As our Nights to Nintendo preview feature rolls on (arf arf), we speed into Day One: Part Two of our previews: Super Monkey Ball 3D.
Our little simian friends will be rolling their way on to the Nintendo 3DS for it's launch later this month, with the latest instalment in the decade-old franchise - and of our favourites here at Everybody Plays - the imaginatively-named Super Monkey Ball 3D. The monkeys haven't aged a bit either - obviously rolling round in a ball all day long keeps you quite fit, and thanks to getting far more than their five-a-day of fruit by collecting the bananas scattered around the levels (obviously no-one's told them they need to be different fruits), it's something of a wonder they haven't died from potassium poisoning yet.
The aim of the game is simple - all you have to do is roll your encapsulated ape to the goal before the time runs out, collecting as many bananas as possible while trying not to roll off the edge of the platforms, or run out of time. It's a bit of a balancing act to begin with, but the catch is that the game's exactly that in more ways than one, as instead of controlling the monkey directly, you're actually tilting the platform they're on. In may sound a tad intimidating at first, but once you've got the hang of the subtle movements it requires to get your monkey safely from A to B, it's fine. For the 3DS version, you'll be able to move the platforms either by using the analogue Circle Pad, or by tilting your 3DS - although, as we found out, you'll need to turn the 3D off for tilting or your brain explodes...
Proof that no-one likes Baby.
The 3DS version of the game features eight different worlds, through brightly-coloured gardens, haunted houses and exotic Arabia, each of which is packed with all new levels of increasing difficulty. The popular mini-games make a return too, in a much more substantial form, with Monkey Race becoming very similar to Mario Kart, complete with unlockable cars and characters, while in Monkey Fight, your monkey dons boxing gloves to punch the other monkeys off the platform, before stealing the bananas they dropped, in a very similar way to Smash Bros. coin battles. It's not as violent as it sounds, thanks to the game's reliance on slapstick humour - and there are plenty of other minigames to choose from as well. Better yet, if you fancy playing these minigames with your friends, you can, as each game is available for local wireless play - and if your friends don't yet own a copy of the game themselves, you can send a limited version with one level via Download Play too.
For a long, long time we've only had the four main monkeys to play with - Aiai, Meemee, Baby and Gongon - but this iteration brings a whole load more, maybe just to make-up the numbers for Monkey Race. You'll be able to play as Jam, the over-enthusiastic trainer monkey from Step 'n' Roll, as well as a crazy inventor called Doctor, a girl called Yangyang, and a boy called Jet. These characters, and many more - up to sixteen in total - can be unlocked by collecting special bananas in the standard Monkey Ball puzzle mode, or, if you're feeling particularly healthy, you can buy them using the Game Coins you unlock for being out and about with the 3DS's pedometer.
Super Monkey Ball 3D will be available for the Nintendo 3DS from the console's launch on the 25th March, and has an RRP of £39.99. If you're going bananas with anticipation, here's a trailer to keep you going till launch:
