Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz [Wii]

"The guys at Sega must have been thrilled when they first heard about the tilt detection features of the Wii remote, because it is a perfect fit for Monkey Ball. Yes, the previous Monkey Ball games were great, but you can forget about them now. This is how Monkey Ball was meant to be played: just tilt the controller to tilt the world on screen, it simply cannot get more natural then this. When I first played Banana Blitz I was amazed to find how precise the tilt detection of the Wii controller is.

The main game hasn't changed much since earlier games, apart from the fact that you can now jump. (BTW: For me, the addition of jumping kind of detracts from the purity of Monkey Ball. This is supposed to be just about rolling the ball by tilting the world, that was the beauty of the Monkey Ball idea.) The graphics are very colorful and happy, which perfectly suits this happy game.

The game plays very well, of course especially because of the superb controls. The first few worlds are fun to play through, the difficulty level slowly increasing. But then suddenly it gets more difficult, way too difficult even, up to the point of being annoying. That's nothing new though, it has been the same in all Monkey Ball games. And since I always stop playing a game as soon as it gets annoying, I never got past the fifth world. Which in turn annoys me even more, because I was just beginning to enjoy the game. But I simple refuse to try the same level ten, twenty or more times, that's not my idea of entertainment.

Some of the attraction of the Monkey Ball games has always been in the added mini-games. This time Sega went crazy and added FIFTY mini-games. That sounds like great value for money (which is probably the reason these are promoted heavily on the box), but I don't think it is since most of the mini games are rubbish. There are a few gems in there though, making inventive use of the possibilities of the Wii remote and nunchuk. I wish they included just the good ones though...

Sooo... if you like a challenging single-player game and enjoy multi-player party games, then you will love Banana Blitz. For me, I didn't really get my money's worth out of it as I had fun for a few hours only, playing the first few worlds."

"This may look like any other Super Monkey Ball game, and actually I could go as far as to say it is. Except for the zillion minigames and ofcourse the controls.

You control your monkey with the wii-mote which work exceptionally great (for me anyway) and jump with A. Yeah, jumping is something you should get used to as it will not only help you advance through many of the levels, it will also from time to time prevent you from falling to a certain death.

The levels are divided differently this time around. There are worlds with different themes (as usual), and you play some levels in there (one bonus level per world). At the end of a world you have to do a Boss stage, which is usually a monster with a very obvious killing blob (jump on it or against it a few times and the Boss should die). Some will take you some time to defeat others won't. Really depends. The Boss stages start with a small scene pointing out how you should kill him :P (they got like flashing blobs on their bodies and arrows pointing to them... it's SOOOO obvious - I know we're playing with monkeys here, but that doesn't mean I'M a monkey!).

The levels may seem easy at first, as they do in every Super Monkey Ball game, but they do get harder (with VERY easy ones in between from time to time), so don't worry, you won't complete it THAT fast (did you with any of the other frustrating Super Monkey Ball games?).

The minigames then.. 50 of them. Some use nunchuck, some are hotseat play, some are simultanious play. Gather your friends, make sure you all have nunchucks and wii-motes, and start. It's alot of fun! Yeh I agree some minigames really suck, but some of them are really good (Monkey Target is one to play). The loser gets to pick the next game, so there's no rush on who needs to be player 1. It's pretty logical, the loser gets to choose one of the 50 minigames he's good at so he can win.

I'm going to give this 3 out of 5. It's a fun game, it has fun minigame options (only fun with alot of friends doing the same wacky movements as you are) - but, you will get frustrated with the levels, you may not even complete it fully. Also the minigames aren't divided well enough. The great minigames EASILY get overlooked by all the smaller bad minigames. By the way, don't worry too much about the levels if you are getting this game for the minigames: all minigames are open for you to play, right out of the box."