Gorilla Tag

Gorilla Tag
"Monke."
Genre(s): Action, Casual Platform(s): Meta Quest Steam PlayStation 5 Release Date: February 12, 2021 (Steam) July 15, 2021 (Meta Quest) December 15, 2022 (Full Launch) November 8, 2024 (PlayStation 5) Developer(s): Another Axiom Publisher(s): Another Axiom

Gorilla Tag is a multiplayer virtual reality game developed and published by Another Axiom LLC. Development first began in January 2020 and the game was finally released the following year on Steam on February 12, 2021, during its early access phase. It then expanded its availability to App Lab the subsequent month, ultimately reaching its official launch on the Meta Store on December 15, 2022.

It was later released for the PlayStation 5 on November 8, 2024.

Why It Rejects Humanity (In a Good Way), Becomes Monke, Climbs Well and Makes You Want To Play Minigames

1. A very good selection of maps, ranging from:
   • Forest
   • Caves
   • Canyons
   • Mountains
   • City
   • Clouds
   • Basement
   • Beach
   • Rotational
   • Metropolis
   • Attic (which was added as a test feature based on player feedback, rebranded to Monke Blocks)
   • Arcade
   • Bayou
   • Virtual Stump
2. There are some very good updates to the game, such as:
   • House
   • Summer Splash
   • Halloween 2022 & 2023
   • Christmas 2023
   • Nowruz
   • Spring Cleaning
   • Arcade and City revamp (arguably the best update of the entire game's history)
3. This game has a good share of pop-culture references, like references to King Kong, Pac-Man, and even Shrek!
4. While it is only limited to content creators, the Finger Painter badge is a really good cosmetic with a very important reason to be added to the game, and that is because the use of the Finger Painter badge is to attempt to reduce impersonation. However, the only way to get the Finger Painter without being a content creator is by hacking the game.
5. You can be any color in the game, using the RGB scale. The maximum value for each color is 9.
6. A good selection of cosmetics to choose from.
7. Unlike Roblox, the community itself is quite respectful and friendly.
   • If a new player is unsure of how to play the game, then players educate the new player on mechanics, changing colors/names, buying/putting on cosmetics & showing them the different maps.
   • Players can be a bit annoying and foul-mouthed at times, but luckily, you can mute them if you want.
8. Nicely done moderation, to stop racism, cheating & toxicity.
   • The developers do a perfect job listening to criticism, even if they had made some flaws, since they know doing so would help them fix their mistakes and improve the game. This was the reason why the Attic map was added, as it was based on criticism rather than being a full-time map.
9. If you play the game every time, you get 100 shiny rocks every day, which is good for those who don't like the game's microtransactions.
10. A bit like Roblox, it has spawned some amazing and decent fangames. To make things even better, they are all free just like Gorilla Tag, whilst some fangames have unfortunately been delisted. Here are some examples:
    • Brick Tag (a Lego remake of Gorilla Tag, which was sadly delisted)
    • Cube Runners
    • Monkey Doo Doo
    • Capuchin
    • Scary Baboon
    • Fish Game
    • Penguin Paradise
    • Cebus
    • Yeeps Hide and Seek
11. Four game modes that are enjoyable, from Casual, Infection, Hunt & Paintbrawl. Unfortunately, Paintbrawl is now a limited time gamemode, where it will be swapped with Ambush sometimes.
12. Nicely done soundtrack. It even gets your ears kicked in!
13. Doug the Bug is a nice NPC. You can even hold him & make him go everywhere you go!
    • A similar NPC in the caves called Matt the Bat exists. Matt acts the same way as Doug does.
    • Aside from Matt the Bat and Doug the Bug, there is also a NPC called Mark the Shark who will swim around Beach (originally Caves)
14. You can join private codes where you can play casually by yourself or host events like fan lobbies, roleplays, or talent shows.
15. To make the game not just for kids, there are rumours revolving around ghosts being in the game, such as PBBV and Daisy09, which are the most recognizable ghosts in the game. There is an extremely rare chance that these ghosts will be real, as most of the ghosts are fake. You can spot the fake ghosts if their name is incorrectly spelled or if the quality of the sound is bad.
16. Some very good mods, including:
    • Custom maps
    • Ranked, which is a sub-game mode by Gorilla Tag COMP, which tracks skilled players' statistics in the game, from tags to MMR.
17. The developers accepted their apologies, and in compensation........ they brought back the original Caves map as a part of the rotational schedule! The aforementioned update is a MASSIVE love letter to those who played Gorilla Tag when it was in beta.
    • Gets better: Due to popular demand, the developers decided to keep the aforementioned map for longer.
18. To avoid ban evasion being too easy, the Steam version's cost was changed from free to USD 19.99. This is a really good way to stop more hackers going into the game.
19. You can have friendship bracelets in the game just by fist-bumping someone. You can have up to 10 players for each bracelet.
20. The Arcade and City revamp update. The whole update. (despite the high amount of glitches ranging from the "free disc", out of bounds and the Mark glitch)
21. They even acknowledged mods into the game! To access the mods, you have to go into the Arcade, and once you're in the arcade, find a cabinet resembling a virtual reality headset, then you'll be teleported into the Virtual Stump. There's a control panel that gives you access to plenty of mods.
22. Heck, the game's popularity even spawned a PlayStation release! Even better, the graphics are improved in the game, meaning the PlayStation 5 version is the BEST version of Gorilla Tag so far!
23. The Monke Blocks update (November 15, 2024) is a MASSIVE improvement over the previous Monke Blocks & the main reason why is because all the griefing is severely reduced. There are now playerbases in the baseplate & that was a really smart idea, because they responded to the criticism over the previous Monke Blocks, as it was full of griefing.
24. Five words: "DO YOU WANNA PLAY MINIGAMES?"

Qualites That Get Tagged By The Lava Monke

1. There are too many glitches to get out of certain maps, and while it may be useful for some players, the problem is that players like you can get banned just for doing these glitches which caused some players to play private servers to avoid this, causing the game to go downhill. Thankfully, most of those glitches have been patched as of now.
   • It's somewhat disappointing how back in the alpha releases of the game they would hypocritally ban players for glitching though maps when they could have just patched the glitches before, which thankfully doesn't happen that much.
   • There worst offender of this is the "tag lag" glitch, where if you are a Lava Monke and you touch a player, the player will not be tagged. Fortunately, it doesn't happen for too long.
   • It's even worse in the Arcade and City Revamp update, because as great as these updates may be, they had cranked the glitches up to eleven because when loading up the game, some maps were not loading in, for example, the Basement method was the easiest known glitch to get out of the map, following the glitch involving Mark the Shark where you go flying. Thankfully, the Basement glitch has been patched, but a patch for the Mark the Shark glitch has yet to see the light of day. It should now be clear that there are now more ways to go out the map just by loading the game, the currently easiest known method for getting out the map is the Clouds method. Even worse, the glitch is probably never going to be patched, since loading times can't be fixed.
2. Some updates seem forced and not that good, with Forest Lava and Pride Jam being the worst offenders.
   • Wasted potential: the Bayou Boogie update, whilst good, could have had its length decreased from 4 weeks to 2 weeks to coincide with the Halloween update. Thankfully, this actually happened, as the Bayou Boogie's 4 week length was probably a glitch.
3. Some maps look a bit rushed, mainly to fit the purpose of the rotational map, like with the Taiga map. Thankfully, it has been replaced.
4. Whilst one of the best updates to the game, the Summer Splash update temporarily makes the Caves map inaccessible, until July 28, 2023, when the map was revamped.
   • A similar thing happened with the Arcade and City revamp update, where it was full of glitches, as it was very common to see people glitch out the map in a public lobby.
   • The same thing happened with the Clouds map in the Hopping Spring update. Thankfully, it only lasted until the Flying Monkes update, 2 weeks after the Hopping Spring update.
5. The game, like any other, features microtransactions, where various amounts of Shiny Rocks can be bought for real money. Fortunately, you could use hacks to get as many Shiny Rocks as you can (although doing so might cost you some trouble with Lemming).
6. False advertising: A sneak peek posted on April 18, 2024, hinted at a remake of the original Caves from 2021-2023. However, it turned out to be a development version of Caves instead. At least the developers apologized.
   • The original Caves would later be added back into the game on May 17, 2024 (read WIRH(IaGW),BM,CWAMYWTPM#17 for more info)
   • Another example of false advertising is the July 18, 2024 patch, which fixed various bugs such as longer black screens, not being able to take off bracelets by pulling the string, and the Daily Tee being stuck at 00:00:00 & not updating. However, these were all fixed, except for the Daily Tee, which is nowhere to be found in the game, as it was likely to have been removed without any notice. However, when the Arcade and City revamp update launched, the Daily Tees were added back into the game, in a stall where 3 tees from the rotation were on offer, but were updated weekly.
7. After the patch update on March 29, 2024, Meta Quest users under the age of 13 are no longer able to use voice chat, join private codes, or buy Shiny Rocks, which is a bit disappointing, although it was somewhat understandable since some players can be annoying at times & the use of microtransactions.
8. There is a chance that private lobbies will be griefed.
9. Without hacking, some cosmetics are unobtainable nowadays, like:
   • the WeAreVR cosmetics
   • the Monke plush (which is technically a microtransaction because you had to buy the plush from Makeship & it was a limited time campaign)
   • the Early Access badge and other bundle cosmetics
   • and finally, the anniversary cosmetics.
10. Some places were extremely prone to griefing, with the worst offender being the Attic map as players kept on ruining other people's builds. To make it more worse, it somewhat made the game go downhill along with the controversial Pride Jam update.
    • On November 15, 2024, the Attic came back as Monke Blocks, but with reduced amounts of griefing. Players can now make their builds in their own bases rather than going to private codes. Although there is almost no more griefing, there are still griefers in Monke Blocks (although this can technically be forgiven because players might not know how to set up their own bases)
    • The Guardian gamemode is jam-packed with griefers. Basically all you do in the Guardian mode is to try and destroy the eye so you can become big. As a big Monke, you push people off the eye so you can try and be big permanently. This can ruin the gameplay for those who enjoy Guardian.

Tips and Tricks

If you play Gorilla Tag and want to get better or play in a more competitive manner, here are some recommended tips.

• Pinch climbing is the most recommended mechanic for beginner players, and is the easiest. To pinch climb, go to a tall object (such as the speaker and the pair of walls), use your hands and position them like you're hugging something, lift yourself up & repeat the exact same process.
• To wall-run, it's recommended to use 72hz or 60hz, but this is completely optional. (Any hz value below 60 is bannable) Whatever hand you use, make it look like the letter L, then push yourself up, and if you're good enough, you can wall-run. This will not go right at first, but as you get on, you can get better at wall-running.
• To hospital flip, go on a branch, put one hand on the branch, rotate yourself in a 360 degree angle and you should have done the hospital flip. Remember, this will take a couple of attempts to successfully perform.
• To juke someone (make sure the gamemode is set to Infection), run as fast as you can when a Lava Monke is about to tag you, then if you dodge their tag, you will have successfully juked them.
• If you want to boost your Shiny Rock amount, boot the game up daily. This is recommended if you don't want to use microtransactions.
• When someone mentions to you that you join the code KKK or MINI99, do not join those codes. These are banned codes, and typing them in will give you a warning that the next time you type these, you will get banned. Thankfully, this is only a 1 hour ban.
• If you feel uncomfortable in a public lobby, you're okay to join a private code on your own.
• If you player is either causing disruption with voice chat or being annoying, then it's recommended to report them and give video proof (this is optional, video reports can be sent to the game's Discord server) or you may mute them if they get more annoying.
• To Jesus run (it's recommended to do this on the Beach map due to it being full of water, or if available, the volcano in Forest), go to a water surface, lift your hands up as fast as you can, then if you get enough momentum, you will have done the Jesus run.
• To get better on ropes (it's recommended to do this on the Canyon map due to its high amount of ropes), swing from one rope to another, repeat this process, then you give the ropes enough momentum. There's a high chance that you can go out the map (although this is bannable in a public lobby, to do this, go into a private lobby by yourself.)
• This is arguably one of the most difficult mechanics of Gorilla Tag, but to Lucio run, position your hands in the shape of a triangle, go close to a wall, faintly lift one hand up then the other. It's recommended to start off slowly, because there's a less chance of falling, but over time, you will get more better at Lucio running & you could get more faster.
  • A more difficult variation exists, called the Vertical (occasionally shortened to Vert). To vertical, align yourself and whatever hand you use at the exact angle of the wall's curve. Move whatever hand you use at a slow motion, then push yourself up. Over time, you will get more faster at doing the vertical.
• In City, there is an obstacle course that grants you access to the Competitive queue. If you want to get the Competitive queue, it's not recommended in a public lobby (unless if you have enough skill). This is because the obstacle course is filled to the brim with slippery walls. It's more recommended to do this in a private Infection lobby by yourself. Once you're in a private Infection lobby, you will be a more stronger Monke, the Rock Monke. Try and complete the obstacle course as you go along, and once you're at the end, there's a button that will grant you access to the Competitive queue, and it will show up in the Queues section of the computer.

Reception

The game received positive reception from critics. It is one of the best games for the Meta Quest, with the game itself being the most-rated game for the Meta Quest store. The game itself has an 8.2 rating on IMDb.

Trivia

• This game broke several Meta Quest records, including records for the highest rated game, the most best-selling game, the most played game, and the No. #1 game on the Meta Quest for several weeks. It was so popular that when the game launched on the Meta Quest store, sales for the Meta Quest began to skyrocket.
• In the removed Swamp map, a restroom with a bucket was part of the map. This might be a reference to the 2001 movie Shrek, although this has not been confirmed yet.
• The game has been made popular by the YouTuber IShowSpeed, who live-streamed the game, causing it to be an internet meme.
• There were rumors that Gorilla Tag was going to be ported into mobile in late February 2024, however, this turned out to be false, the "mobile port" is infested with ads, and to make it serious, Another Axiom was aware of the game's existence on mobile. Thankfully, the mobile game has been delisted from the App Store.
• Doug the Bug, Matt the Bat and Mark the Shark's names originated from the game's community. The developers would later confirm their names after acknowledging their names as emojis in the game's Discord server.
• The entrance to Beach, originally known as a "secret tunnel" due to the fact it was inaccessible until the Summer Splash update, was originally going to lead players into the now-removed Hat Room. This has since been replaced with the Stump, and the Hat Room has been replaced with City.
• This game is said to be based on other MMO games like Roblox and Club Penguin.

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