Well, this isn’t quite what I was expecting. I’ve played (and completed) the DS version of this already this year (just last month, in fact), and I thought this would just be the same game only flashier. It isn’t, exactly. The game is structured differently in terms of locations and events, you can’t go back up hills as you’ve gone down them, and the controls are entirely different. You hold the remote horizontally, steer by tilting, ollie, grab, grind and …
It’s dangerous having all these Wii Points sat on my console, as I’ve downloaded another game. Another game I already own at least twice. Cue Nintendo “It prints money!” picture. Anyway. It’s great, but then, it always was, wasn’t it? I’ve gone through the first world, and beaten up the end of world boss (who was easy).
Played through the first world of single player mode. Erm. There’s not really much more to add, except it wasn’t very hard and I only lost one life. The boss was easy too.
OK, so now it’s getting hard. I’m onto World 7 now, and have spent far too long trying to do the second level. The previous world (Cobolt Caverns) was also pretty difficult, although I did manage to complete two levels first time. And the boss was really easy. I’ve noticed that it isn’t really the same game as previous Monkey Ball titles, in that there’s less “balancing on a thin platform” to do. That isn’t a bad thing, it’s just …
I’ve now worked through the first five worlds of the game. Still nothing especially taxing, except for the octopus boss at the end of the 5th world. He was a right pain, as it seemed to be entirely random as to where his tentacles would end up when he landed on the platform you’re on, meaning you can’t avoid being knocked off and into the sea. Anyway, killed him eventually, and moved on…
Another downloaded game, this. It’s the PC Engine version of Bomberman ’93, which I actually have for the PC Engine somewhere too. Tch, eh? Anyway, so played several two player battle games with my wife, and won most of them.
Really need to finish up with this soon. It’s just not fun any more, and I’m only going through the motions each time I play it. K.K. Slider played me King K.K. today, no-one has moved out (or is trying to) and my notice board says there will be a snow blizzard tomorrow. Looks like winter is about to begin – and it was winter when I started playing. Come in AC, your time is up. Nearly.
How strange that the first game I complete on the my new Wii console, is the first console games I ever owned. Well, one of two – I got Altered Beast on the same day, but that doesn’t count… So I managed to make up for missing out on two Chaos Emeralds by carefully getting to the end of the remaining Acts with 50 or more rings, and got myself all six emeralds by the time I’d done Starlight Zone …
Today, I are mostly bin playing this. And it’s great. After the awful (and broken) Super Monkey Ball Adventure this really is a return to form. At first, the control in the single player game was impossible. After a while I got used to it, and now it makes way more sense than a “normal” controller ever did. So I’ve completed all of the first four worlds so far. None of the levels have been especially difficult, although I’ve lost …
Played through a bit more this morning. I’m up to Act 1 of Labyrinth Zone now. Chaos Emerald hunting isn’t going as well as I’d hoped – I’ve only got three so far.
I went and picked up my Wii this morning, and so much of the day has been spent playing on it. The verdict? It’s ACES. Firstly, I played Wii Sports and had a go with the baseball, tennis and boxing games. They’re all pretty good, but boxing is sheer genius. You use the remote and the nunchuk as boxing gloves and actually punch and block with them. Amazing. Had a few goes on the bowling game then, and lost to …