Super Monkey Ball

For other uses, see Super Monkey Ball (disambiguation).

Super Monkey Ball
Release Date	September 14, 2001
Platform(s)	Nintendo GameCube
Publisher(s)	SEGA Amusement Vision
Genre	Platform, Party

Super Monkey Ball is the second game of the Super Monkey Ball series. It was a launch title for the GameCube and included the debut of the character GonGon. It was developed by Sega alongside Amusement Vision and directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi.

The Story

This game has a story that is only told in the Japanese version. Here is an excerpt, translated from Japanese:

AiAi, MeeMee, and Baby are a good family and live peacefully in Jungle Island. One day, out of the distant islands, GonGon, leader of the Gorillas, brought in a raid to the island. They intend to hog all the bananas for themselves! AiAi escaped from the spot, and got tired and fell asleep. In his dreams, AiAi was told in his dreams there is a paradise called "Banana Island" in the sky from the "Grand Monkey". But in order to go there, you have to go through a couple of traps and gimmicks. But the Grand Monkey taught AiAi a magical spell: "Ei Ei Poo!" That protects him from any danger. AiAi wakes up quickly, and as he says "Ei Ei Poo!", A big ball flies out of the sky He gets insides of it and flies high above the sky. Now, survive several traps and tricks, and aim for it! Banana Island!

When the player completes the Expert or Master floors, if they play as AiAi, MeeMee, or Baby, they will be able to go to Banana Island and enjoy all the bananas it has to offer. However, if you play as GonGon, he will be locked out of the place in which the bananas are kept while the other monkeys enjoy the bananas inside.

Modes

Main Game

Main article: Main Game

Normal Mode

Main Game involves the traditional gameplay of rolling the monkey in a ball to the goal before falling off the platform or letting time run out. There are three difficulty levels available at the start: Beginner, Advanced and Expert. The controls are very basic- use the analog stick to tilt the floor to guide your monkey. On each floor there are Bananas and Banana Bunches (worth 10 bananas) to collect. Collecting 100 will give you an extra life. Your score is calculated by how many bananas you collect and how much time you have left over after successfully reaching the goal. Every five or ten floors, you will be taken to a Bonus Floor, where you have to collect all the bananas before time runs out. However, this won't cost you any lives if you fail. After playing, Play Points are given to the player after losing all their lives or completing all stages. The number of Play Points received depends on the number of regular points obtained. Play Points can be spent on the three Mini Games, once all of them are unlocked, every 2500 play points will give the player an extra continue, after having ten continues, the next unlock gets you an unlimited supply of continues. Once the final floor of a difficulty is beaten, it will go to the credits. If the player hasn't used any continues in that difficulty (or without losing lives in Beginner and Advanced), the player gets to play the Extra Floors. Once the Extra Floors are beaten, it will go to the credits and then, if the player has gotten a high score, the high score floor. If all the floors Expert Extra are beaten without a continue, Master difficulty will be available to play.

List of Floors

Main article: Super Monkey Ball/Floors

Practice Mode

Practice Mode allows the player to play any stage unlocked in Main Game with unlimited lives to practice with. It will loop the stage until the player chooses a different one.

Competition Mode

Competition Mode lets up to four players race each other in stages from Normal Mode. Whoever reaches the goal first will be the winner in the level.

Party Games

Main article: Party Game

Party Games are games that you can play with up to 4 players. They are playable from the start. There are a total of three.

Monkey Race

Main article: Monkey Race

Monkey Race has three modes: One-Course Race, Grand Prix, and Time Attack. Just like any other racing game, the players (up to 4) race around the track to get first place. Items are available to slow your opponents down. The higher your place, the more points you will receive. There is a Handicap option available to slightly increase the speed of the player in last place.

One-Course Race

This mode allows just one race to be held on a course of your choice. You can choose the number of laps you wish to have.

Grand Prix

This mode includes all races to be played, starting from the easiest to the hardest course.

Time Attack

This mode is only for one player. It allows you to practice on a course of your choice to get the fastest time as possible. You are given 3 Speed Stars, and no items are present.

Items

• Speed Stars - boosts your monkey's speed for a limited time.
• Banana Peel - leave them on the ground for your opponents to slip on.
• Bowling Bomber - roll bombs at your opponents and watch them explode.
• Polygon Ball - your opponent's ball changes shape for a limited time.
• Ice Cube - freeze your opponents for a limited time.

Monkey Fight

Main article: Monkey Fight

Monkey Fight is a Party Game with only one mode. In it, the player rolls around on one of three stages trying to punch other player or CPU controlled monkeys off the stage to earn points. Even more points are awarded when the player with the most amount of points is knocked off. If the player falls off without getting punched, all the other players will receive points. There are also three different types of items that appear in item boxes that appear on the stage randomly. If a box is punched enough, it will break open revealing the item.

Monkey Target

Main article: Monkey Target

Monkey Target is a Party Game with only one mode. In Monkey Target, players take turns trying to land on the floating targets, while trying to get Bananas. First, if the Wheel of Danger is on, an arrow spins on a wheel, with mines, bombs, and clouds marked on sections, as well as empty sections. Then the player rolls down a ramp, and then up and off another one into the air. When the player presses the "A" button once, the ball will open up and act as a glider. Then the player tries to land on the marked targets, the marks decide the amount of points received, by closing the ball with the A button, while near or above one of the targets. There are bananas on the ramp, in the air, and on the targets, that give the player points and advance the prize wheel.

Mini Game

Main article: Mini Game

A Mini Game is a game mode with three games, each must be unlocked by spending 2500 Play Points earned from play of the Main Game.

Monkey Billiards

Main article: Monkey Billiards

Monkey Billiards is a Mini Game with two game modes. In VS. Mode one player faces a computer controlled character or another player in a game of Nine Ball. In Tournament Mode, one player faces a sudden death tournament against 4 computer players.

Monkey Bowling

Main article: Monkey Bowling

Monkey Bowling is a Mini Game with two modes. In it the player moves left and right with the analog stick. When the player gets to the part of the lane where he or she wants to throw the ball, he or she presses the A button. Then a line automatically swings back in forth in front of the monkey, by pressing the A button, the line stops, telling which direction the ball will be thrown. If the player waits too long, a countdown will begin, and if the player doesn't press "A" by the time it ends, the line will stop where it was when the countdown ended. Next, a gauge appears at the bottom of the screen that determines how hard it is thrown. The gauge will start moving automatically. To stop it, press the A button. The farther left it is when it ends, the weaker it will be thrown, and the farther right it is the harder it will be thrown. Like for the direction, if the player waits too long, it will automatically stop where it was when the countdown ends. Finally, spin can added to the ball by pressing the L or R buttons (L causes it to spin counter-clockwise and R causes it to spin clockwise) while the ball is still rolling before the Foul Line. The amount of spin depends on how hard and how long the button was pressed. In Standard Mode, up to four players take turns playing ten frames of regular Bowling. In Challenge Mode, the object is to knock over all of the pins with only 12 tries. There are 10 different pin patterns. The player loses a try if they did not knock over all of the pins of a set. The player can select any of the ten pin patterns that haven't already gotten cleared.

Monkey Golf

Main article: Monkey Golf

Monkey Golf is a Mini Game with two modes. Both modes require the monkey to use golf clubs to hit their ball into the hole in each course. If the monkey ball goes out of bounds, the player must restart from the same position, with a one-stroke penalty being added. If the player takes the number of strokes for par times 3, he/she is automatically forced to give up the hole, with a score of 10, 13 or 16.

Characters and Characteristics

• AiAi is a male monkey who wears an orange shirt with an "A" on it and loves bananas the most. He is the protagonist of the game.
• MeeMee is female monkey with a "pantyless" skirt and a flower on her head. She is married to AiAi, but feels slightly neglected due to AiAi's banana love. She is the only female playable character in the game.
• Baby is a baby boy monkey that wears a diaper, has a pacifier, and is AiAi's and MeeMee's future son.
• GonGon is the leader of the gorillas and has dark brown fur, wearing a sleeveless red shirt with a yellow "G" in the middle.

Worlds

Please do note that these world names are fan-given, as the game does not specifically state the world names.

• Jungle
• Sky High
• Monkey Mall
• Underwater
• Desert
• Arctic
• Storm
• Space
• Banana Island
• Starry Night

Gallery

Main article: Super Monkey Ball/Gallery

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Credits

The credits are played after clearing the Final Floor or Extra Floor of any difficulty. In the credits, the player is on a platform constantly moving forward with bananas everywhere. Name of the people credited will appear above the monkey and fall onto the floor. Touching these will cause you to lose bananas. After successfully completing this, the monkey will fly up into the sky and show you your Monkey Rating (Fighter Rating in Japan). Your rating will depend on the number of bananas successfully collected.

Main article: Super Monkey Ball/Credits

Trivia

• This game was originally going to be released for the SEGA Dreamcast, but, due to the dropped official support for the console, this game was instead released for the Nintendo GameCube as a launch title.
• The Dole logo appears on bananas in this game, as well as on certain stages and background elements. These are removed when the floors reappear in Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.
• This is the first Super Monkey Ball game where GonGon appears, as he did not appear in the original Monkey Ball arcade cabinet.
• Many fans consider the hardest floor in the game a tie between Stamina Master and Bridge Master.
• This is the only game in which you cannot enter Master Mode from the difficulty select screen, as it is treated more like Expert Extra Extra in this game.
• The narrator for this game and its sequel, who went uncredited for 18 years, has been identified as Brian Matt-Uhl by a Youtuber named Nick Robinson.

External Links

• Sega of Japan Catalogue Page Archive
• Archived Website (backup link)