Super Monkey Ball (game): I disagree with the critics
It's been one of those weeks for me - and it is probably starting to appear as though I am intentionally trying to find critical opinions and try to find a way to disagree with them, but I assure you, this is all a coincidence.
I am writing about GameCube a lot lately because I recently gave mine away to a friend. I brought it over here with me to Thailand well over 10 years ago, blew up the power supply once because I was unaware of the voltage difference, get a replacement power supply, and somewhere in the past 5 years or so I put it in a box and never used it. This time, upon taking it out of the box I realized that it was time to give it a new home. Anyway, that's a little bit of a backstory as to why I am writing about GameCube so much lately.
On to Super Monkey Ball
This title was given high marks by most critics and is actually ranked in the top 25 Gamecube games of all time and I'm just like huh? Where is this coming from? This game was extremely repetitive and the sound effects while initially endearing become annoying really fast.
The game operates like this: You have a monkey pal in a hamster-ball-type-thing and you have to navigate them to the other side of each level by tilting the entire floor of the arena - IE the ball itself has no propulsion and is just at the whim of physics.
There are various obstacles along the way, the most annoying of which is where you simply fly off the side of the board into the great monkey abyss below. Then some cute animation happens while you wait to reload the level if you so choose. This cute animation again, starts out as "awwwww" and ends up being "get off my screen" after you have seen it 100 times or so.
This game lost its charm for me after just an hour or so and I think i put it away and waited for other people to come over as this is considered a "party game." Normally my friends would lose interest in about the same amount of time it took for me to do so.
I kind of got a bit of motion sickness just watching part of that but it does a good job showing what the gameplay is generally like.
Basically, i feel as though this game doesn't deserve to be ranked as high as it is. I don't think it is a good game and am happy that i only paid like $8 for it at a used-game store.
I have to vehemently disagree. While I don't play a GameCube unless it is at a family get-together, this is one of the games we always come back to. It is challenging as we forget how to play it, the racing is fun, and the billiard game is enjoyable as well.
I can't really describe what makes it good other than it is a challenging multiplayer that isn't harsh. It isn't like playing NBA '06 where it is challenging to relearn the game, but no matter how long you play during the get-together you still suck horribly.
The only GameCube game I come back to like this is BeyBlade V Force. Again, fun and easy to relearn. An ideal party game. That said, when I use to play the GameCube for hours Super Monkey Ball was still one of the games I could play for hours on end.
well here we go. I guess this is the reason why the game is so highly rated. :)
That said, I can understand the motion sickness. I don't get motion sickness, but it is easy for the game to make you lose the sense of where you are in the game itself because of the shifting camera and stage angles.
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it's just a ok game XDD
I agree from your point of view, this game was silly for me, AS one of my peer used to play this, which I am not a fan of. like you seriously wasted you $8 too!
I never got into monkey ball much, except for that one adventure game for which the name escapes me. It's a decent IP with some creativity, unique gameplay, and just enough polish so glitches are pretty rare. Yeah, most of the levels are incredibly frustrating, but I find a bit difficulty more enjoyable than a total lack of it. It is a lot of fun as a party game, too.