Quick Look: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD

Yeah something about this is weirdly hard to watch. I think the sensitivity and/or camera are... off, somehow. I can't place it, but like Vinny I never really got into this series so maybe it's always looked like this.

@garwalk: Have to agree. Some combination of the camera distance and the extreme-ness of the back and forth movement of the level. Maybe it's better if you're controlling it, but it isn't pleasant as a viewer.

Between that and the monkey constantly making noise I had to quit the video a few minutes in.

I would have preferred hd versions of the amusment visions monkey balls but I can't imagine playing them with the switch's tiny sticks.

I’m so confused. I’ve never had a problem playing or watching anything monkeyball related but this is hard to watch. I wonder if it has something to do with it being HD or with the frame rate.

I am against monkeys in balls jumping.

Maybe as an adult I'm more sensitive to the screen going #bananas, but it's super difficult to at least view. Maybe it's different when you're the one playing it.

They should have put Super Monkey Ball 2 on switch instead, this looks like a total bummer in comparison

Christ this is fucking motion sickness city.

Wtf they ruined Monkey Target where's the wind and the different platforms and rolling down a big stupid hill?

Jesus Christ, my eyes! I had to look up another video on this game as I wasn't sure if it was the GB settings or the game itself, but it turns out I simply cannot look at this thing for over a minute as it physically hurts me.

Probably different when you're the one controlling the tilting yourself, but even then, I worry if I'd be able to play this.

Well I'm off to barf now. That was almost as bad as watching Dan in VR.

Started watching this on a train. Needless to say I didn't finish. Off to vomit town ->

Its that this version have jumping that makes it barf city. Check out the games that dont have it and its not as bad. But yes, we are getting to old for spinning stuff.

They took OUT the motion controls?

Weird...

Oooo, now I want a This Is the Run for Marble Madness.

Shur-buht.

I literally can not watch this. The camera is too jarring and jittery

Why is the monkey trying to make me vomit?

Since when is there a jump button in Super Monkey Ball?

wow this game just looks like absolute garbage and 100% not for me, I'm blown away, I used to think these games were okay?!

This is a god damn nightmare to watch lmao I love how dan is oblivious to how pukola this is for most people. Funny as hell video though.

Banana Blitz on the Wii was the only one I could play because using motion controls was the only way the game didn't make me feel sick (because I intuitively new how the screen would move)... then they got rid of the motion controls so I'm back to the sickening "moving the stage" thing.

I think I've figured it out, at least partially. The camera is completely locked at a fixed point behind the monkey ball, and the monkey ball literally never moves relative to the screen. It creates a really confusing perspective, like an optical illusion that makes it seem like the player character never moves, but the world does. I mean, I know that's partly the gimmick - the player is supposed to be tilting the level in order to move the monkey ball with physics, but instead it feels like the ball isn't actually rolling in response to the level tilt, and the level is actually flying and rotating under the character. I don't know if I'm describing it well enough to get the point across, but the sensation just doesn't feel "correct".

There was always a motion sickness issue with Monkey Ball games for those who have inner ear issues, but this is much worse due to something. Maybe widescreen HD Monkey Ball is a bad idea. Maybe it's better in handheld mode?

Aside from the motion sickness issues, it's a pity that the original Gamecube games weren't remade, as the original Banana Blitz was pretty poor even at the time. Maybe not as a bad as Super Monkey Ball Adventure. Even with the motion controls removed from the party games they aren't as simple to understand/hard to master as the minigames in the first two games. *pats Wii and Gamecube disk collection & pads* Ah well, back to the AV cable world.

Does anyone other than Dan do Quick Looks anymore?

Woah... I will echo Vinny and others here, damn this is hard to watch. Wooowww. And I normally don't get motion sickness. I'll watch VR games, and high sensitivity games and get nothing. This though... Man alive!!!

Some legit monkey ball skills on display in this video. 🐒

@vinny If there was a Youtube purge I expect sub numbers would probably go down universally, but in the end the really popular guys would mostly recover, whereas the smaller, middle-of-the-road channels (like mine) would be more forgotten and languish in even greater obscurity.

This is horrible. Sure it sounds like this camera movement has been used in previous games but good god this is too har to watch!

not a great ql to watch drunk

umm this is unwatchable wow

camera is too close that's why it jarring

there's this is game called Death stranding. check who QL

*literally any video game music plays*
Dan: Is this ska?

This looks absolutely terrible.. I'll stick with Marble It Up.

From the team that brought you *checks notes* Yakuza??

That's some Persona 4 ass menu right there.

@garwalk: I think you are right on the mark.

Good god, this is unwatchable. No thank you.

The monkey was always mostly fixed in the center of the screen although it does look like it moved up and down a bit more in the original game which would certainly help. https://youtu.be/uiHVwdZez6c I think the bigger issue is the inherent difference between motion controls and analog stick movement and not taking that into account when adjusting the controls.

The hellish look of this video is due to several reasons that all stem from tying the level rotation directly with analog stick movement and next to no smoothing. For starters with an analog stick most people don't move smoothly across axes, instead we can flit back and forth across axes multiple times a second trying to counter correct our movements and that's exactly what we see here. Dan is flipping wildly back and forth across the center axes constantly resulting in nightmarish motion that swings wildly without any real natural in-between, this is partly exacerbated by Dan's playstyle but it could be lessened with some kind of analog stick movement smoothing/interpolation type options.

You've also got to consider that with motion controls any kind movement, especially "resetting" back to a neutral resting position, happens very smoothly due to most people's naturally fine motor skills (or at least much smoother than most of our analog stick motor skills.) Compare that to an analog stick where resetting can involve releasing the analog stick where it springs back to its neutral position with no ease in or it. Certainly you could mimic this with an analog stick but it would require a lot more smooth stick control and concentration that comes naturally with how we move our hands and rotate our wrists.

To basically emulate the kind of movement seen here with motion controls would be unnatural and take a lot more effort because you would have to flick your wrist in full cross axes motions that come to a start and stop with no gradual motion in between, you just wouldn't play it that way with motion controls and hence we have this nightmare of a video.

Is that Baby Monkey a genetic ancestor of Baby Head from Captain Commando!?

Both baby geniuses. Both pilot mechsuits. Both adorable. Both an unquenchable lust for blood.

nausea the game

okay i tried it again. I cant. I feel like I'm going to throw up

Think you nailed it. I went back and watched footage of the older games and it's definitely much smoother. The ability to flick the camera and have no smoothing is the core of why this is so nauseating.

I loved the first game on Gamecube but this is not the same. I spent dozens of hours with Monkey Target back in the day but this is dumbed down. There isn't even a wind meter.

Wow, y'all weren't kidding. This is un-fucking-watchable.