Super Monkey Ball 2 is innovative and addicting, and has grown to become on of my favorite Gamecube games.
User Rating: 9.2 | Super Monkey Ball 2 GC
Super Monkey Ball was one of the first Gamecube games that brought about new characters and gameplay.. Most of the other early Gamecube games were either sequels or involved classic Nintendo characters. After the success of the first Super Monkey Ball, a sequel was released about a year later. Overall, Super Monkey Ball 2 is better than its prequel, but still has a few aspects that need improvement. Super Monkey Ball 2 has an original gameplay, in that the player controls the environment, not the monkeys. You can tilt the environment is different directions to move the monkey, so, tilting the environment down will accelerate the monkey and tilting the environment up will slow down the monkey. The physics in this respect are spectacular and the realism at times will be so good, that the game will actually be more challenging. The reason that tilting the environment moves the monkey is because all the monkeys reside in a large clear ball. It's like placing a tennis ball on a hill; because of the spherical shape of the ball, it rolls down any surface that isn't flat. The great thing about this sort of gameplay is that it is very simple. The only control you have is tilting the level with the control stick and most of the other buttons do nothing. This game has both single and multiplayer modes. The single player is split into Story Mode, Challenge Mode, and Practice Mode. Story Mode consists of 10 worlds, with 10 levels in each world. You have unlimited lives and in between each world the story is continued with an in-game movie. In Challenge Mode, you play through the same levels as Story Mode, but you have limited levels (which makes it more challenging!). For playing through these first two modes, you get play points, which you can use to unlock new party games and late unlock movies and buy extra lives for Challenge Mode. In Practice Mode, you are allowed to practice levels that you have already beaten. The singe player is overall superb and is both challenging and addictive. Even though the story is pretty cheesy (a laser beam that makes bananas taste like curry), this game is not for little kids. I have only a few small gripes with the gameplay. The camera, which is fully automatic, can get frustrating at times. The problem with a fully automatic camera in a game like this is that sometimes you need to see behind the monkey. However, the camera automatically stays directly behind the monkey, so to see behind the monkey, you'd have to turn the monkey, so it is facing in the other direction. The other problem is that you cannot keep the monkey perfectly still, which would not be a problem if the camera had a manual function, but this means that in order to keep the monkey in the same spot, you have to go forward for a little bit, then go backwards for a little bit, then repeat, which means the camera is moving all over the place. The Multiplayer is almost as great as the single player. There are 12 party games, which you can play by yourself or with someone else. Some of the games are ones that you have most likely played already in some other form (golf, baseball, tennis, race), but some of the games are unique to this game. The ones that stand out in my mind are Soccer, Fight (in which you try to knock each other off a platform with a punching glove), and Target (in which you fly through the air and try to land on a platform). Each party game has a unique control system, but most are quite simple and easy to get use to. The graphics are not much better than the original super monkey ball sadly. The same engine was used, but there have been slight improvements. The graphics and animations are generally smooth and flow nicely, but are also pretty simple. Basically, the presentation is nothing to brag about, but is also difficult to criticize. The sound is also very similar to the first Super Monkey Ball also, but the tunes are still very catchy and don't get old quickly. However, there is no voice-overs and when the characters talk, they just spit out some machine-made jumble. So, there could be some improvements there. Overall, this is a fantastic game. It has its fair share of problems, but it is a very fun game. The reply value is excellent, between story mode, challenge mode, and the party games, there is probably 40+ hours of gameplay. Super Monkey Ball 2 is a must-rent for any gamecube owner and if you enjoy unique, addicting games, you should also consider buying it. 
