Super monkey ball

Well, they plumb thunk of everything. Who would of thought that putting monkeys in hamster balls could be so much fun?

Super Monkey ball is a very good cross of plain single player fun with multiplayer action. The main game consists of a monkey in a ball (hence the name), trying to get to the goal. This is not performed the way that you'd think. Rather than moving the monkey, you actually tilt the level and the monkey just rolls around. This may sound easy, but it gets pretty hard pretty fast. In fact, if you can beat all 50 expert levels without losing a single life, The Cube will erect a statue in your honor. The nearby picture is of the last level in advanced mode.

This game really gives your analog joystick a whirl. You tend to get that nervous edgy feeling when playing, and your thumb is moving in a feverish manner. The controls are ridiculously simple: the joystick moves, and the start button pauses, THAT'S IT.

The other parts of the game is where the fun really starts, at first you have three party games. The first is monkey fight, or monkeys, in balls, with spring loaded punching gloves (pretty self explanatory). Monkey race consists of a few levels and weapons and a race like that of Mario Kart 64. Monkey target is the most unique of all. Launch a monkey ball of a huge ski ramp and then, in midair, opening the ball to create wings. The player must then close the ball and land on a target. Accuracy equals points.

The mini games must be unlocked from playing the main game. These three games are monkey tennis, billiards, and golf. Billiards gets boring pretty fast, and golf gets too hard, too fast, but bowling is very fun. The pins are more realistic than other game (if there are any others) and the game is just fun.

The visuals are all right, the graphics are decent, but the frame rate is incredible. This game, because it is rather simple, didn't require a large amount of graphical use, so Nintendo decided to throw in some beautiful backgrounds.

This game doesn't last very long, and gets pretty boring, so it's a better idea to rent instead of buy, but make sure you have some friends to play with you. If you feel that you gotta' buy, get Super Monkey Ball 2.

Report Card
Controls	Too easy.	+++
Length	Not too long.	---
Graphics	Decent.	-
Sound	Cool new music, that sounds familiar, but isn't.	++
Plot	None.	---
Playability	HARD.	--
Overall: B-