Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

http://www.sega.com/gamesite/bananablitz/

I haven't spent nearly as much time playing this as I should, but so far it seems to be an excellent game and surprisingly well-made for a launch title. The Wii controls take some getting used to after using the GCN controller for the last game, but once you get used to it, it feels like this is the type of control Monkey Ball should've always used. New innovations to the series include end-of-world bosses which fit in surprisingly well with the rest of the game and the introduction of the jump feature, which the developers used to add some more difficulty to the title. The music is also absolutely wonderful. I wish I had an mp3 of the first world's theme to share with you guys, it is fantastic.

Aside from the great single player mode, there are 50 party games. I haven't played very many of them, and quite a few look like one-time-play things, but all the classics are accounted for and there are some great new ones (like a 4-player Monkey Ball FPS game).

Also, the story is more epic than Zelda. Get this:
One day, six adorable monkeys (Aiai, Meemee, Baby, Gongon and newcomers Doctor and Yanyan) are staring at their shiny golden banana bunch, as adorable monkeys are prone to do. When BAMMM! out of nowhere this crazy-ass pirate monkey with scissor-claws and a pimp robe bursts in, extends his sinister hand and disperses the banana bunches to each of his 7 deadly henchmen, who guard the bananas at the end of extremely well-designed levels and possess the uncanny ability to produce run-on sentences. "It's up to us." howl the deranged protagonists and so, these simians embark on the most banana-licious quest this side of Donkey Kong Country.

IGN video review [by none other than that lovable scamp, Matt Casamassina]: http://media.wii.ign.com/media/824/824977/vids_1.html

Only problem I've had with it is that I can't really get used to the speed, since you tilt the levels less than you were able to in the other games.

I loved this game, and I think it was an amazing launch title. The speed was a bit much to try to handle, but that's easily overlooked.

Bosses and jumping were nice introductions to the series, and YanYan and Doctor are funny and nice new characters.

The music, is of course, awesome. That bonus theme is something that I will not stop humming... ever.

The party games were AMAZING. I still hasn't played all of them, considering I'm addicted to Hammer Toss!

In short, I simply love this game!

This post has been edited by Hatman on Nov 24 2006, 07:50 AM

IS it better than Monkey Ball Adventure?

But of course!

HUZZAH! I may just get this instead of Rayman!

Some of the multiplayer games are hard as s**t, mostly because the controls just suck for it.

And f**k ring toss. Such a needlessly long game. The fun in the room PLUMMETED during that game.

This matches up more with what I've been hearing. From what I gather so far, single player is enjoyable consistently whereas multiplayer falls flat in several places.

I hate that one, too... and the flag raising game.

Yeah, there are a lot of "meh" party games, but if you take the time to find the diamonds in the rough then there's some great fun to be had.