New Super Monkey Ball to ruin the series?

[Nikorasu]

Damn, and I thought the Edge forum was accused of being pessimistic. This sounds like great fun:

Woo! This is great news, and confirms gossip to the effect that has been circling for some time. "Talking to members of the team, the level of spin-friction afforded to the balls will be slight, though it will make it possible to ride walls, and have a whole new way of counter-controlling the play."

[roobarb]

I personally think the best thing they could do with the SMB series is release a set of totally new adventure levels, with the original simple control methods and an emphasis on creative visual and structural design. Think of it as a modern update of Marble Madness - some levels could be really large, with a whole host of creatures and traps to avoid. Obviously due to the nature of large 3D worlds, the camera would have to work differently, as a 'behind you' view would not be enough to see what you were doing at times.

I think an update of MM is way way overdue - and the monkey ball control system and ball physics would be a great choice for attempting it...

[Guest]

An update of MM would be nice, but I really want Spindizzy 3! Even a emulator that will give me a decent game of Worlds would be nice - it won't run on my A1200, my A500 is dead, and I can't get UAE to stick the graphics onscreen properly for some reason.

[Ady]

I think a set of extra levels in the spirit of SMB1 is sufficient. That and a level designer, though storage is bound to be a problem there...

[Madbury]

Giving the advanced player the option of spin is clearly a good thing, as long as all the levels can be cleared without the use of spin.

If they use the spin dynamic to enable advanced players access to other routes and bonuses, then it's all good.

[roobarb]

An update of MM would be nice, but I really want Spindizzy 3! Even a emulator that will give me a decent game of Worlds would be nice - it won't run on my A1200, my A500 is dead, and I can't get UAE to stick the graphics onscreen properly for some reason.

Spindizzy Worlds was the first game to really pull me in, also one of the first I finished - an update would indeed be great!

I still think as MM update is a must though - they would need to include updates of the original levels with the same music... that would be a nice start point to the game.

[vertigo]

They cocked SMB2 up because they changed the controls. It's subtle, but it's there. Now, you can't do a 90 degree turn on the spot by flicking the stick sideways because the ball sods off on a mission forwards. You can't stop your monkey where you want to stop it because it now takes an eternity for the ****ing thing to stop walking. A few other things to do with the controls also cocked the game up. And the levels were designed by wankers. So many of them involved finding the right time to run forwards, and what was with the whole button fiasco? Most of the levels where you land on a >> button had a > button right behind the start, so where was the secret once you'd found it once? What, you want someone masochistic enough to do some of those shockingly-designed levels in >> mode? Piss off sunshine.
I took it back after a week, it doesn't touch SMB1 with an infinitely long stick. SMB1 was perfect, had perfect handling, stunning level design that allowed freedom to get to the exits in many weird and wonderful ways, and the feel that any time you died it was your own fault. SMB2 has many levels that are far too random where the ball's constantly out of control because of a moving floor. SMB1 is one of the best games ever released and A/V should just let it go and make something else instead of over-complicating the whole thing with SMB3, unless they fix what was very, very wrong with SMB2, and hearing about the control scheme, I doubt it.

[YOUWIN]

Giving the advanced player the option of spin is clearly a good thing, as long as all the levels can be cleared without the use of spin.

If they use the spin dynamic to enable advanced players access to other routes and bonuses, then it's all good.

i think you've summed up my feelings exactly there.

Personally i finished SM2 then sold it on - they absolutely destroyed Monkey Target, by making it simultanious multiplayer, totally altered the physics and generally dumbed the whole mimgame down. Mokey Target was played every week by my m8's and me, SMB2 was dire in this respect, i just couldn't face seeing it on the shelf. We still play SMB1 - MK now, and i don't miss SMB2 at all.
I would be very cautious in buying a 3rd installment of the game i think.