Why was it decided to introduce boss battles to Banana Blitz?
I thought introducing boss battles could also give some dynamic action elements to the game and that you would enjoy fighting with big bosses on Wii!
Tell us about the party games - has it been fun coming up with ways in which to use the controller?
It was a hard part as well as a fun part. Coming up with ideas are fun, but in gameplay terms they're also hard to make simple and need to match the Wii console. However, I believe we did it very well in this game.
Is Banana Blitz the biggest Super Monkey Ball yet in terms of content, levels, etc?
Yes, I think this is the title which has the biggest volume of content in the Super Monkey Ball series.
Above: Playing darts with the Wii-mote in this minigame feels so natural we expect to see a Bullseye game soon
With its tilt controller, Super Monkey Ball seems the obvious choice to make an appearance on PS3 - is this something you'd like to happen? In what ways do you think PS3 could further improve the Monkey Ball experience?
I haven't thought about this yet. I would like to start thinking about the possibility based on users' feedback on this title when it's released on Wii.
How important do you think Wii and games like Super Monkey Ball are in terms of broadening the appeal of gaming?
I think both are necessary for Nintendo's goal of 'positioning the videogame as a toy' and this should help Nintendo's challenge. So therefore we would like to make this title become successful.
Do you feel the creative possibilities for Super Monkey Ball are almost endless? Is there a limit to how many variations on the rolling monkey theme you're happy to make?
I don't feel there is a limit yet. As we figured out in this title, there is still the possibility for it to be reborn in many aspects depending on the console, and we also believe there are still more challenges that we can do in terms of gameplay - like the adding of the new jump control in this title.
