey hopping from island to island in search of treasure, meeting penguins, crabs, and birds along the way. Instead of the traditional linear adventure, Tropix 2 is more like Frogs In Love: a collection of different mini-games. To move to the next island, first you need to play the games to earn money called “sand dollars”. Then you use the sand dollars to buy items for your island (items are classified under Food, Fun, or Comfort). If you buy enough items, you’ll unlock a Quest item - which is what you need to move on to the next island. Wash, rinse, repeat until you finish the game.

Does it sound complicated? Believe me, it’s not. In fact, Tropix 2 is idiotically simple. The mini-games are pared-down versions of your favorites: there’s a swapping Match-3 game, a service game set in an ice cream parlor, a bowling game, and more. We liked the Pirates! game, where you shoot pirates and rubber ducks with a cannon, and then play a quick inlay jigsaw game to rebuild any damage to your ship.

However, Tropix 2 is not deep, just wide. All the mini-games are so ridiculously simple that monkeys (pun intended) could play them. Similarly, the sandbox approach to decorating your island isn’t really that rewarding, maybe because you’re forced to buy a lot of things… so your island ends up looking like a junk heap. Everything outside gameplay - the art, story, characters, even the music and sound effects - is lacking in personality. You don’t get attached to any of it, and we ran through the trial hour without ever knowing what the Golden Banana was!

‘Course, not all games need personality. The games that came with your Microsoft Windows don’t have it, and yet people play them for hours. Tropix 2 is something like that - it’s a whole lot of fun, but it doesn’t have much additional value. And truthfully, after a long day at work, maybe simple monkey games are a better source of entertainment than all those other serious stuff. Try this one and see for yourself.

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(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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