Super Monkey Ball 2- Coming in December

Fleabag323 · Nov 19, 2009

http://wireless.ign.com/articles/104/1047310p1.html

Supposing you're anything like me, you watched with great anticipation as SEGA demoed Super Monkey Ball iPhone for the first time on stage at an Apple event. The simple tilting puzzler -- a wonderful marriage of Marble Madness and humanity's most beloved primates -- was poised to become the quintessential iPhone game. No touch-screen functionality. All you had to do was tilt Apple's handheld to play. It might've been designed from the get-go for the smart phone. And yet somehow SEGA botched it. When the game finally arrived on the App Store for $9.99, the accelerometer-based controls felt so loose that they bordered on unresponsive and the end experience just wasn't as fun as it could've been. (Of course, that didn't stop the publisher from selling several hundred thousand copies.)

"It sold really, really well. I wish I could give you the official numbers, but I'm not at liberty to do that. But it has gone past our wildest expectations," says SEGA's Ethan Einhorn as we chat over the phone. "We know that even though the game has continued to sell really well through the course of its lifespan, there's definitely an audience just waiting for the game to get bigger and better, which is what we're doing with Super Monkey Ball 2."

Yep -- it's coming to iPhone in December with a host of refinements and additions.

That's right, it turns out that the publisher has teamed with developer Other Ocean to create a full-fledged Super Monkey Ball sequel for iPhone and it'll arrive in early December with a bevy of improvements and additions. Dramatically enhanced controls, of course, rest at the tippity-top of the list. Einhorn explains that getting the feel right was the publisher's number one priority this time around.

"That took precedence over everything else. We looked very, very closely at what was working on the Wii game in terms of motion controls and what we could extrapolate from that. Part of what we were able to pull from that was much better control over the left and right movement of the character," he clarifies. "So we have something now where it is just so much easier to control the character and to make the precision movements that you have to."

He's not lying. For the purposes of this preview, SEGA hooked me up with a nearly final copy of the game -- which, incidentally, weighs in at around 75 megabytes. The monkeys respond more accurately to inputs and move around the boards more fluidly. Left and right progress is particularly enhanced and simply feels more natural as you tilt from one side of a pathway to the next.

An on-screen tilt meter located at the bottom-left of your screen displays your calibration on the board, which in turn makes it easier to keep your center balance. Tilting backward to slow down remains a little loose and you will therefore occasionally speed off boards before you can decelerate adequately, but the more you play, the more you learn to watch your momentum and correct accordingly.

The graphics have been improved -- the monkeys are now full 3D with physics and there's more going on in the background.

"We initially thought that if we couldn't get the controls perfect, we would just have a version of the game with bumpered boards, but we found that the control got so good that we didn't have to worry about contingencies like that," says Einhorn. "It was a real exciting moment for the team when we were able to put it into the hands of non-gamers, get them to play the tutorial, and have it lock as a great experience in a matter of minutes and not a matter of hours, which was a huge problem with the original game."

Super Monkey Ball 2 features an additional 115 stages spread across five unique worlds. Like the first title, all the themes are based on areas from the Wii game Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. The original iPhone title utilized the first five themes from Banana Blitz and the sequel uses the remaining five.

Says Einhorn: "This game opens up in a very lush jungle space called Jungle Jumble. Then it goes to Pirate's Ocean which is a really cool stage with sunken ships. Then we go to Cobalt Caverns, which is just a psychedelic mushroom stage. Then you get Sinking Swamp. And finally Ultra Heaven, which is just all in the sky with clouds and really gorgeous."

In addition to all those new stages, SEGA will ship SMB2 with a new local Wi-Fi multiplayer mode in which up to four gamers can compete in stage races. "The entire game -- all 115 boards -- you can play with three more of your friends. The entire game is unlocked for that. If you wanted to play the whole game that way, you'd have two hours of gameplay roughly where the game constantly changes," explains Einhorn.

Monkey Bowling is included from the start.

Meanwhile, SMB2 will also launch with mini-games, the first of which is Monkey Bowling. Both Monkey Golf and Monkey Target (my personal favorite) will become available via free downloads in early February of next year, he says. Monkey Bowling plays brilliantly. You simply line your monkey up with your finger and then swipe upward to send them speeding toward the pins. You can control your character mid-roll by tilting the iPhone. It works flawlessly.

SEGA is getting roughly twice the performance out of SMB2, according to Einhorn. "Even in screenshots it stands up as a dramatic difference. We've got the 3D monkeys and we have more going on in the worlds themselves." It'll look just as beautiful on all phones, but he notes that performance will be best on the iPhone 3GS.

Will Super Monkey Ball 2 cost $9.99 like its predecessor or will it be priced to compete with an increasingly lower-cost selection of games? Einhorn isn't yet willing to commit. All he'll say is that the game is "... definitely going to be competitively priced."

The title is all finished up and in the submission process now. Einhorn promises that Monkey Ball fans will be delighted. "This is the Monkey Ball game you've always wanted for iPhone."

We've posted a few screenshots in our media section. Stay tuned to IGN for gameplay videos soon.
Click to expand...

STP_Tim · Nov 19, 2009

(Holding this spot for future post)

TIMELESS · Nov 19, 2009

I always liked the first one but the reviews where not that good. I would like too see better controls. It needs to be worth ten dollars.

Prab · Nov 19, 2009

Havent even finished the first one. lol

Revapps · Nov 19, 2009

Thats a bit of cool news

Harpgliss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,

Would be a bit better if they had improved the current version.

I just bought the current version and would not buy the new one unless they do a sale and it really is a big improvement.

David

beetle004 · Nov 19, 2009

Why don't they fix the current game first?? horrible controls!

defaude · Nov 19, 2009

Harpgliss said: ↑

Would be a bit better if they had improved the current version.
Click to expand...

lol I think you're a lame casual player. The controls in the first where spot on, you could do great tricks with them. Once you're a pro in the game, it rocks so much!

I can't await the sequel, instant buy!!

Screenshot gallery from IGN:

http://uk.media.wireless.ign.com/media/045/045930/imgs_1.html

Prab · Nov 19, 2009

Looks like a new UI but with similar controls?

ZZMitch · Nov 19, 2009

I loved the first SMB (what is up with all the complaints with the controls? I think that are perfect) will pick this up for sure!

Harpgliss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,

defaude said: ↑

lol I think you're a lame casual player. The controls in the first where spot on, you could do great tricks with them. Once you're a pro in the game, it rocks so much!
Click to expand...

I think you did not comprehend what I posted.

Instead of putting out new version, just include the new features in the current version.

Was this post a little clearer and more concise for your understanding?

JEEZ!

I was the only one that did not complain about the controls and you pick my post to make a lame comment on?

Takes all kinds to make a forum I guess.

David

defaude · Nov 19, 2009

Okay, I just thought You were mentioning the controls somehow, but I guess You ment other thinks like graphics, gameplay variety?

Harpgliss · Nov 19, 2009

Hi,

I actually like the current version just fine.

Just think, instead of putting out a completely new version, update the current version.

This way, no double dipping.

Movie studios drive me crazy for essentially repackaging the same dvd and wanting customers to buy each new version, with very little new content.

Whether the new version has much new content or not, I do not know but the current version is good for me, right now, anyways.

David

defaude · Nov 20, 2009

4 gameplay vids!

http://uk.media.wireless.ign.com/media/045/045930/vids_1.html

I neeeeeeeeeeeeeed this game

weisome · Nov 20, 2009

Multiplayer racing? Count me in!

Honey D. · Nov 20, 2009

Sounds great! My daughter love the game!

goldglover411 · Nov 20, 2009

....

spiffyone · Nov 20, 2009

This is a vastly improved sequel, people. Remember that. It's like the leap between Enigmo and Enigmo 2 in terms of visuals, or RE Degeneration and RE4 Mobile. It's one of those improvements that really necessitate a new version being put out rather than an update to the current version.

EVERYTHING looks to be improved, right down to the fact that the monkeys themselves are now fully 3D polygonal models in game whereas before they were 2D models. There's multiplayer, there's minigames, etc., etc. This isn't the same game with a few things added on, it's really a full fledged sequel.

My only complaint about this is that Sega took so goddamn long to bring it out. This should've been done a while back, IMHO, and it's a "safe" choice. They need to take calculated risks as they did in the Genesis heyday before they started taking stupid risks. Nowadays they barely risk anything at all.

mynameisdenis · Nov 20, 2009

Greate game from great company!

beetle004 · Nov 21, 2009

They still should have fixed the control issues in the first game before bringing out this version.

Super Monkey Ball 2- Coming in December

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