Simple you say? Let me acquaint you with Expert mode…
The first impression made by the game is its simplistic core. The main game requires the use of the analogue stick to navigate an array of courses and…that’s it. Those kidney-shaped buttons are obsolete. The GameCube pad’s digital clicks: useless. Just the main analogue control and you’re away. You would think that this very user-friendly control scheme would result in some heavily watered down gameplay, but oh no. Amusement Vision has provided a deep game that remarkably succeeds in providing the perfect level of challenge for gamers of all skill level.
The game features well over a hundred courses split into three separate modes: Beginner, Advanced and Expert. A typical challenge in the beginner set would be to steer your Monkey by tipping [i]the course itself[i] steering your simian to the goal, while trying not to fall off. Falling off causes the loss of a life and you only start out with three of them, but can gain another by collecting 100 bananas scattered across the level. After these beginner, or training levels are completed, you can step up to more radical and difficult level design featured in Advanced. Here, you are more likely to find terrain the spins and flips; steeper slopes and some fast moving obstacles all out to get your monkey friend. The real challenge awaits in Expert though where the highest level of skill is required to sneak your way round tight turns and getting across some daunting terrain.
It is here in expert mode that the game’s genius design shine through. You are presented with level after level of radical stages exhibiting the development team’s imagination. Or should that be sadism – some of these levels are tough as nails.
Gaming gold wrapped up in lead. Or tin.
The appearance of the game is pretty basic. Very little of the GameCube’s capabilities are used. Very low resolution textures are in use here, as well as character models with less polygons than some N64/PSOne titles, However, this is not a game that benefits or suffers from the above as the emphasis is on the design of the stages themselves. It could be argued that the game’s look put off potential buyers, but the kind of people that buy games based on looks alone don’t really deserve to sample the delightful gameplay contained within.
It is quite likely that you’ll hit a wall in the one-player mode for a while, so you can relax a little, get the mates round and have a bash at one of three Party Games available for play. These are:
- Monkey Race: Mario Kart, Super Monkey Ball Style!
- Monkey Punch: a free-for-all battle where you use extending boxing gloves to defeat your opponents!
- Monkey Target: roll down a ski-jump style ramp and try to land on targets for points!
The latter of these games is the real highlight here. Monkey Target allows up to four players to take turns in para-gliding down to hit your target for a varying number of points. Power-ups can be used to negate the effects of wind or to multiply your end score.
While Monkey Race gets pretty dull after a short while, Punch provides instant hilarity and target is the kind of mini-game that spawns mini-tourneys of its own!
As an extra incentive to get you to plow through the game’s excellent 1 player mode, you can amass Play Points allowing you to unlock MORE multiplayer games, this time three Mini Games in the form of Monkey-fied Mini-Golf, Ten Pin Bowling and Billiards (pool). Bowling is definitely the most accessible and therefore fun of the three here, while Pool sadly features a clunky interface and an 8-ball mode only. Mini-Golf features courses that aren’t as good as those found in Mario Golf’s mini-game and is basically just filler.
You do not beat this game. This game beats YOU.
Once the drink supply is diminished and the friends are long-gone, you can return to the single player mode and discover that you really haven’t scratched the surface. All of the three difficulty modes feature a selection of extra courses that are unlocked by playing through without dying or in expert mode’s case, without using a continue. Sounds easy? Maybe on beginner it is, but unlocking the advanced and expert extra modes will not only give you a great deal of replayability and added gameplay, but also sleepless nights, torn hair, gritted teeth and a few cardiac arrests. Then if by some stroke of luck you manage THAT you can unlock the fourth and final challenge, the almighty Master Mode. Hardened gamers have been known to break down and weep after attempting to beat Expert mode AND its extra levels using only one continue. The reward is ten excruciatingly tough courses that only a select few will see and overcome. It’s good to know that in this day and age, Amusement vision has not forgotten the importance of a good level of challenge in a game.
Super Monkey Ball’s audio matches the simplistic tone of the visuals. Sound effects are childish (hey hey…it’s some Monkeys!) and the light soundtrack will reflect the difficulty of the level currently in progress. A nice little addition by AV lets you save replays of any levels for a few blocks of memory card space, depending on how long it took to complete.
So overall, Super Monkey Ball may look like a pushover, it may sport some exterior façade that makes you think it’s a pretty shallow game, but deep down lies a monster of a challenge just waiting for a player to take it on. Or perhaps…this game takes YOU on?
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