Super Monkey Ball is 10 years old! To celebrate, we’re going to look back at titles and experiences throughout the last decade of Monkey Ball in a series of blogs. There’s a lot to cover off, so sit back and relax and we go back to the original games that helped launched the series in 2001! Where did AiAi, MeeMee, and Gon Gon get their start? What sorts of adventures have they gotten into? Read on and discover how we have arrived most recently at the upcoming Super Monkey Ball 3D!

Monkey Ball – Arcade (2001)

The first Monkey Ball game actually arrived in an arcade format and not on the GameCube as I had thought. Not a regular Arcade visitor, this was not something I had seen before writing this article. Being that this was the first offering of a game containing Monkeys trapped inside balls – the arcade is actually a perfect fit. Both for SEGA’s arcade roots and the fact that you can simply get away with wacky stuff like this in the arcades. For example, to make the presentation that much better, the joystick used to control the game is modeled after an actual banana!

Super Monkey Ball – GameCube (2001)

Probably the most recognizable edition of the Monkey Ball game series, Super Monkey Ball arrived on GameCube as a launch title and delivered the wacky arcade concept of Monkeys in balls to a much wider audience. A seemingly too-weird-to-be-good concept actually turned out to be incredibly good, a genre that’s not been copied over and over again by countless me-too brands trying to cash in on what Monkey Ball has so expertly delivered.

The game was, and still is, based on the simple action of moving the world to move help navigate the cast of characters from the start of the level to the eventual goal. The game was very much based on an arcade state of mind – Get to the goal to advance or fall out of the world and start again. With challenges that got increasingly more difficult, the game was definitely a case of ‘easy to pick up, difficult to master’.

Another fun introduction to the series was the addition of minigames, something that’s been a regular feature ever since. The original game launched with a range of optional modes, including Monkey Bowling, one of my favorite additions to the series. The goal is similar to normal bowling, only the setup is a bit different – using a meter, set your strength, approach, then modify your spin to crash into the bowling pins. Favorite might be a bit generous as this was my go-to game for most of my sessions with friends. Thinking back on it now, I can still hear the “clack, clack!” of the meter as I watched and waited for the perfect angle. So fun!

Super Monkey Ball 2 – GameCube (2002)

Launching almost a year after the original Super Monkey Ball, the sequel provided an opportunity to return to the mystical world of Monkeys in balls and provide a bit of backstory into the Monkey Ball series. Why Monkeys? How did they get into balls? Where do those bananas go when they pick them up?! To summarize briefly, read on from the original Super Monkey Ball 2 instruction booklet:

As we know, most of the world’s monkeys love bananas and rolling around in giant hamster balls; but not Dr. Bad-Boon. It’s his twisted plots that have led you into all these strange, dangerous mazes.

Aha! It was Dr. Bad-Boon all along! Hailing from the future, Dr. Bad-Boon is madly in love with MeeMee, but exists in a time where both AiAi and MeeMee are married. To find a way into her heart, he returns to the past to separate the couple and woo MeeMee away from AiAi, failing every time. Enter a new character, Baby, who is also a new character. Arriving at a similar time to Dr. Bad-Boon, but is not evil, instead he is here to warn AiAi and MeeMee – he is also … AiAi and MeeMee’s child from the future!

Super Monkey Ball 2 was easily the most impressively difficult game I had seen in some time. It was also one of the titles that was being tested when I started my job here at SEGA in the Quality Assurance group. I watched as my friends played over and over and over and over trying to master individual levels, paths and secrets. Trying to describe these levels would simply not do them justice, so I searched and came across an excellent trick video from a rather good Monkey Ball player. Too good to pass up and an excellent look at the series from it’s arcade roots and some of the crazy challenges they threw your way:

That’s it for today’s blog, so much to cover throughout the week! I hope you enjoyed this blog and we’ll see you for round two tomorrow!