Best of both worlds

Super Monkey Ball Deluxe
PlayStation 2, Xbox, £39.99
Sega, ****

Here's more bad news for devotees of Nintendo's GameCube: Sega's glorious Super Monkey Ball has finally made it to rival consoles, which will further diminish bragging rights that were already in short supply.

Super Monkey Ball has always been one of those games with much more substance than meets the eye. It looks like a cutesy kids game and sounds simple: essentially a modern update of Marble Madness, you must pilot a monkey in a transparent ball around labyrinthine stages using just the joystick. Yet it is beloved by hardcore gamers just as much as youngsters, thanks to difficulty levels that ramp up to near-insane, an immaculate physics engine and a purity of gameplay that harks back to what those of a certain age persist in viewing as the golden age of videogames.

Super Monkey Ball Deluxe is an impressive package, which can be summed up as a megamix of SMB 1 and 2. The main game is an amalgam of all the stages from the first two GameCube games, plus 46 new stages. Many of the existing stages have been extensively tweaked. Stitched together by a cute but silly background story, SMB Deluxe now boasts 300 stages. And it also includes faithful reconstructions of all the mini-games (Monkey Tennis, Monkey Race, Monkey Target and so on) from the two original games - so, for example, you can opt to play Monkey Target as it appeared in SMB or in SMB2. When you consider that SMB2's Monkey Target is one of the most addictive games in its own right, you appreciate that SMB Deluxe offers serious value for money.

If you have ever played a modern game and abandoned it in frustration at the over-complicated control system, then Super Monkey Ball Deluxe will restore your faith.
Steve Boxer

A wet blanket

Deep Sea Tycoon 2: Take the Plunge
PC, £19.99
GMX Media/Pixel After Pixel, **

It's unclear why this has been labelled as the sequel to Deep Sea Tycoon, as it's basically a highly watered-down version of the original game. Whereas the first title had a host of underwater buildings, environments, disasters and strategic elements, DST2 focuses on creating cuddly sea creatures and keeping them well fed and photographed.

The game has a much younger audience in mind, but that's no excuse for dumbing down the gameplay to such an extent that many missions take just a few mouse clicks to complete. This isn't only at the start of the campaign, either. The basic mission structures and objects are repeated and you can easily complete the main game in a few hours.

That said, the graphics engine is better this time and watching all the sea life swimming along, with the sunlight streaming through the water, is captivating. But, in the end, it becomes like watching a detailed aquarium screensaver.

Children will find the primitive building aspects easy to handle and will enjoy watching the divers ride the animals. But for everyone else, there's simply not enough of a game here to maintain long-term interest.
Rhianna Pratchett

Sporting fun

Everybody's Golf
PlayStation Portable, £34.99
Sony, ***

Everybody's Golf is aptly named. This PSP launch title is easy to play and will entertain even those who think Tiger Woods is a Disney character. The look of the game is cutesy Japanese, and while the plus-four brigade may choke on their post-round G&Ts, the aesthetics work well.

Everybody's Golf bypasses the ridiculously starchy golf baggage and unearths the highly enjoyable sport underneath. But don't let the jovial visuals fool you. To win anything other than the beginner tournaments, you will need to master the top spin and hooks. The controls are a simple throwback to pre-analogue days. Press once to start the power bar, press again for power level and a last time to match up accuracy.

Wireless play works well too, with the game, like the sport, at its best when playing opponents of a similar level. The graphics are lovely but there is an issue with putting. Reading the greens is tough, with little in the way of on-screen aid.

Another issue is the reward system. It takes a lot of golf to earn the right to play as other characters and slogging through a gruelling course only to be rewarded by a trinket is pretty demoralising. Despite the anime look and the tongue-in-cheek feel, Everybody's Golf is serious fun.
Greg Howson

Top 5 games

All formats

1. Brian Lara International Cricket 2005

2. Madagascar

3. Fantastic Four

4. Juiced

5. Cricket 2005

· Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, © 2005 Elspa (UK) Ltd

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