Game: Super Monkey Ball 3D

Platform: 3DS

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sega

ESRB: E

Genre: Action/Puzzle

Players: 1-4

What's Hot: Excellent use of 3D surprisingly fleshed out “minigame” additions, series best controls

What's Not: Who named these characters?

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Review by: Danielle Riendeau

It’s safe to say that Super Monkey Ball 3D is the sleeper hit of the Nintendo 3DS launch lineup. Not exactly a headliner like Nintendogs + Cats or Super Street Fighter 4, nor a quirky head-scratcher like Nintendo’s own Steel Diver, Monkey Ball rises above tech-demo status by offering a solid, fun puzzle experience that makes full use of the new system’s strengths.

My prior experience with Sega’s adorable series has been middling – having primarily played the first Wii entry, my happiest memories of simian protagonist AiAi and the Marble Madness-meets-Curious George aesthetic are from last year’s Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing. I was pleasantly surprised to find not only an awesome action-maze game in Monkey Ball 3D, but also fully featured Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers style mini-games as well. There’s simply a whole lot of game here for such a small package, and much of it is fantastic.

Upon starting up the main game (Monkey Ball on the main menu), you’ll find 70-ish stages of increasingly challenging puzzle-platformer action. If you’ve never played Monkey Ball before, the scenario is simple: you play as a cute little monkey (there’s a whole cast of characters here, all with adorable baby-babble names like AiAi and GonGon) that rides/rolls along in a clear ball. You have control over the tilt of the stage, and your goal is to twist, turn and shake the levels so that your monkey ends up at the end goal within the time limit.

It’s deceptively simple, as the stages begin to pack on obstacle after obstacle keeping your primate from glory. There are hairpin turns, mazes, banana collectables, and, most infamously, about one thousand ways to fall off the stage to your death.

My main beef with Monkey Ball has always been the controls, and this iteration provides a perfect solution in the form of the 3DS thumbstick. You can use tilt controls, but I’d advise against it: the tricky stages (especially the maddeningly intricate ones that pop up later on), require serious finesse, something that simply isn’t feasible with the motion controls. It also all but ruins the 3D effect, and generally turns the game into a mess.

Don’t fret – the 3DS technology has certainly been put to good use. The 3D effect is spectacularly well suited for this style of game, where clear depth perception means the difference between sweet victory and biting the dust 20 times in a row through trial and error. Experiencing the twisty, spirally tracks in all their three dimensional glory isn’t unlike navigating particularly zany roller coaster tracks, making for an increasingly adrenaline-soaked experience.

Adding to the main game are Monkey Race and Monkey Fight, two respectable (and fun!) clones of Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers that offer multiplayer action. I was expecting simple mini-games, but both modes offer almost fully featured games. Monkey Race, in particular, was a pleasant surprise. There’s a full grand prix mode, where you’ll race around zany courses, competing for medals and unlocking new characters and new cars. Like in Mario’s outings, there are character classes (light, medium, heavy), a host of simple stats for each racer and ride, and an assortment of random items (speed boosts, projectiles, nasty banana peels) you can pick up to wage war on your opponents.

Monkey Fight is also worth a look, though it didn’t steal nearly as much of my time as Race. Basically a 2D brawler/platformer, you’ll pick a monkey and beat up your opponents for their bananas. There’s plenty of running and jumping around to complicate matters, and you can play any of six variations on the original rule set.

While it risks being overlooked due to some of the series’ less than stellar versions, Super Monkey Ball plays like a dream on Nintendo’s latest handheld. It’s a true return to form for AiAi and the bunch, and one of the best uses of 3D I’ve seen yet on the system.

Danielle Riendeau is a regular contributor to GameShark and is the cohost of Jumping the Shark , GameShark.com's official podcast and is co-founder of the gaming blog No High Scores. She's also a serious workout warrior.

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