Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll (Wii) Review

Posted by Mark Salmela on 02.28.2010

Because you just can’t get enough of rolling monkeys around in a ball.




Title: Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Puzzle Action
Players: 1 - 4
Rated: E for Everyone


I like to pride myself as a gamer that plays all types of games. From Demon’s Souls to Plants vs. Zombies to FIFA Soccer, I play it all. I’ve even gotten more into genres that I previously disliked such as RPGs. But despite several attempts to get into the Super Monkey Ball games, I just don’t find it that enjoyable. Whether it’s the asinine attempts at a story, the horrible camera controls when turning around, or the way it presents itself as a kids game, I have a hard time getting into it. Now I don’t mind products aimed for kids at all. The Pixar movies are some of my favorite movies out there. But I have a problem with the art style of Super Monkey Ball. If my parents walked in on Aiai shaking his butt around in a ball while bananas are floating on the screen with rainbows in the background, I’d generally feel embarrassed. I feel as if Super Monkey Ball tries too hard to be a kid’s game. Sonic the Hedgehog is another product aimed at children by Sega, but it does it right. It doesn’t go over the top. While I may hate Chip from Sonic Unleashed with a passion, at least Sonic doesn’t prance around like an idiot and wag his tail after completing a level. But I’m not here to pass judgment on a game based on its looks, so let’s break down the gameplay.

Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll continues the series formula of being a puzzle action game where you play as a monkey inside of a ball and you roll around the screen. That’s simple enough. But one important thing to note is that you don’t control the monkey or its movements. You’re actually controlling the tilt of the environment. While it seems like something that would translate well to the Nintendo Wii, the Wii Remote simply isn’t precise enough. Well isn’t this what Wii Motion Plus was for? This seems like the perfect game for Wii Motion Plus, yet it doesn’t use it. That has my scratching my head. Not only that, but there’s no option for using an analog stick either. Well why the hell not? Why would you remove features from a game? The original Monkey Ball games controlled fine with analog sticks, why would you not let players choose on the Wii? I wouldn’t have a problem with this if it wasn’t for the inconsistency of the Wii Remote.

I get the idea of using tilt controls. In the earlier levels it’s not a problem because the levels are so simple a 3 year old could to it. Hell I’d go as far to say it’s really fun to control the first couple of worlds using motion control. But after the first few worlds you’ll need to make pixel-perfect movements to avoid falling off of levels, and there are times when I feel as if the Wii Remote is just too inconsistent. Sometimes I’ll be holding the Remote perfectly flat and AiAi will continue rolling, sometimes right off a stage and to his death. Other times I’ll be turn the Wii Remote sideways and it’ll have trouble recognizing where I’ve tilted it because I did it too fast. I’ll admit that I’m not a professional at using motion controls. I’m far from perfect at Mario Kart Wii with the wheel, but I feel as if the game gets too hard to rely entirely on the Wii Remote. Give me the option of switching to an analog stick where if I make a mistake it’s my own fault and not the inconsistency of the Wii Remote.


To complete a level you cross a finish line, a magical ball opens up, and you fly away. I don't even know what to say.


To make up for the difficulty of Super Monkey Ball each level contains a certain number of bananas. Collect a handful of bananas and get an extra life. It’s a simple, yet effective process. But due to the increasing difficulty of the game it won’t be long before you’re constantly running out of lives. One small mistake and you’re falling to your death only to start the level over again. You need to keep moving as well, as each level has a timer. You have 1 minute to complete a level. Run out of time and you lose a life and start over. Each world is broken up into about 8 levels which need to be completed in succession to beat the world. Lose all your lives in the middle of a level and you have to restart the world over again.

One aspect of Super Monkey Ball Step and Roll that I enjoyed is the lack of a story mode. I’m a man who can find enjoyment out of stories that are so bad they’re funny. Super Monkey Ball is not one of those cases. It’s not so bad it’s good. It’s so bad… it’s bad. If I were to sit here and attempt to describe the story to you, or at least attempt to describe what I’ve taken from the stories of the previous Monkey Ball games, I’d be fired on the spot. The website would probably write an apology letter to anyone who read this article. But Step and Roll has finally gotten rid of any attempts to create a story around a monkey in a ball collecting bananas. Thank god. Not everything needs a story. There’s no story for Pong. There’s no reason Pac-man tries to eat pellets while avoiding ghosts. Ok so future games did attempt to create a story around Pac-man, but according to Namco Pac-man 2: The New Adventures is just a terrible lie that never existed. Point being every game does not need a story. Super Monkey Ball is one of those cases. I thank Sega for getting rid of the story.

Super Monkey Ball Step and Roll has a total of 17 mini-games. I’m still listing this as a positive, since I understand there are people who only buy a couple of video games a year if that. Not everyone already has the hundreds of mini-game collections that already exist on the Wii. But the problem is that most of the mini-games in Step and Roll are rip-offs from other games. Most mini-games fall into one of three categories. They were either taken from a previous Monkey Ball game, or they feel like a rip-off of a mini-game from Mario Party, or they feel like a mini-game that wasn’t good enough to be included in a game like Mario Party. It’s nice to have a multiplayer mode for up to 4 players in Monkey Ball, but there’s no stand out mini-game that makes it all worth it. It’s just a collection of “meh” to “alright” to “pretty good” mini-games.

The final aspect of Step and Roll that I want to touch on is the use of the Wii Balance Board. That’s right, you can’t use Wii Motion Plus or an analog stick, but you can use the Balance Board. It’s more a novelty idea than anything else. Once again you’re controlling the tilt of the level, not the monkey inside of the ball, so you’re only leaning from side to side to control the tilt of the level. You’ll probably use it for about ten minutes and have a decent amount of fun beating the first world or two with it. But after that you’ll say to yourself “well that was neat” and you won’t have any real desire to use it again. The inclusion of the balance board is by no means a game-seller.



Why would anyone ever eat a wet banana?


Pros

-Using motion to control can be fun in the beginning stages of the game.

-No more storyline.

-17 mini-games can be fun with friends.

-The Balance Board is a decent novelty.

-The game runs smoothly and looks good in motion.



Cons

-With no Wii Motion Plus or option to use an analog stick the end levels become frustrating.

-The art style tries too hard to appeal to small children.

-There’s nothing unique about this game. It feels too similar to the other Super Monkey Ball game on Wii.

-Unless you’re short on mini-game collections you’ll finish everything this game has to offer in a couple of hours.



The 411


Stone heads? Now this game is just screwing with me.


If this were the first Super Monkey Ball game on the Wii, I’d be more inclined to give it a higher score. The basic mechanics are solid. When the game works the way you want it to, it can be very fun. But without the option of using Wii Motion Plus or an analog stick, you’ll become frustrated quickly at the difficulty and precision needed in the final worlds. The mini-games can be fun with friends, but overall they fail to add enough replay value to make the game worth a retail purchase. You can rent the game and be done with it in a weekend. The Super Monkey Ball games are fun, but there have been too many of them over the past 5 or 6 years and there haven’t been any real innovations other than forcing players to adapt to motion controls. If you’re a fan of the series you’ll welcome Step and Roll with open arms. If not, this game will do nothing to win you over.

Graphics	7.5	The game runs very smoothly without any problems. But the art style tries too hard to appeal to children.
Gameplay	7.0	The Monkey Ball formula, while solid, is becoming stale fast. This series begs for innovation.
Sound	7.0	Each level is accompanied by appropriate music. The monkeys can become annoying though.
Lasting Appeal	6.0	Unless you crave more mini-games you can find in hundreds of Wii games you'll be done with this game in a few hours.
Fun Factor	6.0	The first few worlds can be fun, but after that it can become frustrating, especially since you have to rely on the motion controls.
Overall	6.9   [ Average ]

Screenshots
All 36 Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll Screenshots