It's very strange that in a bunch of the toughest levels I completed in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania it felt like controlling the camera was almost more important than controlling the stage itself, and it's also weird that the story mode will have large spikes in difficulty nested between other fairly straightforward levels; I found myself wishing the levels were reordered so that they had something better resembling a difficulty curve.
That said the game was a bunch of fun. I think the levels that require intense precision are not very interesting and can land on the bad side of frustrating (any level that asks you to go in a straight line down a very thin path falls into this), but the levels that demand you wrap your head around what the physics engine is doing, that ask you to iteratively form a plan and execute it well, or that just present a fun little idea to engage with, are generally a blast. In a few different instances during my story mode playthrough I would get stuck on a level for 10 or 15 minutes only to find finally completing it felt very rewarding and like all my hard work had finally clicked perfectly into place.
That said the game was a bunch of fun. I think the levels that require intense precision are not very interesting and can land on the bad side of frustrating (any level that asks you to go in a straight line down a very thin path falls into this), but the levels that demand you wrap your head around what the physics engine is doing, that ask you to iteratively form a plan and execute it well, or that just present a fun little idea to engage with, are generally a blast. In a few different instances during my story mode playthrough I would get stuck on a level for 10 or 15 minutes only to find finally completing it felt very rewarding and like all my hard work had finally clicked perfectly into place.