Puzzle levels lead to bosses waiting to meet their match!
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Boss Levels: After completing puzzle levels the game heats up with some serious boss battles. Each of the bosses will challenge you to find their weakness to defeat them.
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Monkey Jump: For the first time in the Super Monkey Ball universe AiAi and his friends will be able to jump using an upward flick motion with the Wii Remote.
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101 of 103 found the following review helpful:
Great Fun but a Mite Tricky for TykesDec 18, 2006
By Lisa Shea
"medieval swordfighting enthusiast"
The problem with games like Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz is that you have rabid fans of the series - some who love them no matter what, and others who hate any slight change, no matter how small.
That means that no matter how well or poorly the Wii version was, those who loved the game on previous platforms will either hate it for changing - or love it because it has the same theme.
Let me first say that I love the Super Monkey Ball series in general. I grew up playing the actual marble game - Labyrinth - that this is based on. In the Monkey Ball games, there is a marble (holding a monkey) that rolls around on a surface. You tilt that surface via the controls, to move the marble. Your aim is to gather up bananas, avoid obstacles, stay on course and reach the goal. There are both the main game path, which involves trickier and trickier courses to navigate, as well as mini-games.
With the Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz version for the Wii, you get an entirely new level of interactivity. In essence it's becoming more "real". In previous versions you pressed buttons to tilt the board - but now you are actually *tilting* the controller. You're in essence playing with a real board, with a real marble. You tilt your controller forward, the marble rolls forward. It is incredibly intuitive.
For some people, like me, this is great. It's no longer a button press "translating" into motion. Your hand is causing the motion. I can hand the controller to anybody that comes into my house, show them the game, and they get it immediately. It's physics, it's beautiful.
While this is great, it also means that it gets challenging for really little kids. They don't have great hand-eye coordination yet. While they might be OK with button pressing, they aren't wonderful at holding a controller steady to guide a marble along a path. They probably aren't playing professional soccer either. I'm not saying this is "bad" - but I'm saying it's something you have to accept. The challenge level of this game is fine for kids in the intro levels, but the later levels are meant to challenge talented gamers. Little kids might feel stumped here. They can always replay those earlier levels to try to get all the points there, and practice their skills until their bodies catch up.
In addition to the main gameplay path, there are 50 mini-games. This is of course a huge number, but as with any new release, some are upset that their previous favorites are altered. That's going to be true with any new game. I have to agree that some mini-games here aren't my favorites. I specifically don't like the games like the "harpoon" games that make me "thrust" my spear into fish. I don't find that thrusting motion with the Wii to be very accurate. On the other hand, I love some of the other games. That's why they give you 50 of them - you'll like some, dislike others. I'm sure other people love the fish game and hate some of my favorites. If you're fond of some of the previous GameCube mini-games, heck, stick the GameCube game into the Wii to play them. The Wii takes the older discs, after all.
In general the graphics are quite nice, bright and colorful. The music also strikes the right note of fun and casual gameplay. The real beauty of this series - and the Wii controllers - is that you can get anybody to walk into your house and within minutes they grasp what is going on and play along. You can't say that for most XBox 360 or PS3 titles, or even for several other of the Wii games we own. I really do give Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz great kudos for what they have here. If I had any complaint, it's that they might have wanted to add a "super easy" mode so that little kids could play through the entire game even if they lacked coordination. This is one of those super-kid-friendly games and while it could allow adults to cheat, I think the benefit to little tykes to "get through the game" and be happy would be worth it.
59 of 68 found the following review helpful:
BEST Wii EXPERIENCE SO FAR!!Nov 30, 2006
By A.C.E. Man, I never write reviews, but this game is just too cool. Especially once I saw that people were dissing it, I had to throw my two cents in. I don't understand how someone could say something negative (or even neutral) about this game! It is so much fun! Yes, a few of the mini-games (like Trombone) are awesome in theory, but don't really work in practice. But there are FIFTY of them!! AND - they are all UNLOCKED from the get go! That is SO awesome! Some of the games require you to get really into it as well. I love that! One of the mini-games has you flying like a bird through rings, and I couldn't get the controls to work right until I started flapping my arms like a bird. Yes, FLAPPING MY FREAKING ARMS LIKE A BIRD!! I'm a 30 year old man with two kids and a hot wife and I own businesses and I'm flapping two controllers like a bird in my living room. NINTENDO Wii IS THE GREATEST THING EVER!!
***A WORD TO THE CURIOUS***
Almost all of the negativity I've heard about the Wii and/or its games comes from hardcore gamers. They are used to pushing buttons to hit a homerun, and getting their thumbs to do everything. But with Wii (and Super Monkey Ball and its mini-games), if you want a better backhand, you've got to practice your backhand! My videogame-illiterate wife picked up this game and is just having a blast with it! It is very intuitive, especially to those that have little experiences to marr their Wii adventures. New wine fits better in new bottles, to paraphrase a biblical passage.
Also, I should point out that the regular Monkey Ball game is better than ever, too. It takes a second to adapt if you're familiar with the old games, but using the Wii controller is so much more fun. Also, you can jump now! In closing, my favorite mini-game is a racing game in which you turn your Wii controller sideways and drive it like a steering wheel!! It really changes the whole game experience. Once everybody gets used to this way of gaming, Xbox and Playstation don't stand a chance. Who cares if the graphics are great if you still hit a button with your thumb to swing your sword? And this game is the best game to experience Wii that I've played (which I realize only includes Zelda and Wii Sports, but still). If you have doubts, rent it first. But don't listen to the skeptics - you'll love it once you get a taste. Trust me. I usually sell games a week after buying them, but this one isn't for sale.
47 of 57 found the following review helpful:
A little disappointedNov 25, 2006
By Jack I was a little disappointed with Super Monkey Ball. It has a main game, and 50 mini-games. The main game is quite fast paced and fun, however, it is a little too simplistic to justify the cost of a full game. Supposedly the 50 mini-games should make up for it. However, these mini-games are so difficult to control to be any fun. After playing Wii Sports, I just cannot get used to the awkward gaming experience Super Monkey Ball has to offer.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
You'll get the hang of it... trust me.Dec 27, 2006
By J. Hoover
"chicagojosh"
When I first bought my Wii I was torn between what game to get along with Zelda: Twilight Princess. It came down to Rayman: Raving Rabbids and Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz. Ultimately I went with the former and decided to make Monkey Ball a Gift Card post-Christmas purchase.
First off, the nunchuck is only used for certain mini-games (more on those later.) In the main "storyline" (read: had to throw something together so there'd be a reason for monkeys in balls racing around a track collecting bananas and slamming into gigantic monsters heads and belly buttons,) the controls are simple enough - the Wiimote acts as a sort of extention of the playing field. When you tilt the controller forward, the playing field tilts forward, sending your monkey-in-a-ball in said direction.
It took me awhile to get the hang of it, and I was partially thankful that I had sharpened my Wiimote teeth on other games so I could get used to the intricacies of the motion sensitivity. If you're not careful you could very easily send your poor monkey... ball... falling to his or her demise.
A nice behind the scenes feature of the control scheme, again for the main game, is that it's based on the actual controller movement, so you don't have to worry about jacking everything up because you moved out of the way of the sensor bar (or your cat jumped up on the coffee table... stupid cat.)
Gameplay wise, the pace is pretty tight, with very little in the way of lag time between finishing one level and moving on to the next. The gameplay mechanics actually are such that you have to force yourself to stay calm to make sure your moves are accurate, even though your monkey is bouncing around and ricocheting off things (stop laughing.)
You can choose between a variety of different characters, each of which have their own special abilities. It will be up to you to figure out which one to use in order to 100% a level.
The mini-games, at least for me, leave something to be desired. Yes, there are a ton of them. Yes, they offer a boat load of multi-player possibilities. Yes, I'm going to kill someone if another Wii game comes with some crap-tastic version of wack-a-mole. I'm still impressed Nintendo built full 3D controls into the Wii, but I'm not impressed with its use in the SMB:BB mini-games. While it can be cute (ex: playing a trombone, using the Wiimote as the slide,) it's extremely frustrating to get exact to the point where I just didn't feel like playing them. Good on paper, but lacking in real world product.
With around 100 levels of main game, SMB:BB is sure to offer you plenty of replayability. A solid buy for Wii owners.
13 of 16 found the following review helpful:
5 star ratings saying 'but yah, the mini games suck'Nov 29, 2006
By Nicnac Like a few of the poor comments, a lot of people will buy this game thinking they're getting a lot with the 50 mini games. One can't dismiss this in a review stating that 1 or 2 or 5 of the mini games are fun, therefore justifying a 5-star rating. Sega needed to make 10 of these mini games exceptional, dump the other 40 early in development, and then spend the rest of the time tweaking the main game. Then, this package would deserve 5 stars. As it stands, half of the mini games are unplayable (once you have played Wii: Sports and can see how the games are supposed to react to controller movements). Of the remainder, most are not fun, frustrating, or simply not 'special'. And really, that's what it comes down to. SMB was supposed to be a 'special' title. Instead, it's going to be one of the first bargain bin games for the Wii.
based on 111 reviews
( 111 customer reviews )
