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''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 . 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 Banana s 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. 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. 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. 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 . MeeMee A stylish monkey who is adored by all the other monkeys. She loves AiAi and hopes to marry him one day. Baby He is the son of AiAi and MeeMee, traveling back to the past from the future. Although still young, he is reliable like his mother. He is the fastest, coolest baby around. He travels from the future to stop the evil plans of Dr. Bad Boon to break up his parents. His cries reverbrates across Jungle island and only Meemee can calm him down. 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. 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:
PARTY GAMES The GameCube version, known as ''"Super" Monkey Ball'' includes three party games for up to four players. 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.
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. Monkey Fight Monkey Fight places four monkey balls with attached Boxing Glove s 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 dropped throughout the match to enhance the powers of a character. For instance, one item enables you to Punch more powerfully.
Monkey Target Monkey Target is an accuracy game in which the monkey ball is launched off a large ramp and splits in half to form wings. The player must guide the glider over the digital sea(see trivia section 4 for details) to floating targets of various point values. Monkey Target may appear very simplistic at first, but actually allows for many different play styles. Many levels contain small buoy type objects in the water. It soon becomes apparent that 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. This is known as "free balling", or "dry pole-ing". Free balling is very difficult at first and requires practice to master. In order to attain the low speed needed to land on the buoys without rolling off, a high headwind (above 10 miles per hour) is needed. For more skilled players, "Sticking it" with a zero wind, or even a tailwind is possible. This is incredibly difficult, and considered by many to be the apex of Monkey Target skills. MINI GAMES Three Minigame s are also featured in the GameCube release, based upon actual games and sports. These games must be unlocked by earning ''2500 play points'' gained by repeated play of the main game. Monkey Billiards Monkey Billiards is a 9-ball pool game. 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. 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. POPULARITY The popularity the game in Japan, the '' (2007) for mobile phones. 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, . TRIVIA
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