Super Monkey Ball Q&A reveals new details (like controls and stuff)

As the clock ticks down to Wii launch day, more details on SEGA‘s Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz continue to roll out like a bat monkey out of heck. For example, Advanced Media Network got to chat a bit with SMB associate producer Andy Alamano about the game, and found out some interesting factoids that we can expect to see when those monkeys start messing with our Wiis and our sanities.

Like controls, for example. Just like the E3 demo, for the main part of the game you’ll be holding the Wiimote like a paper airplane, Andy reveals. That hasn’t changed. The tons of minigames on hand, however, will each have their own unique control setup. How many minigames? Oh about 50, immediately selectable (immediately? You mean to say there’s more that is not immediately selectable? Whoa!).

The team has worked hard on providing finely precise gameplay control with the Wii, and they’re proud of it. Andy claims it will be as good as controlling the game with a GameCube controller. Speaking of that, nope, neither the GameCube controller nor any other controller other than the Wiimote will work with SMB.

Two other things that we won’t be expecting with Super Monkey Ball are online play and WiiConnect24. Multiplayer will most definitely be split-screen four-way. Neither will there be any downloadable content through WiiConnect24, though Andy says the team would love to include that in their next title, given the chance.

Better brush up on those Wiimote skills, because the game features one and only one difficulty level. The new Jump mechanic the Wiimote provides will in fact be your primary means of attack against the (new to the series) Boss characters. You’ll be spending Boss battle time dodging their attacks and waiting for the right moment to hit them at a weak spot.

And one last item of note: the game supports widescreen (16×9) TVs.

As the clock ticks down to Wii launch day, more details on SEGA‘s Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz continue to roll out like a bat monkey out of heck. For example, Advanced Media Network got to chat a bit with SMB associate producer Andy Alamano about the game, and found out some interesting factoids that we can expect to see when those monkeys start messing with our Wiis and our sanities.

Like controls, for example. Just like the E3 demo, for the main part of the game you’ll be holding the Wiimote like a paper airplane, Andy reveals. That hasn’t changed. The tons of minigames on hand, however, will each have their own unique control setup. How many minigames? Oh about 50, immediately selectable (immediately? You mean to say there’s more that is not immediately selectable? Whoa!).

The team has worked hard on providing finely precise gameplay control with the Wii, and they’re proud of it. Andy claims it will be as good as controlling the game with a GameCube controller. Speaking of that, nope, neither the GameCube controller nor any other controller other than the Wiimote will work with SMB.

Two other things that we won’t be expecting with Super Monkey Ball are online play and WiiConnect24. Multiplayer will most definitely be split-screen four-way. Neither will there be any downloadable content through WiiConnect24, though Andy says the team would love to include that in their next title, given the chance.

Better brush up on those Wiimote skills, because the game features one and only one difficulty level. The new Jump mechanic the Wiimote provides will in fact be your primary means of attack against the (new to the series) Boss characters. You’ll be spending Boss battle time dodging their attacks and waiting for the right moment to hit them at a weak spot.

And one last item of note: the game supports widescreen (16×9) TVs.