We’re pretty excited about the upcoming exclusive PS Vita release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz on October 23 – the game is coming along nicely! We have a lot of familiar Monkey Ball features returning along with some fan favorites, as well as some new tech and new goodies to take full advantage of PS Vita.

Super Monkey Ball has always been built on the premise of accessibility and challenging gameplay – easy to pick up, difficult to master. We’ve made the transition for new players a lot easier, with a gentler difficulty curve in the beginning that helps you master the tough challenges that will eventually come your way. And don’t worry, we’ve got some punch in there for the veteran Monkey Ball fans looking for a challenge, from more varied levels with new routes and shortcuts, a higher degree of challenges, and the ever- popular minigames!

While the full game is built on personal challenges, the minigames have always been about multiplayer with your friends. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz enables both local multiplayer and online multiplayer over Wifi — a first for the series! We’re bringing back all the minigame hits too, from Monkey Bowling, to my personal favorite: Monkey Target. There are eight total modes to play and compete in, all of which leverage PS Vita’s unique hardware strengths.

We’re also making sure that Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz uses a lot of the built in Vita tech for controls across the mini-games and main game modes. You can use full tilt control to navigate the entire game or opt to play with the control sticks – it’s entirely up to you. My favorite feature of the game is the level generator that uses the camera – simply take a photo of anything and you’ll be able to craft a level generated from the photo. It’s pretty amazing, but wait, there’s more! The difficulty can be set by shaking the Vita device, the harder you shake, the more difficult the level becomes! Shake lightly and you’ll have an easier time – it’s entirely up to you. Pretty impressive and a lot of fun both in creation and playing the levels you’ve made.

There’s ton to do in the game and we hope you enjoy our newest trailer, featuring a lot of the same stuff I’ve talked about today.