SEGA just announced that they will be releasing Super Monkey Ball 2 for the iPhone just in time for the holidays. Which makes sense seeing how the original Super Monkey Ball was one of the best selling launch titles for the iPhone in July 2008. It also managed to single-handedly set the price ceiling for App Store games at $9.99 which carries through to today. (Arn)

The Touch Arcade did a write up after their hands on with it…

The sequel to the game Super Monkey Ball 2 takes the original and offers new levels, local Wi-Fi multiplayer, improved graphics and, notably, improved controls. Despite the success of the original launch title, one of Super Monkey Ball’s criticisms had been the sensitivity of the control system, a point that had been acknowledged by Sega in the past. After playing a late build of the sequel, it seems they’ve made real strides in the controls. In particular, I found turning to be much more precise than in the original.

For more on what they had to say about SMB2 check out there post.
[Source: Touch Arcade ]

Halloween-tider och Sega har pysslat ihop Super Monkey Ball-kryddade skrivbordsunderlägg som de har lagt ut på deras Flickr-sida. Storyn förtäljer emellertid inte om de kommer att släppa något halloween-inspirerande material till deras spel, men vi kan ju alltid hoppas att de inför lite atmosfäriskt till högtiden som mer och mer även börjar äta sig in i Sverige.

Dessutom bjuder Sonic Channel på ett Metal Sonic-inspirerat skrivbordsunderlägg för november månad. Småtrevligt med andra ord.

There’s some serious monkey bussiness going down as Sega reveals the first gameplay bits of it’s upcoming Super Monkey Ball Wii title.

H Sega ανακοίνωσε ότι το επερχόμενο Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll περιλαμβάνει έναν ολοκαίνουριο χαρακτήρα.

Ο λόγος για τον Jam, ο οποίος είναι ο προσωπικός γυμναστής σας και θα σας βοηθήσει να ολοκληρώσετε τους διάφορους γρίφους και mini-games που θα συναντήσετε στο παιχνίδι.[next]

game20

So we’re into the Top 50 already!!

You guys know the drill by now:

I decided, as so many games mean so many different things to me, I should come up with a fair way to judge them. This is what I came up with:

Time Spent Playing

Storyline

Difficulty

Fun

Ground Breaking?

A few provisos before we hit the next ten games…

Firstly this is my list of my Top 100 games. I certainly don’t expect you guys to agree with it (though hopefully you’ll agree with some of the choices) and would welcome any comments.

Secondly, I’m not planning on putting the scores or totals up, just listing the games in the order they came out in.

Lastly, I never owned a Nintendo or Microsoft console so my experiences on these games were limited to friend’s houses etc – bite me

Let’s crack on with No. 50…

50. inFAMOUS (Playstation 3)

inFAMOUS is a great game that sees you take on the role of Cole MacGrath – a man who develops mysterious electrical superpowers after being caught in an explosion while delivering a package. From there on out it’s up to you how you go about finding the people who caused the explosion to get answers / revenge. Throughout the game you’re greeted with good or evil choices that shape your powers and the way the general public view you. The story in this game was one of the main highlights for me. Brilliant, brilliant gaming.

49. ALIEN TRILOGY (Playstation)

This was a brilliant game. A first person shooter based on the first three Alien films. Although I don’t think you actually played any of the plotlines from the film, it was just the settings etc. Best bit was if a facehugger got you – it actually took up the whole screen, leaving you unable to see where you were going/what was going on. And it even had the scanner with it’s creepy bleeping, signalling imminent danger. Great stuff.

48. RESIDENT EVIL 2 (Playstation)

Ok, ok so I never finished this (I hardly finished any games back in the day, content to just play until something new came out ) but it was all about the opening anyway. After the slow paced survival horror of the first game being dumped in amongst lots of zombies right at the start of this one and effectively told to ‘get on with it’ was something of a shock. Certainly a big ‘what the hell’ moment and the game grows in strength from there.

47. ALIEN 3 (Sega Mega Drive)

Another Alien game in the same ten game stretch? What madness is this? Well that’s just the way the list worked out and Alien 3 certainly beats Alien Trilogy on merit. Despite being based on only one film this side scroller for the Sega Mega Drive was really impressive at the time. The “photo-realistic” shots of the Aliens between levels was a highlight and I simply never got tired of using the flamethrower to fry the critters! It was a pain to keep rescuing the cocooned hostages though

46. ROBOCOP VS TERMINATOR (Sega Mega Drive)

I wrote a piece on how Robocop deserves a decent next gen game and after playing Terminator Salvation I wasn’t impressed with the latest Terminator effort. Looking back this was the last decent game for both franchises. And what a game. The story was pretty convoluted – basically Robocop’s cybernetics hold the key to building Terminators or something Going round shooting Terminators as Robocop. COULD THIS BE ANY COOLER? Yes it could – you also faced off against ED-209

45. SUPER MONKEY BALL (Nintendo GameCube)

Many an hour spent perfecting Monkey Target (Hi Hollow Snake! ) and Monkey Golf made this a favourite during my short time as a Gamecube owner. Super Monkey Ball featured monkeys in big balls and you were tasked with navigating them through several tricky puzzle like courses. Or various multi-player ’sport’ events. All great fun but there was something tragic about not closing the ball on Monkey Target – which left your monkey friend terminally injured, twitching on the floor

44. HORACE GOES SKIING (ZX Spectrum)

Another old classic. This was requested by myself and my brother every time my Dad busted out the ZX. “No money no ski’s” became a family catchphrase. In this gem of a game you had to guide Horace across a busy road to hire some ski’s, get back across the road and then actually navigate the slalom on the ski’s. Such a simple concept but we got literally hours of fun out of it.

43. FIFA 95 (Sega Mega Drive)

I think this has to be one of the games I’ve played the most in my gaming life. I used to rack up the seasons on this quality title. The follow up to the original FIFA game this was the beautiful game at it’s best. Even back then EA was all about the presentation – whenever you scored each button corresponded to a celebratory noise like fireworks or a klaxon. The best by far was a commentator saying ‘Gooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaalllllll!!!!!!!!!!’ For as long as you held the button down. A lot more arcadey than the football games these days but certainly as much fun.

42. GAUNTLET (Arcade)

“Wizard needs food badly” – If there is a sampled piece of speech in a game that raises the blood pressure this is it. That booming voice. You felt like you were being told off the whole time. Heaven help anyone who shot the food by accident! This was 4 people multi-player action at it’s best and it literally ate 10p pieces for breakfast in the arcades. I always went Wizard as he looked pretty badass on the arcade artwork but in reality he was a bit crap. Oh well maybe I’ll just shoot some food.

41. SPEEDBALL II (Sega Master System)

No top games list would be complete without this seminal classic. Brutal Deluxe – it brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it. I remember when a friend and I got them to the playoffs. God this game was bloody hard. It was violent and addictive – you could have your opponents stretchered off seriously wounded if you hit them hard enough. All you had to do was chuck the ball in a goal – sounds easy right? But there were all sort of multipliers dotted around and power ups available. We’d never played anything like it and I doubt we will again.

So there you have it, another ten games down and plenty more to come!

Just a podcast I was in. I didn’t talk much since I was new.

While reading the latest Stinger Report newsletter, I came across the news that Taiwan-based developer InJoy Motion Corp. had recently announced two new arcade titles, a mounted gun shooter called Top Gunner and a kart racing game called Dido Kart. While doing some research to find out more about those two titles(which is still sparse as they are not on the company’s website), I came across some information on some new games being made by a company that I had previously not heard of – Belrare. What caught my interest there was a title they are calling either “Rebob Skiing” or “Super Hot Skiing” (both names are on the website) – a deluxe snowboarding game that according to the image I posted above is based upon SSX Blur – an EA title that a while back appeared on the Nintendo Wii. Apparently this and a few other titles by the same company made their debut a few months ago in China, and a couple of their other offerings use a similar base that the player stands on. One of them is called “Speed Aircraft” where the player races on some sort of futuristic hover craft that looks like a jet ski and the other is called “Happy Balance Ball” which looks an awful lot like Super Monkey Ball. You can see each of these by click on the thumbnails below; I have also added a picture of InJoy’s Top Gunner game as well. I admit that I like the cabinet designs that Belrare has come up with – they obviously are not made for entertainment facilities that don’t have a lot of space available but they certainly are eye-catching.

Speed Air

Happy Ball

InJoy's Top Gunner

You can find more info on these games by following the links below

[Belrare's Product Page] [Top Gunner] [Discuss on the Forums]

Sega tenia una cuenta regresiva en su sitio la cual ha revelado un nuevo trailer de Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll para la consola de Nintendo. El nuevo juego usará la Balance Board para mover el chango. La fecha de salida es “invierno de 2010″, según el trailer.

Aldrig ska man kunna lita på någon.
Om ett globalt företag med tillverkning i tredje världen och distribution i västvärlden åker dit för att använda oetiska metoder, då kan de väl åtminstone stå för det? Den svenska filmaren Fredrik Gerttens visar i sin kommande dokumentär hur Dole medvetet använder sig av otillåtna gifter vid besprutning av sina bananplantage i Nicaragua. Naturen tar skada, bönderna tar skada, och du och jag tar skada av detta. I domstolen dömdes Dole för detta, och nu uppmärksammas händelsen igen genom en dokumentärfilm.

Man kan tycka att Dole borde ta tillfället i akt att påpeka att “ja, vi har lärt oss en läxa, vi använder miljövänliga metoder idag, blaha blaha…” – men icke!
Istället väljer man att, genom advokater och PR-byråer, smutskasta filmen och dess skapare, samt hota med stämningar för dem som visar den! Vad är det för fel på folk egentligen?

För en som sade upp sig från sitt jobb efter att de sågats av Greenpeace är detta oerhört provocerande. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) är tydligen bara något man skriver i sin affärsplan och sedan aldrig implementerar i sin verksamhet…

+ Spruta ned min frukt med massa gifter
+ Medvetet skada plantagearbetarna
+ Stämma de som försöker sprida information om det
= FAIL

Inte för att jag köpte särskilt mycket Dole-bananer förut (fast de var ju roliga i Super Monkey Ball) men nu blir det totalstopp med det. Tre stora felsteg i ett och samma ärende är ingen höjdare om man vill vinna över mig som kund! Sedan ungefär ett år tillbaka inhandlas det endast KRAV- eller Bio organic-märkta bananer i det här hushållet.

But I digress…
Köp KRAV-märkt och lev längre! Ta hand om er! Puss

Meet Lizzy. She's pretty cool.

Sway evens comes with a comical backstory.

Have you played Sway yet? If not, you really should. Right now, most of the games available for the iPhone/iPod Touch aren’t particularly innovative. They’re ports or adaptations of standard games and genres, with controls modified to make more sense when the only tactile input you’ve got is a touch screen. A few games, though, are absolutely perfect for the platform – they just make sense with touch controls, and would feel awkward any other way. Sway is one of those games.

The title is aptly descriptive – you control Lizzy, a lizard that looks nothing so much like a rag or sock doll with arms and legs. It’s a platformer of sorts, except you don’t run, hop, or bounce your way through the levels – you swing, or “sway.” Get it? Yeah, I know, that was bad. Anyway, you use your thumbs to control the arms, and use momentum and some basic physics to guide your character through the levels. Keep your right thumb on the screen, for example, and your character’s right arm will hold onto whatever platform you’re on (assuming you’re on one). Move your thumb back and forth, and your character moves like a pendulum around the point where your arm is holding on. Let go, and the character swings through the air.

Falling is bad.

Repeat this multiple times, and soon enough you’ll have some semblance of controlled movement, albeit slightly erratic. As you move through the level, you try to collect stars, avoid obstacles and traps, and reach checkpoints, eventually completing the level. There’s something of a time-trial element built in, too – you won’t die for progressing slowly, but fast times yield bronze, silver, and gold medals based on your speed and how many stars you collected.

The end goal is to progress through all the levels, rescuing Lizzy’s friends along the way by completing certain difficult levels. As you rescue each friend, they become playable characters, and each has some sort of defining characteristic that changes gameplay. The first rescued friend, Monkee, moves more slowly, but has longer arms, making it easier to reach things.

Monkee's got those long, long arms.

Sway isn’t a particularly long game, with twenty levels in all, but the difficulty increases somewhat quickly, so it’s a bit of a challenge (at least, it was for me). Relatively short levels and automatically saved progress make this game ideal for the short spurts of play that most people adhere to when using the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. Sway brings to mind games like Super Monkey Ball, partially because of the gameplay and partially because of the cartoony, goofy graphical style. It sells for $4.99, a good price for the quality and level of enjoyment you’ll get from this title.

Save Friend!

Data la mancanza di  nuove uscite decenti nello store della mela, come non parlare del gioco più famoso per iPhone?!Una delle prime applicazione dell’AppStore resta ancora una delle più riuscite. Grand bel gioco, originale e longevo. Consiste di far rotolare inclinando il telefono una pallina contentente una scimmia per i percorsi più svariati sempre più difficili (forse un pò troppo difficili). Super Mokey Ball è sicuramente un classico, potremmo quasti definirlo il “super Mario” dell’ iPhone.

Super Monkey Ball è disponibile a 4,99 euro qui.

Here we are, six months after the iPhone 3G (and the App Store as well) launched, and just now we’re seeing a free (read: “Lite”) version of the iPhone’s flagship launch game, Super Monkey Ball. I didn’t buy into the game, mostly because reviews never went beyond “pretty good” or “shows what the iPhone is capable of”, and it cost $10 back then.

Well, the times have changed, and it costs a whopping $8 now, and judging from this Lite version, it doesn’t look all that great any more. Titles like Hero of Sparta and Rolando have proven that graphics do get better than this, and you can have a solid game to boot. This demo shows off a few levels, and that’s about it.

This is one of those instances where not having a “Lite” version probably helped drive sales; people wanted a launch game with high-quality graphics and unoffensive characters. Without a demo to turn them off with, folks probably shelled out the money for curiosity’s sake alone. I’m thinking that after this demo gets around, sales aren’t going to be all that great.

You can try out the free “Lite” version here.

Free App: Super Monkey Ball Lite

27 Jan: New App

一路都係 Paid App 嘅 Super Monkey Ball 居然有 Lite Version, 真係抵讚。等我依啲慳得就慳一族有得玩之餘又唔使比錢。

玩咗一陣都覺得幾難同堆啲關數都唔少，應該都可以玩到一排。

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz brings the fun of AiAi and friends to the Nintendo Wii! It takes the ground-breaking Nintendo Wii controller and shows the world what it can do – unique new puzzles and madcap multiplayer gameplay add a whole new world. Fun for you and your friends, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz takes the classic, fan-favorite Monkey Ball gameplay and adds a barrel-load of thrilling new party games.

Super Monkey Ball fanatics rejoice!

AiAi and all his friends have rolled their way onto Nintendo’s new console with new mind-blowing puzzle levels and a wealth of new and exciting Party Games specifically designed to fully exploit the innovative Nintendo Wii controller. Other titles will have a difficult time matching the multitude of possible variations in game control as presented in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz.

The Wii launches with one of the most popular Sega franchises!

Colorful new levels allow for jumping with the Wii remote. View larger.

Party Games can be played alone or with friends. View larger.

Collect bananas to unlock game modes and new levels. View larger.

In Party Games, use the Wii remote in new and exciting ways. View larger.

Revolutionary control

You’ve never played Super Monkey Ball like this before! Tilt, twist, roll, and jump all with the revolutionary Wii controller. The Wii’s remote sensor picks up your every move as you slip and slide through colorful environments with the same tricky gameplay moves and colorful environments you know and love from the Monkey Ball series.

The single-player puzzle levels in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz have been innovatively designed to challenge gamers’ skills like never before. For the first time in Super Monkey Ball, AiAi and his friends will have the ability to jump when players flick the Nintendo Revolution controller in an upward motion. The ability to jump has given game designers another dimension in which to expand the Super Monkey Ball gameplay experience and allows gamers a whole new way to interact with the franchise; this time in true three-dimensional fashion. Unlockable multiplayer games support one to four players and offer stiff competition. Think you’ve mastered the Wii controller? Put your money where your mouth is as you take on three friends in various match-based games of skill and familiar sports favorites.

Many many mini-games

The Party Games, for which the Super Monkey Ball franchise is famous, return with more variety than ever and over 50 total. As an added bonus, all of the Party Games are unlocked the first time you spin up the game in your Wii. An abundance of new Party Games have been creatively designed to take advantage of the Revolution controller in a multitude of ways. Gamers will find themselves competing in a traditional game of ring toss, fighting aliens in space with “Alien Attack,” or even smacking pesky moles in a game of “Whack-a-Mole.” With each mini-game, players use the Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz’s large library of Party Games is sure to inspire friendly competition anytime.

New characters roll onto the scene

AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon, and Baby will be joined by new characters YanYan; a young, vivacious female monkey and Doctor; an older monkey with a past steeped in mystery due to his acute case of amnesia. The addition of YanYan and Doctor also marks another first for the Super Monkey Ball franchise, differing skill-set levels for each character. Each character will have strengths and weaknesses in categories such as acceleration, speed, and jumping ability. Even the size of the monkey ball and its weight will play a role in a character’s performance in the game.

Doctor is a mysterious old that drifted down to Monkey Island from an unknown origin. He suffers from amnesia and doesn’t even remember his own name. However, he is a well-liked, smart inventor, and everyone in town knows him as Doctor. Doctor has the highest acceleration out of the whole gang, but it’s probably aided by some sort of contraption he invented. Being a bit on the old side his jumping skills aren’t what they used to be as well, but he is still a good monkey to play with.

YanYan is a young girl that recently moved close to AiAi’s neighborhood. She is a fearless girl, a master of the mightiest Monkey martial art of pugilism, Hachi-en-Ken. She might have fallen in love with AiAi and sometimes becomes very shy around him. YanYan is the highest jumper of the entire group. Her vivatious energy allows her to reach heights that are unusual for her size. If you like to jump, YanYan is the monkey to choose.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz is available at Amazon for $19.99. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Wii Nunchuk Controller
• Wii Remote Controller
• Rayman Raving Rabbids
• Mario Party 8
• Wii Play with Wii Remote

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz

This was the second game I got for the Wii, part of the bundle o’ titles that came with the Wii bundle C bought me (she sold the remaining titles to her mom, who gave an appropriate one to each of her five brothers, except for the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, which sucked so much that GameStop would only offer seven bucks for it even in the original shrink wrap). It’s a fun game, especially the party mode, with a whole range of multiplayer games that range from bowling and ring toss to mini-races.

Still, I find this title a bit frustrating much of the time. Propulsion in the mini-game races and the main game relies on tilting the Wiimote in the direction you want to go, but that’s easier said than done. The main problem is that in some situations, the level of precision needed to stay on a platform or track is well nigh impossible. I’ve reached an impasse near the end of the main game, since there’s a steep downhill section of track that I can’t possibly stay on, no matter how much I try to slow my speed or how steeply I lean into the turn (and I love how the online guides I’ve consulted for help all simply say something like “just focus on staying on the track in this section” — it makes me wonder if I really suck at video games, since I was hoping they might explain how to stay on the track, because I could figure out that I needed to, you know, not fall off to finish the level). Nonetheless, this is a worthwhile title if you have a bunch of friends over to play, and it’s pretty cheap these days.

WIRELESS

With 2008 on the way out and right around 10,000 applications behind them, Apple has released a series of lists outlining which applications scored the most downloads since the App Store’s launch back in July. (http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2008/12/02/apple-announces-top-10-iphone-app-downloads-of-2008 12/2)

Top Paid Apps (Overall):

1. Koi Pond
2. Texas Hold’em
3. Moto Chaser
4. Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart 3d
5. Super Monkey Ball
6. Cro-Mag Rally
7. Enigmo
8. Pocket Guitar
9. Recorder
10. iBeer

Top 10 Free Downloads (Overall):

1. Pandora Radio
2. Facebook
3. Tap Tap Revenge
4. Shazam
5. Labyrinth Lite Edition
6. Remote
7. Google Earth
8. Lightsaber Unleashed
9. AIM
10. Urbanspoon

Introducing the Nokia N97, the next generation high-end mobile phone from Nokia. Described by Nokia folks as a “handheld computer” this device is a pretty comfortable high-end phone. It has a tilting (resistive) touch-screen display, and is the first N-series phone with a QWERTY keyboard. It has 32 gigabytes of memory, expandable to 42 GB via 16 GB memory card. It has a digital compass, a 1500 milliamp battery, and DVD quality video capture. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/02/nokia-world-2008-nokia-n97 12/2)

BET Networks has struck a deal with PlayPhone to bring the channel’s programming to mobile phones. “Mobilizing BET’s hit programming and other related content for download purchasing is another way for us to deepen our digital connection to consumers,” said Martez Moore, senior vice president of strategy and business development for BET. TVWeek.com (12/1)

My friend Natalie and her daughter came over this morning. We met them at Denny’s for breakfast and then came back to have fun on the Wii.

We tried playing some of the party games on Super Monkey Ball but couldn’t seem to figure out how to make the remote work with the games and there’s no real help in the manual or on the game. So after trying a couple we gave up and I pulled out bowling. We also did tennis, which I really suck at, and golf. Then we raced some on MarioKart. We had fun, and her daughter enjoyed playing with all of Stephan’s toys. Stephan played with a game cube controller and got in the way a lot. Thankfully, no kids were harmed in the process of our FUN!

They left a little over an hour ago, Stephan ate lunch, pooped in his potty, and is now sleeping for me.

He’s getting really good a peepeeing and poopooing in his “potty froggy” and is getting excited about underwear. We are just about done with diapers, there are three or four more left, and then we have a stash of pull-ups, maybe 30-40 of them, some from a friend and a partial bag I’d bought a few months ago. Now we are trying to figure out what our next step is. He goes in the potty, we just need him to consistently tell us that he needs to go and get him better able to pull his pants off and on by himself. Tomorrow he’s off to the sitter’s while I work and then on Wednesday I think we’ll try the little plasticy-underwear we bought a while back and see how he does with that. Only two pair though, so that might not get us very far. We’ll have to buy something else, maybe thicker training undies and then the regular undies for motivation??

Oh, the places you’ll go … when you have a toddler!