Unfortunately, when you slow things down to make precise moves, the controls and camera struggle to hold things together. Narrowly avoiding an endless pit with a few deft flicks of your wrist is exhilarating and rewarding.
The motion controls of the Wii seem like a perfect fit for Monkey Ball, and at times, they work well. The remote-only mode offers a decent middle-of-the-road challenge, but it's hard to ignore the feeling that some levels could be more (or less) challenging if they weren't designed with every control scheme in mind. Because you're twisting and turning the scenery-not the ball-to move your monkey through each level, getting a bead on the targets impeding your partner's progress can be tough. It's a fun idea, but it doesn't mesh well with the Monkey Ball setup. Co-op mode, on the other hand, loads the screen with obstacles for the second player to blast out of the way. Because playing with the balance board is difficult, you'll have fewer obstacles in your way. You'll play the same levels with the remote or balance board as you would in co-op mode, and the only difference is the number of arbitrary obstacles. The levels seem to go with a one-size-fits-all design, which works about as well as a one-size-fits-all tuxedo on prom night. Upon completing every 10th level, you're forced to watch the credits-not a bad thing at first, but eight times is more than enough. Instead, each world is split into 10 levels, two of which are bonus rounds. Gone are the challenging jump puzzles and final-stage boss fights. There are new ways to play the single-player mode, but that doesn't make them fun.
Minigames make a return, though there are less than half as many of them as in the previous game. Unlike the last game, the jumping mechanic has been removed, and in its place is balance-board support, as well as a new cooperative mode. Like the last game on the Wii, you control the tilt of the stage by tilting your Wii Remote. There are 70 levels to play through, divided across several themed worlds. You've got to get a monkey in a ball to the goal within a time limit by tilting the stage and managing the monkey's momentum. The core mechanics behind Super Monkey Ball are still here. Using the balance board to play? You'll see this face a lot. Though it retains some of the series' appeal, there is little reason to roll around the world of Step & Roll.
Second, it shows that removing features and mechanics that worked well in the previous installment is a bad idea. First, it shows that the novelty of playing a Monkey Ball game with the balance board wears thin quickly. The newest Monkey Ball, Step & Roll, does another two things well. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz was the first game in the franchise released for the Wii, and it did a couple things well: It showed how the unique motion controls of the system could be put to good use and breathed new life into the franchise by adding a jump button, as well as a ton of minigames.
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