BALLYGON

Ballygon faithfully captures both the fun and frustration of Super Monkey Ball. Smooth controls leave no doubt in my mind that my (numerous) mistakes are my own. The stage design is super creative as well, with a hint of that signature SMB sadism that makes you occasionally think "how is this even possible?" If I had one wish, it would be for a quick-save option to save progress in the middle of a run so that the game would be easier to pick up and put down. The later groups of levels can get quite long, particularly on the first attempt where the stages are still being learned, and I would appreciate being able to take a break when I get stuck on a difficult stage. Finally, the stellar soundtrack deserves a shoutout. As if it wasn't impressive enough on its own, imagine my delight when I found out that it was composed entirely on KORG DSN-12 (for 3DS), DS-10 PLUS (for DS), and KORG Gadget! A soundtrack release on Steam would be an instant buy for me, as I would love to support the g...

If you like monkey ball you'll probably like this. Anyways, time to nitpick, since I do that for games with good reviews instead of preaching to the choir. Locking so many random settings behind the tokens feels weird. I get stuff like changing your color, but why put having a personal best shown behind an unlock? Weird. Additionally, token unlocks for unlocking the next difficulty are still available to purchase even if you already unlocked that difficulty just by being good. Don't waste your tokens. I wish the score mechanic wasn't so random, and a few too many levels rely on physics-based gimmicks to really be fun to me. The tokens also feel a bit arbitrary, especially since you get NONE if you don't meet the arbitrary "target" score. I think not meeting the target score should give a lower reward, but still some sort of reward. The camera controls are annoying. At least you can manually control the camera as well, and adjusting the angles is legitimately a great touch. ...

Ballygon has been a blast to play! While it's similar to monkey ball, I like how the game has slightly different physics and feels like a unique game. The energy mechanic is a nice change to the traditional lives system (although the 5x bonus feels a bit busted).