Product Description

Labyrinth/Marble Madness hybrid with a unique platform twist, based on the Sega arcade game of the same name. Players control not a character, but tilt the entire environment to guide their "monkey ball" to the goal. Super Monkey Ball's "Main Mode" is constructed of more than 110 different levels of various difficulty, most of them taken from the arcade game. Players begin their monkey adventure going through these different levels on various settings of difficulty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3739 in Video Games
• Brand: Sega Of America, Inc.
• Model: 10086610000
• Released on: 2002-10-31
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: GameCube
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds

Features

• 10 Beginner levels, 30 Advanced, and 50 Expert
• multiplayer modes
• awesome mini-games

Amazon.com Product Description
In Super Monkey Ball, you're in control of a cute little monkey trapped inside a transparent ball. The objective of the game is deceptively simple: tilt the floor with your analog stick so that your monkey ball rolls towards the goal. Your success is all in the thumb: the more you tilt, the faster the ball rolls. Just be sure not to fall off the edges! You can play with up to four others to see who can master the tilt and get their monkeys to the finish line ahead of the pack.

Amazon.co.uk
Super Monkey Ball is exactly what it says on the box: it features a monkey, in a ball, and it's absolutely super. This rather odd game is similar to the classic Marble Madness, except that instead of controlling a marble through a mazelike course, you control the course and must tilt and rotate it to get the cheeky little simian to the exit.

Ironically, this title--the GameCube's best launch game--is also its least impressive graphically. It's not ugly by any means, but the graphics are mostly functional and are subservient to the gameplay. It may sound simple and repetitive, but Super Monkey Ball is pretty much the dictionary definition of addictive, as it perfectly balances the intense frustration at failing to complete a course with the absolute desire to have "just one more try." To make matters worse, the later courses are so fiendishly difficult, one may wonder if the game was designed by sadists.

The single-player mode is maddeningly addictive, but it's the four-player larks--either on the standard puzzle courses or through a bunch of wacky minigames, including monkey bowling and monkey fight--that mark Super Monkey Ball as a true gaming classic. Its lack of showy graphics may unfairly limit the game to cult status, so make sure you're part of the cult. --David Jenkins

Customer Reviews

Mature 25 year-old gamer
I just bought a GC less than a week ago and this was one of the first games I purchased. This game is flat out fun, no other word to describe it. I read some inaccuracies in the official review and in some other reviews on here. You don't tilt the floor in this game, you are actually in control of the monkey in the transparent ball and you move them around in the ball to get through the board. Sometimes the board tilts and gives the illusion that you are controlling the board as opposed to the monkey but that's not the case. You have a time limit to get to the goal without falling off of the board. There are four unique monkeys to choose from, and more than one person can use the same character, they'll just be a different color. Along the way, you can collect bananas and like Mario or Donkey Kong games, when you collect 100, you get a 1up.

Anyway, if you play one player mode, you must have patience. There are three difficulty levels: Beginner, Advanced, and Expert. Each has 10, 30, and 50 levels, respectively. Beginner is pretty easy, I finished all 10 levels without losing any monkeys. Getting to board 30 on Advanced is a trip and I still haven't been able to pass it, but half of the fun was getting there. Expert is really hard and of the 50 levels, I've probably seen 10. When you play in one player mode, you earn Play Points. Play Points allow you to unlock the Mini Games (Monkey Billiards, Monkey Bowling, and Monkey Golf). It kind of reminds me of Mario Party in that respect. So far, I've unlocked Bowling and Billiards, both of which are fun.

The cool thing about this game is that every mode can be played in multiplayer. (Just remember, you can only earn Play Points in one player mode.) Whether you want four people to play the regular floor-to-floor game, or Monkey Fight (knock your opponent off the platform with a boxing glove, a little like a minigame in Mario Party), or Monkey Race (a lot like Mario Kart with the items), or the Target game (a lot like P-Wings, I love this mode, a whole lot of fun). In addition, all of the minigames can be played by up to four people. Bowling is very straight forward, pick the angle, then the power, then the spin you want to put on the ball. Billiards is 9-ball. Haven't seen Golf yet.

Half of the fun is watching. My friends and I, a 24, 25, 26 and 29 year-old were playing this for a couple of hours, and we all go for different types of games. The monkeys are so entertaining that you find yourself laughing at them constantly. Trying not to fall off in the Normal Mode will ruin your nerves. It keeps you on the edge of your seat when you're watching someone manuever through a tough spot. It's one of those games that makes it fun to be a spectator.

Simply put, I love this game. There is enough variety that everyone should be able to find something they like about it. The fact that the four of us found any one game great was amazing. This is a must buy for Gamecube.

Don't Miss This One!
Super Monkey Ball is a very, very fun game. My experience with it is based on the Japanese GameCube version. In the main game, you start by selecting a monkey, encased in a clear ball, from a bunch of monkeys with different characteristics. You play by navigating your ape through a increasingly challenging series of mazes. This game plays like a super-smooth and much improved version of the arcade classic "Marble Madness", so it's appropriate for all ages of gamers. The more advanced levels are very challenging, as you move through fiendish multi-level environments, where all one's joystick skills are challenged. It features a variety of competitive multi-player party games, including a racing game reminiscent of Diddy Kong Racing, a funny fighting game resembling battling jack-in-the-boxes, and a wild game where the object is basically ski-jumping into a minefield(no kidding!). The coolest part of the game are the excellent mini-games that you can unlock. The Monkey Pool and Monkey Bowling mini-games are two of the best variations you'll ever see on these classic games. Congrats to the excellent Sega team, the same one that brought us Sega's Daytona and Virtua Striker games for making such an excellent game, as their first GC title. Nintendo should be thrilled to have this Sega team developing for GameCube.

How fun can a game with rolling Monkeys be? Words can't say.
While Super Monkey Ball's excellent graphics, but more cute style graphics may scare you away from this GameCube Exclusive title, don't let them scare you. This is one fun and definately addictive game, I can hardlly put it down. Super Monkey Ball includes over 100+ levels ranging from Begginer, to Intermediat6e, to the ever so difficult Expert mode. Many people who have played Monkey Ball shake at the near sight of the later Expert levels, which require extreme balance, speed, coordination, skill, and practice! So dont think this is some little kids game, which can be beaten in a weekend, if you manage to beat it at all. To help improve your skills, and have a killer time with friends, SEGA threw in Monkey Race (Like Mario Kart), Monkey Fight (Punch each other off a large stage), or Monkey Target (flying and then landing on point valued targets). After you earn enough points to buy them you can open up very fun single player mini games, but these mini games had A LOT of time and effort put into them so they are really good quality anf fun. they are: Monkey Billards, Monkey Bowling, and Monkey Golf. Each game adding a fun Monkey inside of the ball twist to it. Those mini games, party games, and over 100+ levels in the main game add up to massive, infinate if you will, replay value. Think of Super Monkey Ball as one of those extremely addictive old Pac Man style games, but more fun then a barrel full of monkeys. So if your getting a Cube, seriouslly consider Super Monkey Ball, ONLY FOR Nintendo GameCube.