Monkey Ball reminds me of Tetris and Lumines. It is one of those games that are very addictive and one can play for hours on end. You pick a monkey and it is trapped in a ball and it collects bananas on a suspended platform in the air, some of the tracks had rails and some don't. This is all cleverly done to enhance and add tension to act of collecting bananas with and without the possibility of sliding off the platform all together. This really intensifies the game play.This also happens to be my first Monkey Ball game. For some reason, i just never purchased one before even though i would see it a million times at the video game store when i was shopping. I have to say that i thoroughly enjoyed this game and it is a must have launch title. I can see some negatives reviews and this is probably from intermediate gamers who have owned probably ever Monkey Ball game every made and i can sympathize with the comments. Aside from the regular games that go from track to track, there are also other added bonuses such as a Mario Kart-esque feature which i really enjoyed. The monkey drives in a kart, races against components, and it is exactly like Mario Kart.Other added bonuses is the ability to either use the analog controller, or to use the 3DS as a tilt with motion sensor which lets the gamer control the monkey simply by tilting the DS sideways as oppose to using the regular controller. These are nice features, but forget about trying to enjoy the game in 3D mood when it is tilt and sway. The 3D effect can only be utilized when the player's eyes are focused on screen. The 3D effect loses focus if the gamer is watching side ways, so this creates a big mess. If the tilt motion is on then the 3D effect must be turned off. This is probably my only complaint, but i knew this would be the case. The 3D effect works nice in this game, but I also found it a bit overwhelming at times because there is so much going on screen and so many things are popping out such as trees, tracks, water, and my eyes didn't know where to go at times. However, once I figured where it needed to be, there wasn't that much of an issue. Overall, this is a good game and very addictive one at that.