Super Monkey Ball Adventure
August 7,2006 - Sega’s Monkey Ball games are known for their quirky, over-the-top fun. Each game had specific courses that range from just being slides, to having you think a little more with your ball. The games also had realistic physics, and relied on your ability to keep your ball on the screen. The overall concept of the game has always been easy to grasp, but once someone gets through the first ten levels or so, the game starts to become really hard, and soon, the games aren’t worth playing anymore.

Either way, the games have really been successful and now Sega is taking Ai-Ai and friends in a totally new direction. Super Monkey Ball Adventure is just what the title states, an adventure game. All the original controls from the two previous games are in here, but unfortunately—unless you’re really patient, the fun you had in the previous two is absent in this title.

There’s trouble in the Monkey World. The five Monkey Kingdoms are in absolute turmoil, and two monkey lovers from opposing kingdoms, Monkitropolis and Kongri-la, can’t marry because of this. So to see each other the two always meet in Ai-Ai’s home. Eventually, they ask Ai-Ai to help solve this conflict, and eventually you gain control of Ai-Ai and it’s your responsibility to bring the kingdoms back to peace and let the two get married. It’s all just a pretty messed up version of Romeo & Juliet.

From here on out, your monkey in a ball is now exploring full 3D environments rather than just the crazy checkerboards you’ve gotten accustomed to with the previous titles. You also have to interact with the locals to progress in some areas. But since the game is a platform now, the monkey ball needs a better bounce—a new ability you have with the game. Also, Aiai gets new balls (yeah, it’s funny to us too). Since your default ball can’t roll over water, you can turn your ball into wood and roll across easily. However, if your wooden ball is affected by fire, your money will be running around in a burning ball. But that isn’t all bad, it’s actually quite a weapon and the fire will get you out of cold situations.

A Monkey Ball game wouldn’t come complete without its share of minigames. Some of the games such as Monkey Fight, make a return to Monkey Ball Adventure, and there’s also some new games like Monkey Race, where you simply roll down a course faster than your opponents, and Monkey Tag, where you just have to touch other monkeys and not be it for a limited amount of time to win. Multiplayer is probably where you’ll actually enjoy the game.

The game’s graphics are mediocre at best. While there’s a lot of nice color and shading used at some areas, it looks like something the N64 would run at its prime. That being said, the game looks okay on the PSP, but they can be so much better produced on the console versions. Also worth nothing for players who plan on getting the PSP/PS2 version of the game, Sega has implemented an ability for you to save and continue your game on either platform—so if you save your PS2 file because you have to go somewhere, you can then continue on the PSP during your commute. As for the sound, it’s as quirky as it gets with monkeys and horrible sounds kids find hilarious, but your kids won’t be caught dead enjoying this game unless they’re playing the minigames.

While the game has a lot of solid concepts, a ton of stages, and some pretty good “boss” fights, (if you even want to call them that) the game sadly suffers from a horrible camera and just annoying challenge; and in the end, the experience isn’t memorable by any means. We’re not talking Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden here, the game is just simply annoying and sometimes out of your hands when it comes to raw skill. The game relies on your patience to complete, and apparently, not a lot of us have it. Even Anthony Perez threw his PSP out the window, and Jon Novak’s Wavebird battery cover is lost. The game is a bargain title for $29.99 on the GameCube, PSP, and PS2 platforms, but we’ve warned you—buy at your own risk.

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