Not a bad effort, but a few more levels would have been nice, particularly as they are a bit easier this time around, no doubt a result of being designed with Wii Balance board controls in mind. There are no boss battles in the game and the bonus levels are included in the total level count. There are 70 levels in the game, divided into 7 different themed worlds. This might be an indication of both the games’ well-executed control methods, but it also reflects a lack of change in between games.

It’s been a while for me, but it didn’t take long before I got the hang of things again. Step and Roll (the prefix “attempt to” would have been suitable) doesn’t offer anything particularly new or exciting from the old predecessor. Everybody who gets a hold of this game will no doubt have a good time using the Balance Board controls, but it won’t be long before the Wii Remotes are out. In fact, a game such as this is perfectly suited to the Wii. Tilting the Wii Remote in various directions results in the levels mimicking this movement. Thankfully, the game supports more conventional control methods such as using the Wii Remote, which is quite intuitive as a control method for this game. Too finicky and far too annoying to persevere with.

Yes, the game does now include Wii Balance Board support, but it’s not really a good method of control. Let’s get something out of the way before we go on further. I haven’t played a Monkey Ball game since the original on the Cube, so I had a lot of anticipation for the newest game in the series, Super Monkey Ball: Step and Roll. Though not an entirely original concept, it was still a good game that provided a good challenge (some of the latter levels were extremely difficult) and good fun (the mini-games, particularly “Monkey Target”, were great). Instead of controlling the characters, you move the actual world around which, by the magic of physics and gravity, results in the monkeys rolling around in their balls. The goal of the game is to help guide the cheeky simians around a variety of increasingly difficult courses. For the uninformed, as the name suggests, the game involves monkeys… in balls. The original Super Monkey Ball on the Gamecube was a cracker of a game back in the day.

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