Super Monkeyball 2 is frustrating

[Luke M]

Picked this one up last week. I played the first one for 5 hours in one sitting when it first came out and loved it. The second one is fun so far, but it doesn't grab me like the first one did. It's frustrating.

I've never wanted to be able to rotate a camera in a game as much as I do in this one. I've replayed level 3.2 about 30 times now, and I just can't get it right. Seems like you have to time your movements into the fast spinning gear just right. If you don't, you get flung off the level. Unfortunately, this is very hard to do because you can't see where you want to go when you are traveling parallel to the outside of the gear. Even the mini map isn't much help. I keep pushing the yellowstick in hopes that maybe the camera will magically rotate and focus on the gear. I'm aware that camera rotation might screw up the controls, but this is irritating, and I'm desperate.

I don't remember Super Monkey Ball 1 having level design like this. It was all about getting from point A to B without having to deal with huge changes in height and spinning gears, etc (things that a statics camera aren't good with). I could be wrong, though, because I haven't played 1 in over 2 years. If anyone has any tips, that would be cool, but I'm just typing this to comment on the game. If this camera crap continues, I'll sell it.

[SpoofyChop]

I got SMB2 as well. I eventually got the level you are talking about, but I got stuck on another insanely hard level.

Basically I just enjoyed the minigames. I got enough points to unlock one more and then I saved. After that, if I wanted to play one of the locked games I just unlocked it and then made sure not to save. I think I had to turn off autosaves though.

[JD]

Yeah, the single player mode is quite 'challenging'. I have no clue how I actually made it to world 8 (or 10, I don't remember). The worst part is that our favourite party game - Monkey Target - was kinda messed up as well. None of us liked the new scoring system, plus the platforms are notably smaller, which makes it more frustrating to beginners (and most people at our multiplayer parties are beginners). Plus there are only four levels. It not like it would have taken ages to create some more.

[Jason McMaster]

My fiance and I bought it last christmas, our favorite was monkey bowling. good stuff.

EDIT: POST NUMBER 666, BAM

[BDGE]

I generally enjoyed the level design quite a bit in SMB2, many of them felt more puzzle-centric or adventurous I felt, but occasionally you'll be stuck with some real stinkers such as the one you are currently playing. (I recall finally finishing that one off a total fluke, just as it happened with some of the other lame ducks)

One of the later annoyances involved trying to hit your ball up the side of a MASSIVE anthill using bumpers to reach the goal sitting at the peak. The camera is a nightmare here trying to get momentum down, because you really need to have precise aim to prevent yourself from flying off into unknown space. The summit is of course tiny, and you'll never come close to reaching it with even the slightest off-center approach from those bumpers. Took a couple hours and a lot of hair pulling, but I eventually got it, and never want to play it again. Really too bad, cause there were a lot of pretty imaginitive puzzles to work past, but every world had 1 or two areas I coldn't be paid to revisit again. A big reason why it's now sitting on some shelf at a local Gamestop and not in my home collection any longer.

Mini-games were some good fun though.