Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) Review

A generation of male and female gamers will be bald. I have no facts to back this up but I'm confident the sands of time will prove me right. The reason for this baldness? Super Monkey Ball of course; has any other game in the past 5 years prompted more people to tear their hair out? We still have nightmares about several levels in the original here at C3 and yet the series didn't die in popularity with us. Why? Well despite being incredibly frustrating it was utterly fair, controls were precise and you always had control over your monkey ball. Never did you feel the need to blame the game, you blamed your own lack of skill. So when that element of perfect of control is removed what do you have left? You have Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz.

The Wiimote is a strange beast. Technically it offers precision control but we know now that in reality it doesn't really. It offers realistic control but that is not always precision control. Get your slingshot out in Zelda and hold in B to get the reticule up. Try and hold it exactly still for a few minutes... can you do it? Of course not? Blood flow, heartbeat, breathing and muscles tiring all mean your arm and hand moves oh so slightly. So why make a game that requires such exact controls dependant on such a sensitive control mechanism? Well it's what Banana Blitz did and it promptly ruined the single player game. You see, level design is still as brilliant as ever and you still have that yearning to guide your monkey to the goals. But whereas in previous games there was no barrier between gamer and game now you have the Wiimote. To control your monkey you just tilt forward, left and right to move the ball in the relevant direction. The a button gives you the brand new jump ability and that's it. Sounds fine, except in practise it's awful.

Invariably it involves you holding your hand tilted to the ground at 45° and then twisting your hand whilst still in that angle whilst all the time tapping a. Sounds comfy doesn’t it….as comfy as a trip to a London sushi bar. Now, let us go back to testing precision control with the Wiimote. Try it whilst holding your hand angled downwards to the floor….in agony yet? Now imagine trying to complete a Monkey Ball stage like that. It isn’t unknown for you to be just by the goal when your wrist gives in and twitches throwing your ball into the abyss. It’s made worse by having the new boss stages in there, which just cheapens the whole single player package. Guess what, EVERY boss involves you jumping at someone or on something, thrilling. Super Monkey Ball isn’t about platform esque bosses (Super Monkey Ball Adventure proved that…), it’s about puzzles and fun. Why have these boss fights tacked on? Previous games didn’t have them and were amazing so why shove them in? There’s no need to “showcase” the new jump ability as the plethora of shortcuts in traditional levels do that admirably, and the boss fights add nothing to the game…so why have it? A small mystery for you to ponder on these cold winter nights.

Wii, we...us... as in more than one person. It's what the Wii launch is all about really, multiplayer gaming. Getting the whole family around the TV to play games, and any gamer will no nothing is more fun that Super Monkey Ball's party games. So it follows that fifty of them with Wiimote support should be bliss...erm...well...again it doesn't manage this perfectly. They fall into three categories; can't control, boring or old. Old is fine, Monkey Target is back (slightly changed) but still great. Monkey race is as frantic as ever and golf is well...golf. The can't control bunch will get one play before being abandoned and rightfully so. Monkey sumo wrestling should be sublime, but good luck controlling it. You also have mini games like hurdles in there which can be controlled, but only for about 3 games before your arms fall off. Think track and field for the twenty first century and you'll have an idea of the pain. Finally the boring group. Through a crucial lack of depth this motley crew end up sending any poor gamer foolish enough to buy a game before reading the C3 review into a coma they shant wake up from. I mean, balancing bugs on a stick? That's tech demo fodder, not final game quality and certainly not the quality we expect from Amusement Vision. You know you have a problem when people will compare your game to Wii Play and think your game is more shallow, and that's what's happened with the once revered Monkey Ball multiplayer mode.

The Wii has the power to innovate, the power to bring gaming into a new era and open everyone's eyes to the wonderful industry we're all a part of. But some developers have to learn that some franchises will simply not make the transition and will have to be put to sleep like an old dog. The annoying thing is Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz isn't one of them! For example, holding the Wiimote as it's held in Excitetruck would go a long way to solving the control problem...even if it doesn't then we have a marvelous nunchuck with analogue stick and accelerometer. Surely those talented people at Amusement Vision could figure something out that doesn't cripple the gamer. As for the mini-games, just take your time when making them next time! Quality over quantity and three amazing games will get more kudos then fifty bad ones, as review scores for the previous SMB games showed. Now next to Twilight Princess all launch titles look weak, but there are still better things to spend your money on. Like maybe a copy of the original Super Monkey Ball...the Wii is backwards compatible. Thankfully.