Super Monkey Ball (iPhone / iPod Touch, ?5.99)

[Silvergun X]

So I thought i'd take the plunge and get this straight away.

The controls, right from the start, confused the hell out of me. It seems very hard to tell what the level is on the accelerometer as laying it down flat will send you speeding forwards, so you have to hold it at an angle towards you to keep the thing still.

This also makes turning the ball a little bit of a challenge, best way i've found to do it is not to tilt the phone left or right by itself, but to sort of roll it back in a circle as if you're trying to go back and left or back and right. I can't really explain it very well.

However, after about 30 minutes of play I finally got the controls nailed down last night and well, it's pretty much decent super monkey ball really. You all know how it plays, blablabla.

Graphically it's VERY impressive, wasn't even aware the iphone was capable of stuff like this. Moves along at a smooth pace and looks very sharp throughout.

Gets very difficult very early on though...

[Dogg Thang]

I just managed to get this after quite a bit of iTunes store confusion. I have it on the Touch, which I guess is just the same as the phone only, well, without the phone bit.

Like you, I'm quite amazed by how good it looks. I did not expect this at all. It is silky smooth, colourful and really polished. I'm blown away by it.

But, also like you, I'm having a real hard time with the controls. It's going to take a while to get the hang of this but I'l certainly give it time to sink in. So far, I'm just shooting off in all directions.

Shows huge potential - could the iPhone/iPod family be a real player in the games market?

[Silvergun X]

The best bit of advice I can give at the beginning of play, is to take things very slow. Gently tilt the phone forwards until you've got a good idea of where the center point is.

Tilt the phone sideways as if it was a steering wheel and if you find it's not turning responsive enough, pull the phone back a little bit very gently and it'll turn sharper.

Keep it smooth and very slow (har har har!) and you'll find the controls all slot in. (HAR HAR HAR!)

[Dogg Thang]

Thanks for the tips. I'll give that approach a go and get some practice in.

[Silvergun X]

No worries, just hope it helps.

Just got up to the third world now, easy stages still so i'm about half way through it and it's making me grin when i'm playing it. Controls aren't perfect but for a launch game it's excellent.

[SuperBeatBoy]

I have the touch, but never purchased that rubbish update. So do you need that in order to play this Dogg Thang?

[Silvergun X]

You need to purchase Firmware 2.0 for all of the App Store applications and games.

[ChrisF]

Just gave this a good go. Really enjoying it and well worth the £5.99 imho. A lot better than the usual java based mobile game shovelware you usually get.

Like others have mentioned, I too found the controls really difficult to get to grips with at first, but after a while, and after I stopped being so heavy handed with the tilting, I soon found it to be really good fun.

Main graphics are in full 3D, backgrounds and the characters are 2D sprites. Can't knock it though, looks lovely.

[Ajay1986]

So do all of these iPhone games work on an updated iTouch?

[ChrisF]

So do all of these iPhone games work on an updated iTouch?

Yup. I played it on the Touch.

[Lowkey]

So do all of these iPhone games work on an updated iTouch?

Yep

[evert]

Better than the Wii version this, and is sort of what I was expecting from the Wii one in the first place.

It is like an extension of the Wii Ball since the worlds and music are the same.

No jumping though.

Controls are good if you take it slow, as mentioned before. Just been playing it on the tube; and though very tough it is doable!!

Better stages, more conventional than Wii and Monkey Ball 2, which is the kind of stage I prefer.

[Silvergun X]

First post updated with screenshots.

[Dogg Thang]

Nice pics! I'm getting the hang of this a bit but I wish you could set the default null position because it's totally unplayable in bed. Also, given it's a game on a music player, I wish you could just listen to your own music.

I'm still really impressed with it.

[evert]

Nice pics! I'm getting the hang of this a bit but I wish you could set the default null position because it's totally unplayable in bed. Also, given it's a game on a music player, I wish you could just listen to your own music.

I'm still really impressed with it.

You can, you just double click the bottom button and the song you last played will come up with the volume bar. you can listen to any song in that playlist , nothing else though, you cant really chop and change artists mid game.