Jay plays with his monkey balls. And even though he's found it a frustrating experience, he says the satisfaction to be gained at the end is well worth the effort.
Occasionally a game comes along (usually from Japan) that makes you instantly sit up and look on in confusion and wonder at the insanity unfolding before you. Super Monkey Ball is one such game. The very idea of putting a monkey into a perfect and inescapable transparent sphere and have it gleefully tilted, bounced and fired through a multitude of cunningly designed levels is pure genius! Obviously engaging an unsuspecting chimp into such action in real life - regardless of how funny the outcome - would be wrong and possibly illegal, so those crazy developers at Sega have decided to recreate the scenario in videogame form.
The result is a colourful extravaganza of complete baboonery. The design is simple: in the centre of this colourful wide-open space is a hovering platform, placed upon this is the chimp of your choosing, encased within the confinement of a transparent sphere. You are required to guide this helpless monkey and its ball from the start of the floating platform through to the goal at the end, avoiding all obstacles along the way. Sounds simple and to an extent it is - anyone can pick up and play instantly - and to a certain degree of success as well, thanks to the game’s initial easiness. Problems arise when the full cruelty in the developers’ imaginations is realised before you on screen, at which point you are literally tearing at your hair, shouting at the screen and pelting the joypad in all manner of directions from complete mind-bending frustration, as one long, drawn out, sadistic pest of a level takes yet another of your rapidly depleting lives.
This is pure old-school fun, where simplicity means instant satisfaction and the initial success means instant addiction. You’ll want to see what’s on the next level, you’ll want to be able to feel like the hardest and most skilled gamer in existence by overcoming the most difficult of levels, so you will keep playing. Even as the game so cruelly saps your life force and almost reduces you to tears at frustrating sections, you’ll still go back to it time and time again, wanting to improve your score and finally see what’s beyond that nightmare of a level that’s had you stuck for so long. This love/hate relationship is what keeps the fire of Super Monkey Ball burning, just in the same way that all those old-school score-challenge type games did years before.
As well as the entertaining and frustrating main game, there’s a host of activities ready for a monkey trapped in a ball to participate in. Some are available to you straight away, others you have to unlock.
The first of these is Monkey Race; it’s sort of like a simpler Mario Kart but with balls instead of karts. You speed forwards, picking up weapons and speed boosts as you complete your required laps in a bid to finish ahead of the competition. This mode is fairly difficult and often frustrating in single-player mode, but throw three equally inept friends into the action and it becomes more interesting.
The next sub-element is Monkey Fight, an amusing game that adds a large boxing glove to the sphere your monkey is rolling around in, giving you and your opponents the ability to punch each other. The idea is you have to punch your opponents out of the ring you all start in, picking up power ups on the way to make this task easier and make sure that when the time runs out you have more points that your adversaries. This is fairly entertaining by yourself, but obviously it really comes to life when played with friends.
The final instantly available mini-game is Monkey Target. Here you have to roll your monkey down a steep slope and rocket him off the edge with the intention of landing him (or her!) on one of the targets floating on the sea. Points are awarded according to how close you land to the centre of the target and the ease in completing this task is also dependent on the wheel of fortune-like thing that you spin at the beginning of each round. Once spun it will possibly throw one of a few hazards in front of you making landing more difficult. This is mildly amusing in both single-player and multiplayer modes, not as fun as monkey fight though.
The next three mini-games have to be unlocked before the player can indulge. 2500 play points need to be racked up in the normal mode to unlock one game, this doesn’t take long so getting all three unlocked won’t be too much hassle.
The first of these games is Monkey Billiards. The humorously titled game is basically a nine-ball pool simulation and quite a lot of fun too. Each of the balls contains a chimp, which runs about as the balls are hit and all in all makes for much amusement and once again, is especially fun in multiplayer.
Next up we have Monkey Bowling. An equally fun addition to the line up as any of the others and one which - as with all the others - really comes to life when it’s being played by many human entrants. Simply throw your monkey in your required direction and use the triggers to spin. Cunningly simple, yet completely addictive.
Finally there’s Monkey Golf. Similar to many full priced games of the sport albeit with less focus on seriousness and more focus on camp colours and chimps. It’s amusing, entertaining and fun for all the family.
Super Monkey Ball is a classic. It's a game that absolutely anyone can pick up and play instantly and to some degree of success. The mini-games will provide endless amusement and will ensure that you’ll go back to it for ages into the future, urging any friends that ever come round to your house to sit down and indulge in a bit of chimpery. Yes, this game will annoy you, yes you will scream, shout, display completely undignified childish tantrums and maybe even fall down into tears, but you will return, time and time again for yet more punishment and when you finally do succeed in wiping the smug grin off of that sodding monkey’s face - you’ll realise what it’s like to feel like a God. And that is worth the asking price on its own.