The Super Monkey Ball series' game-play sees you tilting a floating stage to guide a monkey contained within a hamster ball towards a goal, collecting bananas along the way.
There are four monkeys to choose from with slightly different properties; AiAi, MeeMee, Baby, and GonGon. You have a time limit, usually 60 seconds to reach the goal, but you must proceed with caution as it is usually easy to roll off the stage. It takes a steady hand and a correct judgement of speed to reach the end of the level. Collecting bananas are optional, but collecting 10 of them gives you an extra life; so they are well worth collecting.
Since the game is made for the DS, you can use the touch-screen to control your monkey. Contrary to everyone else's opinion, the touch screen is intuitive, responsive and the perfect for the game. You can control the ball with subtle movements, or make more erratic movements to pick up the pace or have a quick change of direction. Using the stylus makes the game incredibly fun to play, but there's also the option of the D-pad for those which can't cope with the control scheme.
The stages are in groups of 10, and you must complete all of them with your set amount of lives. If you run out, then you have to start again and completing them unlocks the next set of levels. Annoyingly, you are also forced to watch the game's credits without the ability to skip to the menu. The credits do take the form of a game, but it's not very fun and so is a pain to either sit through it, or restart your system in order to play again.
The stages are pretty varied, offering various shaped paths with different widths and elevations, as well as horizontal and vertical moving platforms. Some of the stages are from previous games, or slightly tweaked versions of other stages within the game. Whilst many of the levels are straight-forward in their design, some of them are purely rage-inducing and seemed to be designed to frustrate rather than be fun.
I don't think the moving platforms add anything positive to the game. It can be more about fighting the camera rather than precise control, and the movement of the platforms can alter your trajectory which often is hard to perceive and judge.
I do like the style of game, but for me, the Monkey Ball series' level design has always disappointed me. There's basically a few types of level; straight-forward (almost pointless ones), symmetrical ones, and insanely maddening ones. So you may go through four or so levels then hit a maddening one. You may lose all your lives and have to start all over again, or you may get past the maddening one but not really have enough lives for the following levels. When you do stumble across a particularly difficult level, you can venture into Practice mode in order to improve your skills.
The game bizarrely starts out with a controversial start menu where Ai-Ai wiggles his bum as the game instructs you to touch it. I'm not sure how they managed to get away with it! Once you get past the disturbing encounter, you have the option of the Main Game or Party Mode.
There are six games included in Party Mode: Race, Fight, Bowling, Golf, and two new games; Hockey and Wars. Race is inspired by karting games, with turbo boosts and weapon pick-ups. Fight is a frantic boxing arena game. Bowling is self explanatory. Golf is an 18-hole mini-golf course. Hockey is based on air hockey with twists that the paddle/goals can be shrunk when targets in the corner are hit. Wars is basically a first-person shooter in a maze arena. Personally, I didn't spend too much time with these games. Some of them are decent enough for single-player, but others will definitely be much more fun in multiplayer.
Graphically, the Monkey Ball series is pretty basic, but translating the style to the DS would have been a challenge. The developers have understood the DS's limitations and have produced a game that is faithful the series and performs well. The monkey is rendered in 2D but it keeps your ball looking crisp and clean.
Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll is basically everything you'd expect from a portable version of Monkey Ball. There's plenty of stages to play and some extra mini-games thrown in for good measure. Those who already dislike the series for the simplicity or infuriating difficulty may not be won over. It may seem too familiar to some, but is a great portable version as long as you can enjoy the touch-screen controls. Personally, I just cannot understand why they have become a focus of criticism for many, since they seem perfect for the game. To me, this is the best Super Monkey Ball game I've played and was pleasantly surprised. I do wish they could make some longer levels with intricate paths instead of sticking to smaller areas. Replacing the smaller, pointless levels with more creative ones and eradicating the levels that are designed to frustrate would improve the game dramatically.