Swing King and the Temple of Bling Review: Jungle VIP

Swing King and the Temple of Bling’s name alone makes you want to love it. It’s charming and cute, and guess what? The game mostly is too. It’s a sometimes quite tough one tap puzzle game, but it’s particularly ideal …

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Swing King and the Temple of Bling’s name alone makes you want to love it. It’s charming and cute, and guess what? The game mostly is too. It’s a sometimes quite tough one tap puzzle game, but it’s particularly ideal for when you’re low on time but keen to accomplish something. The only downside is some fairly intrusive advertising.

You control Mumbles the monkey as he attempts to negotiate various ancient temples in search of hidden treasure. The cute monkey can only do this by swinging between poles. Fortunately, he can stretch pretty far but he’s also incredibly vulnerable. One touch of a spike and it’s game over for the primate. The trick here is to go carefully.

That’s not so easy when young Mumbles is in motion. Controls require you to hold your finger to the screen in order for him to grab and hold onto a pole, with releasing it causing him to go flying in the direction he happens to be pointing in. It’s simple stuff meaning it’s ideal for one handed gaming, while still being quite challenging.

That’s because you have to keep an eye on where Mumbles is going. Momentum is key here and you’re limited when it comes to methods to change this. Occasionally, you’ll come across a spider’s web that Mumbles can snag onto before propelling himself in a different direction. Other times, you can bounce off a wall, but you have to be acutely aware of potential spike issues.

Looking a level over and figuring out a route is key to your chances of success. You have the advantage of being able to hold on indefinitely, providing you keep your finger to the screen, so that helps you take the time to check things out. Soon enough though, you’ll come across enemies that can move around as well as doors that slam shut on you, so still expect to be speedy.

Crucially though, Swing King and the Temple of Bling does a fair job of easing you in. Yes, things get tricky after a time, but you’re trickle fed content so nothing feels too overwhelming. Upon arriving at each new screen, you’re able to either watch an advert or use the coins you’ve gained along your route to buy a continue slot, ensuring you return to this screen rather than a much earlier one. That’s reasonably done, and coins are quite easy to come by as you fly through the route.

Ads are quite prevalent though. Watching one to get a continue is all good and well, but you’re also going to end up watching one after every time you die. This can get monotonous when you’ve died a lot in a short space of time. It breaks up the action a little too much. Obviously, this is where the few bucks to buy your way out of the freemium build comes into play, so it’s worth it for your sanity.

Slickly made, Swing King and the Temple of Bling is cute and appealing while also being quite tough at times. It’s an ideal action puzzle game, whatever your mood, meaning you’re going to enjoy working your way through the 45 levels on offer. That might not sound substantial but just you wait. You’ll see that’s plenty of content for little Mumbles.

The good

  • Simple and effective controls
  • Tricky but satisfying puzzles
  • Cute visuals

The bad

  • Lots of adverts in the freemium build
80 out of 100
Jennifer is a UK-based freelance writer. Her work has featured at multiple outlets, including Gamasutra, 148apps, Paste, TechRadar, Wareable, and MyM magazine. In her spare time, she tries to teach her guinea pigs tricks, and enjoys losing hours to Netflix.