I will put everything on the table right now: This is one of the best games I've ever played. It's a brilliant sequel, and a brilliant standalone game.
The visuals are superb, every single area has its own distinct feel to it, amplified even more if you happen to discover that the backdrops to the stages are actually tangible (it's wild to see them used in speedruns and TASes). The visual effects and lighting are surprisingly diverse (I still wanna know how they accomplish the fire embers effect in the volcano, that shit's mesmerizing). The biggest boost from the original is how colors just POP in SMB2 (in comparison to SMB1).
There's a point of contention to be made about SMB2's level design mentality in comparison to SMB1. The original Monkey Ball's levels definitely had a focus on precision and execution. The sequel's levels are more focused on gimmicks. Some people see this as a bad thing, but I feel like it coexists in tandem with the concepts of "precision and execution". Every single level is like a giant contraption that needs to be solved or worked past. It may feel like throwing yourself at a wall at first, or perhaps you'll be taken aback by the sheer absurdity that your monkey ball is descending upon. However, once you get that successful run, that level just clicks with you, and it is the most cathartic and gratifying feeling in my eyes.
Doubling down on the brilliance of the level design, SMB2 features a story mode with an absolutely absurd plot. It's like an outrageous saturday morning cartoon, and your reward for playing levels is the next over the top, wacky cutscene. To advance through each of the 10 worlds in story mode, you must beat all ten levels in a given world in whatever order you please. There are no limits on lives or continues, so you're put in an environment where you're free to learn the stages and mechanics of the game with no risk. It also so happens that all 100 levels in story mode are the same ones found in the normal arcade mode. As a result, story mode basically ends up preparing you for the trials you'll face in the arcade mode, in a subtle, ingenious way.
The play points system has also returned from SMB1, but it's been altered in the best way possible. In SMB1, earning enough play points increased your continue count, eventually becoming infinite. However, using a continue locks you out of the Extra stages. In SMB2, you will only have 5 continues for any given run. Instead, spending play points allow you to increase the default amount of lives for any given run through the arcade mode. A change like this makes a 1CC run into something a player could increase their chances of achieving, so long as they keep playing.
While I don't dabble too hard in them (I don't have friends to play them with), the minigames are all great, and have an unusual amount of thought and polish put into them. If you ever get tired of physics-based, world-tilting, ball-rolling action, these minigames are a breath of fresh air.
A lot changed between SMB1 and SMB2, but at the same time, not much changed at all. The game is still Monkey Ball at its very core, and that's great. The new level designs are not for everyone, but I personally can't go back to SMB1. I learned to embrace the wackiness, and I'm always willing to go bananas over this game.
The visuals are superb, every single area has its own distinct feel to it, amplified even more if you happen to discover that the backdrops to the stages are actually tangible (it's wild to see them used in speedruns and TASes). The visual effects and lighting are surprisingly diverse (I still wanna know how they accomplish the fire embers effect in the volcano, that shit's mesmerizing). The biggest boost from the original is how colors just POP in SMB2 (in comparison to SMB1).
There's a point of contention to be made about SMB2's level design mentality in comparison to SMB1. The original Monkey Ball's levels definitely had a focus on precision and execution. The sequel's levels are more focused on gimmicks. Some people see this as a bad thing, but I feel like it coexists in tandem with the concepts of "precision and execution". Every single level is like a giant contraption that needs to be solved or worked past. It may feel like throwing yourself at a wall at first, or perhaps you'll be taken aback by the sheer absurdity that your monkey ball is descending upon. However, once you get that successful run, that level just clicks with you, and it is the most cathartic and gratifying feeling in my eyes.
Doubling down on the brilliance of the level design, SMB2 features a story mode with an absolutely absurd plot. It's like an outrageous saturday morning cartoon, and your reward for playing levels is the next over the top, wacky cutscene. To advance through each of the 10 worlds in story mode, you must beat all ten levels in a given world in whatever order you please. There are no limits on lives or continues, so you're put in an environment where you're free to learn the stages and mechanics of the game with no risk. It also so happens that all 100 levels in story mode are the same ones found in the normal arcade mode. As a result, story mode basically ends up preparing you for the trials you'll face in the arcade mode, in a subtle, ingenious way.
The play points system has also returned from SMB1, but it's been altered in the best way possible. In SMB1, earning enough play points increased your continue count, eventually becoming infinite. However, using a continue locks you out of the Extra stages. In SMB2, you will only have 5 continues for any given run. Instead, spending play points allow you to increase the default amount of lives for any given run through the arcade mode. A change like this makes a 1CC run into something a player could increase their chances of achieving, so long as they keep playing.
While I don't dabble too hard in them (
A lot changed between SMB1 and SMB2, but at the same time, not much changed at all. The game is still Monkey Ball at its very core, and that's great. The new level designs are not for everyone, but I personally can't go back to SMB1. I learned to embrace the wackiness, and I'm always willing to go bananas over this game.