Super Monkey Ball
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| Super Monkey Ball | |
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| Developer(s) | Amusement Vision |
| Publisher(s) | SEGA |
| Release date(s) | JPN September 14, 2001 NA November 18, 2001 EU May 3, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Nintendo GameCube, Mobile Phone |
| Media | 1 × GameCube Game Disc |
Super Monkey Ball is an arcade platform game developed by Amusement Vision and distributed by Sega featuring a cast of humorous monkey characters (see below). The game debuted in Japan in 2001 as an upright arcade cabinet called Monkey Ball (which featured a banana-shaped joystick) and later that year was released as one of the launch titles for the Nintendo GameCube.
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[edit] Main Game
The objective of the main game is to guide a monkey character encased in a ball (hence the name "Monkey Ball") across a suspended series of platforms and through a goal. The main game is very simplistic--in fact the only control required is the directional analog stick. By moving the joystick, the player actually tilts the entire set of platforms that make up the level, called the floor, and the monkey ball rolls accordingly (hence, you don't control the character itself). Although this is virtually indistinguishable from actively moving the ball, it is revealed subtly in the general tilt of the camera when turning. While moving across the floor the player can collect bananas by rolling into them to score points and attempt to earn an extra life (earned at every 100 bananas). If the monkey ball rolls off the floor it is a fall out and the player loses a life. If the player can complete all of the floors in beginner, advanced, or expert difficulty without using a continue (10 floors in beginner difficulty, 30 in advanced, 50 in expert), extra floors are unlocked. Finishing all of the floors in the expert difficulty (including the extra floors) without using a continue unlocks the master difficulty, which contains ten incredibly difficult levels.
[edit] Strategy
Bananas are worth 100 points each and time left on the floor timer is valued at 100 points per second if finishing with less than half of time remaining or 200 points per second if finishing with more than half of time remaining. Thus, it is advantageous to make detours for additional bananas if it will take less than 1 second or 0.5 seconds per banana respectively. It may also be appropriate to sacrifice time and points if the player is close to reaching 100 bananas and an extra life.
Many players find it advantageous to select Baby, the son of AiAi and Meemee, as courses become more difficult. He is small in both stature and girth, allowing the player to more easily focus on the monkey's progress rather than the ball itself when navigating challenging levels.
[edit] Characters
These descriptions are taken from the Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll instruction booklet. Two further characters were added in Banana Blitz on the Wii, YanYan; a young, female monkey and Doctor; an older monkey with amnesia.
[edit] AiAi
A high spirited monkey who just can't get enough bananas. He can be scatterbrained at times, but he is very reliable when it counts. He is an unlockable character in Sonic Riders.
[edit] MeeMee
A stylish monkey who is adored by all the other monkeys. She loves AiAi and hopes to marry him one day.
[edit] Baby
He is the son of AiAi and MeeMee, travelling back to the past from the future. Although still young, he is reliable like his mother. He is also the best monkey to choose for story/challenge mode in Monkey Ball 2 for he has a secret in the game that if you beat the Expert mode with him, you will gain unlimited fall-outs which prevents you from falling in the future.
[edit] GonGon
This powerful monkey trains everyday to become the strongest monkey. Although a bit rowdy, he is usually a players' favourite character. However his size makes him the slowest of the other 3, later 5 characters.
[edit] Worlds
There are many worlds featured in Super Monkey Ball that have set the stage for future games in the Super Monkey Ball series to follow and emulate. Here is a list of them:
- Grassland/Jungle (Beginner, Advanced, Expert)
- Valley/Sky (Beginner, Advanced)
- City/Mall (Advanced, Expert)
- Underwater (Advanced, Expert)
- Desert (Expert)
- Arctic/Ice (Expert)
- Tempest Storm (Expert)
- Night Sky (Bonus Stages)
- Space (Extra)
- Temple (Master)
- Clouds (Arcade Version Only)
[edit] Party Games
The GameCube version, known as "Super" Monkey Ball includes three party games for up to four players.
[edit] Monkey Race
Monkey Race is a lap racing game combining elements of the main game and racing classics like Mario Kart. There are a total of 6 tracks - Jungle Circuit, Aqua Offroad, Sky Downtown, Warp Pipe Tunnel, Frozen Highway, and Speed Desert.
- In the Jungle Sector you can land in the special plant you can acess an interface that controls the game, or crash into the sectors cords to destroy it, or in the desert sector going into one of the springs of water and if it is damaged the game will be destroyed.
A short cut has been found in the course Sky Downtown. The short cut is that a player must go over the speed boost right before the tunnel then go straight. The player will then crash into the sign and go into the tunnel. If you have speed stars (multiple) that are still active when you hit the speed boost you can go over all the steps stated before plus hitting the tunnel and going to the curve before the goal.
[edit] Monkey Fight
Monkey Fight places four monkey balls with attached boxing gloves in a king-of-the-hill punching battle. There are three different battle arenas - a jungle stage, an ice stage, and a space stage.
Items are sometimes dropped during the game to enhance gameplay of a character. For instance, one item enables your Punch to be more powerful, and another enables your boxing glove to have a longer reach, and one final one enables your boxing glove to act like a Twister and hit opponents in a circular motion.
- If you destroy the cords, next to the arena you can delete the game.
[edit] Monkey Target
Perhaps most original of the three, Monkey Target is an accuracy game in which the monkey ball is launched off a large ramp and splits in half to form wings, which the player must guide over a large body of water to floating targets of varying point values.
Monkey Target may appear simple at first but there is actually a great deal of depth. Upon further inspection of levels, one will notice little buoy type objects in the water. These are each worth 500 points, much more than any other part of the boards. Using sticky ball or magnet ball these become fairly easy to land on, but the ultimate challenge comes in landing on them without the use of any items, also known as "freeballing" it, or "dry pole-ing it".
Free balling is very difficult at first and requires lots of patience to master. Traditionally, in order to attain the low amount of speed needed to land on the buoys without rolling off, the wind must be against the player and rather high; above 10 miles per hour is optimal. "Sticking it" with a zero wind, or even backwind is possible, but incredibly difficult, and considered by many to be the apex of Monkey Target skills.
[edit] Mini Games
Three minigames are also featured in the GameCube release, based upon actual games and sports. These games must be unlocked by earning play points gained by repeated play of the main game.
[edit] Monkey Billiards
Monkey Billiards is a 9-ball pool game.
[edit] Monkey Bowling
This a stylized arcade version of the sport that features two modes. One normal mode and another mode called Challenge Mode where you can try your best to clear different bowling lanes whereby the lane moves around in various different ways.
[edit] Monkey Golf
This is an arcade miniature golf game. The monkey characters are of course, prominently featured in the balls that are traditionally used to play these games.
[edit] Popularity
The popularity of the simple game in Japan, the United States and Europe has led to several sequels and ports: Super Monkey Ball 2 (2003) for the GameCube; Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (2005) for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, which included levels from both GameCube releases plus original levels, as well as updating the party games; Super Monkey Ball Jr. (2003), a release for Nintendo Game Boy Advance based on the original title; a release under the original title for the Nokia N-Gage gaming system (2003); a release for the Nintendo DS entitled Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll (2006), and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (2006) for the Wii console. It is also featured in the Sega SuperStars Eye Toy game for the PlayStation 2 (2004). The franchise took a new direction in 2006 with Super Monkey Ball Adventure developed by Traveller's Tales which came out for PS2, GameCube & PSP. Other iterations of the franchise include Sega Super Monkey Ball (2004), Monkey Ball Mini Golf (2006) and Super Monkey Ball: Tip 'n Tilt (2007) for mobile phones. There is also an arcade version of the orinigal game where the controller is a joystick shaped like a banana. GameWorks and Odyssey Fun World arcades are the only places in the US that are known to have the machine.
[edit] Records
The most well-known community for hosting some of the best records for games in the Super Monkey Ball series is Elite Scores. The record-based website hosts some of the greatest records for this game, Super Monkey Ball 2, Super Monkey Ball Adventure, Super Monkey Ball: Touch and Roll, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, as well as Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. You can also look at (http://speedrunwiki.com/Super_Monkey_Ball)
[edit] Trivia
- Aiai was also the Japanese name for Coconuts, an enemy from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
- The bananas in the game feature advertising for the Dole Food Company.The logo also appears on objects that are not part of the level,such as a satellite or a pineapple shaped hot air balloon(Monkey Target).
[edit] See also
- Neverball, a similar game available under the GPL for Windows 2000 / XP, Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X
- GooBall
- Marble Madness
- Marble Blast, another similar game to Super Monkey Ball.
- List of characters in the Super Monkey Ball series
[edit] External links
- Wiki guide
- "The Psychophysiology of Video Gaming", Niklas Ravaja, May 31, 2005
- Elite Scores, world record high score competition page
- Mansized review of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
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Super Monkey Ball • 2 • Deluxe • Jr. • Touch & Roll • Adventure • Banana Blitz |
