Only one out of 3 modes is actually fun, making this game a disappointment more or the less.
Super Monkey Ball 3D has 3 modes: Monkey Ball, Monkey Racing and Monkey Fight.
Unfortunately, only one of the 3 modes is actually fun: Monkey Ball.
Now let's talk quickly about the presentation, it's solid actually. The menus look good and are well designed, and the graphics also have a charming appeal to them. The graphics may be simple, but they support at least nice and bright colors.
Only the backgrounds of the stages look flat and are not presented in 3D like the stages them self: The backgrounds more look like wallpapers.
And yeah, the 3D effect is great in this game. It adds a nice sense of depth to the game.
But now to the actual games:
Monkey Ball:
Monkey Ball, the serious main mode, is the best out of the bunch. It's still fun letting your monkey roll through the stages, and the controls are responsive and easy to use.
You can use motion controls to tilt your 3DS around to steer the stages, it also works very well, but you can't combine this with the 3D effect obviously. The stages are almost all well designed and there is a nice variety between all the worlds. There are 7 worlds with each 10 levels, and every world feels a bit different than the other.
The stages look nice and it's simply just a great feeling playing the well beloved monkey ball mode again.
Monkey Racing:
Monkey Racing however isn't that great. Now first of all there actually is a great sense of speed put into the game. But, sadly, the controls and racing physics just don't work. Trying to get a boost is already frustrating enough, but the bad handling of each Kart is even worse and the drift mechanics are out of wack.
The tracks are decent but there only nine of them, 3 in each location. The first 3 are fairly easy, the second 3 are very tough, and the third 3 are incredibly unfair. You'll have to play those tracks again and again until you can finally master them, and because there are only that few tracks this mode gets both boring and frustrating at once.
The AI is also unfair: At times they drive in a speed that is unstoppable, and whenever they are first place and get out of reach they get so far away that there is no chance anymore to catch back up to them. On top of that they just are overly perfect.
So all in all Monkey Racing is dull and frustrating, and not very fun at all. But believe it or not, Sega managed to make the next mode even worse.
Monkey Fight:
Monkey Fight is the worst mode out of the bunch. It's basically you playing against 3 other monkeys about having the most bananas, and you have to collect them while punching them so that they loose their bananas. The controls are awful and don't respond very well at all. And the fighting is just dull. It's more about luck than about skill. It's also incredibly simple, so it gets also boring very fast.
Verdict:
Super Monkey Ball 3D is a disappointing game more or the less. The only mode that leads to it's potential is the games staple: Monkey Ball. But it's way to short to stand out as a complete package, and because the other two modes aren't nearly as good as they pretend to be, Super Monkey Ball isn't really worth your time, except if you are a huge Monkey Ball fan and want to immediately play Monkey Ball, because at least that mode works well and is incredibly fun. However, everybody else should rent this game at the most to check out at least the Monkey Ball mode, but it's also easy to just stay away from this game, which might just be the best solution for you.
THE GOOD
+ monkey ball is still good fun
+ the 3D effect looks great
+ motion controls work just fine
THE BAD
- Monkey racing is frustrating and dull
- Monkey Fight is pathetic
Review Score: 5.5/10