Ah, monkeys! You can always rely on them for a good laugh, eh? Who can forget the Helper Monkey in The Simpsons [Certainly Marge never will! Ed], BJ and the Bear and of course good old 'right turn' Clyde? Game developers certainly haven't and we've been blessed with islands full of monkeys, gun toting monkeys and of course monkeys in balls. This last has been translated to many consoles and devices, so if you haven't played Super Monkey Ball up to now, after all the rave reviews each has had, I can understand you wanting to get it for your shiny new N-Gage QD. I have one word of advice for you - don't!

For those new to Super Monkey Ball, the concept is very simple. You have a monkey in a ball and a 3D landscape you can tilt. Your job is to steer the monkey ball over a course, collecting bananas and hitting the goal without falling off the sides. Besides some mini-games (which I'll come to later), the gameplay really is that simple and as a result has made for incredibly addictive versions on other formats. Torturous level design, hills, kinks, turns, moving platforms and Evil Knievel style leaps into the unknown have all been trademarks of the previous releases, which in turn have made for real edge of your seat and 'just one more go' replayability.

Well, this version has some of the above but it is also let down by a number of key factors. First of all, the camera is all over the place and moves to the most inappropriate spot when you're trying to negotiate a particularly fiddly part of the course. Secondly, the N-Gage screen doesn't seem well suited for this type of game, as you really need to see what is coming up on the horizontal rather than vertical plane. When you're rolling a ball quickly down a ramp you really need to see what is to the left and right of you. Picture this; your ball is rolling fast, you can see the landscape is coming to an end dead ahead of you and your poor monkey will plummet to his doom unless you choose quickly to go left or right. You look left and you see the direction pad. You look right and you see the keypad. Forced to make a random choice due to this poor screen design, you find yourself veering madly left and plummeting off that side anyway. Talk about exasperating! The only way you can judge which way to go on some of the courses is to play it and play it and eventually through trial and error (and lots of dead monkeys) you'll have a map of the course in your head.

Other than that, some of the playability of the game is retained and you do feel victorious when you have collected all the bananas and safely steered your monkey to the end of the course, despite all the odds. The beginner level is a nice way to ease the novice into the game, being 10 levels of slightly tricky simplicity. The next step up, of 15 levels, is more taxing and involves a lot of thin, moving platforms and levels of different height joined by steep sloping ramps. I struggled with this but made it through. The final 20 levels are just madness, absolute pure frustration. This is a combination of the carefully crafted level design but also because of some of the problems mentioned above and will tax anyone.

Visually it does appear stunning at first. The flat areas you roll over are chequered in a lovely way and the monkeys in their balls are distinct and detailed, while the backdrop over which each area hovers is quite simply breathtaking. 'Oh great!' I hear you say, 'something positive at last!' Sorry to burst your bubble but this in turn leads to further problems and that is the frame rate. At first it's not that noticeable but the further you get into each section, the more you can tell all these graphical shenanigans are taxing the poor QD to its limit. The bigger the area you roll over, the choppier it gets until you get the impression the controls aren't responsive enough, only to find the controls responded but the frames couldn't keep up with the demand and made it look like something else was happening. What does this lead to? More dead monkeys of course. I think this is the first time I have found that really decent graphics have seriously impacted the gameplay and it's a real shame it had to be on such a popular puzzler as this.

Also, when you first play this game, I recommend you do not start it up in a dentist's surgery while waiting for your check-up. Firstly, the start-up music is incredibly loud; secondly, it's incredibly grating; thirdly and finally, it's stuck on something like a 5 second loop that plays over and over. Before I'd figured out how to turn the sound down (which was still too loud) and finally off, most of the dentist's patients were prepared to yank their own teeth out just to distract themselves! To say I got filthy looks is an understatement - it was a mud bath! The tunes certainly were familiar, having heard them before on the Gamecube but there only seemed to be four varieties and that short loop drove me up the wall. Similarly, the sound effects from the monkeys (like screeching when they get a banana) is enough to make me grind my teeth into oblivion. [At least that'll mean no more trips to the dentist though! Ed]

If you can get past these obstacles and are able to play the game long enough to collect 7,500 points, you'll be able to open up the three mini games. Monkey Race involves dashing down a course as quickly as possible, fending off the furry spherical competition. Monkey Fight is a simple case of smashing your opponents over the edge of a small arena before they do it to you and Monkey Target sees you taking a roll down a huge ramp, to fly off the end Eddie the Eagle style before opening the ball into wings and trying to hit a target in the distance.

These are all fair games, which extend the lifetime of the title a little but there is one vital thing missing - multiplayer. No Arena, no Bluetooth, nothing! It was this multiplayer aspect that made the original versions such fun; many a happy night was had when armed with some mates, a few beers and some monkeys in balls. Not this time though and the omission is frankly criminal. Question to the developers: What were you thinking?!?

I'm really sad to be giving Super Monkey Ball such a low score, as I can see some effort has been put in to make it work on the N-Gage. Despite the frame rate and the vertical screen issues, some of the playability remains and the graphics are very good. I can appreciate cramming in the original soundtrack must have been a tough order but the sheer volume and repetitiveness could have been worked on. However, when all is said and done, you won't be playing this game long. The single player only has 45 levels, 30 of which aren't too taxing and the lack of multiplayer is the killing stroke. I only hope these issues are addressed if they come to release Super Monkey Ball 2, which could still be a classic N-Gage puzzler if they can fit it on here.

Reviewed by Dave Wynn for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).