Replay

A replay is a playback of previous gameplay, that can be produced after clearing or failing a stage in the Main Game.

Description

Replays in the Super Monkey Ball series are not replays in the conventional sense, in that they are not actually videos. Instead, like in many video games, replays are saved as an initial level seed, and a series of inputs which are played back exactly as they happened in the original gameplay, in order to reproduce said gameplay in real time. This is done so that replays do not take up a significant amount of space, as video files, particularly of a high quality and framerate, tend to be very large, even if the video itself is only a few seconds in length.

Because of this, replays can be thought of as a reconstruction of gameplay, rather than a recording of gameplay.

Types of replay

Instant replay

The instant replay is a short replay that plays immediately after clearing a level, falling out or running out of time. Typically, it involves a different camera angle from normal gameplay, and it only shows the last few seconds of gameplay

Saved replay

After clearing or failing a stage, during the instant replay, the player can usually open the pause menu. From there, they can select the option to save the replay. This saves a full replay of the entire level attempt.

Demo replay

In some games, if the player idles on the title screen for long enough, a replay of previous gameplay will begin after the tutorial, which is itself technically a replay as well, as a gameplay demo.

Viewing replays

After saving a replay, the player can view said replay by navigating the menu to the replays menu. This is typically found in the options menu. The replays menu will contain a list of saved replays, along with basic information such as level, date and time of replay and in some games how much space the replay takes up. Selecting a replay will begin playback of that replay after it has loaded.

Trivia

• In earlier games, the instant replay will show bananas that were collected before the start of the replay as uncollected on the level.