"I really love bananas!" - Aiai
I've heard some Monkey Ball fans complain about 2 making too many additions, saying that it removed the purity and simplicity of 1, but truthfully I think every addition SMB2 makes is for the better, turning an already fantastic into the best version of it to ever exist. Story mode is a great way to allow players to see all the levels without having to get through all of Arcade mode, but Arcade mode is still there for anyone who wants the pure Monkey Ball experience. Story mode also adds an incredibly delightful story with cutscenes, where the monkey protagonists are like a group of superheroes who use their balls as super suits, and they have to stop an evil Baboon from taking their Dole bananas. It's the perfect mix of sincerity and goofiness.
More mechanics are added to the courses in a way that doesn't make them too complicated or long, but instead diversifies the kinds of stages that can exist. I love the mix of more puzzle-like stages, reflex-oriented ones, timing stages, and so on. Every time I saw the most wildly different stage in the game, there was something else a couple stages later. Luckily, the moveset and feel of control has not changed, as perfection isn't to be messed with, which is something that future Monkey Ball did not understand.
On top of the incredibly solid single player stuff, even more multiplayer/mini games are here than the last one, and it's truly impressive how fleshed out these games are. On top of new versions of all the very engaging mini games in the last one, we have six new ones that all also have a lot going on, and are great for playing with friends. I mean, they put just a whole tennis game and bowling game into this just because they could. It makes sense that the guy who directed this would go on to work on the Yakuza series, a series known for it's greatly fleshed out side content. If you put 18 holes of mini golf in Super Monkey Ball, why wouldn't you put an entire cabaret club simulator in Yakuza? (Also important to note that story mode makes getting play points a lot easier, leading to unlocking mini games a lot faster as well)
This is the full package, this is the peak of Monkey Ball, this set the standard that the future games would basically not even try to uphold. My literal only complaint is that the "hurry up" music is unnecessarily shrill and annoying, I just need a countdown man I don't need you to play high frequency attack sounds at me.
I've heard some Monkey Ball fans complain about 2 making too many additions, saying that it removed the purity and simplicity of 1, but truthfully I think every addition SMB2 makes is for the better, turning an already fantastic into the best version of it to ever exist. Story mode is a great way to allow players to see all the levels without having to get through all of Arcade mode, but Arcade mode is still there for anyone who wants the pure Monkey Ball experience. Story mode also adds an incredibly delightful story with cutscenes, where the monkey protagonists are like a group of superheroes who use their balls as super suits, and they have to stop an evil Baboon from taking their Dole bananas. It's the perfect mix of sincerity and goofiness.
More mechanics are added to the courses in a way that doesn't make them too complicated or long, but instead diversifies the kinds of stages that can exist. I love the mix of more puzzle-like stages, reflex-oriented ones, timing stages, and so on. Every time I saw the most wildly different stage in the game, there was something else a couple stages later. Luckily, the moveset and feel of control has not changed, as perfection isn't to be messed with, which is something that future Monkey Ball did not understand.
On top of the incredibly solid single player stuff, even more multiplayer/mini games are here than the last one, and it's truly impressive how fleshed out these games are. On top of new versions of all the very engaging mini games in the last one, we have six new ones that all also have a lot going on, and are great for playing with friends. I mean, they put just a whole tennis game and bowling game into this just because they could. It makes sense that the guy who directed this would go on to work on the Yakuza series, a series known for it's greatly fleshed out side content. If you put 18 holes of mini golf in Super Monkey Ball, why wouldn't you put an entire cabaret club simulator in Yakuza? (Also important to note that story mode makes getting play points a lot easier, leading to unlocking mini games a lot faster as well)
This is the full package, this is the peak of Monkey Ball, this set the standard that the future games would basically not even try to uphold. My literal only complaint is that the "hurry up" music is unnecessarily shrill and annoying, I just need a countdown man I don't need you to play high frequency attack sounds at me.