Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is sweet, colourful and charming. Looks can be oh so deceiving.
To put it simply, Banana Blitz is hard, though really that's what one would expect from the Monkey Ball franchise. Playing Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is deceptively simple. Instead of controlling the monkey itself, you must tilt the Wii remote forwards, backwards, left and right to move the entire level, causing the monkey to roll down the downward gradient. In a first for the series, you can now press the A button to make your monkey jump, a new skill which you need to make it over certain hurdles and holes in each course.
These controls are ingeniously simple, yet it takes a certain level of finesse to properly execute them. You'll find it's all too easy to roll off the level, and all too often will your adorable little monkey plummet into the seemingly bottomless abyss.
Handling the momentum of your monkey can be near impossible, and often, you'll want to take it as slow as you can. Yet slow is not always an option as you must deal with draconian time limits, and steep slops that transform your cute little monkey into a cute little blur. Eventually though, you will get the hang of the subtle movements the game requires.
It takes a bit of getting used to, and thankfully, the first few worlds are mercifully simple, though you will never have the chance to get too comfortable, because before long it will take several attempts and considerable mental stress to get through each level.
In the later stages especially, this game gets ridiculously, excruciatingly difficult, yet it’s often hard to get mad at such a sweet, innocent little game which somehow manages to keep you feeling positive.
At the end of each world you will face a boss, which as the rest of the game can also be challenging. These battles are made more difficult than they needed to be due to some camera issues, as the camera will always focus on the boss, making it difficult to avoid rolling off the platform.
Conquering the main quest of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is a mentally draining experience, albeit very satisfying when completed. I freely admit, after I had cleared world 8, there were tears. Though as tough as it is, it doesn't take very long at all to roll your way through each of the eight levels despite the amount of attempts many levels will take.
Luckily, there's more to Banana Blitz than its main quest, and the game boasts a whopping number of 50 mini games, or party games as Banana Blitz likes to call them.
Each of these games can be played with 2 or more people, and you'll find the collection offers the perfect Wii multiplayer experience, though you can still have fun playing these by yourself.
Sadly, the quality of these games is a little hit and miss and you'll find you'll have to sift through several party games that don't warrant more than two or three plays before you get to the real good ones.
Still, many of these games are definitely well worth playing, and there is a surprising level of variety in the tasks they will have you perform. You’ll find yourself blasting enemy monkeys to pieces, searching for underwater treasure, landing spaceships on the moon and racing tropical birds through a forest.
It’s nice to have so many of these games to choose from, yet quality should always prevail over quantity, and I feel the experience would have been more satisfying with a smaller selection, with more games that are worth playing.
The music in this game, like its visual style, is charming and upbeat. As annoying as some parts of the game tend to be, the catchy tunes playing in the background somewhat soften the blow. However the music does tend to get a little bit repetitive, especially considering there is only one track that plays for each world, with the exception with the boss fights.
With both the main game and the impressive selection of party games, there's a lot of value in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and its addictiveness should keep you busy for awhile. It’s easy to be charmed by the game’s bright visual style and upbeat music, as well as the ever joyful monkeys, who don’t seem to mind being incased in their spherical prisons and constantly careering off the face of the earth. Banana Blitz certainly won't appeal to everybody due to its steep learning curve and its level of difficulty, but those who have the patience for it will grow to enjoy this sweet, colourful and charming game, which is most definitely a lot of fun. No monkeys were harmed in the making of this game.