Bloons Supermonkey 2

Long before every flash game died in a terrible fire, Ninja Kiwi's Bloons series, and its spinoff,  Bloons Tower Defense, consumed almost every free moment I had at a school computer. There was just something about strategically popping balloons with an army of dart-throwing monkeys that I enjoyed. I remember giving the original Bloons Supermonkey a try and having fun, but I hadn't discovered it until so much later, and I just wasn't quite so interested anymore. However, a recent hankering for bullet hell action led me to pick this one up on my phone, and it brought me right back.

Like most other bullet hell games, Bloons Supermonkey 2 has you control a lone fighter against massive waves of opponents. The bulk of the game is broken into 100 bite-sized levels, with new opponents, mechanics, and even playable Supermonkeys being unlocked as you progress. Unfortunately, the levels start to feel pretty repetitive, with only the boss battles providing much of a challenge. This is because, contrary to most other bullet hell games, your opponents don't fight back. Since the big baddies here are just balloons, your challenge in each level is just to pop enough of them to earn a medal, or in the case of a boss, beat it before it escapes. You can occasionally catch dropped power-ups for a temporary boost, or you may be bombarded with blops that slow down your favorite monkey, forcing you to switch to another mid-level, but that doesn't do much to keep the combat exciting after a few dozen cookie-cutter stages.

The real fun for me came in upgrading my monkeys. There are eight different weapon types, of which a monkey can equip three, and each weapon has a full set of upgrades per weapon type per weapon slot per supermonkey. Once you upgrade a weapon to its max, you unlock one of your monkey's three "epic" slots, which let's you purchase and equip a far more powerful weapon with the caveat that it will take some time to recharge when it is used. These epic weapons become an absolute necessity for later boss fights, and were always exciting to unlock. Unfortunately, the upgrades weren't enough to convince me to finish the game.

After around 80 levels, I was no longer nostalgic for the Bloons of my childhood, and I was more than ready to set this bullet hell aside. It's definitely fun to take out thousands of balloons at the start, but the lack of variety wasn't great for convincing me to go all the way. If it weren't for the oppressive ads, I might recommend you download this just to have something for a younger audience at the ready, but as it stands, Bloons Supermonkey 2 is a largely mediocre return to the world of monkeys, darts, and way too many balloons.

The game is available for Android here (as of 6/7/21): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ninjakiwi.supermonkey&hl=en_US&gl=US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 6/7/21): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bloons-supermonkey-2/id1118441024

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