Super Monkey Ball Touch and Roll

Rolling onto the DS, with Phil's endorsement...

After all the controversy generated by GTA and certain sub-par but ultra-violent FPS games you would expect the same towards Super Monkey Ball. After all, if GTA makes kids into dangerous drivers and Manhunt makes them go on gun toting killing sprees then it's logical to assume Super Monkey Ball must cause them to seal monkeys in large plastic bubbles and force them to traverse deadly aerial assault courses. Alas, or should I say fortunately, even in the age of animal rights protester protesters nobody has batted an eyelid... perhaps because obtaining a monkey, at least in the UK, isn't all that easy.

For those of us unable to obtain monkeys, plastic bubbles, and assault courses there's good news, however. Super Monkey Ball has made it to the Nintendo DS in a fairly sound portable instalment of the series. Like pretty much any game on the DS it makes some use the unique hardware features.

I think the first thing everyone wants to know is how well the DS touch screen lends itself to the title. I think the answer is; generally well. The developers of SMB DS have made a superb effort to utilise the DS touch screen to its full potential, players of the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo will notice some similarities between Samus' ball mode control and that of SMB. On the lower screen you are given a circular control area which you use to guide your monkey, and the upper screen displays the action.

Unfortunately, not all of Super Monkey Ball's game modes lend themselves well to touch screen control, racing for example has you placing the stylus right on top of the main view screen essentially blocking your own view of the course, not so intuitive. Air hockey, however, is dead simple but thoroughly enjoyable, and monkey bowling challenges you to draw accurate strokes up the screen to aim and toss your ball in one swift motion.

Jumping the gun a bit here, one of the things I always look for in a DS game is good single cartridge multiplayer. Unfortunately SMB is another title that falls significantly short here, multiplayer air hockey can only be played in doubles and is dominated by over-zealous AI players making it an irritating experience at best, and other potentially good multiplayer modes such as bowling have been omitted altogether. Alas, it's rare to get two copies of a game to fully test the multiplayer so I can not say how the experience changes with two carts- but again SMB single cart multiplayer is more a way of demonstrating the game to friends than having an enjoyable experience per se.

Perhaps the best mini game available is monkey golf, again not available in single cartridge multiplayer, it's a fun golf game and would make a title in its own right. Finding the right way to get a hole in one is a fun challenge and the courses are incredibly varied, although I couldn't help but feel it needs a few crazy-golf standard issue windmills and other hazards. Alas it bears more resemblance to a typical golf game than something we would expect on the DS. No drawing strokes on the screen to indicate the power and direction of your golf swing here- after the challenge of making touch screen input work with the core of the game perhaps the senior developers collapsed exasperated and left the mini-games to an intern. We'll never know. Ideally a forward view of the course should have been displayed on the upper screen, with a top down view of the green and the ball on the lower letting players rotate through 360 degrees with the d-pad and take a swing with their stylus as if it were a golf club; although this would be expecting too much from a mini game perhaps.

Of course, all the little mini-games and multiplayer aside the core of Super Monkey Ball is there in all its ball-rolling glory. Navigating the challenging aerial courses with the stylus feels great, and the level to level changes from leap-of-faith drops to insanely fast half pipes give a dynamic range of courses to keep you interested. SMB is a game that firmly supports the pick up and play ethics of the DS, that is to say it's not great for long gaming sessions at all, but the most die hard or addicted of fans will get bored quickly but for quick blasts of in-bus action it serves its purpose.

Graphically the game is good enough, SMB has never been about graphical splendour and the DS version uses plenty of 2d sprites to cut down the demand of 3d graphics. The level backdrops look good, however and I've never noticed any hint of a low draw distance. It's fairly similar graphically to Super Mario DS in some respects, reflecting a classic N64 appearance which is enough to get the most out of this sort of game.

Overall it's a great quick pick up and play game, alas not something for everyone perhaps. Fans of the SMB series will be pleased with the DS iteration but will no doubt find criticism that I am perhaps unable to highlight. If you want a quick pick up and play action puzzler with a spate of okay-ish mini games then consider giving it a look. If you want a gripping adventure about the perils of a young monkey trapped in a quarantine bubble then this is probably not the game for you. Regardless, Super Monkey Ball DS gets a ball-rollingly beautiful...

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By Philip Howard