Super Monkey Ball 2: Rolling to iPhone
- November 24, 2009 13:19 PM PST
A vast improvement over its predecessor, Super Monkey Ball 2 gives iPhone owners plenty of reasons to take their hairy friends on the go.
If there's a broken iPhone, the original Super Monkey Ball app probably had something to do with it. Maybe you'd make it up to level 7 before launching the damn thing at the nearest wall (Sega's associate creative director Ethan Einhorn almost fessed up on that count). It wasn't the prettiest game -- and it was damn near impossible to control -- but SMB showed you could actually play a game on the iPhone / iPod Touch. As an App Store launch title, of course it sold like gangbusters and demanded a sequel -- iPhone-bound for the holidays. Just don't ask us how much it costs yet. Sega spokespeople hadn't come up with a number yet when we spoke.
I'll admit it: I was a little nervous signing up for a Super Monkey Ball 2 demo. Then I played it. Now don't take this as a review / final word, but the sequel is a VAST improvement over the original. The developer, Other Ocean, actually makes this version look like the original games you played on a home console. Four 3D animated apes spin along inside their translucent balls. Compare that to the original, which basically shoved the graphic equivalent of Steamboat Willie into a circle. It was just ugly.
And it was ridiculously hard to control. You make it out of the original's tutorial and you feel a major sense of accomplishment. In SMB 2, the sensitivity is tweaked back from "Ritalin Cheetah" speed -- and it's not only playable, it strikes that balance between challenging and fun. In the few levels played (among them, Pirate's Ocean -- a big, winding spiral without rails), I kept thinking to myself: "This is how it should've been the first time around." And you'll be able to save replays of any speed runs, but you can't upload your videos (at least not yet). Local multiplayer matches worked equally smoothly over a WiFi connection on a couple of the same sample maps. We tried the Race Challenge, which is basically what it sounds like -- a straight sprint to the finish.
Einhorn tells us that the game will launch with 100 rounds and 15 bonus 4-player multiplayer rounds. But probably the most welcome addition to the iPhone app: Mini-games. Yep, the best part of the old console games makes the move over to the mobile side. Monkey Bowling will be ready when the game launches and Monkey Golf and Monkey Target will roll out (sorry -- couldn't resist) in early 2010. Spending a little time bowling for chimps, it was simple to control. Set the ball, flick toward the pins and then you can tilt the phone to put a little English on the throw. You'll be picking up spares in no time.
There are a couple other modes and options to play, but the spokespeople on-hand couldn't show everything. Still, going off the initial test, Monkey Ball fans -- of the original games and that mobile wreck that came out a year back -- should dig Super Monkey Ball 2. Keep your eyes peeled for a full review as soon as it goes live on the App Store.
