How to kill off a franchise: Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll

Yoshi

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
I've recently reviewed Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll and I've always been a big fan of the franchise. The first game was extremely rewarding and demanding, the second game was just a tad worse and Banana Blitz, while not perfect, was a really fun and challenging game, too. Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll is the extreme opposite, though. While it eliminiated boss battles und jumping (my concerns with Banana Blitz), it totally killed of what made Monkey Ball so awesome. Nearly no precision is needed to get through the game, it's piss-easy, there is no bonus for not dieing, it's short as hell... Why did Sega do this series such a big disservice? It can't be all too difficult to create levels in the vein of the original title, and at least giving the dedicated players a bit of a bonus. Imo they really butchered this title awfully.
 
Gomu Gomu said:
Hey guess what other series sega has killed.
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How to kill off awesome franchises:

sega.jpg
 
"und jumping" :lol

But yeah, I totally agree. I remember opening a thread about SMB1&2 a few days ago on how awesome they are.

I didn't like Banan Blitz, either. Step and Roll is an abomination, imo. Even the mini-games suck.

But I guess that's what happens when the original team isn't working on the games anymore. For me, SMB died after SMB Adventure.
 
Second said:
"und jumping" :lol
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I guess I should be glad if a single character being off is the funniest part of a serious posting in a foreign language.

But yeah, I totally agree. I remember opening a thread about SMB1&2 a few days ago on how awesome they are.

I didn't like Banan Blitz, either. Step and Roll is an abomination, imo. Even the mini-games suck.
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I wonder who is responsible for Step & Roll as it really shouldn't be all too difficult to create good levels - especially considering that the gameplay itself is absolutely intact. And we know, that this isn't a given, see Monkey Ball DX's broken controls or SMB Advance.
 
Second said:
But yeah, I totally agree. I remember opening a thread about SMB1&2 a few days ago on how awesome they are.

I didn't like Banan Blitz, either. Step and Roll is an abomination, imo. Even the mini-games suck.
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Ok... Seems it's a no buy. 1 is awesome, 2 is decent/good (switches and likes were not needed), 3 is hit and miss, but I didn't liked it, and I already found that most of the minigames were unplayable.

I expected 4 would returns to its roots, but that doesn't seem to be the case...

Did any of you played Kororinpa, and what did you think about it?
 
Koren said:
Ok... Seems it's a no buy. 1 is awesome, 2 is decent/good (switches and likes were not needed), 3 is hit and miss, but I didn't liked it, and I already found that most of the minigames were unplayable.

I expected 4 would returns to its roots, but that doesn't seem to be the case...
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It feels like a super easy Super Monkey Ball 2 (it's full of switches). It's fun to play, but it lasts a mere 3 hours.

Did any of you played Kororinpa, and what did you think about it?
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Koroinpa is OK, but also not really difficult nor big. If you are starving for more Monkey Ball like games it's worth its money though.
 
Yoshi said:
It feels like a super easy Super Monkey Ball 2 (it's full of switches). It's fun to play, but it lasts a mere 3 hours.
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I see...

Yoshi said:
Koroinpa is OK, but also not really difficult nor big. If you are starving for more Monkey Ball like games it's worth its money though.
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OK, thanks... I liked Kororinpa, except that I found it short, and indeed easy except for half a dozen levels. Should you have disliked K for the same reasons, I could have given a try to Monkeyball 4, since two cons seems to be simplicity and length. But if you say it's even more easy and short, I give up :)
 
A Twisty Fluken said:
Ok, so I should just keep my SMB GC discs, and try to forget that there were any Wii installments at all, then?
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Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz has a few weakpoints, boss battles and jumping button aren't such a great idea, but it's still a fun and challenging game, so I'd suggest playing the game before buying it, but you should consider it if you like Monkey Ball 1 and 2 for their single player modes. The mini games are weak in both new Super Monkey Balls.

Kororinpa is NOT easier than Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll, sorry if I wasn't clear about this. They are about equally challenging (not at all, that is), Kororinpa is a bit lengthier though.
 
Koren said:
Ok... Seems it's a no buy. 1 is awesome, 2 is decent/good (switches and likes were not needed), 3 is hit and miss, but I didn't liked it, and I already found that most of the minigames were unplayable.

I expected 4 would returns to its roots, but that doesn't seem to be the case...

Did any of you played Kororinpa, and what did you think about it?
Click to expand...
Kororinpa series = ball rolling perfection. The first one is a bit short but it's still quite challenging if you want to achieve gold in every stage. The sequel (Marble Saga) has much better stage design overall and features hundreds of unique levels plus an editor that will keep you busy for months. The only problem with Marble Saga was that they messed up the physics somehow which made the game unplayable with the slower marbles, but fortunately you can put in a code to unlock the best marble right away.
 
Yoshi said:
Nearly no precision is needed to get through the game,
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Did you play it without the balance board? I heard that there are more obstacles if you're just playing it with the Wiimote. Since Balance Board control would be harder to get precise, they purposefully made the levels easier when you're using it.
 
I played it without the balance board primarily because it's nearly unplayable with the balance board despite the wide tracks.
 
Never had a clue why these games were so popular. As a party game, I GUESS they were fun and cutesy. $4 from the gamecube bargain bin, sure, but full price?

Never played this Step and Roll one, but Nothanxu.jpg
 
Monkey Target and Monkey Billiards from the first game were so cool. Sega how could you screw this up so badly?

Malio said:
Never had a clue why these games were so popular. As a party game, I GUESS they were fun and cutesy. $4 from the gamecube bargain bin, sure, but full price?
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I guess you don't like having fun
 
oh no

i was really looking forward to this game
especially since i loved banana blitz

Malio said:
Never had a clue why these games were so popular. As a party game, I GUESS they were fun and cutesy. $4 from the gamecube bargain bin, sure, but full price?

Never played this Step and Roll one, but Nothanxu.jpg
Click to expand...


monkey ball is no partygame series

it is a hardcore platformer series in which you try to navigate a monkey in a ball through tilting the platform itself..
 
Yoshi said:
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz has a few weakpoints, boss battles and jumping button aren't such a great idea, but it's still a fun and challenging game, so I'd suggest playing the game before buying it, but you should consider it if you like Monkey Ball 1 and 2 for their single player modes. The mini games are weak in both new Super Monkey Balls.

Kororinpa is NOT easier than Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll, sorry if I wasn't clear about this. They are about equally challenging (not at all, that is), Kororinpa is a bit lengthier though.
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I got Banana Blitz shortly after the Wii launch, and it was a huge disappointment to me, the controls did not work for me, maybe I'll go back to it.
 
Malio said:
Never had a clue why these games were so popular. As a party game, I GUESS they were fun and cutesy. $4 from the gamecube bargain bin, sure, but full price?

Never played this Step and Roll one, but Nothanxu.jpg
Click to expand...

So much fail in this single post.
 
The original SMB is one of the best games ever.

It went downhill from 2, in which luck was a deciding factor if you would make it or not, while in part 1, it was all skill.
 
super monkey ball 1 was pure and excellent and wonderful.

Like the 1st season of 24.

step and roll sounds like all of the other seasons of 24 'Remember that stuff you liked, here it is again, but somehow a bit worse'
 
Neuromancer said:
Monkey Target and Monkey Billiards from the first game were so cool. Sega how could you screw this up so badly?


I guess you don't like having fun
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I love monkey target on the GC games -

- the version on Bannana Blitz makes me want to cry. Has only one stage, you're fired out a cannon and no power ups.

It's so poorly done :(
 
Malio said:
Never had a clue why these games were so popular. As a party game, I GUESS they were fun and cutesy. $4 from the gamecube bargain bin, sure, but full price?

Never played this Step and Roll one, but Nothanxu.jpg
Click to expand...

I thought the first GCN game was pretty spectacular.
 
SlayrUK said:
I love monkey target on the GC games -

- the version on Bannana Blitz makes me want to cry. Has only one stage, you're fired out a cannon and no power ups.

It's so poorly done :(
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it was still better then the other minigames in banana blitz
 
Nyx said:
The original SMB is one of the best games ever.

It went downhill from 2, in which luck was a deciding factor if you would make it or not, while in part 1, it was all skill.
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Truth is spoken above. 2 was such a disappointment.
 
zigg said:
Truth is spoken above. 2 was such a disappointment.
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I still had loads of fun with 2, but that was mainly due to all the partygames.

Haven't finished the singleplayer part of SMB2, while in 1, I finished every level including all the advanced ones, and it felt awesome back in the day that I managed to finish the game.
 
why do they play the credit sequence every 10 stages, AND WHY CAN'T I SKIP IT.

i was glad this was a gamefly rental, cause i sent that shit back the next day.

(and i LOVED monkey ball, hell i even bought the n-gage version and i don't have an n-gage)
 
Nyx said:
I still had loads of fun with 2, but that was mainly due to all the partygames.

Haven't finished the singleplayer part of SMB2, while in 1, I finished every level including all the advanced ones, and it felt awesome back in the day that I managed to finish the game.
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Yeah, beating all the Expert levels in the original (go to hell, Master levels) was one of my personal bests in gaming.
 
Monkey Ball has been going downhill ever since the first Gamecube game. Banana Blitz was absolute shit, the boss battles, jumping and bizarre controls (holding the remote vertically? WTF?) ruined the decent level layouts, and it seems like Step and Roll just removes all challenge. All Sega needed to do was copy the Kororinpa games, they were both excellent. As with many recent Sega games, they've totally forgotten why the first game was a classic, adding more and more puerile window dressing to a franchise that doesn't need it.
 
Sega's killed Monkey Ball a long time ago, with Adventure (which was pure gold compared to other entries). The GBA and DS games were awful. Banana Blitz could've been good--in fact, it WAS good at E3, but they ruined it by introducing lag to steady the screen.

But you're right: Step & Roll is the worst. I think the steadying lag has been turned down a bit, but the levels are so bad, they're actually tedious.
 
Malio said:
Never had a clue why these games were so popular. As a party game, I GUESS they were fun and cutesy. $4 from the gamecube bargain bin, sure, but full price?

Never played this Step and Roll one, but Nothanxu.jpg
Click to expand...

I've never understood it, either. I bought Super Monkey Ball 2 and while it started out good, a bunch of levels seemed to require a lot of luck. The physics in the game is so wonky that levels that require you to bounce off things were incredibly frustrating and completely devoid of fun. They absolutely killed the game for me. I found the multiplayer games horrible, too. :\
 
Banana Blitz actually had very good controls, it's the level design that lets it down (as well as the crappy outsourced mini games)

The levels are just boring, bland and uninspired. The jumping sucks and so do the boss battles but it's the bland levels that just completely kill the game for me.

Step and Roll just seems to move further inthat direction and that's a shame :(
 
Apparently they're advertising this on bananas. I just saw AiAi on on my banana's sticker. Regardless of how the game is, that's a pretty awesome advertising campaign. Kinda weird that they went with Chiquita instead of Dole, though, since the Monkey Ball games that I've played had Dole bananas.
 
I wouldn't exactly say this was the downfall of Monkey Ball, but what really was is everything after Super Monkey Ball 2 (ie: when they tried to do something different than the basic SMB gameplay instead of expanding on it).
 
Nyx said:
The original SMB is one of the best games ever.

It went downhill from 2, in which luck was a deciding factor if you would make it or not, while in part 1, it was all skill.
Click to expand...

And one of the best launch titles of all time. I almost cried when I got my first 300 in Monkey Bowling.
 
They killed it after the 1st one to be fair. Sure the 2nd one wasn't bad but they turned the game into luck than skill. I won't mention the crap that got released after but seeing how the Wii seemed a good fit for the franchise I personally did not like the Wii version at all. This one seems to be a cheap attempt at putting something out for the balance board support.

1st one was awesome and part of the reason I owned a Cube right at launch and is one of my all time favourite games. Such a sad thing to see a once great game turned to shit.
 
:Motorbass said:
Well, that's propably because you don't know that you are supposed to play it like this (if you can): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLY8MmAwM2A
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Holy shit, that was awesome.

One true game holds the SMB acronym for me, and it doesn't involve moustaches.

I can remember my entire block of friends trying to score on that 500 landing pad in that monkey fly mode.

That shit was so intense. We lost our minds for that game.
 
I actually really enjoyed Banana Blitz (mostly single-player....the minigames were pretty hit-or-miss), including the jumping and boss battles, but I'd never played the previous games before.

I have absolutely zero interest in this Step & Roll travesty.
 
Well, it's not like they killed off Golden Ax
or Altered Beast or even Streets of Rage. Heck Jet Set Radio is still alive and Shen Mue isn't exactly dead.

SEGA probably isn't the best example of how to handle a franchise over the years but I wouldn't go as far as to say they are franchise killers.

Oh and House of the Dead actually made an awesome return on Wii.
 
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