Monkey Ball ipod

[miffy495]

Knowing the community I'm talking to, I figure I'm not the only one here with a shiny little tilt-sensitive gizmo from apple. Mine happens to be an iPod touch, as I can't afford an iPhone, but with an update it's able to play all the games that the iPhone can play. This led me to pick up Super Monkey ball for it about 10 minutes ago. It's currently "backing up" my ipod with the latest drivers, whatever that means, but very shortly I should be able to play Monkey Ball on my mp3 player, which is awesome. I'll be giving it a shot on my way to work tomorrow. I was just wondering if anyone else had tried it out yet and what they thought? If I recall correctly, Yufster has an iPhone, so there should be at least one other person who could have played it...

[n0wak]

I've been contemplating upgrading my iPod touch too ($10 for a firmware update? Fuck you Apple) and that is definitely one of the games I'm most curious about. iPod/Phone gaming seems to be really viable option nowadays, especially since it's open to average joe developers (hello Nintendo, Sony ) though, at the same time, it means you do get a ton of shitty AAAASolitaire games and the like. Don't know if paying $10 for the privilege to wade through that cesspool is worth it.

But do post impressions. I'm curious.

(The only reason I have a touch is because it came with the MacBook, but it has proven extremely valuable walking around London, posting to Twitter, checking maps and email. Can't leave without it now!)

[Nachimir]

My boss has it. I've not played it yet, mainly because it's absolutely impossible to pry the iphone out of his fist, but he said it's incredibly sensitive and the angle he has to hold it at is a bit strange compared to other handhelds.

[Wrestlevania]

Our Creative Director has that Crash Bandicoot kart racing game on his 1st-gen iPhone (which I'm swiping for free when he upgrades next week, shwing!), but it suffers horribly from very jagged graphics and some monstrous slowdown. Kiss of death for a racing game, but the tilt controls work reasonably well.

You have to hold the phone reasonably flat to play it though I found, and trying to tap the screen with your right thumb to fire power-ups is a bit cack too. But the principle's there, just needs to be better coded and the accelerometer input desensitized somewhat at either end of the spectrum (i.e. central and edge deadzones).

[Tommy Gun]

he said it's incredibly sensitive

That's what the 1up review said; it's just way too sensitive to play. I don't have an iPhone, so I won't be playing it anytime soon, so I'd like to hear your thoughts, Miffy.

I hate that they're back to the "10 levels in a row" to pass, though. I thought SMB2 did it the best, allowing you to beat any ten(?) stages out of the group to move to the next world.

[miffy495]

Well, at least a lot of people want to know...

So trying to play it on the bus today was a total mistake. Note to self: Don't try to play a motion controlled game while sitting on a large moving object. Nevertheless, I will give the ipod credit for having the first screen that I didn't have any trouble seeing in direct sunlight while trying to play a game. Kudos to Apple for that. As for the game, I've now been through the first 10 stages twice. Impressions?

The :

-Graphics. Oh my god this game is beautiful. I've never been so impressed with the output of a handheld machine. I heard that a Sega rep called the iPhone as graphically capable as a Dreamcast and I believe it. Granted, they had to do a bit of 2.5D with it, as AiAi, MiMi, GonGon, and Baby are all sprites rolling around true 3D mazes, but the mazes are so lush and colourful that I don't care. Of course, I can only speak for the early levels at this point, but all seems quite promising.

-Controls. Yeah, controls. Ok, so I'll admit they're a bit frustrating at first. Perhaps a bit touchier than the Wii version of the game, but dammit, they work. I'm quite impressed by how intuitive and functional the game is given how badly they could have fucked it up.

-Audio. It's Monkey Ball Audio. I don't think they've changed the laugh that the monkeys have since the first one. The music is also very much in the same style. If you liked it before, you will now. I did, and I do.

The :

-Controls. Yes, here we are again. I'd love for the game to sense how you're tilted at the start of a level and use that as your dead zone. As is, there were several times when I got a fall-out right off the start of a level because I'd been holding the iPod at an angle and AiAi just ran right the fuck off the screen before I realized the level had started. You need to be really careful at the start of a level so you don't get hosed. Once you get into the flow, see the section.

-Screen. More my own fault than anything else, but having to tap the screen and getting fingerprints all over it in order to play a game that requires you pay rapt attention to it seems odd. I end up staring at my index finger's mark when I should be guiding a monkey.

So that's what I've got so far. Overall, it's Monkey Ball. It's a faithful, fully functioning adaptation of a game I've enjoyed for about 7 years now. I'm very impressed with how the system can handle itself here. I'll have to find a table sometime on my lunch hour tomorrow to get some more playtime in.