Got this for my birthday. It's been getting some pretty lacklustre reviews.
Control wise it's the same as Banana Blitz minus the silly jump button. Not tried it with the balance board yet. I'm 30 levels in and so far there's been very little challenge. Some of the levels have a silly switch based puzzle element to them, which creates difficulty, but not in a traditional Monkey Ball way 
I really enjoy playing it though despite all the problems. I guess I'm just a sucker for bright colours and Monkeys in Balls. 
. I think this is very much aimed at younger 'ballers.
According to the manual the levels have additional obstacles added when playing with the remote. The upshot is that there's a load of stupid looking pillars dropped into every level to create obstructions to your progress. Control with the balance board is supposed to be nigh on impossible, so you have level design that lacks the imagination of the first games. No more highwire hijinks sadly
Monkey Target is also still poor compared to MT1 and MT2. Infact it's probably the worst Monkey Target yet.
I'll need to play through the remainder of the levels (40 or so left) to get a fuller picture. There should be one or two in there that stand out.
Really they should have gone for the Wii motion plus route on this one and allow you to hold the remote sideways.
I thought this was OK!
Playing it without the balance board is a complete waste of time though, all of the levels have been tuned for the board. Using the remote would be way, way too easy, even if they do add enemies and obstacles.
The balance board controls are pretty good, and reasonably well polished. I've only done the first couple of worlds so far though.
£7.98 at GAME, can't go wrong with that
The original Monkey Ball mini games need to be WiiWare/XBL/PSN material.
What the heck are these people up to?
They have bite size awesome games on their plate, ready to freaking go.
Grrrrr/
Playing it without the balance board is a complete waste of time though, all of the levels have been tuned for the board. Using the remote would be way, way too easy, even if they do add enemies and obstacles.
I wouldn't go that far. The changes are quite substantial. Yes the levels are clearly designed for the board, but the obstacles create a completely different path through each level. I will have to rack the board out for comparision.