Lovefilm on Super Monkey Ball 3D rentals

Game rental service Lovefilm has issued a bizarre explanation of its decision to allow customers to rent Super Monkey Ball 3D – despite it preventing the reset of game save data.

Lovefilm has halted rentals of Capcom's Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D because, as revealed last week, "The game has no reset feature and cannot be played from the beginning once started."

In a statement issued to Pocket Gamer, Lovefilm said Super Monkey Ball 3D is different to Resident Evil because it's a puzzle game and not a linear game.

"It is an issue with these two games recoding [recording?] on the game storage-disc-thing how far you have got," Lovefilm said.

"Which means that whoever gets the disc-thing first and plays the game will then store that and the next person will see all the levels, achievements, and items and things unlocked already, which takes a lot of the enjoyment out.

"Because Resident Evil is a linear game this will totally spoil it, so we have opted not to rent it. Super Monkey Ball is not a linear game but a puzzle game, so it is less of a problem and therefore still available to rent."

We assume when Lovefilm says the "game storage-disc-thing" it means the game itself.

The Mercenaries 3D prevents users from deleting their save data file and starting from scratch. All mission progress is saved directly to the Nintendo 3DS cartridge, where it cannot be reset.

Capcom said the move wasn't an attempt to curtail used game sales, but was in fact in keeping with the title's "arcade fighting game" feel.

UK shop HMV currently does not accept the game for trade-in.

Sega's Super Monkey Ball 3D also prevents users from deleting game save data.

Eurogamer has contacted Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D's UK distributor, Nintendo, and Super Monkey Ball 3D publisher Sega for comment.