ULTIMATE GUIDE: SUPER MONKEY BALL
Super Monkey Ball was surely the biggest surprise in the GameCube’s launch line-up when the console debuted in 2001. Sega’s game was not an unknown quantity, as positive word of mouth spread following its reveal at the Nintendo Space World show in Tokyo. There, where the public were able to sample GameCube software for the very first time, NGC Magazine reported that, “It was the game of the show for many people.” This was some statement to make, particularly as Sega’s game was competing for attention with two first-party launch games, Luigi’s Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm, a sequel to the acclaimed N64 game.
Yet, there were still question marks about the name, the look, the whole concept of monkeys rolling around in transparent balls, collecting bananas and trying not to tumble into the abyss. Was it too quirky, too cutesy, too oddball? Admittedly, it wasn’t an impenetrable Japanese RPG or a human-faced fish simulator, but would this crazy mix of simian mayhem work in the West? That was quickly answered when the import reviews for the game and scored higher than and , with the former awarding it 92% and calling it, “A great concept beautifully executed,” and the latter summing up its 9/10 review with a single word “genius”.
