2nd Op By

Brad Gallaway 6.5 RATING

Looking at the main game, I found it to be incredibly too difficult for anyone except experienced players past the Beginner level. Youll want to skip this mode entirely and go straight to the minigames for party night. Personally, I thought the difficulty of the Advanced course was just right, but the Expert course was smash-your-controller-and-make-an-evil-grimace-while-choking-the-person-next-to-you type of insane. I realize theyre called "Expert" for a reason, but this is ridiculous. What really grates on me the most is that it feels like the games controls are fighting you right when you need them the most. Fortunately, there are unlimited continues available after accumulating 20,000 Monkey Points, but since they sadly only accrue in the singleplayer main game, itll be a while before you get them.

About the controls, Im going to have to disagree with Peters feeling and say that I did not find them to be pleasingly responsive or spot-on. The Monkey Ball itself feels like its constantly rolling on ice, doubly so on inclines or moving objects. Its not a big deal on the easier stages when youre barreling through benign layouts at high speeds, but the game becomes three times harder than it needs to be when youre attempting delicate maneuvers. (Which is all the time, on Expert.) Couple that with the cameras wild and disorienting swinging motion every time you try to change direction, and youve got the perfect recipe for a disc snapped in half. While Sega games are generally known for having flawless control, they have never been known for having good camera setups. (See virtually any Sega game in the 32-bit era.) Super Monkey Ball strikes out on both counts.

Enough about the singleplayer, lets talk multi. Super Monkey Ball actually delivers a pretty good assortment of things to do if you have extra controllers and a few friends. My personal favorite was the Billiards game, which is simple, but excellent. Monkey Target is also lots of fun, and very reminiscent of the original Pilotwings. Monkey Fight was good for some laughs and decent in a button-mashing kind of way, but its too simple to keep you occupied for long. The other games werent as well done as these, in my opinion. Monkey Race was instantly forgettable, and the Bowling was atrocious with its spastic directional indicator. Minigolf is something that I love in real life, but I loathed it here since the courses dont have curbs to prevent your ball from rolling off the sides and dropping eight miles down. It may sound like whining, but when youve got four people taking multiple ten-stroke penalties for being unable to make any of the "three par" shots, youd think they would have eased up on the extremeness of it. Boredom and frustration arent two things you want when youre trying to have some low-impact party fun.

In total, the game is not completely without its charms, but be prepared to deal with the wacko camera, touchy controls and serious difficulty of the main game. At $50, the value of Super Monkey Ball is pretty questionable if you plan gaming solo. However, theres some decent fun to be had here as long as you have plan to get your groove on with a some buddies during a weekend get-together. Drinks with umbrellas might help. It wont be remembered as a classic, but with the sparse offerings in the GameCubes library so far, you could do worse.

Public Opinion

Gary Flanagan 9.0 Rating

As a game purchase, Super Monkey Ball is certainly a risk, but oh am I glad I took it.

It's easy to be critical of this game, and alongside the superlative environments and action of a game like Halo, for example, the concept of Super Monkey Ball seems childish and decidedly unremarkable. But this is missing the point. Super Monkey Ball excels in its simplicity (the analog stick is the only control you need), hypnotic with its spiraling, hugely imaginative mazes, addictive and frustrating in equal measure.

As for the control issues Brad mentions, I have to disagree. The level of control is sublime to the point that you forget about the controller in your hands, and although the sensitivity of the controls will frustrate at first, with practice the precision-control will become second nature. In my opinion, it is in the single-player mode that this game excels - the multiplayer games are fun, but not consistently so.

Ultimately, you can't take Super Monkey Ball too seriously. It offers arcade thrills at their best, and it is hugely refreshing at a time when developers strive for high-concept, graphical masterpieces, perhaps sometimes forgetting the whole point of videogames: fun. No risk - ok?

What made Super Monkey Ball work for me was the variety of gameplay modes. In addition to the arcade game, solo gamers can partake of the added bowling, target, and billiard games, which is a nice bonus. For whoever never considered purchasing extra controllers, no multiplayer race modes nor (fortunately) any Monkey Punch for you. Super Monkey Ball is quite the economical title, requiring only a single controller for the bulk of 4-player games, which reminds us sharing can be a good thing.

I still don't know how entertaining a barrel of monkeys is, but Super Monkey Ball could be a good indication. Initially, I didn't go bananas over it, but I was ultimately won over. Prolonged periods with the ultimately satisfying bowling, Monkey Target, and the regular arcade modes convinced me this was not a game destined for the "less than $5" bin. It's not something I'd pay the full $50 for, but it's gonna be on my list after a modest price cut. Besides, this game wouldn't have been as entertaining with hamsters, now, wouldn't it?

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