Super Monkey Ball

Super Monkey Ball
Genres	Platformer
Developers	Amusement Vision Sega
Publishers	Sega
Creators	Toshihiro Nagoshi
Platform of origin	Arcade
First release	Super Monkey Ball June 23, 2001
Latest release	Super Monkey Ball Bounce September 8, 2014

The Super Monkey Ball series is a series of arcade platform video games developed by Amusement Vision and distributed by Sega. It features four characters: AiAi, MeeMee, Baby and GonGon (who is exclusive to console versions). The game debuted in Japan in 2001 as an upright arcade cabinet called Monkey Ball which featured a banana-shaped joystick. Later that year it was released as a GameCube game. Since then, many sequels and ports have been created.

Games

• Super Monkey Ball (arcade and GameCube) (2001/06/23)
• Super Monkey Ball Jr. (Game Boy Advance and N-Gage as Super Monkey Ball) (2002/11/19)
• Super Monkey Ball 2 (GameCube) (2002/11/19)
• Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (PlayStation 2 and Xbox) (2005/03/15)
• Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll (Nintendo DS) (2005/12/01)
• Super Monkey Ball Adventure (PlayStation 2, GameCube, PlayStation Portable) (2006/06/30)
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii) (2006/11/19)
• Super Monkey Ball: Tip 'n Tilt (J2ME) (2007)
• Super Monkey Ball (iOS) (2008)
• Super Monkey Ball: Tip 'n Tilt 2 (J2ME) (2008)
• Super Monkey Ball 2 (iOS) (2009)
• Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition (iPad, Android, Windows Phone^[1]) (2010)
• Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll (Wii) (2010)
• Super Monkey Ball: Ticket Blitz (arcade) (2011)
• Super Monkey Ball 3D (Nintendo 3DS)^[2] (2011)
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz (PlayStation Vita)^[3] (2012)
• Super Monkey Ball Bounce (Android, iOS) (2014)

Gameplay

As opposed to normal games where the player takes control of the character itself, Super Monkey Ball has the player move their character around by tilting the world itself (the exception of this being Super Monkey Ball Adventure). By tilting the board at various angles, players can control the speed and turning of the character. The goal of each level is to reach the goal gate, without falling off or letting the time run out. Bonus points and extra lives can be increased by collecting bananas on the stage. Early games use traditional controllers to play while many recent titles utilize modern technology, such as the accelerometers of the Wii and iPhone titles. The gameplay is similar to Atari Games' 1984 arcade video game Marble Madness.

Characters

The playable characters of the whole series are AiAi, MeeMee, Baby, GonGon, YanYan, Doctor, Jam, Jet, C AiAi, W MeeMee, A Baby, F GonGon, P YanYan, R Doctor, N Jam, and B Jet. AiAi is a playable character in Sonic Riders and Sega Superstars Tennis (the latter of which also features MeeMee as an unlockable character). AiAi also appears in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. In this game, he rides a banana car and his All-Star move has him racing in his ball along with MeeMee, GonGon and Baby crashing into the other players. He returns in the sequel, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, along with the addition of MeeMee as a playable character. AiAi was also featured in Archie Comics' adapt of the second game in Sonic Universe #45.

The primary characters are AiAi, MeeMee, Baby and GonGon. They are present in many games. Super Monkey Ball Adventure, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, and Super Monkey Ball 3D incorporated a larger roster of playable characters, usually varying from title to title.

• GonGon was not a playable character in the classic Monkey Ball arcade cabinet. His first appearance was Super Monkey Ball on the GameCube in Japan.^[4]

References