2001
funny monkey go weeeee
okay I'll go in further detail
I have tons of nostalgia for this very specific game so maybe five stars is a little too generous, but god this game has so much charm and soul that I don't care. there's only four characters in this entire game: AiAi, MeeMee, Baby, and GonGon. that kinda seems underwhelming, but it really doesn't need any more characters than that, all four monkeys are extremely charming thanks to their excellent character designs and voice clips.
the story is pretty weak I'll admit, it's not even explained to you in-game, you'll have to resort to the Japanese manual for that (not even the English manual lol). basically AiAi, MeeMee and Baby want to reach the Banana Island, basically a banana sanctuary. the road to get there is pretty dangerous though, as there's obstacles/floors/stages/etc. they will need to go through. thanks to a magical spell, the monkeys are able to go inside these balls that will protect them from danger on the way (yes there's actually a reason why they're in the balls). however GonGon of the Gorilla Tribe is after the island for himself and his tribe, so it's kind of a race to see who gets there first.
but you're not playing this for the story, you're here for the gameplay, and it is just complete arcade goodness. there's three difficulties: Beginner, Advanced, and Expert. each difficulty has it's own set of levels, so I'd recommend going through all of them in order. each level has a starting point and ending point, your goal is to get through the level and enter the goal without falling off or running out of time. it eases you in with the Beginner levels and the early Advanced ones, but beyond that the game stops holding your hand and has you go through these crazy levels using your own skill and precision. this game gets HARD man, but it is so satisfying to see yourself getting farther and farther with each attempt until you eventually complete the level and feel like a king. so many of these levels are filled with intentional and unintentional shortcuts, which makes this one of the most fun games to speedrun. you have not become a true gamer god until you've 1CC Expert (I am not a gamer god :^( ). thankfully this game blesses you with a Practice Mode, where you can practice any level you reached in the main game and play them as much as you want, truly an underappreciated mode.
if the main game's getting old for you, you can use the Play Points you've earned to unlock Party Games and Mini Games. each of these six games are a blast to go through, and you can even play them with your friends. Monkey Race is a neat racing minigame, Monkey Fight is probably the best unofficial Mario Party minigame, Monkey Target can be considered even better than the main game to some fans, Monkey Billiards has jazz and piano music so that's an automatic win, Monkey Bowling's okay, and Monkey Golf is a relaxing time. so if the main game's turning you off, you always have the party games to go back to.
okay but can I talk about this game's aesthetic though? this game screams late 90's/early 2000's SEGA and I love it! the visuals for the levels are down right beautiful, the music is complete earworm material, and the game just has SOUL like A LOT OF SOUL MY GOODNESS AAAAAAAAAA
okay I'm being too positive so I'll briefly go over some negatives. the game's difficulty curve is WACK. one minute you'll complete an otherwise easy level, then the next minute you'll be up against EXPERT FLOOR 7. basically hard levels just pop out of nowhere not matter how early you are into the difficulty and that's kinda stinky. another stinky thing is that each difficulty has a set of Extra levels, which you can only access by clearing the difficulty without losing a life (or without a continue in Expert's case). listen I love this game, but that's downright brutal. you only get three lives at the beginning, so trying to make sure you don't use a continue in Expert or lose a SINGLE life for the other two difficulties....yeah I know this is technically an arcade game, but come on. besides that though, those are really the only major problems I have.
my god I got carried away, I feel like I've been typing for hours but I can't help it I love this game!!! anyway, please play this game at least ONCE in your lifetime, you may not enjoy it as much as I did, but you will certainly have a great time :^)
okay I'll go in further detail
I have tons of nostalgia for this very specific game so maybe five stars is a little too generous, but god this game has so much charm and soul that I don't care. there's only four characters in this entire game: AiAi, MeeMee, Baby, and GonGon. that kinda seems underwhelming, but it really doesn't need any more characters than that, all four monkeys are extremely charming thanks to their excellent character designs and voice clips.
the story is pretty weak I'll admit, it's not even explained to you in-game, you'll have to resort to the Japanese manual for that (not even the English manual lol). basically AiAi, MeeMee and Baby want to reach the Banana Island, basically a banana sanctuary. the road to get there is pretty dangerous though, as there's obstacles/floors/stages/etc. they will need to go through. thanks to a magical spell, the monkeys are able to go inside these balls that will protect them from danger on the way (yes there's actually a reason why they're in the balls). however GonGon of the Gorilla Tribe is after the island for himself and his tribe, so it's kind of a race to see who gets there first.
but you're not playing this for the story, you're here for the gameplay, and it is just complete arcade goodness. there's three difficulties: Beginner, Advanced, and Expert. each difficulty has it's own set of levels, so I'd recommend going through all of them in order. each level has a starting point and ending point, your goal is to get through the level and enter the goal without falling off or running out of time. it eases you in with the Beginner levels and the early Advanced ones, but beyond that the game stops holding your hand and has you go through these crazy levels using your own skill and precision. this game gets HARD man, but it is so satisfying to see yourself getting farther and farther with each attempt until you eventually complete the level and feel like a king. so many of these levels are filled with intentional and unintentional shortcuts, which makes this one of the most fun games to speedrun. you have not become a true gamer god until you've 1CC Expert (I am not a gamer god :^( ). thankfully this game blesses you with a Practice Mode, where you can practice any level you reached in the main game and play them as much as you want, truly an underappreciated mode.
if the main game's getting old for you, you can use the Play Points you've earned to unlock Party Games and Mini Games. each of these six games are a blast to go through, and you can even play them with your friends. Monkey Race is a neat racing minigame, Monkey Fight is probably the best unofficial Mario Party minigame, Monkey Target can be considered even better than the main game to some fans, Monkey Billiards has jazz and piano music so that's an automatic win, Monkey Bowling's okay, and Monkey Golf is a relaxing time. so if the main game's turning you off, you always have the party games to go back to.
okay but can I talk about this game's aesthetic though? this game screams late 90's/early 2000's SEGA and I love it! the visuals for the levels are down right beautiful, the music is complete earworm material, and the game just has SOUL like A LOT OF SOUL MY GOODNESS AAAAAAAAAA
okay I'm being too positive so I'll briefly go over some negatives. the game's difficulty curve is WACK. one minute you'll complete an otherwise easy level, then the next minute you'll be up against EXPERT FLOOR 7. basically hard levels just pop out of nowhere not matter how early you are into the difficulty and that's kinda stinky. another stinky thing is that each difficulty has a set of Extra levels, which you can only access by clearing the difficulty without losing a life (or without a continue in Expert's case). listen I love this game, but that's downright brutal. you only get three lives at the beginning, so trying to make sure you don't use a continue in Expert or lose a SINGLE life for the other two difficulties....yeah I know this is technically an arcade game, but come on. besides that though, those are really the only major problems I have.
my god I got carried away, I feel like I've been typing for hours but I can't help it I love this game!!! anyway, please play this game at least ONCE in your lifetime, you may not enjoy it as much as I did, but you will certainly have a great time :^)
2001
this is pretty interesting
if you're not familiar with this game, then it's basically a beta Super Monkey Ball. it came out on arcade cabinets a few months before Super Monkey Ball and was planned to have a home port for the Dreamcast. unfortunately the Dreamcast was dying at that point so instead the game got put on the GameCube and reworked as Super Monkey Ball.
if you've played Super Monkey Ball, you've kinda played this game already. almost all the levels from that game originated here, only each world has different music and a more simplistic aesthetic compared to the GameCube version (I still think they look cool though!). oh yeah there's also no GonGon, no party games, and the monkeys have slightly higher pitched voices.
ngl I really like how simplistic the levels and worlds look, the vocoded announcer and the more experimental music (I actually prefer some of these music tracks to the GC version actually) really help push this unique vibe the game has.
that said this is truly an arcade game at heart, so there's no such thing as Play Points or Party Games here so that sucks. despite that though this is still an excellent arcade game and set the basis for Super Monkey Ball so there's nothing to hate about that. I'd still recommend you to play Super Monkey Ball instead for the definitive experience, but if you ever see this at an arcade, play it IMMEDIATELY.
just make sure you have a buttload of quarters because you'll need them
if you're not familiar with this game, then it's basically a beta Super Monkey Ball. it came out on arcade cabinets a few months before Super Monkey Ball and was planned to have a home port for the Dreamcast. unfortunately the Dreamcast was dying at that point so instead the game got put on the GameCube and reworked as Super Monkey Ball.
if you've played Super Monkey Ball, you've kinda played this game already. almost all the levels from that game originated here, only each world has different music and a more simplistic aesthetic compared to the GameCube version (I still think they look cool though!). oh yeah there's also no GonGon, no party games, and the monkeys have slightly higher pitched voices.
ngl I really like how simplistic the levels and worlds look, the vocoded announcer and the more experimental music (I actually prefer some of these music tracks to the GC version actually) really help push this unique vibe the game has.
that said this is truly an arcade game at heart, so there's no such thing as Play Points or Party Games here so that sucks. despite that though this is still an excellent arcade game and set the basis for Super Monkey Ball so there's nothing to hate about that. I'd still recommend you to play Super Monkey Ball instead for the definitive experience, but if you ever see this at an arcade, play it IMMEDIATELY.
just make sure you have a buttload of quarters because you'll need them
2002
this is the Shrek 2 of video games
I could just end it there but I'm a Super Monkey Ball fan so I'll talk some more
this game is basically more Super Monkey Ball goodness, what more could you ask for? everything that made the first game great is in here and even better. The worlds are more detailed, the Party Games are doubled, the music bops even harder, and there's even an actual story that isn't exclusive to a Japanese game manual!
basically there's this evil baboon guy named Dr. Bad Boon (nice wordplay lol) who decides to steal all the bananas from all the monkeys and hide them all out in his crazy labyrinths (aka the levels). naturally AiAi, MeeMee, Baby, and GonGon are upset about this, so they team up to get all the bananas back and stop whatever plans Dr. Bad Boon has up his sleeve. it sounds a little generic, but I really don't want to spoil the story beyond that because it gets BONKERS. I have no idea what the writers were on when they made this story, but if we ever get another Super Monkey Ball with a story, I want them to get on that stuff again.
the gameplay is identical to the first game: roll your monkey over to the goal while making sure you don't fall off of the level. the levels here have a bit more going on though. not only are they bigger and more ambitous than in the previous game, but you also got switches that change the speed of the obstacles, warp gates that send you to a different area of the level, and a few other cool neats and tricks. likewise with the first game, it gets HARD, but overall it's a little easier than SMB1, emphasis on "little". however if you're playing Story Mode, you don't have to worry about continues since you attempt the levels as many times as you want, you can use choose a different level to go if you find yourself struggling with the one you're currently on. As for Challenge Mode (which is basically the main mode of the first game), you still got Practice Mode which works the same as it did before, as well as a buffed use for Play Points. in the first game, you could use Play Points to get more continues, but in here they changed it so you get more lives, which is MUCH better. 1CCs and gaining access to the Extra levels are nowhere near as frustrating now that you can have up to 99 lives for your Challenge Mode runs.
speaking of them Play Points, all the Party Games are back from the first game, as well as some new ones sprinkled in. most of the ones from the first game play exactly the same as before, and they even have some more features added to them as well. as for the new ones, Monkey Boat is like an alternative version of Monkey Race, Monkey Shot is a railgun type of minigame with bopping music, Monkey Dogfight is Monkey Fight but Star Fox, Monkey Baseball is baseball but the monkeys are the baseball, Monkey Tennis sucks.
speaking of sucking, I'll briefly go over a few negatives so you all don't go in thinking this is the perfection of gaming (though it comes close). like I said the levels are a bit easier than the first game's bunch, but there's a couple of gimmicky levels thrown in that I'm not too fond of (Reversible Gear, Launchers, Pistons, Labyrinth just to name a few). also some of the new party games aren't as fun as the originals. Monkey Golf got changed to actual golf instead of minigolf and it's just not as enjoyable. uhhhh what else uhhhhh I miss the bomb HUD from the first game? yeah I can't think of any more negatives sorry but that shows how good this game is.
truth be told, I prefer the first game because I love the levels and speedrun potential there, but from an objective standpoint, this game is a definite improvement from the first game, and it is definitely worth your time.
play it, play it now, hurry up right now
I could just end it there but I'm a Super Monkey Ball fan so I'll talk some more
this game is basically more Super Monkey Ball goodness, what more could you ask for? everything that made the first game great is in here and even better. The worlds are more detailed, the Party Games are doubled, the music bops even harder, and there's even an actual story that isn't exclusive to a Japanese game manual!
basically there's this evil baboon guy named Dr. Bad Boon (nice wordplay lol) who decides to steal all the bananas from all the monkeys and hide them all out in his crazy labyrinths (aka the levels). naturally AiAi, MeeMee, Baby, and GonGon are upset about this, so they team up to get all the bananas back and stop whatever plans Dr. Bad Boon has up his sleeve. it sounds a little generic, but I really don't want to spoil the story beyond that because it gets BONKERS. I have no idea what the writers were on when they made this story, but if we ever get another Super Monkey Ball with a story, I want them to get on that stuff again.
the gameplay is identical to the first game: roll your monkey over to the goal while making sure you don't fall off of the level. the levels here have a bit more going on though. not only are they bigger and more ambitous than in the previous game, but you also got switches that change the speed of the obstacles, warp gates that send you to a different area of the level, and a few other cool neats and tricks. likewise with the first game, it gets HARD, but overall it's a little easier than SMB1, emphasis on "little". however if you're playing Story Mode, you don't have to worry about continues since you attempt the levels as many times as you want, you can use choose a different level to go if you find yourself struggling with the one you're currently on. As for Challenge Mode (which is basically the main mode of the first game), you still got Practice Mode which works the same as it did before, as well as a buffed use for Play Points. in the first game, you could use Play Points to get more continues, but in here they changed it so you get more lives, which is MUCH better. 1CCs and gaining access to the Extra levels are nowhere near as frustrating now that you can have up to 99 lives for your Challenge Mode runs.
speaking of them Play Points, all the Party Games are back from the first game, as well as some new ones sprinkled in. most of the ones from the first game play exactly the same as before, and they even have some more features added to them as well. as for the new ones, Monkey Boat is like an alternative version of Monkey Race, Monkey Shot is a railgun type of minigame with bopping music, Monkey Dogfight is Monkey Fight but Star Fox, Monkey Baseball is baseball but the monkeys are the baseball, Monkey Tennis sucks.
speaking of sucking, I'll briefly go over a few negatives so you all don't go in thinking this is the perfection of gaming (though it comes close). like I said the levels are a bit easier than the first game's bunch, but there's a couple of gimmicky levels thrown in that I'm not too fond of (Reversible Gear, Launchers, Pistons, Labyrinth just to name a few). also some of the new party games aren't as fun as the originals. Monkey Golf got changed to actual golf instead of minigolf and it's just not as enjoyable. uhhhh what else uhhhhh I miss the bomb HUD from the first game? yeah I can't think of any more negatives sorry but that shows how good this game is.
truth be told, I prefer the first game because I love the levels and speedrun potential there, but from an objective standpoint, this game is a definite improvement from the first game, and it is definitely worth your time.
play it, play it now, hurry up right now
yeahhhhhh this didn't age too well
I may have nostalgia for this considering this is one of the very first video games I've ever played, but I don't think my nostalgia is great enough for me give this an extremely high score
let me get the obvious of the way, this is an impressive technological game for the GBA, shoutouts to Realism for their job on this. that said, putting Super Monkey Ball on the GBA is far too ambitious. you have a tiny control pad compared to the GameCube controller, you have to hold the A and B buttons to speed up or slow down, and the frame rate is YouTube tutorial 2006 quality. all those combined and got yourself a far from ideal Super Monkey Ball experience.
most of the music and worlds come from the GameCube version in its crusty GBA quality, but I say most because some levels and music tracks got cut. normally I'd be upset, but I'd rather handle going through 30 Expert levels instead of 50 with all these GBA limitations. hey, at least the party games that got included here are still fun to play.
for the time this game was cool, but it quickly got overshadowed once Touch & Roll came around, and with Banana Mania being playable on the Nintendo Switch, this game is pretty much obsolete nowadays.
Super Nice Try!
I may have nostalgia for this considering this is one of the very first video games I've ever played, but I don't think my nostalgia is great enough for me give this an extremely high score
let me get the obvious of the way, this is an impressive technological game for the GBA, shoutouts to Realism for their job on this. that said, putting Super Monkey Ball on the GBA is far too ambitious. you have a tiny control pad compared to the GameCube controller, you have to hold the A and B buttons to speed up or slow down, and the frame rate is YouTube tutorial 2006 quality. all those combined and got yourself a far from ideal Super Monkey Ball experience.
most of the music and worlds come from the GameCube version in its crusty GBA quality, but I say most because some levels and music tracks got cut. normally I'd be upset, but I'd rather handle going through 30 Expert levels instead of 50 with all these GBA limitations. hey, at least the party games that got included here are still fun to play.
for the time this game was cool, but it quickly got overshadowed once Touch & Roll came around, and with Banana Mania being playable on the Nintendo Switch, this game is pretty much obsolete nowadays.
Super Nice Try!
Monkey Wars 5/5
okay joking aside, I think this game is neat. Although I prefer SMB1 and SMB2, this game's on the DS which makes it automatically better than Jr.
no story mode in this one which is a shame but gameplay wise it feels pretty good thanks to the great frame rate. due to this the d pad is much manageable this time around (don't play with the touch screen unless you hate fun). the main game is handled weird though, you unlock worlds in batches as you go on, which is not nearly as cool as going through levels in any order you want. a majority of SMB1 and 2's level are here though as well as a few exclusive levels to this game so the Super Monkey Ball goodness is still here. that said the requirements for the last two worlds are dumb and stupid and I unlocked them anyway what is wrong with me
the four minigames from the console games as well as the two new ones are excellent. Monkey Race is fun, Monkey Fight is just as good, Monkey Bowling is still average, Monkey Golf is back to minigolf (as it should be), Monkey Hockey is surprisingly fun, and Monkey Wars is based and has the best music track in the game SEGA please bring Monkey Wars back and remix this theme I am desperate
oh yeah the music's cool. it's not as cool as the GameCube games and arcade original but a lot of music did end up getting remixed for Banana Blitz so that has to say something. btw 2D sprites and 3D backgrounds/worlds is one of my aesthetics and I'm glad they went this route. monkey designs are a mix between the originals and the redesigns and I think they look pretty clean here (MeeMee does have those soulless eyes though).
anyway I'd say Touch & Roll is worth checking out, especially since it has Monkey Wars. please do so if you can.
AiAi butt
okay joking aside, I think this game is neat. Although I prefer SMB1 and SMB2, this game's on the DS which makes it automatically better than Jr.
no story mode in this one which is a shame but gameplay wise it feels pretty good thanks to the great frame rate. due to this the d pad is much manageable this time around (don't play with the touch screen unless you hate fun). the main game is handled weird though, you unlock worlds in batches as you go on, which is not nearly as cool as going through levels in any order you want. a majority of SMB1 and 2's level are here though as well as a few exclusive levels to this game so the Super Monkey Ball goodness is still here. that said the requirements for the last two worlds are dumb and stupid and I unlocked them anyway what is wrong with me
the four minigames from the console games as well as the two new ones are excellent. Monkey Race is fun, Monkey Fight is just as good, Monkey Bowling is still average, Monkey Golf is back to minigolf (as it should be), Monkey Hockey is surprisingly fun, and Monkey Wars is based and has the best music track in the game SEGA please bring Monkey Wars back and remix this theme I am desperate
oh yeah the music's cool. it's not as cool as the GameCube games and arcade original but a lot of music did end up getting remixed for Banana Blitz so that has to say something. btw 2D sprites and 3D backgrounds/worlds is one of my aesthetics and I'm glad they went this route. monkey designs are a mix between the originals and the redesigns and I think they look pretty clean here (MeeMee does have those soulless eyes though).
anyway I'd say Touch & Roll is worth checking out, especially since it has Monkey Wars. please do so if you can.
AiAi butt
okay there's definitely some issues regarding this version of Monkey Ball, but it's SMB1 and SMB2 on one disc, can't go wrong with that.
almost all the SMB1 and SMB2 levels are here (except for the GameCube one for obvious reasons) as well as some new levels from a scrapped SMB3. granted the new ones aren't as interesting as the first two game's levels, but they're still neat.
Story Mode is still here but now SMB1 levels have been added. On top of that, you still only need to complete 10 for a world, which means there's lot of variety on how you can tackle worlds. Challenge Mode got seriously buffed though, 40 levels in Beginner?! damn no hand holding here, this is a man's game
all of the party games from the first two are here at the get-go. you can also choose the SMB1 style or the SMB2 style for the first game's party games which is really dang cool. having all the party games here is definitely my favorite part of the game.
but let's get into those problems. the first game's party game music is missing and that's a big shame. some of the SMB1 music got shuffled too. Arctic stages now use the Sky music, Extra stages now use the Arctic music, and the original Extra music is straight up gone for some reason. some of the ball SFX are gone too for no reason whatsoever. Challenge Mode is also ridiculously long compared to the first two games. you could make it easier by using Play Points for more lives, but for some reason they changed it so that you gain lives randomly! this is definitely a big hit to Challenge Mode, as being able to buy move lives the more you play worked so well, having it being reduced to RNG straight up sucks. cutscenes are prerecorded videos here and they look pretty washed out. also the PS2 version is terrible lol. 30 FPS, missing textures, messed up backgrounds, loading times at every single possibility, I could go on but we'd be here for hours. playing on Xbox 360 ain't perfect either, some levels lag as well as the cutscene dialogue, leading to unintentionally funny moments.
despite those negatives though, I'd still recommend you to get this game if you can't play the GameCube versions, especially if you enjoy the party games. just make sure you get the original Xbox version unless you like watching loading screens.
almost all the SMB1 and SMB2 levels are here (except for the GameCube one for obvious reasons) as well as some new levels from a scrapped SMB3. granted the new ones aren't as interesting as the first two game's levels, but they're still neat.
Story Mode is still here but now SMB1 levels have been added. On top of that, you still only need to complete 10 for a world, which means there's lot of variety on how you can tackle worlds. Challenge Mode got seriously buffed though, 40 levels in Beginner?! damn no hand holding here, this is a man's game
all of the party games from the first two are here at the get-go. you can also choose the SMB1 style or the SMB2 style for the first game's party games which is really dang cool. having all the party games here is definitely my favorite part of the game.
but let's get into those problems. the first game's party game music is missing and that's a big shame. some of the SMB1 music got shuffled too. Arctic stages now use the Sky music, Extra stages now use the Arctic music, and the original Extra music is straight up gone for some reason. some of the ball SFX are gone too for no reason whatsoever. Challenge Mode is also ridiculously long compared to the first two games. you could make it easier by using Play Points for more lives, but for some reason they changed it so that you gain lives randomly! this is definitely a big hit to Challenge Mode, as being able to buy move lives the more you play worked so well, having it being reduced to RNG straight up sucks. cutscenes are prerecorded videos here and they look pretty washed out. also the PS2 version is terrible lol. 30 FPS, missing textures, messed up backgrounds, loading times at every single possibility, I could go on but we'd be here for hours. playing on Xbox 360 ain't perfect either, some levels lag as well as the cutscene dialogue, leading to unintentionally funny moments.
despite those negatives though, I'd still recommend you to get this game if you can't play the GameCube versions, especially if you enjoy the party games. just make sure you get the original Xbox version unless you like watching loading screens.
the day is June 15, 2021. I was watching the Nintendo Direct from that year’s E3 when all of a sudden, I saw AiAi from cult classic SEGA franchise, “Super Monkey Ball” appear on the screen. immediately I go “PLEASE LET THIS BE SMB1 and 2 REMASTERS”, lo and behold the montage of 1, 2, and Deluxe starts playing followed by remastered footage of the levels from those games and I proceed to start screaming and going bananas like an excited child who just encountered their first Shiny Pokémon (in the inside of my head of course).
yeah I was pretty hyped for this game. after the later games went into experimental directions and the controversial decision of releasing Banana Blitz onto modern platforms, it was glorious to find out that we were getting Banana Mania with all the original levels and a bunch of other stuff.
everything is here, Story Mode from SMB2, Challenge Mode and Practice Mode from SMB1 & 2, all the party games, and even the Deluxe stages which were given their own mode. on top of that, you also got Original Stage Mode, which features a good portion of levels that got nerfed in this game in their original form, Reverse Mode that features levels that have the starting and ending points switched, Golden Banana Mode, where you have to collect all the bananas in the level to complete it, and Dark Banana Mode, where you’re not supposed to touch ANY of the bananas in the level. you can get these modes buy spending in-game points at the shop which not only has these modes, but accessories you can put on your monkey, different stylized balls for the monkeys, other SEGA characters like Sonic, Tails, Beat, and Dame Da Ne guy, and even a jump button (if you’re a coward or you like speedrunning). lastly you got the Ranking Challenge, where you can compete to get the quickest time in Challenge Mode or get the highest score in the party games. You can even race other people’s ghosts Mario Kart style so you can learn all the cool shortcuts and techniques the game has to offer.
okay let’s talk about that story, and unfortunately it’s barely a story. Story Mode has the same wacky story as in Super Monkey Ball 2. normally this wouldn’t be a problem as I love SMB2’s cutscenes, but they butchered the story HARD. the story is now told through a comic book-like style and just looks embarrassingly cheap, like they didn’t even have the budget to make it look professional. the worst part is that there’s no dialogue in these cutscenes AT ALL. due to this, if you’ve had no experience with the original story mode, you’ll have no idea what the heck’s going on during the entirety of the mode. gameplay wise it’s become simplified as well. In each world in SMB2, you were able to choose whichever level in any order you wanted to, Deluxe added onto this by including SMB1 levels and keeping the level requirement at 10. unfortunately you’re forced to go through all the levels in a preset order, which kills the variety and replayability of that mode. it tries to make up for this by letting you take on optional missions during these levels, but personally I’d prefer if they just stuck to how they originally did the mode. you also can’t play SMB1 levels in Story Mode, so that sucks. but hey you least you’re not restricted to only using AiAi so I guess that’s cool?
Challenge Mode is pretty great though. unlike Deluxe which combined each of the two games' difficulties which made them go on for much longer than needed, here they’re separated by SMB1 Challenge Mode and SMB2 Challenge Mode, which means they don’t end up overstaying their welcome. a big difference however is that unlike the originals, there is no life system as that has been removed. a controversial decision for sure, but personally I don’t mind too much. the later levels straight up become MBT (Monkey Ball Torture), so not having to worry about using up lives and continues can be a good thing. I think everyone would be more welcoming of this decision if there was also an option to play with the life system like the old fashioned arcade way. since bananas don’t give out lives anymore, you’ll be using them to get points that you can spend in the in-game shop, so they’re not completely useless (at least for a good while). the Extra levels are also just given to you in this mode, as long as you aren’t using the Helper Function (Easy Mode) on your way there. the Extra levels can be pretty big difficulty spikes to any newcomers so be very wary of that.
so about those new modes, they’re neat. Original Stage Mode and DX Mode are my personal favorites. Challenge and Story Mode nerfed some of the levels (some needed a nerf, some not so much) so in this mode you can go through most of these levels in their original horribly unbalanced forms and I love it. DX Mode has you go through all the levels that were added in Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. personally they’re a bit less interesting than the SMB1 and 2 levels, but I’m really happy that they’re here and they were kind enough to give them their own exclusive mode. Reverse Mode has you complete levels backwards, with you starting at where the goal post was supposed to be, and the goal post being moved to your original starting point. this one’s neat, not much to say about this one but it’s a fun time. Golden Banana Mode is….ehhhh? you have to collect all the bananas in the level to complete it, which is fine for most of the smaller levels (Strata moment), but you can bet for sure a lot of them are going to include the BIGGEST levels the game has to offer. completing the big ones is pretty tedious from my experience. Dark Banana Mode is difficult, but not in a fun way imo.
here you have to reach the goal and avoid touching any of the dark bananas or else you’ll get an immediate game over. to be honest, I didn’t really find this fun to go though. I get why others like this mode, but for me and probably a lot of other people as well, it just isn’t my cup of tea.
so those party games….they’re certainly party games. all the party games from SMB1 and 2 are back and unlocked from the very beginning. the party games are controlled a bit differently than they did originally. for the most part you won’t really notice it, well except for the obvious one, Monkey Target. as someone who hasn’t played the original Monkey Target for a good while, I immediately knew someone was off with it in this game. you have to be very delicate with how you move your monkey in this one, unless you want to end up falling in the water. that is not at all how Monkey Target worked originally. it’s possible to get used to it and avoid things like that from happening, but overall it’s just not as fun to play, which is unfortunate since a ton of us Super Monkey Ball fans give Monkey Target such high praise. like I said though, the other party games still play fine (except for Baseball, Soccer, and Tennis they were always mid) so you don’t have to worry about them.
okay let’s start off with the misc. positives and negatives. starting with positives, the main game looks beautiful! all these cool worlds have been remade in HD and they turned out great! the decision to add other unlockable SEGA characters is a nice touch. they didn’t have to do that, but they did and that makes me happy. Ranking Challenge is also a delight, as this game was made for speedruns so it’s really cool how you can compete with other people’s times online. having the option to use the monkey’s original designs as well as having most of the original music gives me a big smile on my face, but the way to do so doesn’t, which now leads me to the negatives. the original monkey designs and music, as well as some exclusive characters can only be obtained by purchasing DLC with real money. why???? you can already unlock stuff in the game with in-game currency, so why are some of these stuff exclusive to paid DLC? the classic skins and music are one thing, but the fact you need to pay real money to get characters that control exactly the same as the ones you already have is dumb and inexcusable. while I loved how the main game looked, the party games don’t look as good. it feels they had the A team for the main game while the B team was relegated to the party games. Monkey Target’s water in particular just looks….off. the party game music from the first Super Monkey Ball is missing, as well as the bonus stage music from the first game as well, how did they forget them? lastly the monkey voices and ball sound effects sound annoying and lame. nothing against the current monkey’s voice actors/actresses, but the original voices just had more charm to them. the ball’s underwhelming sound effects are pretty terrible though, why didn’t just stick with the original ball sound effects? you can even hear a small portion of the original ball SFX in Monkey Baseball what is going on?!?
okay listen, I’ve been very critical with how this remake was handled, but I truthfully really do love this game. I want to see this game succeed, as well as the Super Monkey Ball franchise as a whole, so I kinda got to be critical so the franchise can improve itself for the foreseeable future. does this completely replace the originals? no, but if you can’t get any easy access to the originals, then this is definitely a worthy purchase, there’s lot of stuff to do here. I’d recommend you get the PC version if you can. the modding scene for this game fixes tons of problems that I mentioned earlier, especially since SEGA hasn’t updated this game since release date (c’mon SEGA don’t tell me you’ve already abandoned this game?) so please, purchase the PC version and let SEGA know we still care about Super Monkey Ball.
keep the Super Monkey Ball spirit alive everyone :^)
yeah I was pretty hyped for this game. after the later games went into experimental directions and the controversial decision of releasing Banana Blitz onto modern platforms, it was glorious to find out that we were getting Banana Mania with all the original levels and a bunch of other stuff.
everything is here, Story Mode from SMB2, Challenge Mode and Practice Mode from SMB1 & 2, all the party games, and even the Deluxe stages which were given their own mode. on top of that, you also got Original Stage Mode, which features a good portion of levels that got nerfed in this game in their original form, Reverse Mode that features levels that have the starting and ending points switched, Golden Banana Mode, where you have to collect all the bananas in the level to complete it, and Dark Banana Mode, where you’re not supposed to touch ANY of the bananas in the level. you can get these modes buy spending in-game points at the shop which not only has these modes, but accessories you can put on your monkey, different stylized balls for the monkeys, other SEGA characters like Sonic, Tails, Beat, and Dame Da Ne guy, and even a jump button (if you’re a coward or you like speedrunning). lastly you got the Ranking Challenge, where you can compete to get the quickest time in Challenge Mode or get the highest score in the party games. You can even race other people’s ghosts Mario Kart style so you can learn all the cool shortcuts and techniques the game has to offer.
okay let’s talk about that story, and unfortunately it’s barely a story. Story Mode has the same wacky story as in Super Monkey Ball 2. normally this wouldn’t be a problem as I love SMB2’s cutscenes, but they butchered the story HARD. the story is now told through a comic book-like style and just looks embarrassingly cheap, like they didn’t even have the budget to make it look professional. the worst part is that there’s no dialogue in these cutscenes AT ALL. due to this, if you’ve had no experience with the original story mode, you’ll have no idea what the heck’s going on during the entirety of the mode. gameplay wise it’s become simplified as well. In each world in SMB2, you were able to choose whichever level in any order you wanted to, Deluxe added onto this by including SMB1 levels and keeping the level requirement at 10. unfortunately you’re forced to go through all the levels in a preset order, which kills the variety and replayability of that mode. it tries to make up for this by letting you take on optional missions during these levels, but personally I’d prefer if they just stuck to how they originally did the mode. you also can’t play SMB1 levels in Story Mode, so that sucks. but hey you least you’re not restricted to only using AiAi so I guess that’s cool?
Challenge Mode is pretty great though. unlike Deluxe which combined each of the two games' difficulties which made them go on for much longer than needed, here they’re separated by SMB1 Challenge Mode and SMB2 Challenge Mode, which means they don’t end up overstaying their welcome. a big difference however is that unlike the originals, there is no life system as that has been removed. a controversial decision for sure, but personally I don’t mind too much. the later levels straight up become MBT (Monkey Ball Torture), so not having to worry about using up lives and continues can be a good thing. I think everyone would be more welcoming of this decision if there was also an option to play with the life system like the old fashioned arcade way. since bananas don’t give out lives anymore, you’ll be using them to get points that you can spend in the in-game shop, so they’re not completely useless (at least for a good while). the Extra levels are also just given to you in this mode, as long as you aren’t using the Helper Function (Easy Mode) on your way there. the Extra levels can be pretty big difficulty spikes to any newcomers so be very wary of that.
so about those new modes, they’re neat. Original Stage Mode and DX Mode are my personal favorites. Challenge and Story Mode nerfed some of the levels (some needed a nerf, some not so much) so in this mode you can go through most of these levels in their original horribly unbalanced forms and I love it. DX Mode has you go through all the levels that were added in Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. personally they’re a bit less interesting than the SMB1 and 2 levels, but I’m really happy that they’re here and they were kind enough to give them their own exclusive mode. Reverse Mode has you complete levels backwards, with you starting at where the goal post was supposed to be, and the goal post being moved to your original starting point. this one’s neat, not much to say about this one but it’s a fun time. Golden Banana Mode is….ehhhh? you have to collect all the bananas in the level to complete it, which is fine for most of the smaller levels (Strata moment), but you can bet for sure a lot of them are going to include the BIGGEST levels the game has to offer. completing the big ones is pretty tedious from my experience. Dark Banana Mode is difficult, but not in a fun way imo.
here you have to reach the goal and avoid touching any of the dark bananas or else you’ll get an immediate game over. to be honest, I didn’t really find this fun to go though. I get why others like this mode, but for me and probably a lot of other people as well, it just isn’t my cup of tea.
so those party games….they’re certainly party games. all the party games from SMB1 and 2 are back and unlocked from the very beginning. the party games are controlled a bit differently than they did originally. for the most part you won’t really notice it, well except for the obvious one, Monkey Target. as someone who hasn’t played the original Monkey Target for a good while, I immediately knew someone was off with it in this game. you have to be very delicate with how you move your monkey in this one, unless you want to end up falling in the water. that is not at all how Monkey Target worked originally. it’s possible to get used to it and avoid things like that from happening, but overall it’s just not as fun to play, which is unfortunate since a ton of us Super Monkey Ball fans give Monkey Target such high praise. like I said though, the other party games still play fine (except for Baseball, Soccer, and Tennis they were always mid) so you don’t have to worry about them.
okay let’s start off with the misc. positives and negatives. starting with positives, the main game looks beautiful! all these cool worlds have been remade in HD and they turned out great! the decision to add other unlockable SEGA characters is a nice touch. they didn’t have to do that, but they did and that makes me happy. Ranking Challenge is also a delight, as this game was made for speedruns so it’s really cool how you can compete with other people’s times online. having the option to use the monkey’s original designs as well as having most of the original music gives me a big smile on my face, but the way to do so doesn’t, which now leads me to the negatives. the original monkey designs and music, as well as some exclusive characters can only be obtained by purchasing DLC with real money. why???? you can already unlock stuff in the game with in-game currency, so why are some of these stuff exclusive to paid DLC? the classic skins and music are one thing, but the fact you need to pay real money to get characters that control exactly the same as the ones you already have is dumb and inexcusable. while I loved how the main game looked, the party games don’t look as good. it feels they had the A team for the main game while the B team was relegated to the party games. Monkey Target’s water in particular just looks….off. the party game music from the first Super Monkey Ball is missing, as well as the bonus stage music from the first game as well, how did they forget them? lastly the monkey voices and ball sound effects sound annoying and lame. nothing against the current monkey’s voice actors/actresses, but the original voices just had more charm to them. the ball’s underwhelming sound effects are pretty terrible though, why didn’t just stick with the original ball sound effects? you can even hear a small portion of the original ball SFX in Monkey Baseball what is going on?!?
okay listen, I’ve been very critical with how this remake was handled, but I truthfully really do love this game. I want to see this game succeed, as well as the Super Monkey Ball franchise as a whole, so I kinda got to be critical so the franchise can improve itself for the foreseeable future. does this completely replace the originals? no, but if you can’t get any easy access to the originals, then this is definitely a worthy purchase, there’s lot of stuff to do here. I’d recommend you get the PC version if you can. the modding scene for this game fixes tons of problems that I mentioned earlier, especially since SEGA hasn’t updated this game since release date (c’mon SEGA don’t tell me you’ve already abandoned this game?) so please, purchase the PC version and let SEGA know we still care about Super Monkey Ball.
keep the Super Monkey Ball spirit alive everyone :^)
2021
Getter Robo is in the game
1992
Masahiro Sakurai literally said one day "yeah I'm just gonna casually make a game about a pink circle and have it become one of the greatest franchises of all time"
Kirby's Dream Land is a very simplistic game, but there's nothing wrong with that. you can beat the game in about a half hour so it never overstays it's welcome. on top of that, it's very easy to pick up and go through so you'll have a pretty chill time playing it.
the story's pretty simple: King Dedede, AKA one of the greatest fictional characters in existence, decides to steal all the food from Dream Land as if he was a hoarder from one of those tv documentaries that bore me to death. Kirby does not approve of this however and sets out to confront King Dedede and return all the food back to the residents of Dream Land. very simple story, but it's the first game so nothing wrong with that.
the gameplay is pretty simple too. you move from point A to point B until you reach the end of the level where a boss awaits you. what makes Kirby interesting however is that you don't jump on your enemies to defeat them, rather you inhale your enemies to get them out of your way. if you're a normal (and boring) person, you can hold down to swallow and completely get rid of your enemy, but if you're an absolute chad and epic gamer, you can press the inhale button again to spit them out at another enemy, killing two birds with one stone. another thing that makes Kirby cool is that you can fly over obstacles indefinitely, meaning if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to fly over the enemies instead of confronting them on the ground (I'd be seriously concerned if you found yourself in that situation), you can do that and not put up with your enemies' business. Dream Land doesn't really go much beyond that outside of one-time use power ups that would be reworked into something else in later games, but it's fun and that's what matters. if you find yourself finding the game too easy, then there's an secret extra difficulty that makes the game a genuine challenge to go through! how do you unlock it? you'll have to play to game to find out ;^)
the graphics and spritework look pretty colorful for a game that's only in monochrome. on top of that you got a soundtrack composed by Jun Ishikawa, the unsung hero of video game soundtracks. the man started here, and since then he is still composing Kirby music 30 years later (technically 29 years later as I'm typing this but 30 years sounds cooler). Kirby soundtracks wouldn't become legendary until around Super Star and Block Ball, but that doesn't mean this game's soundtrack isn't lame. every single track here is very pleasant to listen to, from the iconic Green Greens to the catchy Float Islands to the epicness of King Dedede's theme, you can't go wrong with any of these tracks.
I suppose the only problems with this game is that it's a little too short then it should be and that there's not too much replayability compared to the later games. once you've finished the extra difficulty, there's really not much other reason to play this game unless you get into the Dream Land mood again.
but yeah Dream Land is still a fun game despite that. it's definitely not an epic triple AAA studio cinematic masterpiece like the ones you see nowadays, but you got a funny puffball that inhales and shoots his enemies out like stars, I'd say that's pretty close :^)
Kirby's Dream Land is a very simplistic game, but there's nothing wrong with that. you can beat the game in about a half hour so it never overstays it's welcome. on top of that, it's very easy to pick up and go through so you'll have a pretty chill time playing it.
the story's pretty simple: King Dedede, AKA one of the greatest fictional characters in existence, decides to steal all the food from Dream Land as if he was a hoarder from one of those tv documentaries that bore me to death. Kirby does not approve of this however and sets out to confront King Dedede and return all the food back to the residents of Dream Land. very simple story, but it's the first game so nothing wrong with that.
the gameplay is pretty simple too. you move from point A to point B until you reach the end of the level where a boss awaits you. what makes Kirby interesting however is that you don't jump on your enemies to defeat them, rather you inhale your enemies to get them out of your way. if you're a normal (and boring) person, you can hold down to swallow and completely get rid of your enemy, but if you're an absolute chad and epic gamer, you can press the inhale button again to spit them out at another enemy, killing two birds with one stone. another thing that makes Kirby cool is that you can fly over obstacles indefinitely, meaning if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to fly over the enemies instead of confronting them on the ground (I'd be seriously concerned if you found yourself in that situation), you can do that and not put up with your enemies' business. Dream Land doesn't really go much beyond that outside of one-time use power ups that would be reworked into something else in later games, but it's fun and that's what matters. if you find yourself finding the game too easy, then there's an secret extra difficulty that makes the game a genuine challenge to go through! how do you unlock it? you'll have to play to game to find out ;^)
the graphics and spritework look pretty colorful for a game that's only in monochrome. on top of that you got a soundtrack composed by Jun Ishikawa, the unsung hero of video game soundtracks. the man started here, and since then he is still composing Kirby music 30 years later (technically 29 years later as I'm typing this but 30 years sounds cooler). Kirby soundtracks wouldn't become legendary until around Super Star and Block Ball, but that doesn't mean this game's soundtrack isn't lame. every single track here is very pleasant to listen to, from the iconic Green Greens to the catchy Float Islands to the epicness of King Dedede's theme, you can't go wrong with any of these tracks.
I suppose the only problems with this game is that it's a little too short then it should be and that there's not too much replayability compared to the later games. once you've finished the extra difficulty, there's really not much other reason to play this game unless you get into the Dream Land mood again.
but yeah Dream Land is still a fun game despite that. it's definitely not an epic triple AAA studio cinematic masterpiece like the ones you see nowadays, but you got a funny puffball that inhales and shoots his enemies out like stars, I'd say that's pretty close :^)
1987
WHAT EFFORT!!
BUT DON'T FORGET
THERE ARE MANY BETTER GAMES
ALL OVER THE WORLD
BUT DON'T FORGET
THERE ARE MANY BETTER GAMES
ALL OVER THE WORLD
2004
had the bundle cartridge with Shark Tale many years ago, there's some good ideas in this game, but the gameplay can be kinda stinky sometimes, especially with the factory workers who can kill you in one hit
that said I still have some fond memories with this game and there's definitely worse platformers out there, also the music for the last two regular levels bops way harder than they should, good music tracks
that said I still have some fond memories with this game and there's definitely worse platformers out there, also the music for the last two regular levels bops way harder than they should, good music tracks
1993
let’s go! Kirby’s Adventure!!!
Kirby’s Dream Land was already a pretty good game, but Kirby’s Adventure took everything that made Dream Land good and expanded it, in almost a year nonetheless!
story’s pretty simple again: for some reason Kirby and the residents of Dream Land are having nightmares. when Kirby goes to investigate the Fountain of Dreams, he finds out King Dedede took the Star Rod (the thing that gives everyone in Dream Land their good dreams), smashed it into pieces, and gave them to his buddies. Kirby’s obviously pissed, so he decides to go on a journey to beat the absolute crap out of Dedede’s cronies, as well as Dedede himself, and return the Star Rod back to its original form and place.
likewise with the first game, your job is to go from point A to point B, inhaling any unfortunate souls that end up in your way, and using them as weaponry. speaking of that, Copy Abilities are now a thing. certain enemies give you the ability to replace your inhaling with an attack that your enemy uses as long as you remember to swallow them. swallowing enemies isn’t pointless now!!! Copy Abilities really helped shape the Kirby franchise’s identity; you'll be seeing it in every mainline game from this point. ok I lied with the first sentence in this paragraph, if you want to be considered an epic and hardcore gamer, you can search for big switches that you can be found in some of the levels starting with the third world. some are easy to find, but a lot will require you to master your Copy Ability skills to the fullest to find and reach. these switches unlock more stuff to do in the game lobby (I guess that’s what it's called.) you can gain extra lives by playing fun minigames, go to arena and museums to get Copy Abilities, and unlock a fast travel room to traverse and backtrack through worlds more quickly. oh yeah you can run and slide now. levels are even more fun to go through now with these, especially the running part.
this is the best looking game on the NES, there’s no contest. this ain’t 8 bit, this is definitely at least 12 bit!!! the music here is just as good as it was in the first game. Vegetable Valley, Butter Building, Grape Garden, and Rainbow Resort are some highlights. there’s just something charming about Kirby’s Adventure soundfont, but I can’t quite figure it out.
the only major negative that I can really think about is that the lag can get pretty bad when there's a lot of enemies on screen, as well as using certain Copy Abilities (Spark especially). but the 3D Classics version of the game on the 3DS eShop got rid of all the lag (as well as spice up a few of the backgrounds), so you got the definitive version right there, go get it before the 3DS eShop shuts down (R.I.P.).
anyway, epic game, excellent sequel, and this isn’t even Kirby’s full potential ;^)
Kirby’s Dream Land was already a pretty good game, but Kirby’s Adventure took everything that made Dream Land good and expanded it, in almost a year nonetheless!
story’s pretty simple again: for some reason Kirby and the residents of Dream Land are having nightmares. when Kirby goes to investigate the Fountain of Dreams, he finds out King Dedede took the Star Rod (the thing that gives everyone in Dream Land their good dreams), smashed it into pieces, and gave them to his buddies. Kirby’s obviously pissed, so he decides to go on a journey to beat the absolute crap out of Dedede’s cronies, as well as Dedede himself, and return the Star Rod back to its original form and place.
likewise with the first game, your job is to go from point A to point B, inhaling any unfortunate souls that end up in your way, and using them as weaponry. speaking of that, Copy Abilities are now a thing. certain enemies give you the ability to replace your inhaling with an attack that your enemy uses as long as you remember to swallow them. swallowing enemies isn’t pointless now!!! Copy Abilities really helped shape the Kirby franchise’s identity; you'll be seeing it in every mainline game from this point. ok I lied with the first sentence in this paragraph, if you want to be considered an epic and hardcore gamer, you can search for big switches that you can be found in some of the levels starting with the third world. some are easy to find, but a lot will require you to master your Copy Ability skills to the fullest to find and reach. these switches unlock more stuff to do in the game lobby (I guess that’s what it's called.) you can gain extra lives by playing fun minigames, go to arena and museums to get Copy Abilities, and unlock a fast travel room to traverse and backtrack through worlds more quickly. oh yeah you can run and slide now. levels are even more fun to go through now with these, especially the running part.
this is the best looking game on the NES, there’s no contest. this ain’t 8 bit, this is definitely at least 12 bit!!! the music here is just as good as it was in the first game. Vegetable Valley, Butter Building, Grape Garden, and Rainbow Resort are some highlights. there’s just something charming about Kirby’s Adventure soundfont, but I can’t quite figure it out.
the only major negative that I can really think about is that the lag can get pretty bad when there's a lot of enemies on screen, as well as using certain Copy Abilities (Spark especially). but the 3D Classics version of the game on the 3DS eShop got rid of all the lag (as well as spice up a few of the backgrounds), so you got the definitive version right there, go get it before the 3DS eShop shuts down (R.I.P.).
anyway, epic game, excellent sequel, and this isn’t even Kirby’s full potential ;^)
1989
it's okay
2006
pretty good game
personally I only really cared about Bowling and Golf, but I can't deny that Baseball and Boxing are solid too (I don't care about tennis as a sport sorry lol). also this was the game that introduced Matt to the world, probably one of Nintendo's greatest characters of all time, maybe even THE greatest. anyway, I spent a lot of time playing this game in the past, very fun memories.
btw I like how the golf courses came from the NES Golf game, that was a neat touch
personally I only really cared about Bowling and Golf, but I can't deny that Baseball and Boxing are solid too (I don't care about tennis as a sport sorry lol). also this was the game that introduced Matt to the world, probably one of Nintendo's greatest characters of all time, maybe even THE greatest. anyway, I spent a lot of time playing this game in the past, very fun memories.
btw I like how the golf courses came from the NES Golf game, that was a neat touch
I'll never forget the day when I first saw the commercial of this game on my old blocky non-widescreen TV. I was so excited to see a game where I could play all these different Nicktoons characters from different universes in one game! then when I told my mom that I wanted to get that game, I was given the crusty GBA version instead of the cool Wii version I saw on TV.
I've never been the same since
I've never been the same since