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Take one simple concept; add charming characters, unique gameplay mechanics, plenty of game modes and replay value that borders on addiction and what do you get? Super Monkey Ball of course! Though few people had any idea what to expect from Super Monkey Ball, it's quickly amassed an almost cult-like following of players and has become a game many a Nintendo fan will look out for come this November. Gameplay revolves around getting your plastic ball-encased monkey from one end of the stage to the other. Though, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't quite as easy as it first seems. Between you and the goal is a series of platforms, narrow ledges, treacherous pathways and other obstacles, all of which require planning, timing and sometimes a little bit of luck to navigate. Scattered throughout the game's many stages are bananas. Collecting these not only increases your score, but every time you collect a hundred of them, you're rewarded with a very valuable extra life. The main mode consists of three difficulty levels: Beginner, Advanced and Expert, which consist of 10, 30 and 50 stages respectively. A timer ensures that you don't dawdle too long, but in all honesty, it seldom comes into play in the first two difficulty levels. Beginner and Advanced can be completed without too much fuss, but the Expert level is where things start getting insane. Not only do the levels themselves become incredibly difficult (bordering on impossible), but the timer which you scoffed at previously becomes just as much a threat as the levels themselves. I can't tell you how many times you'll died, because you'll had to rush, in a desperate attempt to beat the clock. That timer, he'll mock you, but oh, you shall have the last laugh if it's the last thing you ever do. And that's the gist of it really, it's you versus the stage designers and no matter how many times you die, or what stupid things you do, you're convinced that "the next go" will yield success. Thankfully, the many multi-player modes will help you recover your sanity. If they weren't here, you'd probably have broken a few controllers by now... There are two classifications of multi-player games, namely, party games and mini-games. The party games consist of Monkey Target, Monkey Fight and Monkey Race; each of which can be played against the computer or with friends. The first, Monkey Target, requires you to score points by landing on targets placed far out into the ocean. A roulette wheel determines whether the targets will be covered in cloud, floating bombs, plain ol' ground bombs or nothing at all. You then launch your monkey ball down a ramp and into the air, once in the air a tap of the A button will open the ball's casing, which then act as makeshift wings. Now you have to guide your monkey towards the target of your choice (there are always three different ones). Obviously, the larger targets have lower score denominations on them, while the smaller ones can net you upwards of 200 points. Collecting bananas builds up a meter with power-ups. Ranging from double score to stopping as soon as you touch the target, these power-ups can help you net some big scores indeed. Monkey Fight places the four monkeys, each with a boxing glove attached to its ball, on small platforms suspended in mid-air. The object here is to knock others off the platform to score points. Monkey Race is similar to mascot-based kart racers. Players race around tracks, collecting power-ups and hitting speed pads, all in the name of coming in first. The mini-games: Monkey Billiards, Monkey Golf and Monkey Bowling are not immediately available, but must be unlocked by earning points in the single-player game. Each costs 2500 points, though dedicated players can have them opened up in a day. These too can be played by up to four players, and each proves to be a lot of fun. One thing worth noting is that many of the games offer a wide range of customization options. Everything from the number of rounds to the order in which levels are played can be adjusted to your liking. As if that wasn't enough, multiple players can even participate in the main mode! Players can choose to compete against each other either directly or indirectly. The former is a race to the finish line, with bananas awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. The monkey... er, person with the most bananas at the end of the competition is the winner. A neat feature here is that you can actually choose which of the game's many stages you want to compete on, allowing you to effectively tailor the difficulty to your liking. And no, in case you were wondering, you can't bump your opponents off; you can see them however, something which adds to the tension. The other option allows players to attempt each stage one at a time. While players don't compete with each other per se, the person who completes all 10, 30 or 50 (depending on which difficulty level you're playing) stages first is basically the winner. Super Monkey Ball sports clean, crisp visuals that certainly aren't earth-shattering, but are pretty nonetheless. There's only so much you can do with monkeys in balls, but Amusement Vision has packed everything they possibly could into the title. Cute little monkey victory and failure animations, colorful backgrounds and a smooth framerate (even in multi-player) ensure that this will impress, despite its 'simple' look. While it features neither, the attention to detail of Luigi's Mansion or the jaw-dropping effects of Wave Race (hey, I like the water, sue me) its undeniably good looking. The best I can liken it to is a Dreamcast title on steroids. There are no graphical oddities whatsoever, that's right, no clipping, pop-up, or jagged edges - just a smooth, beautiful look with a ton of little effects squeezed in (for instance, the way the goal line rope breaks or the little sparks that fly off your ball at high speeds). Populated with plenty of saccharin monkey chirps, tweets and shouts, the sound may annoy some. Iyou may however, enjoyed the little "eeps" from Baby, Ai Ai and the others. The tracks are solid stuff, though to be perfectly honest, you're normally so busy concentrating on navigating the stages that you seldom pay any attention to them. Sega proved with Samba de Amigo that monkey games rock, and Super Monkey Ball continues that tradition in fine style. It and Luigi's Mansion are too very different games and as such I feel it would be very unfair to compare the two. What I will say however, is that SMB is the best multi-player launch title. How's that? OVERALL:10/10
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