Monkey Business [v0.4.1] – 4/5 stars.
By every metric, Monkey Business is an underrated game, and a satisfying experience all the way through. There’s a lot going for it: the sanguine humor, the character designs, and the overall simplicity of the game’s construction. The premise is a familiar one. We control Denis, our main character, who lives at home with his mother, Eve, and sister, Kira. In secret, Denis enters into a sexual relationship with them, as he simultaneously pursues his teacher, a school friend, as well as his aunt and cousin. What scenes we see is tied to our choices: Eve's love and corruption paths, and with Kira, there’s a choice between selecting male and female domination paths. We can choose to be with the other women as we wish. What is established is pretty clear, and is never bogged down by any melodrama, or world-building, or any other tedium of that nature.
In terms of the overall narrative, the story is fragmentary. There’s very little transition in between scenes. and they begin and end at will. This is fairly disorienting, and what holds the plot together are the relationships forged between the main character and the girls. Kira is a personal favorite; she has an independent streak about her, frequently getting into trouble at home and at school. She teases Denis constantly. Their tête-à-tête engagements are a nice mix of sexual tension and playful banter. The sibling dynamics feel natural (natural to the extent as incest fantasies are). Eve is a loving and affectionate mother, and though his relationship to her mom is a taboo one, it's also romantic. She falls in love with a younger man, which happens to be her son. The seduction in the game seems rooted in love, not lust, and for that reason, the sex scenes are tastefully portrayed, without veering off into maudlin introspection.
What sets Monkey Business apart from other games is that the strength and weaknesses are one and the same. The renders are passable, as the images have a bit of noise due to the rendering process or the lighting. Whatever the case may be, the visuals look slightly dated. However, the low resolution of the images are offset by the understated character designs. The look of the women draw us in, they are attractive and refined, in an unqualified style. Their personalities and how they’re written make them look better than they might have been otherwise, and makes us overlook the flaws. Your friend Alice is cute and innocent, as is your teacher, and your aunt and cousin are mirror images of Kira, flirty and coy. As for the writing, the translation from Russian to English is wonky and clipped (like the line "This is some good weather"), but the distinctness of the dialogue, the humor and charm shoots through the dark. The literal-mindedness of the translation is more often funny than not, and the comedic moments never feel forced. The game, and consequently, the sex scenes, are short. It’s easy to complete this in one sitting; yet for a game that’s still in its infancy, there’s a lot of paths we can pursue. There’s no gameplay as such, there are the remnants of a free-roam game, and we can click on a scene to proceed, which doesn’t add or subtract from the experience in any significant detail. Monkey Business is a wonderful gem of a game, one which deserves your love and attention.
