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Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

by Aaron Kaluszka - May 25, 2006, 8:57 am EDT
Total comments: 1

The premise might not make sense, but the control certainly does.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is the inevitable Wii successor to the popular Super Monkey Ball series. The game features the classic “tilt the board to get the monkey ball to the goal under a certain time limit" gameplay. Instead of using a control stick, the game’s stages are tilted by tilting the Wii remote. A major new move has been included in this iteration, jumping, which can be performed by pressing the A button. Bananas are abundant, though no longer marked with the Dole logo like the first game was.

The only oddity, and one that I can see becoming a minor problem, is that Banana Blitz’s controls were significantly less sensitive than the other Wii games at the show. The controller had to be torqued quite a bit in order to tilt the stages, whereas other games reacted to the slightest movement. This wasn’t a bad thing, once you got used to it, but it might be an annoyance when people switch between games. Those with precise control may find Banana Blitz more easily controllable than its GameCube predecessors simply because the control makes perfect sense. Its colorful graphics, while not totally astounding, were still very nicely done and fitting for the game.

Two levels of difficulty were available in the E3 demo, easy and normal. Easy mode’s levels were pretty straightforward Monkey Ball levels, while normal mode was more difficult and made more use of the new jump command. At the end of the demo, a boss battle ensued against a giant pirate monkey. The pirate rotated his hook around the circular arena in an attempt to knock the monkey ball off of the stage. To damage the pirate, his bare butt had to be attacked by jumping into it. The pirate’s hook could be avoided by jumping, though it was a little tricky to avoid being bounced off while tilting the remote.

The game also featured over a dozen multiplayer minigames, which are likely to be even more fun with the Wii controller than the ones featured in the previous games. These games were somewhat of a cross between classic Monkey Ball minigames and the Wii Sports games, with many inspired by various sports and using the remote in a manner intuitive to each game. Hovercraft, hurdle jumping, shot put, and target shooting were some of the many minigames available.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz was one of the most fun third-party Wii games available for play, and is sure to please previous Monkey Ball fans and possibly pick up some new ones with its new control scheme.

Talkback

NinGurl69 *hugglesMay 25, 2006

LONG LIVE PRIMATE SPHERES

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Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Box Art

Genre Party/Parlor
Developer Sega
Players1 - 4

Worldwide Releases

na: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Release Nov 14, 2006
PublisherSega
RatingEveryone
eu: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Release Dec 08, 2006
PublisherSega
Rating3+
aus: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Release Nov 19, 2006
PublisherTHQ
RatingGeneral
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