Placing simians inside spherical objects and rolling them around deceptively designed mazes - while collecting the occasional banana - has been a favorite pass-time for many a 'Cube owner for quite some time now since the games' origin alongside the Gamecube's European release in May 2002. Since then the original Super Monkey Ball has seen a successful sequel on the same platform and a couple of remixed versions of the two games across multiple platforms.

It's fair to say that on the strength of sales figures the SMB series has performed most strongly on Nintendo platforms, hence Amusement Vision's keenness to develop mostly for the Big N as opposed to the lesser two platforms owned by rival companies. It should also come as no surprise that after farming out the SMB license to Travelers Tales, developer of the substandard Super Monkey Ball Adventure; Amusement Vision have taken a firm grip of the reigns of development once again. Quite rightly so in my personal opinion, as AV's latest entry in the series looks like it's shaping up to be a much needed and most welcome return to form...

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is showing a great deal of promise in its charming visual style, structure, form and attention to all those small details that made the original incarnations such a joy to play. Puzzle trays are making their triumphant return as they revert back to being a main focus of the game once more as opposed to being tacked onto a poorly programmed adventure mode.

Thankfully AV know what's good for their franchise and are sticking to their guns by providing fans with more of the same... but with an emphasis on more. If previous games are anything to go by then we can expect around at least a hundred if not more puzzle trays and perhaps more surprisingly a huge amount of mini-games!

There will be around at least thirty something mini-games in this latest incarnation, which is quite a step up from what we have been used to with previous entries only containing around ten min-games at the most. It would seem that AV are more than aware of how popular and crucial to the main games success these welcome distractions are and have decided to spoil us, which after the meager offerings in TT's attempt (Monkey Cannon? Honestly!) is a most reassuring factor by any measure.

Of course this time around mini-games have the possibility of being even more enjoyable with the potentially limitless capabilities and uses for the Wiimote. Thus far some of the included games which have been used as examples are Ring Toss, Whack a Mole and Darts; all of which are obviously suited to the Wii's controls but remember these are just three out of the possible thirty plus that are due to be included, it will certainly be interesting to see what other novel and fun uses make it to the finished retail version.

Fear not for the fate of the established classics that adorned previous incarnations; because classic mini games such as Monkey Bowling, Golf and Target have all made the leap to Nintendo's 'new gen' console intact and perhaps more crucially improved. While the basic concepts remain the same it would seem that the control overhaul from analogue to motion sensing only serves to benefit the overall responsiveness and ease of use, in turn this equates to simplicity for the player which is a welcome step forward.

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A completely new gameplay element comes in the way of a jump ability: players will be able to initiate this ability by simply flicking the Wiimote with an upward gesture. This may seem like a simple game element but hopefully it will be put to good use within the games puzzle trays. Additionally there will be boss battles this time around which if in keeping with the game's weird but wonderful style should prove quite entertaining.

The game has been in playable form at various events over the past few months, including the Leipzig event in Germany, and reports from attendees who have played the game seem to be generally glowing thus far with encouraging comments towards the game's unique visual style, which works well with the Wii hardware as well as intuitive controls which after a few minutes of play become instinctive.

Parts of the game that have been available to play thus far include a small section of the puzzle orientated single-player mode complete with a few of the aforementioned boss encounters. One such example is a giant bird perched atop a circular arena which obviously brings about two elements; firstly attempting to discover the weak point, secondly trying to stay in the arena without sending your spherical simian careering off the edge into “fall-out” land.

Even though level design for the puzzle trays is bound to go from simple linear trips to the level goal to energy sapping tests of both physical and mental endurance (as is the tradition and part of the appeal of the SMB games) things should prove more straightforward, given Banana Blitz's seemingly instinctive control mechanism. For the majority of the game you will be using the Wiimote as a standalone input device, simply pointing the controller forward with your hand moves your monkey forward and at quite a speedy pace depending on the force at which the motion is carried out. Reversing is as simple as performing the same motion but in the opposite direction obviously pulling the device towards you, as for turning either left or right you have to... Yep you guessed it, tilt the Wiimote either to the left or the right. Isn't it nice when things work just as you expect them to?

Monkey Ball purists will be happy to know that and concerns about the game's single player puzzle trays can thankfully now be swept aside: from recent playtests one thing that has been reported the quality of the level design. Gone are the slightly questionable 'hit and hope' stages of previous installments, which proved to be either somewhat flawed or just purely unforgiving and in are the levels of new which promise to be fairer while still challenging, owing to greater controller sensitivity and the welcome inclusion of the jump ability.

It seems that a lot of the game's long-term appeal will derive from the multiplayer: there are a multitude of mini-games, as well as replaying the puzzle trays contained in the single player mode. As for online functions are concerned multiplayer beyond playing against another person on the same console has been ruled out however it's still possible that Sega may choose to make use of the Wii Connect 24 service to add content to expand the game's longevity.

How this feature might work if announced is anyone's guess but personally I think additional downloadable characters could be a distinct possibility (especially as it has been reported that the game already contains unannounced secret characters from other Sega games), extra puzzle trays or mini-games could easily become likely available extras. Alternatively, Sega could choose to set up an online leaderboard incorporating prizes of exclusive downloads for the top scores for that particular month.

Of course, this is purely speculation on our behalf and although it would be nice to see some online features included, it's doubtful that the game will suffer greatly or even at all if it's released at the Wii launch as the strictly traditional offline experience that it's assumed to be. Quite the contrary seems evident from what has been shown and indeed it would seem that the final version that we will hopefully be playing come launch day will have more than enough to hold it's own as one of the more anticipated Wii titles for this year.

For now though it looks as if the Super Monkey Ball franchise is back in safe hands once more. Travelers Tales may have inadvertently dropped the ball with their adventure based take on the series but now with the spherical object back in Amusement Vision's possession, it's looking as if Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz has set the ball rolling once more. Here's hoping it has enough momentum to make a huge impact on it's impending release.