iPhone Reviews 2.0

SEGA rolls once again onto the App Store, finally showing their potential to make Triple A titles for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Despite the original debuting to much fanfare (thanks to Apple), it just was crippled by bugs and lag issues. Now the team is back to PROVE that they DO know how to make iPhone games.

No more issues or lags, new levels and even mini games await! If you've bashed SEGA before, you can't bash them now with Super Monkey Ball 2!

One of the biggest updates to this game is how damn good it looks. The original title had a 3D environment but a 2D character, which for me was a big downer in the game because it just took away the full effect of this game. Finally though this game has gone completely 3D with more defined and improved levels as well as 3D characters, which just makes this game look more professional and just in general heaps better.

The characters are now 3D, with a realistic rolling action that I have been craving for a long time. This game if anything plays like Marble Blast Mobile by Garage Games in terms of physics and graphics, which was my no.1 ball rolling game until SMB2 came along.

Being a 3D game it is also demanding on the iDevice in terms of power. I found Super Monkey Ball 2 to work glitch, lag and crash free on both the 2nd Gen and 1st Gen devices. This is great as a game that requires lots of delicate tilting would be spoilt if lag caused the game to become impossible. 3rd Gen devices have been encountering blinking and other problems, mostly on jailbroken devices but a fix for this has been announced to be out soon.

The controls of Super Monkey Ball 2 are about as simple as they get, tilting. There is no jumping or special moves, all you do in the game is tilt the device in all directions to control where your monkey in a ball travels.

This is the total opposite to Super Monkey Ball 1 where the controls were very delicate and it got impossible to control your character on harder levels. SEGA B XMFW9W F has listened to us however, making a more friendly game that even a child should be able to use. On the harder levels the tilting requires much more finesse, which is where one slight problem comes in.

Super Monkey Ball 2 is all about getting from the start to the end of each level. In all there are 115 levels, and you have a 60 second time limit on each just to make things more interesting. These levels start out easy and pretty basic, but after completing a few areas you are thrust into tracks with sharp corners and all oddities!

With each level pack as such you start with 5 lives, which are lost by falling off the edge of the track or running out of time. To get more lives you must collect 10 bananas. So in theory if you complete every level perfectly you will get an extra life per level. In the middle of the pack you can replenish your supplies with a simple area with 40 bananas to collect, giving you a maximum of 4 lives to get you through the second half of the pack. Having all these lives are handy and a great way to help the average user survive the game.

There are four characters playable in the game. They are Aiai, MeeMee, Baby and GonGon. There are no special stats or anything with these characters, they are just for personal preference and are to be used when playing multiplayer. You can play any of the 115 levels against up to 3 friends over local WiFi or Bluetooth.

Finally there are mini games available for you to play. The first one available is Monkey Bowling where you flick your Monkey instead of using a bowling ball. The other two mini games are locked but are coming early next year in a free update. The first mini game is a heap of fun and a nice variation added to the game.

The game will sometime require you to do very very sharp U-Turns or turn sharply while traveling quite quickly. One consequence of easing up the controls is that you can turn as effectively as before, with you being forced to go to a complete stop to manage some corners. While this isn't the greatest I would rather have to adapt to a different style of tilting rather than have an uncontrollable wreck.

SEGA has taken the right steps in improving this game, making a highly addictive and fun game for us to play. Finally we have a game that is fully 3D and doesn't look like a port from another console or previous version. I was extremely impressed with Super Monkey Ball 2 and couldn't speak any higher of it.

If you've been traumatized by the original, this is the magic potion. Do not worry about what you thought of the old version, this version makes up for everything that you didn't like in SMB1 and adds some more juicy features on top. Don't be put off by the $9.99, it is definitely worth it!

Gameplay- 9.5/10
Graphics- 9.5/10
Controls- 8/10
Overall- 9/10

I would recommend this game if you enjoyed- Marble Blast Mobile

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