Other Ocean's iPhone edition of Amusement Visions' Super Monkey Ball has sold more than 300,000 copies in the 20 days following its launch last month on the iPhone App Store, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The accelerometer-powered, tilt-sensing title was sold for $9.99 on the App Store, Apple's digital distribution platform for iPhone and iPod Touch software downloads. The game amounted to over 10% of the App Store's total software sales in the month since its launch, which totaled about $30 million.

"That's a substantial business," said Sega of America president Simon Jeffery. "It gives iPhone a justifiable claim to being a viable gaming platform."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs also revealed that the App Store totaled more than 60 million downloads in the same period, though most of those were free ... Read more

Ports of Sega's Super Monkey Ball and Maxis' hugely anticipated life-sim Spore are in development for Apple's iPhone, Gizmodo reports.

The news dropped during a conference at Apple's headquarters in which the company detailed the release of the iPhone software developer's kit. Speaking on the possibility of game development on the platform, Apple revealed that versions of Spore and Super Monkey Ball are already in the works.

The titles both showcase the use of the iPhone's 3D capabilities, and utilize the phone's multitouch screen and built-in accelerometers. Apple also pointed out that the iPhone port of Spore is not a scaled-down affair; all 18 levels, from the microbic to cosmic, are represented in Spore's iPhone incarnation.

No price point or release date was mentioned, but Apple stated that all upcoming applications and games in development for the iPhone will be available exclusively on the newly-launched App Store, accessible via iTunes, the iPhone and the iPod Touch.

With its world-tilting gameplay, Sega's Super Monkey Ball series of 3D platformers is a perfect candidate for Wii, and designer Toshihiro Nagoshi and his team at Sega's Entertainment R&D1 one have come through with a new iteration of the game for the Wii launch. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz features ten worlds and fifty minigames utilizing the motion-sensing Wii controller, and is available now. We've taken a comprensive look at the game; check out our full review.

The controls indeed have something of a learning curve, but it is not long before the game's difficulty starts to kick in--and with it, your skill will ramp up as well. Super Monkey Ball newcomers who play Banana Blitz--as well, as perhaps, some skeptical veterans--will quickly find that, despite its colorful visuals and goofy music, Banana Blitz is a true gamer's game. The single-player campaign makes no concessions to the Wii's "gaming for the masses" angle; it delivers an increasingly brutally challenging platforming experience that is rare in modern platforming. There will be moments when, despite this game using the one-handed remote controller configuration, you will find yourself gripping the controller in both white-knuckled hands, in part to remain as steady as possible and in part to keep yourself from chucking the thing across the room, as you fail the same level in the same place again, and again, and again. But when you clear the stage, and it is due to perserverence and intense concentration, you will be supremely vindicated.