Monkey Ball blitzes Revolution

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 April, 2006

New mechanics, party games.

Continuing its pre-E3 splurge that yesterday saw the announcement of Virtua Tennis 3 for PS3 and X360, SEGA's sent word of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - due out on Revolution in an unspecified timescale.

SMB: Banana Blitz is being developed by SEGA Studios to take advantage of the Revolution's unique freestyle controller - with a mixture of new puzzle levels and Party Games that depend on its innovative features.

On the single-player puzzle levels, the controller will give AiAi and friends the ability to jump when players flick the controller in an upward motion - apparently we should see some quite different levels as a result.

Meanwhile the Party Games include games like ring toss, Whack-A-Mole and a number of others that take advantage of the controller - and although it's not clear whether the old games will be invited back, we're told to expect a "large library" of offerings.

Expect to learn more about SMB: Banana Blitz - including a release date, which is very likely being kept back to allow Nintendo to announce it first - at E3, where it'll be on display.

We'll let you know what we make of it - and of course anything else that pops up on SEGA's pre-E3 tour.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Rankin #1 6 years ago

    Sounds awesome! I love Monkey Ball, I hope it turns out to be as good as it sounds.

  • ZeTimbo #2 6 years ago

    Cool.

    Yet another reason to be chomping at the bit for Revolution.

  • [maven] #3 6 years ago

    This upgrades revolution from "I want" to "I must have". Very much looking forward to this... :D

  • Blerk #4 6 years ago

    Heh heh... "Whack a Mole" could be amusing.

  • peterfll #5 6 years ago

    Mmmm... Yeah Yeah!. MB was a major highlight in the original Gamecube launch titles, here's hoping this will be more of the same. I love how the Rev titles are all starting to crawl out of the woodwork now yet it still feels like we're being teased as there's so much more to find out still.

  • Salubrious_K #6 6 years ago

    I still can't work out in my own head how this new controller is going to work, but I have faith in Nintendo when I hear about games like this. I guess my inability to understand the appeal of the new controller probably reflects more on how pioneering and imaginative they're being.

  • sir_tripod #7 6 years ago

    I don't get it. This is Super Monkey Ball. How can you play whack-a-mole? Spanking Monkeys would be far more appropriate.

  • dbeamish #8 6 years ago

    /love

  • MORBO #9 6 years ago

    lol.... that'll be some creepy sunday mornings

    *shaky hands* & *seasick monkeys*

  • kangarootoo #10 6 years ago

    "Spanking Monkeys would be far more appropriate"

    I can hear that high pitched nasal voice right now, announcing the game with a call of "Monkey Spank!".

    So long as I can play Monkey Target stood on a chair with my arms held out like wings (controller discrteetly sellotaped to head) I will be sound as a pound.

  • smelly #11 6 years ago

    I still can't work out in my own head how this new controller is going to work


    Easy, You rotate/tilt the controller, the world rotates/tilts with it.

  • ecureuil #12 6 years ago

    THis sounds like a good idea.

  • alexg #13 6 years ago

    no virtua tennis for revolution?eh?

  • Nikanoru #14 6 years ago

    YESSSS!!!!111


    At first I was worried about the jumping ability (because a big part of the fun in the originals was trying to figure out how to jump without a jumping button) but seeing how in SMB, you don't control the monkey but rather the level itself, it would make sense that the ball would be thrown if you "flick the level" upwards. Ah, I really hope that it will amount to more than just a jump button, instead alowing you to throw the monkey around all naturally 'n stuff.

    This also puts to rest my concerns about the controller "only" having depth, jaw, pitch and roll detection, because none of those that aren't already used for controlling the tilting would be suitable for jumping. That would have to mean the controller also senses horizontal and vertical location in space as well as depth. I hope, at least.

  • rare_uk #15 6 years ago

    Kangarootoo wrote
    So long as I can play Monkey Target stood on a chair with my arms held out like wings (controller discrteetly sellotaped to head) I will be sound as a pound.

    LOL I'll have to try that!!

  • Psi #16 6 years ago

    Monkeys and Wii

    You just see that clip right now don't you. Yeah the one homer likes too.

  • Lynchman #17 6 years ago

    I'll bet they'll have a level that looks like a Wii Remote.

  • Carrybagma #18 6 years ago

    Aiai and Wiwi.

    :o(