QUICK JUMP

Cost to play: Free
Prizes/jackpot: Play for prize points, redeem for prizes
Download required? No
Frequency: Continuous, about 1 minute wait between games
Number of cards: 3
Sound effects/Caller? Sound effects but no caller
Chat: Yes

Bongo Bingo is a cute new play-for-points (and occasionally cash) bingo game at GameHub. Bongo the monkey is host of the game and when you get a number he whispers a soft "oo-oo" to you, and when someone yells "bongo!" he screams with giddy monkey delight.

These are play for points games and right now the prize point store doesn't have many choices. In fact it has 3! The tournament games award cash prizes but the games don't seem to run that often. The biggest jackpot I saw listed on the winners' page was $250. Most of the cash prizes were $10 to $20. To find out when there's a tournament, check the opening page at Gamehub.

I really liked the page layout -- nice and clear and easy on the eyes. The background is a soothing jungle green and the card patterns are marked out for you in a calming lighter shade of green. Instead of a free space in the middle of each card there's a random free space on each card marked with Bongo's face. Also, I really liked the number board. Instead of all the numbers crammed on one board they're split into 5 groups of 15 numbers corresponding to the columns on the bingo cards. It's much easier to read the numbers this way and this is an important consideration since there's no autoplay function. Now lack of autoplay is usually a big no-no for me but I didn't mind that for some reason. I guess that happy monkey face all over the screen made me a happy bongo bingo player.

The chat room is nicely designed and active too. There's a Quick List of the most common abbreviations to save you the odious task of typing those 3 letters yourself. There's an AFK and BAK button to indicate your whereabouts. For those of us with bad eyesight from too much computing there's a type enlarging function so you can see the words without your glasses. And of course all the usual functions of a good chat room: ignore, private chat and find.

Bongo Bingo is worth a visit to see the game innovation but it will need bigger jackpots to keep players coming back for more.

Go to GameHub