Although initially conceived by Sega’s Amusement Vision studio as an arcade game back in 1999, in our opinion, there has been no finer example of gaming released into Europe this year than Toshihiro Nagoshi’s Super Monkey Ball for the Nintendo GameCube.
A launch title for the Cube in Japan, SMB debuted alongside the European launch of Nintendo’s long awaited home console and was met with rapturous acclaim, receiving the most pre-orders after Rogue Leader.
The beauty of Super Monkey Ball is its absolute strength in depth. It is a heavily crafted piece of digital art, made by a small team of videogame devotees. Monkey Ball is also a game of pure paradox. It has practically no learning curve within its main game, taking about ten seconds to understand completely. Move analogue stick, tilt the environment in that direction, by the amount of tilt applied. Then off you go. However, the learning cure in SMB is replaced by a competency curve, blended with increasing confidence gained through excessive play. There is no game engine to battle, no tricks, nothing. Just a simple set of purely applied physics, a monkey, (in a ball of course) and around a hundred mazes of increasing difficulty and complexity.
At times, the player will reach a level that seems so unbelievable difficult, it almost feels like time to give up. Several hours (and continues) later, that level is passed with ease, first time, every time.
And it’s somewhere within this factor that the true genius of Monkey Ball is to be found. Absolute reward in achievement through a seeming under-investment in time and effort. Super Monkey Ball, though at times despairing frustrating, is colossally rewarding, imparting upon the player true gaming skill, and a level of analogue-control mastery that can be taken on into gaming for ever.
And there’s more.
AV’s masterpiece comes complete with six wondrous minigames designed for multiplayer sessions, delivering levels of round-the-TV frenetic madness not experienced since the heady days of Super Bomberman. Monkey race sets Baby, Mimi, Aiai and Gongon in a Mario Kart inspired, wll, race, complete with all the boosters, weapons and power-ups customary in such outings. Money Billiards a blissfully direct pool game.
A launch title for the Cube in Japan, SMB debuted alongside the European launch of Nintendo’s long awaited home console and was met with rapturous acclaim, receiving the most pre-orders after Rogue Leader.
The beauty of Super Monkey Ball is its absolute strength in depth. It is a heavily crafted piece of digital art, made by a small team of videogame devotees. Monkey Ball is also a game of pure paradox. It has practically no learning curve within its main game, taking about ten seconds to understand completely. Move analogue stick, tilt the environment in that direction, by the amount of tilt applied. Then off you go. However, the learning cure in SMB is replaced by a competency curve, blended with increasing confidence gained through excessive play. There is no game engine to battle, no tricks, nothing. Just a simple set of purely applied physics, a monkey, (in a ball of course) and around a hundred mazes of increasing difficulty and complexity.
At times, the player will reach a level that seems so unbelievable difficult, it almost feels like time to give up. Several hours (and continues) later, that level is passed with ease, first time, every time.
And it’s somewhere within this factor that the true genius of Monkey Ball is to be found. Absolute reward in achievement through a seeming under-investment in time and effort. Super Monkey Ball, though at times despairing frustrating, is colossally rewarding, imparting upon the player true gaming skill, and a level of analogue-control mastery that can be taken on into gaming for ever.
And there’s more.
AV’s masterpiece comes complete with six wondrous minigames designed for multiplayer sessions, delivering levels of round-the-TV frenetic madness not experienced since the heady days of Super Bomberman. Monkey race sets Baby, Mimi, Aiai and Gongon in a Mario Kart inspired, wll, race, complete with all the boosters, weapons and power-ups customary in such outings. Money Billiards a blissfully direct pool game.
Games:
Super Monkey Ball
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