Go Bananas For Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition For iPad [Review]

By

post-45249-image-24e5a7ca9990187bb092c6759e1ba245-jpg

Super Monkey Ball was one of the first games that introduced us to the possibilities of gaming on the iPhone & iPod Touch when it was previewed back in March 2008, along with the announcement of the App Store. As the biggest selling game on launch day, Sega set the standard for other 3D games with superb graphics, an intuitive control system and incredibly fun gameplay. Now Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition is available on the iPad, so does this super-sized version live up to the expectations we’ve come to expect from those little monkeys?

Sakura Edition features fantastic new mini-games like Monkey Golf, in which you you pitch and put your monkey over 9 or 18 holes, and Monkey Target in which your monkey is launched in to the sky and you must control him on the way back down to collect as many bananas as you can before making an accurate landing. You can also play with up to 4 friends in a new multiplayer mini-game called Monkey Base.

Although the mini-games are great fun, it’s the main game that will keep you entertained for hours – there’s a new ‘Far East’ world with 10 new mazes that make up a huge total of 125 levels! All of which offer bright, colorful environments with impressive high-resolution graphics. Once again Sega have delivered with a fantastic looking game that gives other 3D game developers something to aim for.

I was a fan of this game from back in its Gamecube days, but the advantage of the accelerometer-based tilt controls on the iPad make gameplay much more enjoyable, and having a bigger playing surface compared to the iPhone really brings a game like this to life. You may have played a lot of the mazes before if you have Super Monkey Ball 2 for iPhone, however fans of the series will have no problem repeating them in glorious high-definition.

Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition is currently priced at $7.99 to celebrate the international launch of the iPad, which isn’t a bad price considering its smaller iPhone sibling is currently $5.99. I feel the introduction of the new mini-games, a whole new world and the graphical improvements are well worth the extra $2.

You can find Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition in the App Store here.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.