| paleface [sys=PC; cat=Platformer; reg=NA] |
| | | Been on a weird Sega kick and started thinking about Monkey Ball. Had the GC ones back in the day. Reviews of HD re-releases say they ruined the controls and physics; but I never played the GC ones THAT much, so I wouldn't mind a change, necessarily. Was thinking I'd just get the PS2 SMB Deluxe, but that one only runs at 30 fps (and no 60 fps patch in PCSX2). ; P
So I got this. Made some tweaks:
- Got the Classic Soundtrack DLC (sigh), it's way peppier! Okay just take all my money Sega. Also are they going to bring that new one to Steam or did they take all Nintendo's money (probably, can't blame them I suppose but I will).
- Turned camera controls off in the Options, as advised here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/323654-super-monkey-ball-banana-mania/79688550 . Does make the controls slightly snappier, you can tell if you just sort of feather the stick quickly and watch the horizon bounce.
- Switch control to d-pad. Don't see why the game doesn't let you roll using the d-pad instead of left analog; in Options it'll let you bind individual directions to different inputs...but NOT d-pad. WHA. So I just told Steam Input to treat the d-pad as the left analog. Easy. ^ _^ Snappy control and way easier on my dang ol' wristing with the DS4.
All set to fall off a lot now! |
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| | | | Rare Steam game that installs to a cryptically named version of its title, rather than the full title: in the steamapps/common folder, it's in "smbbm." |
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| | | | "Camera control" wasn't in the PS2 version as far as I noticed. |
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| paleface 14:10:01 02/23/24 [title updated] |
| | | | The title is slightly contentious; my head and a few other web sites want to stick a colon in there just to calm things down, but the officialest sites just roll the whole thing right out with no punctuation except capital letters, like they want it all to overload your brain. |
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| | | | Once installed from Steam, you can run the .exe directly--no need for one of those funky Steam web shortcuts. |
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The speed runner whose apparent digital control of SMB inspired me to give the game a shot is https://www.youtube.com/@SnowballSMB (no relation ^ _ ^).
Original soundtrack DLC, Camera Controls OFF, DS4 d-pad mapped to left analog in Steam Input = DELICIOUS MONKEY BALL GRAVY =dd
Didn't make me even slightly motion sick; I had somehow had the idea that it would. (I get nauseous trying to read in a car, for instance.)
It's like the umpteenth recompilation of SMB 1 & 2 and there's an absurd amount of things to do! Remembering many of the party games aren't very fun single-player (Monkey Tennis controls highly disappointing! Monkey Golf putt-putt course pretty fun. River paddling thing way too easy vs CPU (maybe later rivers harder?).). Paid the in-game coin to unlock Dark Banana Mode (just one of at least THREE extra modes to unlock) and WOW first stage requires making like 6 physics exploit alternating bounces in sequence, yeah I'll be ready for that in about 200 hours of play, mmmaybe. ; D
Not sure I quite figured out Photo Mode; pauses the action and lets you move the camera around, but you don't actually save a screenshot, as far as I can tell. I guess they just figure people will use their PC to take the actual shot? Or I failed to find the shutter activation function.
Having fun customizing my monkeys (you can unlock Sonic--and the bananas you can gather for uh money I guess--become rings--but not customize him--and I don't think he makes vocalizations, either? : PP) ping-ponging through the beginning of incomprehensible story Story Mode levels. ^ _^ Will I keep with it once I get to the point where they're brain-meltingly hard??
(Had 1 & 2 on GameCube; 1 didn't support 480p output on my D-video cable, which I found highly disappointing at the time, didn't play it much; 2 DID support 480p, but I made some just maybe slightly labored excuses to myself in 2003 like "less arcade-y feeling as you can save every ten stages and can restart a stage an infinite number of times (seemingly)," "I've heard it said that the stage design is less inspired than in the first game, and there seems to be something to this assertion," and "maybe the single-player doesn't feel quite as true to its arcade action roots as the first game"...and didn't play it much. ; |)
So I don't know but at the moment this FEELS more instantly gripping and compulsive than...well pretty much any other Sega game I've been trying. = o And way more than TrackMania, which is maybe what it reminds me of most, gameplay-wise.
Hah I kept saying "Dreamcast" instead of GameCube. I guess the first SMB DID feel like it should'a been a DC game, to me. = P
OH argh and I'm pretty sure I kept saying "Ryu Ga GotAku" instead of "Ryu Ga GotOku," oogh. I liked their old "Amusement Vision" studio name way better. ^ _^ |
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