Full Review

Before I begin this review, I just have to say that Sega is one of my favorite companies (not my number 1 which is CapCom) because they are so smart. I thought their Dreamcast idea was going to work. I mean, if you look at all their great games for it (Sonic Adventure 2, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio), anyone could of thought that they would of made it in the Hardware biz. So let¡¦s get to my review: Super Monkey Ball. I remember seeing my brother playing this game a while ago at his friend¡¦s house or at our local arcade. I don¡¦t remember it all, but I do remember the insanely difficult stages. When I first heard about the Nintendo Gamecube and saw some screen shots of it, it all came back and I said to myself, ¡§I have to get a Gamecube!¡¨. Now, about a year later (300 bucks lighter), I have played SMB and I love it.

WARNING I got REALLY dizzy my first time playing this game so beware of Motion Sickness WARNING

When I first bought this game for my birthday, all my friends were skeptical with the words ¡§Super Monkey Ball¡¨ in the same sentence, being the immature peeps they are. Until yesterday, Jason (AKA PinkPandaBoy) thought that it looked easy and stupid. You see, yesterday, he came over with a couple of my other friends and he played Beginner (which are 10 easy stages). He thought that it was ¡§sort of¡¨ fun and that it was ¡§totally¡¨ easy. That¡¦s when he went to Advanced (which are 30 semi-hard stages) and fell off the stage every turn. My friends and I laughed our butts off and flipped him the bird¡Knever mind¡Kand he bought us all orange soda (the best drink on the planet in my book!). That¡¦s my little ¡§birthday-party-story¡¨. By the way, after we played a couple rounds in multiplayer in Conker¡¦s Bad Fur Day for N64 and a couple of rounds in Twisted Metal Black for PS2, we wrestled (Jason and my other friend Michael against me and my friend Richard) and I ended up biting Jason¡¦s ankle, while he had me in a headlock (don¡¦t ask me what position we were in ƒº!).

Anyway, in SMB, in order to beat the game, you must guide your monkey (whether it be the cute Aiai, the beautiful Meemee, the humongous Gongon, or the tiny meeny Baby) through different floors (stages) with various obstacles in the way. Easy? Guess again. You don¡¦t control the monkey itself, you control the floor instead, which makes it slightly more harder because there are tight little stairways, moving platforms, narrow platforms, and other things that you can easily fall off of making you get Fall Out where you lose a life. Something that also makes it harder is that you can collect bananas. There are a certain amount of bananas to collect in order to get specific mini games (Monkey Golf, Monkey Billiards, and Monkey Bowling, which I¡¦ll get into later) and if you collect 100, you¡¦ll get an extra life. Is that all? Not quite. There is also a time limit on each level. On some levels, you might have a minute to get to the finish or you might have half a minute. This makes the level strategic as well as fun. There is also Practice mode, which lets you Practice the level you¡¦re on until you¡¦re a pro at it. This function helps a lot in the long run.
Now on to the mini/party games! Let¡¦s start with the Party Games! These can be incredibly addictive (like the whole game itself) and can be even funner when you have a friend over. The first Party Game I¡¦ll tell you about is Monkey Race. This is sort of a cross between Super Mario Cart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing 64. As you race against other monkeys (also when you¡¦re racing, you have control of the monkey instead of the floor), you will pick up power-ups ranging from banana peels to boosts (cough, cough, Mario Cart, cough, cough, copycats, cough, cough), which makes it fun, yet hard at the same time.
Another one is Monkey Fight, which is horribly fun. Again, you have control of a monkey of your choice and your monkey has retractable boxing gloves, which he/she shoots at the other monkeys. The goal is to knock a lot of your opponents out of the arena to get a crown and win. This game is fun even when you don¡¦t have any friends¡K
The last Party Game (and personally, my favorite one of them all) is Monkey Target. This is so incredibly fun and addictive (I play it more than the other Party Games) it¡¦s simply pleasurable. Basically, you launch your monkey from a ramp and it opens it¡¦s ball to make wings. You have to make it land on targets to get points. This is great for parties and it¡¦s even quite fun by yourself.
Let¡¦s go on to the Mini Games. These aren¡¦t as fun as Party Games (you have to earn them by collecting bananas and they are hard and challenging and frustrating. The first one I¡¦ll tell you about is Monkey Billiards. This is exactly how it sounds: You play pool with monkeys trapped in plastic, see-through balls. Doesn¡¦t that sound totally great? That¡¦s about all. If you can play pool, you¡¦ll quickly catch onto the flavor of this Mini Game.
The second one is Monkey Bowling. I don¡¦t play this one much because it¡¦s so friggin hard, but it¡¦s sort of fun, too. You pick out how many pins you want to ¡§try¡¨ to hit, and then you try to direct your monkey towards the pins. Simple? No.
The last (and my favorite) Mini Game is Monkey Golf. My dad even likes this Mini Game and he hates video games. There are 18 holes that you can compete with your friends (or try to beat your own high score with). This game can be horribly addicting (*AUTHORS NOTE* If I ¡§over-use¡¨ this word too much, the overall game is addictive*AUTHOR¡¦S NOTE*) and challenging. When you aren¡¦t playing, you¡¦ll be biting your nails to your skin.


THE GRADING: 1-5


THE SOUND: 4/5

The delightful sounds of monkeys screaming, laughing, or shouting is plagued by this game, which makes the atmosphere smooth and awesome and realistic and believable and I don¡¦t know how many more ¡§ands¡¨ I can add in this sentence. The hip and cool music in the back round is goofy and doesn¡¦t become TOO annoying. Overall, the sound and music is awesome and fantastic.

THE GRAPHICS: 5/5

The graphics are great! Colors stream across the screen in huge loads. Every stage is colorful and the back rounds are awesome looking. The funniest thing in the game is when the monkey comes across the finish line or lands on the correct target in the Party Game, Monkey Target, and makes it¡¦s little monkey dance. Dancing monkeys¡Kwhat will Sega come up with next? Also, the water graphics are great and amazing. They aren¡¦t as good as the water graphics in Final Fantasy 10 for PS2 or Super Smash Bros. Melee for GC (not to name a few), but they are believable looking and smooth. The frame rate never stops; it¡¦s just non-stop monkey fun!

THE CONTROLS: 4/5

The controls are easy. The only thing you use on the rather comfortable Gamecube controller is the joystick. The only thing that hurts the score is the idiotic camera angles. These little buggers plague you at the worst parts of the game. On a narrow platform with no walls that moves by itself that has turns on it? One minute the camera is behind you, the next minute it¡¦s off to the side jerkin¡¦ around. This makes me so angry.

FUN FACTOR: 5/5 if you are by yourself, 6/5 if you have friends over

This game has to be the craziest fun I¡¦ve had since¡KSuper Smash Bros. Melee¡Kand Grand Theft Auto 3 for PS2. This game is awesomely, insanely addicting and fun, which makes this my favorite Gamecube game so far!

REPLAY VALUE: 5/5

This will keep you captivated for a LONG time. With 90+ stages, six fun Mini and Party games, and, surprisingly, a fun credits Mini Game (when you beat the game, the credits fall down and you have to collect bananas, while dodging falling letters. At the end of the little game, you get graded on how you did, whether you are a Spider Monkey or a dorky monkey with no friends), you will cherish this game for a long time.


OVERALL:

Despite the over-use of the Dole (the banana-growing company) logo (you¡¦d think Dole was paying Sega millions of dollars to put their logo everywhere in the game), the entire game is fun and everyone should play it whether you are a kid or an adult. This is a definite MUST BUY for any gamer that has a GC. I loved it and so will you. What else¡Kum¡KBUY THE GAME NOW OR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND GIVE YOU A HUGE¡Khandshake (I had to censor it because little kids may be reading this¡K)! Yeah, I¡¦m intimidating you, huh? Are you still reading the review? Probably not¡K Thanks for reading if you still are there. Buh Bye!

Until my next review on the incredible RPG for GBA known as Golden Sun, I remain

Jiggy ¡§I¡¦m-still-the-Jiggiest!¡¨ Jay