Super. Monkey. Ball. If those three words without punctuation don’t get you frothing at the mouth, go strap a monkey in a glass ball and throw it down a racetrack. Really.
Super Monkey Ball, the monkey in a ball simulator, that features a monkey in an indestructible ball, that I presume is super (hence Super Monkey Ball), is now available for the iPhone. In only thirty days Super Monkey Ball has sold over 300,000 copies. That is a lot of monkeying around with balls. Hell, with super balls! Har har.
I’ve been playing around with my monkey in a ball on my iPhone, graciously provided by 02. Using the acceleromator built in to the iPhone, you control a range of pixellated chimps on racetracks by tilting the device. The aim: nab those pesky bananas and don’t fall off the track. You’re up against a clock, so don’t dilly dally. Race. Nab. Then get shot into the sky at 266 mph (fact) for the next level.
The iPhone’s accelerometer is super sensitive and my chimp often raced down the track only to bounce off and fall to his doom. The trick is that you don’t guide the chimp in a ball down the track, you control the angle of the track. So instead of trying to slow down, just level the track and your monkey will come to a stand still. To go faster, tilt the track down and your monkey rolls at breakneck speed. This almost mystical revelation makes the game much easier to handle.
My partner had more fun with monkey balls than me (not even going to try har har for this one). It’s rather addictive, but sometimes the controls are far too sensitive. It is bloody impressive however that this game is so popular and takes advantage of the iPhone’s gizmos so well.
The killer reason not to purchase this £5.99 application is that you can’t save your progress. If you’re in the middle of a track and you’ve got that high score, no deaths, loads of lives saved up, and your iPhone rings - that’s it. Game over. When your call ends you’re thrown, bananaless, back to the main screen. As Peter Cohen from MacWorld said:
…frustrating for people who don’t have unlimited time to play games on their iPhone.
I’d go as far to say this lack of resume is a reason not to buy it. If you do have unlimited time and are playing solely on an iPhone - buy a Mac or a PS3. You’ll have much more fun!
Makes me wonder if GooBall, ported to the Mac by Ambrosia Software, could be developed for the iPhone. GooBall takes the monkey-in-a-ball idea and turns it into an alien-in-a-ball idea, but GooBall had some wonderfully designed worlds, a great soundtrack and managed to bring something new to the genre. GooBall does feature additional controls, like stick and jump, so a fancy solution would have to be found for those as you only have tilt and tap on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Super Monkey Ball got me thinking about toilets. Come on, you know what I mean: you go to the toilet at work or in a public place and you hear someone on their phone. It’s all a bit rank. Chatting to your mates while carrying out that part of nature? Blargh, come on! There’s a time and a place! Anyway, I couldn’t get the thought of people playing with chimpanzees in toilets. “Ook” and “Eek” coming from stalls? Cracks me up. Don’t play with your iPhone in a stall. You have been warned.
Super Monkey Ball is available for your iPhone and iPod Touch from the App Store on iTunes, now.
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