Review  Super Monkey Ball 2
- By Kevlar Gorilla
After the relative success of the arcade-port launch game, Super Monkey Ball, Sega and Amusement Vision presents its sequel: Super Monkey Ball 2. Prepare for great amounts of single and multiplayer monkey fun. Feel free to be turned off by the ultra-cutesy exterior, but first know what you would otherwise be missing.
Gameplay:
The game is split into two main sections, the main game and the party games. In the main game, you may either progress through story mode, challenge mode, or practice mode. There are 6 new additions to the party games (Monkey Boat, Monkey Shot, Monkey Dogfight, Monkey Soccer, Monkey Baseball, and Monkey Tennis) added to 6 great remakes of all the originals (Monkey Race, Monkey Fight, Monkey Target, Monkey Billiards, Monkey Bowling, and Monkey Golf. Players play the main game to gain points to unlock the 6 new party games, as well as other things later on.
It seems that any problem that Aiai and company come across (from escaping from a whale to sneaking up on Dr. Bad-boon) can be solved via navigating progressively more difficult stages. Story mode is where you have infinite attempts to beat 10 levels before moving onto the next ten and watching a relatively entertaining in-game movie of sorts. In the cut-scenes, all characters speak gibberish to subtitles until the main four monkeys sing a verse with funky colours flying everywhere, ending with the phrase “Magical Spell is Ei-Ei-Poo!”. The levels do get progressively harder and (for some players) even more frustrating, yet the game has been woven together in such a way that I was able to attempt many levels almost 50 times until I either beat it, beat another level and came back and beat it, or played a party game and then came back and beat it. Regardless, I beat it. I needed to beat it, if only to save my sanity. The next day, I attempted the same levels in practice mode, to find that I could beat them each twice out of every five tries. I feel all special now.
Challenge mode allows you to progress through a certain set of levels with a certain set of lives. 100 bananas gives you an extra life, yet bananas are so incredibly difficult to reach and out-of-the-way that you truly must earn them. I have yet to collect more than 100, even on the easy mode (in which you really don’t need to anyway).
Practice allows you to freely roam any and all levels that you have dared complete in story mode. This mode is appreciated as practice does make perfect, or at the very least, a little better than mediocre.
Multiplayer:
Now it is time for a quick rundown of the many multiplayer modes. Each game complements each other very well for a nice, balanced, entertaining time with friends.
Monkey Race - quite difficult to beat the computer, quite fun against friends who suck as much as you do
Monkey Fight - very fun and very fast, pick up power ups and punch your opponent(s) out of the ring with normal or charged punches
Monkey Target - roll down a ramp, spread your ball-halves, glide into bonuses, and aim for the target at the end, can be completed with one or 5 balls at a time.
Monkey Billiards - the game relies heavily on a good camera angle and the ability to ignore the dancing monkeys in the balls, includes US and Japan 9 ball and classic 8 ball among other modes
Monkey Bowling - this is my favourite mode, very well designed, bowl on normal or challenge lanes
Monkey Golf - almost like Mario golf in every aspect, except less detail and an odd ball’s eye view before each shot
Monkey Boat - very hard to learn the controls, but fun once a few practice rounds have been submitted
Monkey Shot - similar to one of Sega’s many arcade shooters, proves how much fun a real light gun peripheral game would be on the Gamecube
Monkey Dogfight - because of a lack of reference points on the horizon/odd depth perception the game seems slow when it really is quite fast, practice makes for a good game
Monkey Soccer - runs a bit too awkwardly for my tastes, goalie is hard to control, PK (penalty kick) mode is still fun
Monkey Baseball - far too random to be considered a real competitive game
Monkey Tennis - plays very similarly to Mario Tennis, including smash spots, singles and doubles matches
Aesthetics:
All in all, the game runs uber-smoothly. From the huge, detailed vegetables in the boiling pot levels, to the immense sunken city inside the whale, to the sparking lava in the volcano, Super Monkey Ball 2 appeases the senses. Not much realistic detail or revolutionary eye-trickery can be expected considering the main premise is about Monkeys in Balls.
Sound:
Prepare your ears for the funky sounds of electro-air organs and thump-a-riffic dance music. Very arcade-like tuneage fill your TV and keep in time with the dinging of the timer surprisingly well. However, not all like dance music or the squawks of monkeys falling to their doom. This area could use a bit more work, or even the option of many different tracks of music offered at the push of a button.
Control:
In the main game, only the stick is used to control. The A button is used only to change the view on the top-down map in the lower right corner of the screen. It should be noted that no monkey balls have a zero turning clearance. The camera is always in a fixed position and cannot be moved. Before anything negative is said about it, allow me to explain how that can be a good thing. In one level called “Narrow Peaks” you must navigate the ball to platforms positioned 90 degrees to each other via bridges that are narrow and peaked, hence the name. Speed and momentum is key in this level as one cannot simply cross the bridges without a running start. If the camera could be lined up with the ball and the ramp then the level would be way to easy and no challenge or satisfaction could be found. Note that this game is called “Super Monkey Ball 2", not “Super Camera Align 2".
OVERALL:
The game, as a whole, is worth more than a rent. The want to play main game is carried mostly by the want/need for play points to unlock things. After unlocking all of the party games, you are able to unlock any story cut-scene you’ve already seen, the credits banana-catching game, or even more lives to start the challenge mode with.
The game is so cute its funny, in a Powerpuff Girls sort of way. If you play the story mode in a public place, you deserve to be ridiculed and laughed at; offer a few games of monkey fight, pool, or bowling and you can convince almost anyone that this is a good game.
But most importantly, chicks dig Super Monkey Ball 2.
The Lowdown on  Super Monkey Ball 2
| Aesthetics: Above Average |
Control: Very Good |
| Gameplay: Very Good |
Multiplayer: Very Good |
| Sound: Above Average |
Innovation: 4/6 |
| Lasting Appeal: 4/6 |
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Overall: Very Good!
"A Must-Buy"
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This game is:
Very Good
One of the more simpler tasks
New gameplay elements
Stay in formation
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INFO |
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Release Date:
08.26.2002
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IN A
NUTSHELL: |
| Practice does make perfect, or at the very least, a little better than mediocre. |
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