Super Monkey Ball
December 1, 2002

     Oh no!  Monkeys have trapped themselves inside a spherical container!  Play as Baby, AiAi, MeeMee or GonGon as you maneuver the ball of death.

     Super Monkey Ball was the first game I had ever gotten on my Gamecube.  Why? With monkeys as the main role, you can never go wrong. 

     The gameplay of Super Monkey Ball is very simple, that even a monkey can play it; literally!  Your goal is to maneuver your monkey through a series of courses using the control stick.  Sounds simple enough right?  First the courses are linear and simple.  But as you go on, the courses become much more advanced and difficult; involving much more advanced tactics and coordination.  Now who’s the real monkey, huh?!?!  This game really got me on the verge of throwing my controller across the room; but upon calculating the cost for a replacement, including task, I grudgingly had to restrain myself…

     Eventually you will unlock min-games, which further extends the replay value of Super Monkey Ball.  These games are available on multi-player too, so you can easily duke it out on your monkey friends.  Available are, monkey golf monkey fight, monkey billiards, monkey bowling, monkey racing, and even monkey flying!  I mean monkeys flying… who’d ever think of such a thing?

     The graphics of Super Monkey Ball does not look stunning, but are quite good enough.  Seeing as there are not vast numbers of diverse playing fields, areas often become over-used and repetitious.

     Though, courses do tend to become quite difficult and frustrating, and its graphics are not the greatest things you’ll ever see.  Nevertheless, Super Monkey Ball proves to be a straightforward and challenging game that provides enjoyment for the simple-minded, and even the more intelligent beings of this earth.  With the accompaniment of friends, Super Monkey Ball is even more fun to play, and can easily be called an outstanding party game.  So I will just make this one statement in tribute to all those monkeys out there, who suffer from fear of the outside world, leading them to confine themselves in an air-tight spherical object, and giving themselves no choice but to collect bananas.  So as it was once written, and now been reiterated: ‘All your base are belong to monkeys.’

 - BoBo

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