Filed under: Gaming, iPod Family, iPhone, App Store
First Look: Super Monkey Ball
The graphics are beautiful, and it definitely pushes the system, but I do have some complaints about the game. First off, the game is extremely hard to control with the tilt-sensors -- perhaps an update with some refined calibration is in order. A bigger complaint about the game: when you have the silent switch flipped on (meaning that the phone shouldn't make ANY noise), the game overrides this and plays the sounds anyway. So, be sure to change the sound settings before you start trying to play this game in a very quiet library or doctor's office. You also cannot pause the game, go to the home screen, and reopen it to start playing again (this might be an SDK issue, rather than a specific SMB problem).
Overall this is a solid game with good performance/graphics. While you won't be able to play this game in the car, it still provides hours of fun sitting extremely still so as not to anger the tilt-sensors. This game is available for $9.99 from the App Store.
Gallery: First Look: Super Monkey Ball
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Daniel said 3:13PM on 7-12-2008
You CAN pause the game by touching the clock.
Reply
Brad said 3:22PM on 7-12-2008
But you cannot pause it, hit the home button, check your email, etc, and then come back and pick up where you left off... which is what I think he meant.
Darren said 4:18PM on 7-12-2008
That's a flaw in the iPhone platform itself, and it kinda sucks.
burningspear said 6:03PM on 7-12-2008
In sTris the (pause,) quit, resume sequence works just fine. So it's not an iPhone platform issue and I doubt it has anything to do with the SDK. It's probably the usual: sloppy design.
Galley said 7:29PM on 7-12-2008
Every game I have purchased so far has a pause and resume feature, or am I not understanding what you mean?
MotionX-Poker
AcidSolitaire Collection
Trism
Bejeweled 2
(01) said 5:42PM on 7-13-2008
@ Darren - Not true, Trism supports pausing, switching to another application, and then retuning to your game. I suppose it's more of a "suspend," but still, the support is there.
Matt said 12:25AM on 7-18-2008
The pause problem isn't a problem with the platform but the iphone itself. i know this because i have Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D and it can be paused left and when you return it asks if you would like to resume or not. This is my biggest problem with this game.
Jash Sayani said 3:17PM on 7-12-2008
Cool! But the game is way expensive !!!
Reply
Ryan Parman said 4:28PM on 7-12-2008
If you compare it to games being released on the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, this game is a steal. As a matter of fact, pricing is quite comparable to the simplistic downloadable games you find on the Playstation store.
The real issue isn't that the game is expensive; Rather, it's that you're not willing to drop $10 on a handheld game.
Corey Floyd said 3:53AM on 7-16-2008
Actually, it is expensive when you think about it.
The developer walked on stage at WWDC and said how little time they had put in to it. It's a port of a game with tilt controls tacked on.
They have little development costs.
They have no advertising costs to speak of.
They have no distribution costs to speak of, aside from Apple's 30% cut.
So after they cover the costs of a team of maybe 3-4 programmers for about 2-3 months of work (and thats a stretch), they are just printing free money.
Even if you figure the average programmer at EA makes $5,000 a month (which I'm sure is overestimating) that would make worst case scenario about $60,000 in development costs.
I think they made more than that on the first day.
In my opinion if you make back your total investment on day 1 of sales, I'd say you probably could have charged a bit less.
Bender Bending Rodriguez said 3:23PM on 7-12-2008
"First off, the game is extremely hard to control with the tilt-sensors -- perhaps an update with some refined calibration is in order."
I think Cory needs to refine his hand motion.
Reply
Frank said 12:32PM on 7-13-2008
i thought along the same lines... at least I'M willing to admit that i just suck at the game, though, rather than blaming it on the tilt sensors. : P
Chanzo said 3:27PM on 7-12-2008
I love how all the blogs are like "FIRST LOOK" when it so painfully obviously is NOT the first look. Likewise with "Exclusive" etc..
Reply
Michael Rose said 4:08PM on 7-12-2008
Chanzo, it's OUR first look, not the first look in the universe. :)
David said 3:33PM on 7-12-2008
Is $9.99 really expensive? Super Monkey Ball for the Nintendo DS is $16.99 at Amazon. I was excited for this game when it was announced, but figured it'd be much more like $20-$40 for the download like most new game carts. I am almost definately going to buy this when I can upgrade to the 2.0 firmware.
Reply
kmotiv said 3:31PM on 7-12-2008
I just want to be able to select a level and play it, rather than having to start at the VERY BEGINNING each time that I don't get all the bananas in a level without falling out. I've got "king crowns" on each level except for 9....right now I have to play 1-8 just to get one chance to beat 9. They need to fix that.
Reply
RobD said 3:32PM on 7-12-2008
The switch on the side of the iphone is NOT a "silencer". It is a ringer on/off switch. It will not silence alarms or ipod functions, either.
Reply
Josh said 3:43PM on 7-12-2008
Definitely correct. The best way to turn the sound off is to just TURN IT DOWN. The volume buttons will turn the sound off in like 1 second. You don't need to change the preferences at all.
Dorv said 7:03PM on 7-12-2008
Silences my alarms...
RobD said 7:58PM on 7-12-2008
"Clock alarms still sound even if you set the Ring/Silent switch to silent."
- iphone user guide, page 42.
Can't explain @Dorv's phone.