BOMBANANA! Review (PC)

“I could do that blindfolded,” I laughed, marveling at a friend who was, as it turned out, blind. “It shouldn’t be that difficult.” Moronically, I believed that it would be a doddle—to defuse a bomb with as little as a pair of gloves. But then I stepped into the hot seat, not as the deaf one, but as the blind “expert” in the troupe. Four minutes later, the bomb exploded, and the bitter taste of failure hit me like a freight train. As it turned out, they were right. The act of defusing a bomb with a  trio of deaf, dumb and blind monkeys wasn’t going to be a cakewalk. The fact that one of us couldn’t even see the cake in question was the first red flag that we probably should have acknowledged before signing the contract.

At first, I figured that I could use whatever knowledge I had of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes to defuse a bomb and claim the bragging rights. In less than five minutes, though, the terms and conditions became a lot clearer to the naked eye. It wasn’t just a matter of defusing a bomb and reading an instruction manual; it was a strenuous team-based exercise that required every fiber of our collective soul to overcome. A blind monkey; a deaf monkey; and a mute monkey. It was a recipe for disaster, yet we figured it would be an easy way to mesh our friendship traits together. But, we were wrong. Nobody knew what they were doing, and I was almost certain that the blind monkey wasn’t even playing the friggin’ game, to begin with.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, BOMBANANA! is a three-player co-op game in which each player—a monkey with a burden to bear, naturally—is given the opportunity to band together with their companions to solve a volatile riddle. The catch, however, is that one person is blind, another is deaf, and a third is mute. To make matters worse, the one who is cursed with a lack of sight is given the bomb, the one who is without a voice is in charge of the manual, and the player who lacks an ear to communicate is handed the task of translating the information. And yes, the game does require you to work as one to successfully defuse the bomb.

BOMBANANA! is a lot of things, but a reflection of three competent leaders isn’t one of them. If anything, it’s a painful reminder that even the most talented of people can stumble if the situation is direly beyond the limits of their imagination. It isn’t a game that praises you for embracing your shortcomings, but rather, a comical affair that laughs at you for trying. It doesn’t matter if you’re the deaf, blind or mute person in the room, because frankly, nobody holds the upper hand, and everyone is at a disadvantage. It just so happens that a ticking time bomb is the thing that illuminates everyone’s worst possible characteristics.

It goes without saying at this point, but BOMBANANA is an absolute nightmare to play through, especially if you’re working alongside two other friends who think that they’re Bond, but lack the skills and resources to be Bond. But that’s sort of where the game finds its stride — as a stupidly unfair experience that cradles the idea of putting unsuspecting victims through the wringer, and then asking them to perform a miracle. Rightfully so, the game doesn’t cough up information on a silver platter, but simply hands you a collection of bombs, a guide, and a trio of incompetent primates who are about as useful as a damp cloth. Annoyingly, though, such a concept works.

The goal of the game isn’t all that difficult to grasp. In fact, it’s essentially the same as Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, in that you have to disarm a bomb with the aid of an instruction manual. However, what sets this disaster apart from its kin is its encumbered protagonists. Rather, say, it involving two people—a desktop-based bomb expert and a practical operator—the game invites three players to fill separate roles, all of which come with their own unique rules and flaws. As a blind player, for example, you have access to a black, colorless screen, whereas a mute player has access to the instructions, but is unable to converse with their teammates to walk them through the steps. Likewise, the deaf player, who essentially serves as the middle man in the situation, has to decipher various hand gestures to then pass on to the blind user. It’s all a little messy — but that’s sort of the point.

BOMBANANA! doesn’t tell you what to do. Instead, it gives you all of the information, but doesn’t give you an idea of how to thread it all together into a coherent narrative. It’s frustrating, to say the least, but it’s also oddly hilarious, especially when you weigh out your options and reach the conclusion that, win or lose, the odds of pulling it off are depressingly slim. But that’s the thing with BOMBANANA: it’s unapologetically hard, yet entertaining enough to keep you engaged for the long haul.

In addition to its in-house bombs and stages, the game also features a fully customizable suite that you can lean on to craft your own bombs. Like the base game, the tailored stages are as equally frustrating, but also, weirdly, a lot of fun to hopelessly explore. And I think that best describes BOMBANANA, in a nutshell. While it is an excruciatingly painful co-op game, it is one that knows all too well how to tickle your funny bone. It can make you sweat, make you cry, and, more often than not, make you feel the need to crush lifelong friendships for no reason whatsoever. Is that the makings of a good game? You tell me. I haven’t spoken to my teammates since the last bomb went off.

Verdict

BOMBANANA! adds a second tier to the ever-painful Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes formula to create its own thorny, highly volatile world of problematic characters and challenges, bombs and back-breaking curveballs. Conceptually, it’s a nightmare of a game. But, weirdly, it also comes across as a brilliant, albeit highly stressful experience that’s as equally satisfying as it is infuriating. But maybe that’s a good thing. Is it painfully hard? Yes. Is it oh-so-more-ish and bashful? Absolutely.