Monkeys in balls... great concept right? Being moved through giant mazes... even better right? And now being moved through giant mazes within a vast simian populated world? Hang on a second...

For this latest incarnation of the ever popular puzzle/platform series, original creators Amusement Vision have opted to hand over the reigns of development to outsider developer Traveler's Tales. It is indeed a slightly perplexing choice given their questionable track record in past partnerships with Sega. Most notably Traveler's Tales were responsible for the woefully inadequate Sonic 3D which was released on Sega's Mega Drive and Saturn consoles in 1996. You can see why it's a concern then that Sega have given TT creative authority over an incarnation of yet another of their beloved IP's.

However, ten years have passed since that horrendous incident and TT are a much more experienced developer with various multi-platform successes to date including several officially licensed titles based on popular IP's belonging to Disney Interactive and Pixar animation studios. While the success of those titles is still reasonable yet not amazing it's still promising, right? Well yes and no.

Quite why the new direction of Adventure has been decided upon for this incarnation is beyond me, what's perhaps more puzzling is that the game still includes the staple elements of past Monkey Ball titles such as the criminally addictive mini-games and of course the deviously designed tray levels which ultimately made the game what it is. It's as if the developer is unsure of its collective actions.

But how does the actual game play? Most of you will no doubt be thinking the same thing as I; why change things by trying to include so many different elements into a series that has been kept simple and was the key to the franchise's success? Admittedly the series did need a little something "extra" for its third incarnation but was turning it into a sprawling adventure the answer?

It turns out that incorporating an adventure mode is Travelers Tales way of saying "We think it's the answer, sort of..." because upon playing the latest offering the only thing that's initially evident is a vibe of uncertainty throughout. After the vaguely amusing if somewhat patronising introductory story presented in elaborate narrated pop-up book form, you suddenly find yourself on an island and in control of your chosen primate from the original quartet (Ai-Ai, Gon-Gon, Mee-Mee & of course Baby).

You quickly learn that the place you are in is known as the Monkey Kingdom, (mainly because the twenty second loading screen tells you) and panning the camera around with the C-stick to get a better idea of your surroundings will have you notice a wicker hut (because these are what monkeys live in apparently) and a rather linear path. Instinctively you move the control stick as you start rolling your spherical simian around the games main hub of sorts.

This is where two things become apparent; first of which is that you are no longer tilting a level ala previous monkey ball games but you are now controlling the character directly, this actually feels slightly clunky in comparison and is more of a hindrance than of any help to the game. Secondly, and perhaps sadly, it's evident that indescribable something of the original titles that made them so special is missing from this title and as a result it feels somewhat devoid in places.

You might be questioning me at this point for having an overly critical outlook on this title and its developer, especially if you haven't played any titles in the SMB series or indeed any creations by Travelers Tales. Indeed if this is your first encounter of the monkey ball kind and you want to try and play it in an optimistic frame of mind then it's likely you will still enjoy the game to an extent. However as for the SMB purists among you and, indeed disgruntled past purchasers of Sonic 3D who may already be cautious towards purchasing this title on the basis of it's unproven developer, I feel it is my duty to provide you with the info you need.

With that line drawn dividing the two main camps I will now attempt to argue the case both for and against encasing primates inside perspex and letting them roam beyond the perilous puzzle based environment that they had previously become acclimatised to...

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The word "Adventure" to me conjures up images of exploration, the excitement of discovering new things in new places and amazing, wondrous, unforgettable sights beyond comparison. So you might be able to understand why I'm particularly dejected with a game that promises the world ("five unique worlds" according to the back of the box) but doesn't even deliver a competent continent worth of enjoyment.

Indeed it seems that you are expected to roll around aimlessly across a near completely devoid and drab landscape until you bump into one of the many monkey NPC's who will give you pointless, thankless tasks with no real reward or even sense of achievement at the end for going through the mental anguish of attempting them many times to complete. They are poorly thought out tasks and effectively leave you feeling insulted by the game repeatedly for your efforts which are completely and utterly in vain...

And they have the audacity to call this FUN? Well excuse me if I don't jump for joy after wasting precious moments of my existence after almost completing a mind numbing task only to fail yet again upon my 57th attempt. Call me old fashioned but I always assumed that the word "fun" was associated with enjoyment, happiness and jubilation and certainly not torture of the mind or offense to the senses.

To add insult to injury though, the plot is as crushingly by the book and unoriginal as you can get and the dialog is so teeth-grindingly awful that it's actually good in a painfully, laughably patronising kind of way. Here's the basic premise, complete with my corrections to the overly enthusiastic bits used to make the title sound better than it actually is...

Aiai & Co go off on an "epic" quest (epic = read "unnecessarily overzealous in length") across the five kingdoms of "Monearth!" (See what they did there? They took the word monkey and earth and successfully bastardised two words by merging them, genius) "Strange forces" are afflicting the lands (Strange forces = read "flawed ball physic programming") and you must discover what is at the heart of "each unique problem" (as if the actual game didn't have enough of those already).

By spreading "Joy", defeating the "Naysayers" and uniting the feuding kingdoms you can allow "true love" (I wouldn't even call the love between two digitally created simians natural never mind true) to flourish and help the "greatest wedding ever" seen take place. How's that for motivation?

For every handful of things Travelers Tales has underdeveloped however they have successfully redeemed themselves in other areas and while these aspects are few and far between in the main adventure, the main plus points being the scope and vast wealth of unlockable extras; the game does excel in other areas.

Challenge mode is a more traditional game that fans will be at home with as it contains all of the puzzles contained within the adventure modes "Puzzle Realm" the only downside of which being that you have to play the adventure mode in order to unlock some of the classic puzzle trays, however there are at least 50 available from the get go.

It's a bit of a contradiction of terms even having the adventure mode though once you've played your first slice of more traditional monkey ball action because even with its altered controls and camera this still remains the most solid part of the entire game. Indeed the puzzle based element of SMBA does seem to be the saving grace of the title as some thought has clearly gone into it's structure as you start off with those relatively simple "press forward on the stick to reach the goal" stages to the controller hammering, pulse pounding and near nervous breakdown inducing tests of mental endurance that your ever likely to encounter.

And that's what the original SMB titles were all about, the puzzles that were so devilishly designed they would cause you to experience nearly every emotion that you knew you were capable of; happiness through experiencing the first few stages, concentration which kicks in as you find yourself teetering closer to the edge with each progressive level, determination as you "fall out" for the first few times but pick yourself back and then there's the big one... frustration. This is the overriding emotion most commonly associated with the whole series as you attempt that one elusive puzzle tray that has been plaguing you for the past 15 minutes, hour, day, week or even month and yet you keep playing in the vain hope of completion.

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At least some of the aforementioned great elements that effectively defined the original titles make themselves known in some small way and while it's only in similar vain to more traditional SMB as the title has definitely lost the soul it once had; it will still be of some comfort to purists as it's a reminder of the series roots, albeit a slightly distorted one.

"But what of the mini-games?" I hear you cry, well like the adventure mode they are a bit of a mixed amalgamation of both enjoyment and endurance; firstly we have Monkey Target which many of you will no doubt recall as being one of the better party games the series had to offer. To an extent it still is one of the best in the lineup (even though this time the emphasis is on collecting items as opposed to skillful landing) but this is only because the rest of the line-up is pretty average at best. Two other classic SMB party games also return in the form of Monkey Race and Monkey Fight; while the former (Monkey Race) has been tweaked for the better overall with more interesting and varied weapon pick ups / track layouts though the latter of the two (Monkey Fight) remains unchanged and relatively unspoiled.

Joining the three returning reigning party games are an equal number of pretenders to the throne that the developer has conjured up and, although they are far less than magical or even memorable to play, they do help to provide some interesting alternatives as well as to make up the numbers of course. These include Monkey Cannon, Bounce and Tag; the first has you in control of a cannon loaded with a Monkey which you fire at your opponents tower of blocks, there is no real skill or point to this game though and it's not even much fun. It's a matter of take it or leave it really.

The second offering in line isn't a great deal more exciting, inspiring or even much fun either as essentially it's like a massive real-time version of the age old game of Tic-Tac-Toe except on a massive 12 x 12 square board on which you bounce your chosen monkey on as many squares as possible, turning them your own colour in the process. When I played this game I thought to myself "what exactly IS the point to this sub-game?" I have since drawn the conclusion that there isn't one.

It's perhaps fortunate then that the final newly implemented offering is some redemption of sorts and is actually fun to play! The simply named Monkey Tag has you rolling around a huge globe, collecting balloons and rolling through goals. Two varied game modes are present for this party game, Balloon Bump in which you have to pick up good balloons but not bad ones which makes your score increase and decrease respectively and Balloon Burglar where you pick up or steal balloons and get them back to the goal before they are stolen from one of your opponents (the thieving gits!)

But relatively sparse moments of enjoyment aside, like it or not this game is intrinsically flawed in various parts as other damning flaws in this game include such wonderful features such as twenty second loading times! Yes due to the multi-format nature of this title you will be greeted by frequent loading screens usually taking up at least twenty seconds of your precious playing times each, had this game been kept a GC exclusive then this problem might have been avoided.

Then there's random character repositioning. Many a time throughout playing you will hear those two infamous words "Fall Out!" as your monkey goes careering off the edge of the level, far too often partly due to unrefined level design. Now this wouldn't be too bad if you were placed back at least in some relation to where you were before but for some obscure reason you get placed back on a completely random place somewhere in the level, this is both a bothersome and unnecessary feature.

And finally, die another day! Platform games and lives, the two are inextricably linked, always have been and always will be. Over the years these type of games usually implement either a set amount of lives and continues followed by a "Game Over" screen should you be unsuccessful or they don't have lives at all but instead just have you retry from specific points. So why is it that in SMBA when you die you lose lives but when you lose all of them there is no "Game Over" screen or indeed continues as the game just gives you an extra random amount of lives (usually somewhere between ten to twenty) and just puts you back in the game as if nothing happened! Completely nonsensical.

But I digress, as aside from having numerous flaws the game does have one sole redeeming feature, the disc is bright pink so that when you feel so frustrated with the games story mode that you decide to forcibly remove the disc and cast it through the air into a corner of the room you'll always be able to find it again for when you decided to have that elusive "one last go."

In all seriousness though, Super Monkey Ball Adventure is an ambitious title that sadly falls short of the high standard set by its forerunners. What it manages to maintain in the form of familiar elements which are inherently enjoyable it has lost in the form of that certain magical charm that was clearly evident in the prequels.

Potential purchasers will get a reasonable amount of enjoyment from this game so if you really can't live without your fix of monkey based mayhem then this will satisfy your cravings for now. Everyone else who can wait though may prefer to hang on until the release of Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz on Nintendo's Wii, which looks to be shaping up like a much needed return to form. SMBA itself merely serves as a reluctant welcome but bittersweet addition to the franchise.