When the original Super Monkey Ball (SMB) launched alongside the GameCube in the UK, SPOnG almost put up a "Go away, we're playing Super Monkey Ball" message on the homepage, such was the level of addiction to the game. The only thing that prevented the message going up was the fact that nobody could break away from playing the game for long enough to put it onto the site. Since then, we have enjoyed all of the sequels and ports, many an afternoon has been filled with drunken monkey target and swearing at other player's illogical luck. Now we come to Super Monkey Ball Adventure (SMBA) on the PSP and we couldn't have looked forward to it more - actual violence occurred in the office when the review copy dropped into our laps; we all wanted to play it first.
After the dust cleared we got down to actually looking at the game we had a bit of a suprise. SMBA a bit of a departure from the other games since the main game is an RPG, hence the "Adventure" part of the game's title. The premise is simple, guide your monkey of choice around the five kingdoms, performing tasks for other monkeys in order to spread joy, you must also counter the attacks of the Naysayers who are trying to eliminate joy in all of its forms. Spreading joy will help to unite the kingdoms and prepare the way for the royal wedding of the year between the monkey versions of Romeo and Juliet, who love each other very much despite their kingdoms being bitter enemies.
The tasks you have to perform are your standard RPG fare, deliver messages, find lost children, wake-up guards, guide recently hatched birds to their nest; you know the drill.
The twist is that you are performing these tasks while encased in a clear plastic ball. The landscapes of the five kingdoms are designed to be halfway between typical RPG locations and normal SMB levels. This means plenty of opportunities for falling out of the level, thankfully there are quite a few restart points in each section of the kingdoms. Navigation of the kingdoms is one area where SMBA falls down, the control method for monkeys in balls hasn't changed much from the first game in the series. While that's fine for puzzle levels, it's a bit unweildy for the RPG levels found here, especially the platforming aspects of level navigation.
The idea of mixing SMB with an RPG is one that seems good on the surface, but causes issues in the implementation. There are the above-mentioned navigation issues. There is also the case of the magic chants.
Yay monkey magic! These seem like a nice way to expand the scope of what your monkey is capable of doing. Once each chant has been introduced to you by a monkey with a television on his head (yes, really) you can access them via the X button then spelling them out by selecting words from a four-way menu. Chants give you access to weapons and the like and also allow you to travel between the kingdoms. However, they feel a bit tacked on to make the game more monkey ball like, for example the first chant you learn gives you the boxing glove from the Monkey Fight party game. Another tacked-on aspect is flight. Yes, just as in monkey target, you can have access to wings to reach parts of the kingdoms. However, in order to activate your wings you have to jump through hoops - literally. This means you can only fly in certain areas, near the hoops, thus limiting the usefulness of the whole gameplay mechanic.
