Toadthemushroom
Member
It's AQ Interactive's take on the series after TOSE made a dull maze-rolling game with Super Monkey Ball 3D. Shame Sega stopped developing them in house - Banana Blitz was the last (and the last to be overseen by Nagoshi).
So I picked this up again recently, though it's only really reminded me of why I sold my copy almost five years ago when the game originally released. It isn't a *bad* game, but it feels like an also-ran, a problem emphasised by the developers rolling out carbon-copies of levels that appeared in previous games. Anyway, here's my quick take:
-The physics have been dumbed down. Level beginner 10 is identical to Beginner 7 in Super Monkey Ball, yet you no longer need to take a route that ensures you build up enough momentum to make it past each ramp. You can just go up directly with no trouble.
-The developers haven't implemented some features particularly well. The stage view screen pauses the stage, which makes it useless in the later stages where you might want to analyse the direction or pattern that a bunch of moving platforms are going in.
-It's visually underwhelming. Kudos to the art team for trying a claymotion effect, but it all feels surprisingly lifeless despite the time travel theme. It's also surprisingly less technically accomplished than the original 2002 game; textures aren't as sharp and backgrounds are 2D (so you get static pterodactyls in the air). The laboratory stylings of the main menu also make it seem like they were reusing old Cubic Ninja assets, another game from the same developer.
-My Vita's analogue stick isn't quite up for the job. No surprises there though, considering Super Monkey Ball Deluxe on PS2 and Xbox didn't feel quite right, and we're not expecting a much smaller, less precise stick to match a much larger one. Still, it all feels more fiddly and imprecise than it needs to.
Does anyone else remember this game? It's better than ending Super Monkey Ball on a bad note with Monkey Ball 3D, a game that never actually feels like it begins, but this one only serves to remind me (again) of the series' past greats. Super Monkey Ball and Banana Blitz are the two best - and purest - games in the series, for my money. Anyone else have their fingers crossed for a Virtual Console release of Super Monkey Ball, and an Xbox One BC release of Deluxe?