days till launch...
Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz
SEGA
- Release date: launch (Feb 22 2012)
- Official site (UK): http://www.sega.co.uk/games/super-monkey-ball-bana
na-splitz/ - Videos: Teaser trailer / Japanese trailer featuring gameplay
- Features: sixaxis and touch controls; camera; online multiplayer; GPS
Since Super Monkey Ball first appeared on Gamecube in 2001 (itself a home version of a SEGA arcade machine), versions have been released on everything from Gameboy Advance to mobile phones and iPad. Vita is, of course, no exception to this monkey phenomenon and gets its own vibrant release, taking advantage of the Vita’s many features.
Use the sixaxis gyro controls to tilt the level and guide your monkey to the goal across over 100 stages, collecting bananas along the way. If you’re like me, you’ll much prefer the joysticks, but other control methods such as touch screens and even blowing on the microphone have been suggested!
8 original and revamped mini-games, including the much-loved Monkey Target, are included in this release, along with online multiplayer, a feature that the series has been crying out for (online Monkey target? Yes please!). GPS allows you to compare your scores and times on local and global leaderboards and there’s even an option to create your own levels using the Vita’s built-in cameras – though if the trailer is anything to go by, it looks disappointingly simplistic. Still, it should keep the kids entertained...
Spirit0fLight wrote:...
.. Super-Boring-Ball...
Yeah, like I said, I can't promise fifty games with universal appeal. I can't promise one game with universal appeal, come to that.
That said, though I haven't been much moved by recent iterations, or indeed by a quick hands-on I had at a PlayStation Access event, multiplayer sessions with three other mates were some of the happier times I had on the gamecube, so if we really do get online multiplayer Monkey Target, I may be sorely tempted by this one...
(Or indeed multiplayer online Monkey Race would be more than ModNation Racers Road Trip will provide, grumble grumble 
)
Level 7
QuietlyWrong wrote:
Spirit0fLight wrote:...
Yeah, like I said, I can't promise fifty games with universal appeal. I can't promise one game with universal appeal, come to that.
That said, though I haven't been much moved by recent iterations, or indeed by a quick hands-on I had at a PlayStation Access event, multiplayer sessions with three other mates were some of the happier times I had on the gamecube, so if we really do get online multiplayer Monkey Target, I may be sorely tempted by this one...
(Or indeed multiplayer online Monkey Race would be more than ModNation Racers Road Trip will provide, grumble grumble
Oh, dont missunderstand me, Im not knocking your list here, I think your doing excellent with this thread. 
but yeah as what happens with every console there are lots of games that well, are just gonna fall along the way-side & for me this is one.
im heading to Manchester tomorrow to find this Vita room and have a good hands on. (Since thats the only reason im travelling all the way to Manchester for!).. 
days till launch...
F1 2011
Codemasters
- Release date: launch (Feb 22 2012; already out in Japan))
- Official site: http://www.formula1-game.com/uk/
- Videos: 'Shake It' trailer / 'Compete on the Go' trailer
- Features: Online and ad hoc 4-player multiplayer
Although it’s already out in Japan, by the time the rest of the world get their racing gloves on this title, it will be less than a month until the 2012 season. So it’s a bit of an odd choice for Codemasters, especially in an age where EA tends to release its annual updates about six months before the year in question. Still, if you didn’t get enough of the 2011 season, here it is again, and this handheld version stands up tall against its big brothers on the TV-bound consoles.
Packing all the cars, drivers and circuits of the PS3 game, and such innovations as KERS and DRS to assist overtaking, the game lets you take on a three season epic to become the F1 Drivers’ World Champion, or, better suited to the portable format, you can take on time-trials and a variety of new challenges. Online, you can take part in four-player multiplayer contests including a 2 against 2 team co-op mode.
Early previews of the game were quick to criticise it, especially graphically, but by all accounts a lot of tweaking and refining has made a big difference and it’s looking much more HD than it did, especially on that gorgeous OLED screen. Even so, from my experience with the demo, the key thing is its good steady frame rate, and with the scenery whizzing by you at 180 mph, chances are you won’t be inspecting it too closely. Codemasters are probably waiting impatiently for the game to hit shelves so they can announce the 2012 season’s official game, but until Polyphony Digital pull their finger out (let’s hope it doesn’t take five years this time round...), this is it for simulation racers on the Vita for now...
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