Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Comments by Kristan Reed

I can imagine the darts mini-game causing the death of many TVs.

I'd agree with this review to be honest. The single player game is rather good and very challenging but I spent last night attempting to play the mini games with a friend and there we so many awful games we had to quit in the middle of. Get this for single player, if you like Monkey Ball already.

ok the mini-games suck, but the main game is solid and controls excellently with the wiimote. I think 6 is too low. Surely a 7.

Why? Because it's being used with the wiimote?

Ouch!

Oh jeeze, that's not very good...I would have thought that the Monkey Ball team (AV, is it?) would be shoo-ins for wringing some innovative fun out of the Wiimote...obviously not. And I was always a bit sceptical about the jumping mechanic...why add that it now?

I was quite keen to pick this up before, and some of the other reviews have been good, but now I'm really not sure. Then again, most people hated the DS version, and I thought that was OK...I dunno, maybe when it comes down to about a tenner. Which, if it's that bad, will be quite soon. :(

'Party Fears Too' - The Associates - Great tune.

I bought this game along with Zelda: Twilight Princess, simply because I loved the previous two GC games and was curious about how the Wiimote would work with it. Also there was absolutely nothing else in the launch lineup worth buying!

The controls do take some getting used to as they're extremely sensitive and there seems to be no way to configure them from within the game (like Zelda) which is an oversight. You kind of do for the mini-games (aiming the cursor at the centre of the screen) but you can't for the single player mode.

So far the single player game is fun but frustrating at times when you die for the 20th time on the same part of the level. Shame about the lack of a silly story to link the levels together like the first sequel (I thought it was a cute touch) and the game's credits roll when you've completed a world rather than when you die and decide to quit. Took me by surprise as I thought the game only had one World!!!

As for the mini-games, well with 50, there are bound to be some duffers but even if you ignore them then there are 20 or more decent ones that are good fun to play with friends. The boxing game is better than the Wii Sports one and I liked the Keepy ups one.

Overall I'd rate the game about 7/10 but it's not as well designed as Super Monkey Ball 2. Also I'm still undecided at the moment as to whether the Wiimote makes this game feel better and more enjoyable to play or whether the analogue stick was better. It works very well for the mini-games but not so well for the single player... or maybe it's just because haven't practiced enough?

"The multiplayer party games, though, are a total waste of effort, and justify the docking of at least two points off the final score."

Spot on. Such a dissappointment.

A two page review with only three paragraphs about the main game tucked away on the second page? What the hell man?! Even Timesplitters, which actually IS all about the multiplayer gets it's single player part reviewed first. In Monkeyball the multi is the extra, not the main thing, so what gives with these wacked out priorities?

^ Critic.....great. honest. review.

Hmm, All the Wii reviews refer to the control compromises in one way or another. Thought that the Wiimote should make the control interface more transparent, not less.

Wow pretty shocked at this, i thought the Wii would be a shoe in for multi-player party type games, with it's controls being simplistic that anyone can do it.

guess not.

jeez

only one game worth buying for a console at launch? And only Metroid to look forward too?
It's the N64 famine all over again. I'll give the Wii a year at best.

overall this sounds disappointing as I was looking forward to this.. However I am buoyed by Darren's comments since I'm really only getting it for the multiplayer side.

Anyone else got it and think the mini games are good for getting your mates over to play?

Phew. Glad I cancelled this and got Rayman instead! :D

Rayman is the game for minigames that are mostly fun and funny, Monkey Ball is a single player game.

There are two problems with the mini games: piss poor instructions, and needing the wiimote to be pointed directly at the sensor bar for most of them. Basically, while wii sports and wii play do very well with huge exagerated motions, monkey ball utilises much more restrained motion.

So yes, the party games aren't instant fun, and don't work how you think they should, which is a massive blow to the game as a whole. I this reviewer doesn't think you should persevere, but if you do, most of the party games are a lot more fun than first impressions. On saturday morning I thought the mini games were shite. In the evening playing with friends, something clicked, and we had a great laugh.

The single player is solid, and again, dooesn't work entirely as you think it should, relying more on wrist twisting than rotating the whole wiimote, but play a few levels and it makes sense and is great fun.

I'd give this game 7.5 really: eight is too generous, seven suggests it's not as fun as it is.

"I can imagine the darts mini-game causing the death of many TVs."

Got a really good picture in my mind of some drunken uncle who's come round for Xmas dinner saying "Hey, give me a go on that thing", with hilarious consequences.

@foxy - "only one game worth buying for a console at launch?"

Only one game that's an absolute must-buy maybe, but the pack-in WiiSports is fantastic - so that's two games straight away - and the other game I bought 'just because', Ray-Man, is suprisingly great fun too.

Also wouldn't mind getting COD3 and Excite Truck.

Plenty to check out tbh.

Looks like this is bad as I feared. I was hoping for a great resurrection for the franchise, with brilliant all-new party games that matched the quality of the ones in the first game. But 50 games - that tells you pretty much all you need to know. Going for quantity over quality is one thing, but it really is quite a shock to read that not a single one of the mini-games is actually any good. A shame. And the truth is, apart from Zelda there isn't anything decent for the Wii at the moment.

Unless... is there a Call of Duty review coming anytime soon?

K

I'd give it a 7. The single player really is excellent, and I've had a lot of fun playing it. The Shadow of the Colossus style boss being a particular highlight.

I actually really enjoyed the darts mini-game, too.

I liked the SotC boss too.

Me and some friends persevered with the minigames on Saturday afternoon. They were ok, but many were poorly explained like the review says. There were a few where we had a laugh, but that's mainly because we're just mates rather than the game being fun.

Having said that, the FPS in there works suprisingly well, even in 4-player split screen. Don't know how Red Steel mucked it up so much if this small minigame can get it right. :/

Switched to Rayman after that, and had a much better time.

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAF

Which is the FPS game? I haven't tried most of the minigames.

ive had loads of fun on the single player game :S so single player game 8/10?

HEY!

SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS STYLE BOSS IN MONKEY BALL!?!?!?

I SHALL HAVE TO BUY THIS GAME NOW!

Agree entirely, the party games are hopeless, we had high hopes after playing Monkey Target/Fight/Bowling/Race on MB1&2, but every one we have tried so far has either been hopelessly complex, painfully boring or just simply...crap.

It's a little strange that the review focuses on the mini games, which I thought of as a nice little addition to the single player game, to offset the fact that it's just a GC port.

Can't comment on the rest of the series, as this is the first Monkey Ball I'm really playing, so I don't know if jumping ruins the game, or if boss monster at the end of a world somehow breaks the canon: On it's own i find myself returning to it frequently and having a good time with the tricky later levels. 6/10 is better than average, but for me it's "good".

EDIT: Oh, I haven't tried the minigames, yet.

The review doesn't really focus on MP any more than it does on the SP. The thing that's evident is there's a lot more to talk about when it comes to the party games (50 of the flippin' things), and the SP game is very easy to explain and hasn't changed a great deal.

Why dock the game two points because of the extra mini-game content? The review says that the single payer game is good but the score doesn't reflect that. Can't you just ignore the mini-games?

Mini games arent an extra free thing the developers put into the game to be nice, they ARE part of the game. So if the minigames are crap, then a good part of the game is crap

Im really disapointed by this one. The main game is far too short, and whilst the control is fun, and I have enjoyed it, it was simply better on the cube.

I bought it mainly for the mini games, as for me they were the best parts of the previous games. Bowling, target and fight were played so much, as they were simply spot on games. Simple fun in short bursts, that everyone can enjoy. But I havent had fun with any of them this time round.

Such a shame that one of the Cubes best launch titles has been reduced to this. Its getting traded in today.

I found this game the most frustrating game in my Wii collection. I only gave it a quick bash; yet I found the controls awkward, this game is certainly not a pick up and play game for non gamers. I was hoping for some Monkey Ball magic after the disappointing Super Monkey Ball Adventure; Sega are really going down hill, software only? Soon Sega will be a memory only if they continue producing shit games like this on the Wii and Sonic on the Xbox 360.

That score is far too high. My friends and I have put probably thousands of hours into the first two Gamecube games, and I was never interested in single-player, but this is an absolute disaster from start to finish. Thank god for Rayman...

Settle a bet. Is it true that the mini games contain monkey blacksmith and monkey shepherding? and if it does have monkey blacksmith do you use the wiimote as a kind of hammer to smash down onto an anvil?

Yes, that is correct!

I thought the dodgem one was great. The turning system is pretty unique and it works just fine. The minigames aren't that bad.

Great review spot on as usual. Definitly the most disappointing of the launch titles,perhaps was expecting too much from this. Whereas Wii play went in expecting nothing and at least had fun straightaway.

Now to trade it in. Any chance of a review of Tony Hawk Downhill Jam?

Torn between that and Rayman

Lots of other Wii reviews planned between now and Xmas - but most publishers are still unable to send us copies, so we're actually resorting to buying many of them.

Other reviews to come:

- CoD 3
- Red Steel
- 4X4
- GT Pro
- Tony Hawk's DJ

Haaarrrsh.

I had the same horrified reaction to the minigames at first but a little perseverance proved that mainly the problem was actually that they just weren't easy enough to start with. Once you know what you're doing they're actually very good. (edit - not ALWAYS of course. Has to be some duffers in 50 games!)

Two best examples I have so far are Monkey Target and Flapping Birds. At first it was too complicated and none of us playing could do it right. Then a bit more careful reading of the control instructions later, we had a whole new game on our hands. One very much worth playing.

Also I dunno if I like this insistence that the games should provide "a solid case that the experience is in any way improved by the use of the Wii remote". I don't want to be restricted to that kind of game only, ones where it just does the same level of job as a traditional pad are fine too. That still provides the laughs of watching each other play through gesture if nothing else.

So, I just wanted some clarification as I don't think you went on about it enough in the review - you DIDN'T like the mini games, right?

Can we have a one word review for each of the minigames?

(Surely someone is bored enough to help me)

"Mini games arent an extra free thing the developers put into the game to be nice, they ARE part of the game. So if the minigames are crap, then a good part of the game is crap "

Not something I see in the New Super Mario Bros review.

I bought this game on launch day and was terribly dissapointed. Sadly GAME no longer take back games you dislike and would only give £25 trade in price so I would up selling it on ebay :(

I really would have to say SMB2 was alot better than this.

krudster - pleasssssseeeeeeeee review Madden 07. Pretty, pretty please. It actually looks rather ace.

I'm in no mood to argue "if the minigames are crap, the game is crap" with some sucker but what I will say is that this minigame jazz is really getting out of hand.

I haven't played SMB Wii but on minigames in Kirby DS and Mario Kart DS (or the crappy battle stages at least) they just plain suck. And, imo, take away time and development effort that would be better spent on the main game.

The first Monkey Ball game on the Gamecube is pure perfection. Well designed challenging levels with a great learning curve and superb replay value.

No novelty control system, no switches, no jumping monkeys, no nonsense (except for the fact that you're controlling a monkey in a ball).

I think, to be honest, Super Monkey Ball peaked at #1.

Monkey Target, the main game, Monkey Target, the music, Monkey target and Monkey Target were all perfectly realised in the original.

SMB2 introduced a batshit insane story that was really painful to sit through. Monkey Billiards was the best bit of SMB2 I thought, and worth it for that alone.

I didnt touch SMB Adventure or SMB Deluxe, which by all means sounds like a wise move.

SMB Banana Blitz has some good minigames, but the main game feels like youre always being subject to concessions to the control scheme. It's just not suited to this game. Plus, boss levels are completely insane, especially the lion boss in world 2. The camera was plain retarded in that level if you wanted to move beyond the central platform. Plus having levels with some degree of guard rails is akin to training wheels on a road bike or gutter guards in a pro bowling tournament.

The game should have come with an option for nunchuk control.

Pro tip: delete your Super Monkey Ball game save and start again.

"Plenty to check out tbh."

No, like the guy originally said, there's only Zelda. Pretty poor for a launch to only have one worthwhile game. As the review itself rightly states the initial games have been very much in the novelty territory, and unfortunately probably a sign of what's to come.

Due to the poor standard of games I've already flogged my Wii on Ebay for a tidy profit. If I want to play Zelda I'll play the GC version. Red Steel in particular I thought was poor; compared to FPS games on other platforms it falls well short.

And with respect to Super Money Ball, I had a quick go on various mini games and like others have already stated thought it was dire.

If this is what we can expect from the Wii in the future - loads of novelty game toss and the odd gem - then I won't be buying a Wii again.