I’m a huge Monkey Ball fan. In fact, to a degree, the first two entries in the franchise (for the GameCube) are responsible for a momentary slump in my college academic performance. My roommate Paul and I instead spent disproportionate amounts of time attempting to ace the constant tests of precision of the Monkey Ball series (and there was a great deal of Monkey Target thrown in there as well). What made the concept so enticing was its elegant simplicity: foundationally, it was a basic game of marbles and surfaces—but it was much more than that thanks to its healthy amount of creativity and insurmountable challenge. In other words, with its easy to learn yet impossible to master design, it was the closest thing to an old-school classic there was in 2001.
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So you might imagine my horror when I learned that SEGA had instituted a jumping mechanic in Banana Blitz, along with a considerably less precise Wii remote-based control scheme. Sure, tilting the Wii remote to tilt the game board made good logical sense, but there’s no denying that it isn’t as precise as a good old analog stick (just check out those old Packattack videos if you haven’t seen them for proof of that). And throwing a jump ability into the mix brought Monkey Ball that much closer to being a mere platforming experience as opposed to a one-of-a-kind foray into the world of virtual physics.
Step & Roll fortunately nixes the jump once again. But it introduces something even more disruptive: a balance board based control scheme. Once again, to yet another degree, a series built on precision has taken a step backwards on the precision scale and decided to rely on a novel yet hardly ideal method of gameplay. You still have the option of using the considerably saner Wii remote controls, but the levels just aren’t suited to it. In many ways, this just isn’t the Monkey Ball we know and love.
Challenge is Control
The defining gimmick of Step & Roll is the balance board-based control scheme. These controls are as tough and illogical as you probably are expecting. Of course, it still isn’t learning the game that is difficult this time; you simply lean in the direction you wish to tilt the board. But there’s nothing simple about it!
Perhaps the most fundamental problem with the design is the mere fact that the camera wraps around on its own accord like in previous Super Monkey Ball games. When you’re controlling the game via analog stick (as was the case in the GameCube installments), it’s simple to just whip the stick in the desired direction to right your primate. Even the Wii remote isn’t so bad in this regard. But when the balance board is your only means of communication, you’re forced to lumber all your weight onto whichever quadrant of the board—and to whichever degree—necessary to adjust for the change in view. This frequently results in a battle with the camera, where it zips around you just once and you struggle to adjust satisfactorily, leading to a zip in yet another direction—a vicious cycle.
Precision is impossible, and some of the levels seem to be designed in recognition of that fact. Via strategically-placed grooves, slots, and rails, the game does everything in its power to offset the fact that you’re being subjected to an asinine control scheme. But in spite of its efforts, it isn’t those trickier moments which are the most frustrating; on the contrary, it’s those times when you’re three inches from the goal on flat terrain but cannot seem to roll your monkey through it that will make you want to throw your Wii remote into your neighbor’s yard (and, if physically plausible, the Balance Board with it).
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Those helpful grooves in the ground during the first few levels are an absolute necessity to prevent newcomers from ripping their hair out over the basic controls. The grooves create the illusion that you are able to control your monkey, however briefly, to a reasonable degree via the use of the balance board. The problems begin when the grooves end; then, it’s back to reality. Baffling, frustrating, awkward reality.
The attempt at innovation is appreciated, but in the end, a game where the challenge is the control scheme is not a good game.
Moving on
Granted, if you’re just in this for the Monkey Ball, you can still control the game with the Wii remote. This might sound like ample restitution, but the problem is, the levels simply don’t suit the Wii remote play style. This is entirely due to the fact that they are designed with a far less precise control method in mind; they’re wider, more forgiving, more maze-like than they are hazardous, and laden with the aforementioned helper elements such as the grooves and railings—totally uncharacteristic of the series as we know it.
The designers clearly recognized this limitation, however, and thus, they have modified the Wii remote versions of the levels to make them more challenging. This sounds like a great idea, but sadly, the modifications are lame: basically, it’s the regular levels with boulders. Well, boulders, rocket ships, and other such obstacles copied and pasted across the playing surfaces to make navigation more difficult—that’s it.
The one really positive note about the gameplay is that the same creative forces that produced the older Monkey Ball games are still clearly at work in many of Step & Roll’s levels. Switches, portals, collapsing surfaces, and even an unfolding hand-shaped level are among the ideas you’ll encounter throughout the game’s seven worlds. There are flashes of brilliance to be found in this fog of sour gameplay, but it’s all too little, too late.
As for the mini-games, they aren’t bad, but they aren’t enough to play the main attraction, either. A number of them return from previous installments, and you can check out the second video in this review for a clip of one of the new ones. There are far fewer of them in total than in Banana Blitz, so if you’re looking for a collection of monkey-themed mini-games, you’d be better off spending the roughly $10 on a copy of that instead.
Moving back to the positives, presentation is the game’s definite strong point, with the vivid cell-shaded visuals, humorous monkey cartoon antics, and great music at least suggesting a polished product. With regard to music, the Mexican-style jazz and other genres featuring live instruments suit the action well and are often just genuinely good music. The tunes feature different instrumental arrangements for each level which fade seamlessly together as you progress, swelling to a stronger ensemble near the end. It’s a nice touch for sure.
In the grand scheme of things, however, you’ll find less of everything that matters: less precision (as we’ve discussed at length), fewer levels (just 70), fewer mini-games (only 21—which is 29 fewer than Banana Blitz), and less of a legitimate challenge. If Banana Blitz was a step in the wrong direction, this is a leap.
At least the jump is gone.