Heroes of the Monkey Tavern

Heroes of Monkey Tavern will certainly scratch your dungeon-crawling itch, especially if you're a fan of the seminal Dungeon Master, the game's biggest inspiration.

Heroes of the Monkey Tavern is a fun homage to old-school first-person dungeon crawlers, with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a game released for said genre in the 21st century. There's more than enough content to enjoy in this one, so you should check it out on Nintendo Switch if you're a fan of the genre.

This passion project has evidently been created with a modest budget, but Heroes of the Monkey Tavern is unremarkable in execution. It is the painting by numbers approach that leaves an overriding impression that the developer was arbitrarily ticking boxes as to what is expected in a first-person dungeon crawler, rather than making their own mark on modernising the genre. Instead, we’re left to brave a distinctly average experience that doesn’t hide many riches.

Heroes of the Monkey Tavern is a worthy addition to the dungeon crawling genre, although it is undoubtedly retro to a fault. While the simple graphics and generic enemy designs are disappointing, the actual dungeon crawling is effective in its purpose, and can be enjoyable if you come in expecting it to be nothing more than what it is.

The sound effects can be quite eerie such as footsteps that sound authentic, strange and weird noises that make you turn around and find an enemy standing behind you ready to jump your party. The music is very good and does a great job of complementing the action and the exploration. Heroes of the Monkey Tavern is a fun game that can feel a bit frustrating to those new to the genre, but if you give it a bit of time and take things slowly you'll find a very polished but hard dungeon crawler.

It’s tough to tell whether it’s the genre itself, or the execution of this particular game, but it feels like something you’d have been playing on a primitive computer of some ten to fifteen years ago. Each passing floor of the tower looks the same, with only the new enemy models distracting from that monotony. It’s one for the genre enthusiasts, that’s for sure, but your average gamer isn’t going to take a lot from this. Apart from the nightmares caused by running away from monsters along those dim corridors, that is.