When Super Monkey Ball arrived on the GameCube many years ago, it was a refreshing experience. The game was a breath of fresh air and the combination of the maze games and party games like Monkey Bowling was pretty neat.

The game has been available on the Game Boy Advance for some time, but that’s so last generation. When the DS version came out, I was somewhat excited until I played the game. I was let down immensely.

For the newbies – the main premise of Super Monkey Ball is that – well, you’re a monkey inside a ball. You then have to make your monkey spin the ball to move through a maze, collecting bananas and reaching the “goal” within the specified amount of time on each level. Of course it’s not totally easy – you can ‘roll’ off the platform for example and fall into space. That always leaves the burning question how did the monkey get on this platform in the first place, but it’s a monkey in a ball so we’re already suspending reality.

Control in the old games using an analog stick was very smooth and easy. The GBA version wasn’t perfect, but you could manage. In the DS version of the game, you are relegated to using either the touch screen or the d-pad. Both are terrible ways to control the monkey ball. You do not have a good sense of control with either device. Yes, the monkey is cute on the touch screen as you move him around faster and faster…but seriously, it’s like using a touch pad to drive a car. It just doesn’t feel right and in a game where you’re talking millimeters on some levels to stay alive, you’ll be frustrated very quickly. Quite simply, the game takes a serious hit to the fun quotient when you can’t even manipulate the main character the way that you want to. After a few hours, if you haven’t thrown the game away, you may build up your tolerance, but it doesn’t really seem worth it to me.

Another item of note is that during challenge mode, all you need are 10 bananas in order to receive an extra life. One bonus round has fifty bananas. It’s almost crazy how many lives you can get.

You’ll have 4 different monkeys to choose from to guide you through the over 100 mazes, if you can get that far or want to for that matter. It does not seem as though the monkey you choose has any influence over the gameplay – just the little monkey face that you’ll see when you move the stylus is different.

After you’ve given up or finished the main game there are additional party games: Race, Fight, Bowling, Hockey, Monkey Wars and Mini Golf. I’m guessing you can figure out what you do in all of them. They are all cute games, but seriously are more ‘bonus’ than actual game. Bowling is always a favorite and again, if you’ve played it before, there isn’t a lot of added value here.

Although DS Wi-Fi is not supported, you can play Monkey Race, Monkey Wars and Monkey Hockey with one game card and multiple DS’s. As always the download multiplayer isn’t as robust as if everyone had a game card, but it still provides a nice game experience if you do enjoy those minigames.

Graphically, the game is very smooth – almost too smooth. The way the camera moves around you as you navigate the maze can make someone nauseous at times. The monkey animations on the touch screen seem to be very Japanese-cutesy, and not really for my taste at all.

The sound can be summed up as follows: terrible. I strongly recommend turning down the volume on this. Often times, when you hear music in Japanese games you will often thing “this is terrible but it’s novel in a Japanese sort of way” but in this game the music actually takes away from the gameplay. It is just straight out not good and I found it downright annoying. No sir, I don’t like it.