Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz for Wii Reviews by Gamers

Fans of the DS should remember well when the system came out how every game had to find a way to use the touch screen, whether it made sense or not, resulting in horrid games with uninspired gameplay. Welcome to Wii.

This game manages to sport both the best and worst controls in a video game. Thanks to the power of the Wii, the main game's controls have never been better; to tilt the game world, you simply tilt the controller. It should take most people 15 minutes until they've mastered this aspect. If the boards were similar to MB1 (or even MB2), this would drastically improve the game. Sadly, Sega decided to compensate for the ease of the control scheme by adding the ability to jump (2 of them, actually, the higher jump including a pointless flick of the wrist along with the press of the B button, just to make sure they've got 110% use of the motion control into the game), along with enemies that actively try to knock you off course and, as the game proceeds, some of the most ridiculous obstacles that make MB2 look like a walk in the park. Levels once again have two difficulties: "Too Easy" and "Insane", keeping to the tried-and-hated Monkey Ball level design style.

This version also suffers from an obvious lack of polish; there is no longer an overhead map, the music skips at points, and perhaps worst of all, the entire scene appears blurred and washed out from any distance at all, giving you the impression that your monkey might be rolling around with a mild hangover.

Unlike other offerings in the line, the minigames here are downright insulting. Sega obviously spent no more than a month putting together the 50 minigames that adorn this title. Every last game uses the motion controls, whether it makes sense or not, and only a bare handful are even worth a single play-through. Most of the games will just have you shaking your head and wondering how this ever made it to the final cut.

Die-hard MB fans should give this a rent. Everyone else, stay away.

First, I'll start off by stating I'm not the hardcore gamer I used to be. I grew up with Atari, Nintendo, SNES, N64, and then my interest started fizzling as my priorities changed in life. ( I grew up ). With that said, I still own a Gamecube , PS2, and now my Wii. This review is from the perspective of a gamer who will pick up the control and play a game that keeps his interest then maybe let his Wii collect dust for a few days...maybe weeks..until another game raises a brow.
Super Monkey ball is fun....if you have a bunch of friends around willing to play. It's a great drinking game as some mini-games fit this role perfectly. The graphics are good....but as expected on the Wii. I believe this game was rushed to market as some Mini-games fit the motion sensing controls of the Wii perfect and others just make you want to throw the Wiimote at the TV...enough so that you just quit the Mini-game without ever trying it again.
As far as the main game goes... It's Super Monkey ball....roll around in a ball looking for the end of the maze while twisting your Wii mote around to control the board so your monkey ball rolls in the intended direction. This is not much fun to me..especially being the only gamer in the household. So to wrap up my review....This is a definite renter ( near the middle of my list). I wouldn't own this game unless you tend to have social gatherings every weekend with people willing to duke out shots in front of the TV....but if you see it for $10 used at your local game store....grab.. it... it's worth the 10 bucs....but thats it. Enjoy!!