GAME> Taz in Escape From Mars (1994)
SYSTEM> Sega Genesis
SOURCE> Totally Kids Magazine, Autumn 1994

And we wonder why the whole Looney Tunes empire went off the rails and all but vanished after “Space Jam.”

As most know, I am a huge fan of the Yakuza series of games which are produced by Toshihiro Nagoshi.  He work on the series is the stuff of legend, and most that I tell to try the games, end up loving them.  They are all about creating a deep, complex narrative, wrapped around a very deep brawler type game.  So when Nagoshi first announced Binary Domain, I was immediately onboard with this new property.  The idea of a world where robots rise up against humans is not new, but the idea of a quality narrative and character interaction wrapped up with that standard premise looked very intriguing.  After playing through a section of Binary Domain, I was sold on the game.  It is still a bit rough around the edges, but you can see that Nagoshi’s ideas are front and center in this action shooter.

Binary Domain fast forwards to Tokyo in the year 2080.  Over this time, the human race have advanced technology, but as with most futuristic stories, that evolution of tech has come at a cost.  In this case, the robots that we have designed to help our society with day to day tasks have become self-aware and have risen up against the humans, and a squad of international soldiers has been sent in to save humanity from their creations.

While there is an overarching story about the tech of the world rising up against its creators, there is an underlying theme of trust in Binary Domain.  Before a mission, you pick a few squad members to jump into a mission with you.  Picking squad members, as well as interactions with those squad members either builds or erodes trust with them, and that trust relationship can have consequences in missions that are both good and dire.  In one instance, which was a bit humorous, I had a female Asian squad mate with me, and another member of the squad asked me if I was into the female squad member.  If I said yes, I would curry favor with the male squad member, but if I answered along the lines of, “we shouldn’t be checking our teammate out”, I would gain trust with the female squad member.

That trust ends up spilling into combat.  There was a point where I had gone down in the field of battle and I needed help from another squad member.  One of my teammates, whom I had not made much favor with was ignoring my needs, as he did not trust me, but another squad member that did have a trust bond with me, ran over, under a hail of bullets and gave me a health pack.  Squad members can also be incapacitated during battle, and saving them will boost that trust mechanic with them.  Sure, the idea of trust as a game mechanic is not new, but it seems to work well in the scope of Binary Domain.

Combat works well, with members having a variety of attacks that can be used, as each will prefer certain weapons and abilities.  The enemies were surprisingly smart, using cover and flanking to outmaneuver your team from all different angles.  I did like the fact that enemies moved around in cover, instead of planting at a spot and then popping out from the same location, allowing you to easily get a bead on them.  You will have to watch carefully for the enemy, and again, order your squad efficiently to survive battles.  Enemies go through procedural damage cycles as well, so just because you sever an arm or even a torso, it does not mean that the enemy will go down.  One of the attacks I really enjoyed was taking the head off of an enemy robot, as he would end up blindly firing in all directions, shooting not only at you, but at his fellow team, keeping them a little off guard.

Another neat little feature, which is optional, is the idea of voice control for your teammates.  You can order them to move up, cover, attack a point, or call out for assistance.  While it is not a huge advance, it is a nice, additional touch that can add a bit of immersion for gamers when playing Binary Domain.  It is optional for those that do not want to use it, as commands can also be issued via the d-pad on the controller.

While Binary Domain is still a ways off, now scheduled for a February 2012 release on PS3 and Xbox 360, it looks visually stunning.  The environments that we were in were a great mix between shiny, industrial metal, and a run down, Blade Runner noir.  It is futuristic, and yet, still seems to have some roots grounded in a natural progression of city development from our current time frame.  Areas are huge in size and offer up a lot of visual detail, both up close and far away.

Binary Domain is shaping up to be another great hit from Sega Japan and Toshihiro Nagoshi.  The environments are amazing, and as always, we are seeing signs of the great narrative that the Yakuza series is famous for, along with solid shooting mechanics and great enemy AI.  Look for more on Binary Domain heading up to its February 2012 release date.

GAME> Crazy Taxi (1999)
SYSTEM> Dreamcast
SOURCE> EGM #144, July 2001

This tip comes from an EGM issue covering the launch of the original Game Boy Advance, with a blurb on the cover asking if the system can survive a toilet flush. And it did, after drying out for three days.

For those that have had a Kinect device sitting around their television, you know that there has not been much in the release pipeline lately that caters to the hardcore audience.  My Kinect has become more of a Netflix voice command device over anything else, but thankfully, Sega is looking to remedy that problem with Rise of Nightmares.  Rise of Nightmares is a game that is solely controlled by Kinect, and it definitely presents a hardcore gaming experience for those wanting more out of Kinect titles.  I had a chance to play Rise of Nightmares for an extended period, and while I felt it needed some polish, I felt that it was a good use of the Kinect technology.

Rise of Nightmares is set as a horror game, and it does everything with its intro to set you into that mindset.  The intro has you waking up in a strange dungeon, latched into a metal chair, across from another person.  A doctor comes in and immediately hacks off the man’s hand that is across from you, blood spurting everywhere and screams howling out from the injured man.  He does not have long to scream as the doctor buries a hatchet into his head.  The doctor looks to you and suggests that you are next.

It seems that from the introduction sequence, down to the point where you gain control of the character in Rise of Nightmares is all centered around the idea of setting up an experience that is akin to being in a gore-filled horror film, all brought to players in the most immersive way possible via Kinect.  It is not about giving you things like force feedback, or standard implementations that consoles and PCs have relied on for some time, instead, having you completely interact with the game as you move through the experience.

To its credit, Rise of Nightmares does seem to pull this off at this state of time, although it is still a bit rough. Moving through the environments is done with a combination of moves.  Moving forward is done by putting one foot forward, and you stop by moving that foot back in place.  Moving backwards is done in a similar fashion, by moving the same foot back one step.  Turning is accomplished by swiveling your upper body left or right.  It is intuitive, and it felt natural.

Combat also follows this approach, with the player swinging his arms to punch foes, and you can even mix kicks into the mix by kicking.  While the combat controls worked well enough, there were times where it felt as if the controls were not keeping up with my frantic movements.  It did seem that you have to be very smooth and deliberate with your punches or kicks.  You could not use wild, multiple swings, instead having to swing, then swing, then swing, or kick to make sure that Kinect is properly tracking you.  It was not a hindrance, but for those that do not take the time with the combat, they may feel as they are constantly losing battles due to trying to do things too quickly.

The developers have picked up on making the Kinect more efficient in once aspect, and that would be with picking things up, or interacting with items in the Rise of Nightmares world.  Normally, Kinect requires you to highlight a selection and wait for a circle to fill up in order to confirm that is the user’s intent.  Of course, if you waiting this long to interact with a weapon or a button in Rise of Nightmares, you would be dead more often than not.  In Rise of Nightmares, when you highlight an item or an interaction point in the world for longer than a second or two, it deems that you definitely want to interact with that point in the world and it happens.  There was no waiting for any of those moments.  It made elements of interaction so much more fluid and it keeps the immersion factor going, as waiting would break the illusion of the idea that is being forged in this title.

Other little nuisances are also present in regards to interaction with Rise of Nightmares.  At one point, I encountered an enemy that used loud screams to inflict damage, and I had to raise my hands to my ears in order to muffle the sounds and protect me from damage.  At another point, I found a chainsaw that I could wield as a weapon, but it required me use the motion of pulling on a drawstring to start it.  I like these sorts of little touches to a game, as they show a lot of thought as to what they can do with the device, and it helps change up the pace of the action.

All was not a bed of roses with my Rise of Nightmares experience.  Several times, I found myself moving ever closer to the television as I kicked and punched my way through combat, which tends to be a natural movement when you are fighting.  While the game does handle a lot of things right with Kinect, Rise of Nightmares does require a good amount of distance from the device, and when you are naturally progressing forward towards the TV while performing combat moves, the game becomes more imprecise with capturing your movements.  The other big thing was the idea that I was thoroughly tired after 15 minutes of playing Rise of Nightmares.  You are using body motions quite a bit and it takes a lot out of your over a very short period of time.  A hardcore gamer wants to spend a lot of time with his game and if I am having to play in 20 minute increments due to getting tired from the game, it will take away from the experience.

Overall, I do like what Rise of Nightmares is trying to do with mixing together elements of hardcore and a device like Kinect.  It was by no means perfect, but it was enjoyable enough that I look forward to the developers tightening up the sensitivity and maybe breaking up action elements a bit so you do not tire out as fast.  Look for more on Rise of Nightmares as it moves towards a release later in 2011.

Issue #268, June 2011
featuring Sonic Generations (3DS), Mega Man Legends 3 (3DS), Legend of Zelda Game Boy Era

Come on, Sega is totally trolling us. Sonic 4: Episode 1 was released as a downloadable game last October and there is still no word on what’s going on with Episode 2. Instead, Sega announced Sonic Generations, another this-one-is-your-favorite callback to Sonic’s increasingly distant memory. And then we find out that they’re not even doing a Wii version, despite the last five years of Sonic games giving a pretty damn fine showing on the Wii! But somehow, we’re getting a 3DS version of Generations, so that’s what Nintendo Power has to focus on in this issue.

All the usual chorus lines are here. How many times have you read the following in an article about a new Sonic game:

“The level design puts as much emphasis on platforming as it does on speed.”

“We’re getting a fresh dose of vintage Sonic action for the first time in more than 16 years.”

“The gameplay is slavishly faithful to the Genesis era.”

“The bosses will be culled from the Blue Blur’s past.”

“Pleasing fans both new and old might be Sonic’s biggest accomplishment yet.”

“It’s like an injection of pure nostalgia.”

Seriously.

The hook with Generations is that we’ll have levels that feature old, ugly fat Genesis Sonic, and levels that use taller, just-shy-of-Dreamcast Sonic. On the PS3 and 360 versions, this means two different styles of gameplay: old Sonic gets classically designed and controlled levels, while new Sonic has modern 3D levels. I don’t know how this is any different from the last handful of Sonic games that had both 2D side-scrolling and 3D exploration levels, but if the marketing people say THIS IS THE SONIC YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR, who am I to point fingers and ask questions.

On the 3DS version, however, modern Sonic will just get levels that are more like Sonic Rush, still side-scrolling but with newer abilities and designs. I always though the Rush series was the only worthwhile home for 2D Sonic gameplay in recent years, but Nintendo Power says the sub-series has “detractors” so I guess Sonic fans just can’t be happy about anything. Maybe they don’t want to be happy. Sega certainly can’t make them happy.

An interview with Sonic Team leader Takashi Iizuka gives some nicely frank answers to your burning questions. Why no Generations on Wii? Because isn’t in HD, piss off. Why does the 3DS version have double the 2D? Because all our previous handheld Sonic games have been 2D, piss off. What’s up with Sonic 4: Episode 2? We’re incorporating fan feedback, piss off. Any other characters in Generations aside from Sonic? Yes, piss off.

Look, after this article I officially f_cking hate Sonic. So there.

Here are your 10 best GBA games, as picked by NP.

#10 Advance Wars
#9 Metroid Fusion
#8 Gunstar Super Heroes
#7 Drill Dozer
#6 WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgames
#5 The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
#4 Astro Boy: Omega Factor
#3 Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
#2 Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
#1 Metroid: Zero Mission

I own seven of those. How did you do?

Download Staff Picks: Mega Man X (SNES Virtual Console)

Top scoring Wii review: Wii Play: Motion, 7.5 (all scores out of 10)
Top scoring 3DS review: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, 9.5
Lowest rated Wii review: Kung Fu Panda 2, 2.5
Lowest rated 3DS review: Cubic Ninja, 4.0

The yellow face, it burns us! – Hideo Kojima thinks his team “lacked the necessary power and wisdom” to pull off Boktai, that odd GBA game that used a sunlight sensor to find in-game vampires. Ouch!

All for some TMNT knockoffs. – 20 years ago, the June 1991 issue of Nintendo Power printed 36 pages of info on the NES game Battletoads. Just to underline how stupid that was, the June 1991 issue also debuted the SNES. Which was probably one paragraph in the old “Pak Watch” feature.

Next month in Nintendo Power… E3 2011. I hear Nintendo might announce something huge.

It was a bit of a surreal moment when I walked into my presentation for Aliens Colonial Marines and saw Randy Pitchford up in front of the room, ready to tell us all about the game and the work that brought us up to the current entry in the Aliens franchise.  Apparently, he was not supposed to be up front, but scheduling issues ended up giving us a bonus view as to how a developer head feels about the franchises that he is part of in the creation process.  It was highly energetic presentation, and I could feel from the start that there was a lot of reverence and passion for the project in the eyes of Mr. Pitchford.

Some of the factoids that we received up front was the idea that Aliens Colonial Marines was a direct sequel to the second Alien film in the series.  You know the one, “Game over Man!” Aliens that we have all felt is the pinnacle of the series.  Randy did not dismiss the follow ups in the movie series, but he felt that this was the best point in the series for Gearbox to make their game.  He also admitted that generations of game developers have been cribbing from the Aliens series for years with things like Headcrabs, motion sensors and more.  It was also noted that Aliens Colonial Marines was currently up and running on the Wii U, and that it would not be a standard port, but made for the ground up for the platform.  Bold statements indeed, but it is good to see developers have already got their games up and running in full form on the new tech from Nintendo.

As stated before, Aliens Colonial Marines will follow up the events that occurred in Aliens, with our group of Marines heading back to LV426 to find out what has happened to the settlement, and to decipher the strange entries that were made by Ripley and the other Marines from the second movie.  Randy was ecstatic with the idea of returning to LV426, as it is such a pivotal planet in the Aliens universe.  He also mentioned that art design legend for movies, Syd Mead, has been assisting in giving more perspective on the locations from Aliens.  This was primarily due to the idea that these locations had only been seen from one point of view – the filming camera, and that game environments can be seen from all angles.  He fleshed out things like Hadley’s Hope, the transport ship and many more areas that were mentioned, but never witnessed on camera. Aliens Colonial Marines will sport a brand new render for the game, which prioritizes light, which is heavily used throughout the game.  Aliens was all about dark, dimly lit corridors where flairs of light would penetrate occasionally, hence the need for a new renderer.

Watching the first footage of the game, we watched as our ship, the USS Sephora, was hit by some sort of projectile, and it had our company of Marines jumping into a dropship haphazardly to escape the crash of the Sephora planetside.  We quickly hoofed it to the main complex on LV426, and entered Hadley’s Hope, to set up a point.  Of course, things went south fast, as the company was attacked by a gaggle of Aliens, which attacked us mercilessly.  Several of the company was overcome by the Aliens as we retreated to the cargo area.  The troops attempted to weld the doors shut when we got to see a new Alien, added to the game and incorporated into Alien lore – the Crusher.

The Crusher is a new breed of Alien that is impervious to bullets, and instead required us to escape its attack since we had no heavy weapons to take it out.  We stepped into another part of the cargo bay but it was only a matter of time before the Crusher would break through the large, sealed door.  We were not even afforded a quick break as more Aliens slipped into the cargo bay.  While we had the loader machines, with flame throwers attached, our team was completely overcome by the Aliens, and we again had to retreat.

It should be noted at this point that we were also shown the drop-in/drop-out nature of Aliens Colonial Marines, as a second player jumped into the action in the middle and was helping our main presenter fight off the Alien rush.  The final release of Aliens Colonial Marines will support up to four player drop-in/drop-out co-op at any point in the main storyline.  Nothing was said about whether multiplayer existed, or what it would support, as our presentation was completely focused on the intro into the main story.

Our play ended on a cliffhanger as our main hero was about to be savagely attacked by the Alien attack, and we were told that the answers to our dilemma would be found out in 2012.  As with many other Gearbox products, I could sense that there was a passion for the game and this could not be more apparent that listening to the giddiness of Randy Pitchford as he would jump in with little geek-out comments throughout the presentation.  The game is looking great at this point, and it will be shipping to PC, Xbox 360 and PC at launch, with the Wii U version coming at some point after the console’s release.  Look for more in the upcoming months on Aliens Colonial Marines as we get it.

The Aeropodcast is a bit late this week, but we were still recovering from Rapture burnout.  As you can see, we have pictures of the real reason the Rapture was denied, and we can chalk it up to a great American icon that was lost to us.  He apparently gave his own life ot save the rest of us.

In all seriousness, we had a random sort of week, as news is sporatic at best with the lead up to E3, but Haygood did get to see the new Sonic Generations and Mario vs. Sonic London Olympics 2012 at a Sega event, and we dive into the intricacies of L.A. Noire, and why reading people can be a pain in the ass.  No spoiler talk however.  Finally we talk about the PSN Welcome Back program and some of the items that you will be able to grab for free.  For those like Haygood that had multiple accounts, laugh at Fourhman as he will only be able to select two while the rest of us will get all through said accounts.

The podcast was mixed, by Stephen “No Rapture = More Singstar” Munn, and features “Droid Girl”, performed by Lazyitis.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below. Also make sure to review us on iTunes and now, the Zune Marketplace. If you have not yet, make sure to visit our Facebook Fan Page.

Sega has finally lifted the veil on their newest 3DS title, Shinobi.  Yes, the venerable classic is getting a new entry in the series, and from my early time with it, fans should have a lot of fun with the title.

Shinobi will have you playing as the protagonist from the original title, Jiro Musashi, as he slashes, shurikens and jumps through levels and enemies to become the ultimate legendary ninja ever.  I was really impressed with the look of the game, and the 3D effects are subtle, never really throwing me off, like 3D does on occasion.  Of course, you can play the game in either 3D or 2D, which will allow broad based appeal for the title.  I thought that was true of all 3DS games, but they make a point to notate it on the box.

Jiro has the ability to use a sword, a ranged attack with shurikens, an can mix the two up with jumping.  The controls were very fluid and I never really had any issue taking on the waves of enemies that were tossed at me at any point.  Granted, I did not go up against any major bosses, so take that statement with a grain of salt.  There were also parts of levels that I had to platform my way from the bottom to the top, and of course, it is never as easy as it sounds as there were lots of spikes that you had to circumnavigate to get through these platform areas.  You also have a grappling hook that can help you get to areas out of reach.

Overall, it looks like it could be a lot of fun for owners of the 3DS , whether a fan of the seires or now.  Look for Shinobi on the 3DS in September 2011 from Sega.

There is something about a good game of tennis that puts me in a Zen state of mind.  You get into a zone where you are no longer focused on the surrounding events, and just focus on the ball and the opponent.  Virtua Tennis 4 totally meets this idea when you actually get to the game of tennis at hand.  Sega has made a tennis game that completely hooked me throughout, with strategy, great ball physics, and characters that feel alive and express emotion.  The problem is when you get into anything that is not related to the actual tennis play in Virtua Tennis 4.  I see that they were trying to do something a little different, but it never clicked, and sometimes would become downright annoying.

REVIEW NOTE: This review was created primarily on the Xbox 360, but we also played the PS3 and Wii versions to get a feel for the motion controls as well as the play aspects and visual fidelity on the other two platforms.  There will be a breakdown segment at the end to give the opinions on each of these platforms in brief as the game itself is essentially the same on all three platforms.

Virtua Tennis 4 has never been about hardcore tennis mechanics.  It has always felt a little more about arcade fun over realism that you might find in the competing Top Spin brand.  But I would say that this year, Sega has put together a quality tennis game in Virtua Tennis 4.  For the first time, I found myself working for points on the court, no longer finding cheap ways to win, or worse, cheap opponent AI that defeats you with obscene shot precision. 

Upon hitting the court, I found myself having to use different strategies for some opponents.  Sometimes, my hard hitting style of play could blaze through some volley opponents, but others would leave me fighting for every point as they hit the perfect counter to each of my shots.  You can control the location of where your shots land, although the accuracy will depend on your location and footing.  Running across court to catch a return will inevitably leave you with less power and accuracy on your shot.  Adding into the mix are special shots that you perform by building up a meter.  These special shots come from skill trees that you unlock throughout play, and there are a number of them to unlock.  I found myself sticking with the Hard Hitter skill, as it fit my play style.  After performing several power shots, I could press a corresponding button that would unleash a devastating strike on the ball.  It would normally be a winner, but these special shots are returnable if you position yourself correctly on the court.  It was also great that the shots are not killer shots, meaning they can be returned if you position yourself properly for the return shot.

Sega has also made sure that the crazy drills that have been a signature of the series have returned as well.  Instead of going through drab, dull and basically boring drills that build up your skill level, Virtua Tennis 4 makes use of chicks that you hatch by running over them, and shepherding them back to the mother hen, while avoiding incoming serves.  Sounds strange, but it is a fun way to learn movement on the court.  Not all of them are winners, especially the ones where you have to play a game of tennis while having to step on, or collect things on the court.  The Wall and Coin pickup drills are a complete pain in the ass, and generally something that I would loathe to have to play.  Overall, most of the other types are a ton of fun, and break up the matches, when you get to play them.

And that brings me to the crux of the problem with Virtua Tennis 4.  The overarching game board that you use to get to tournaments, drills, events and more is a disaster in the way it is implemented.  See, Virtua Tennis has a huge board, and you get tickets that allow you to move around this board, picking up events, matches and other opportunities.  At first, I kind of found it to be a unique twist, but the problem comes from the idea that you need to collect stars to enter tournaments.  Each tournament requires a set amount of stars.  But the randomness of the tickets that you get to move around the board can leave you missing out on matches that because you cannot get the right amount of stars in time.  There is nothing worse than creating a tennis game that keeps me from playing the actual game of tennis due to the quirky nature of this stupid board game layout.  I had to restart a career my first time through, because I kept coming up short on stars, leaving me out of several events that I desperately wanted to play.  Sega let me play tennis, not a board game that fights me at every turn.

It is sad that the board game takes so much away from the core game in Virtua Tennis 4, because it is a beautiful game to look at.  It moves at a nice, smooth 60 frames per second, and the characters actually have life and emotion breathed into them.  I loved the expressions that they make while on the court, and even canned events, like a dive for a shot, or stumbling while trying to make a return on a power shot are full of graphical details.  The courts are also much more dynamic and alive than the ones found in the competing Top Spin 4.  Even the real world tennis pros that are included in the game look much closer to their real life counterparts, and there are a lot of pros modeled in Virtua Tennis 4.

Now the box for VIrtua Tennis 4 states that it is better played with Kinect on the Xbox 360, but I would take this with a grain of salt.  See, motion play can only be activated when you play the specific Motion Play game, and it cannot be used at any other point in the game.  Entering Motion Play allows you to pick from a player and an opponent player and play a match using the Kinect.  You then play the match from the first person perspective, and control the racket play.  Movement is handled by the game as far as I could tell, as I never really found myself moving around my living room.  While using Kinect is responsive and well-implemented, it never felt quite right, as not having something in my hand left me missing out on tactile feedback.  Also, because it is first person oriented, you always seem a bit off in regards to lining up shots correctly as you have to hit the ball when it is next to you rather than in front of you.  My wife watched me play for a bit, and found it to be disorienting when it came to lining up shots.  Funnier still is that the “Take a break” message associated with the Kinect will routinely come up while you are not playing Motion Play, which was rather funny, but I assume it has to do with the fact that the Kinect API is being used in the game, and therefore, sends out the messages accordingly.

Looking at the other platforms, the Wii and PS3 versions of the game were identical to the Xbox 360 in regards to all the play mechanics.  The stupid board game is present in both of these versions, and the only real difference was in Motion Play.  With the PS3, you would use the Move controller to play, while on the Wii, you would use the Wiimote in a standard fashion.  While the Move controller felt better than using the Kinect, if only for the tactile support, the Wii was the standout performer when it came to motion controls.  It seemed more responsive, and felt more natural in my hand.  Graphically, the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are on par with one another, with neither really pulling ahead in any way, but the Wii is the ugly stepchild of the bunch.  On its own, it is not so bad, but when you play them one after another in rotation, you start to see the glaring differences between the Wii version and the other two consoles.  One strange note was that the Wii has me holding the Wiimote horizontally for any play other than Motion Play, where you would use it in vertical mode.  It is not a bad thing, but it really left me scratching my head as to why.  Other than these differences, the three titles play the actual game of tennis exactly the same, which is good.

It is unfortunate that the career mode leaves you so angry with its implementation, because Virtua Tennis 4 holds a great game of tennis.  It is fast, detailed, and leaves you completely satisfied at the end of the match.  But the board game approach leaves you hoping for the proper tickets to get you into an actual game of tennis.  I want to recommend the game badly, but right now, there are too many variables that leave you out in the dust, or worse, sticking to quick matches so you can actually play tennis.  Virtua Tennis 4 gets 3.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.

Virtua Tennis 4 and other Xbox 360/PS3/Wii reviews at Test Freaks.

I feel like if Sega had managed to squeak in one more thing to Super Monkey Ball 3D, they’d have a very recommendable 4-out-of-5 game here. As it stands, however, the game is just too short and too simple.

My initial reaction to the game was very favorable. To me, this is a franchise that makes perfect sense as a 3D game. Super Monkey Ball has always been about rotating a giant object (the level) in three dimensional space. Seeing the bright, happy, themed world as an actual pseudo-physical object on that magical 3DS screen is just plain right. The circle pad controls the tilt beautifully, offering final proof that Nintendo was correct in adding that unexpected analog disk to their long-favored cross-shaped d-pad.

When I blew through the first world, I said “Hey, that’s the traditional Monkey Ball tutorial. I can dig it.” When I blew through the next five worlds, I began to suspect a difficulty issue.

The core mode is way too easy, until maybe level 7 or 8 (out of 8, which is actually positioned AFTER credits roll). Maybe Sega was afraid of people being thrown by the 3D or the circle pad. It’s sort of like that local mini-golf place that’s mostly straight putts, but with really cool decor. Replay is encouraged by hidden collectibles in each world, and it is nice that every playthrough can be saved to view later.

Aside: level 7 runs a background pop number that I swear repeats “freak your body” over and over again. So that’s pretty cool.

There is an option to control the levels with the 3DS tilt sensor, which is shameless technological box checking. It actually works and feels precise, but when you’re tilting a portable device you introduce all sorts of new problems with viewing the screen (chiefly: avoiding screen glare; but you’re definitely turning off the 3D effect if you want to tilt the device). I didn’t understand this tilt-fetish with iPhone games did it, and I don’t understand it here. Don’t even bother with the tilt sensor option.

Two other modes share equal billing with the main mode, even though we hardcore gamers naturally avoid granting them naturalized Monkey Ball rights. Monkey Kart and Monkey Fight appear on the cart direct from Sega fever dreams about aping Nintendo’s success with Mario Kart and Smash Bros. Given that Sega has already fielded a generally well-received full length kart racer of their own, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, you have to wonder why they would bother with the inclusion of a pale shadow as an extra here. The generically blah tracks and drivers of Monkey Kart make me yearn for a 3D Monkey Target or some of the other Monkey sidebars of games past.

Monkey Fight is a little better – and even a little better than the original Fight, which involved balls with giant springy boxing gloves, if you’ll recall – but still nothing worth much of your gameplay time. Based on boards that are as complicated as the awful crap you made with Smash Brawl’s lazy level editor, Monkey Fight lets the simians smack each other around to earn bananas. Most bananas wins. Every so often, a special item appears that grants a mega-attack to the player who gets it (sound familiar?), but it is not enough to impress anybody.

Both Monkey Fight and Monkey Kart make use of the 3DS’s Play Coins to unlock additional karts and characters. There’s little difference with the unlockables when compared to the stock options (the karts all have the typical tweaked scales of handling and acceleration and whatnot), but it is still nice to be able to cash in Play Coins.

Which brings us back to the level-tilting central mode, the arguable marquee attraction… and which is over in around three hours (unless you plan to replay levels to own the non-online high score leaderboards). If only it was a little longer, a little cleverer, and a little more memorable!

Or a little cheaper. $40 is kind of a lot to ask for this tame a package.

There’s nothing wrong with Super Monkey Ball 3D. The controls are spot-on (with the possible exception of driving in Kart). The 3D effect completes a picture we’ve been enjoying since 2001. The characters are just as cutsey-charming as ever (the Monkey cast is growing to the point where they could support a full-on platformer or RPG game). The game just needs that one bit of something more to make it a standout amongst the 3DS launch window games, and it can’t deliver it.

For nice use of 3D but an overly simplistic central mode, Super Monkey Ball 3D gets 3 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.

Super Monkey Ball 3D was released March 2011 (NA) on Nintendo 3DS.
Rated E

Check out Super Monkey Ball 3D and other 3DS reviews at Test Freaks.