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GameCube | Family | Super Monkey Ball 2

Boxart for Super Monkey Ball 2
Super Monkey Ball 2 15 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 4.0
  • FUN FACTOR 4.5
  • AVG USER SCORE 3.6
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.4
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Super Monkey Ball 2

Review by STARDINGO | 08/28/2002 | 11:02:30 AM PST

AIAI, MEEMEE, BABY, and GONGON do battle against the evil DR. BAD-BOON?and play lots of doubles tennis along the way!

Okay, so Super Monkey Ball 2 is more like an expansion pack than a full-blown sequel?but so what? There?s no way that more monkeys in plastic balls could possibly be a bad thing.

Exemplary Ape Orb
While there?s nothing new at the core of Super Monkey Ball 2?the graphics engine, controls, and even most of the sound effects are direct lifts from the original?these apes have evolved in other ways. The most immediately obvious improvement comes with the addition of a Story mode to the one-player game, in which AIAI, GONGON, and the rest of the gang get to play simian versions of Powerpuff Girls and take on a nefarious, banana-stealing, MEEMEE-ogling primate named DR. BAD-BOON. The gameplay is still exactly as it was before?guide a monkey-filled marble to a goal on some impossible Salvador Dali Labyrinth game table?though the addition of cut-scenes ramps the absurdity to Level 11, and unlimited continues makes the insanely cranked-up difficulty of the stages much more tolerable than in the original.

Magnificent Primate Globe
Not that you really give a crap about single-player mode?even with the improvements, it?s still just an obstacle to unlocking all the multiplayer Monkey Balling. SMB2 boasts six new multiplayer games in addition to refined versions of the six originals, doubling the original?s already high mini-game quotient. Old favorites like Monkey Bowling now let you choose lanes with baffling bumps and undulating floors; Monkey Fight has been buttressed with new power-ups, a chargeable super punch, and a crazy new ?survival mode? in which the floor collapses around your feet. And Monkey Target?a favorite before, despite its flaws?is now super-enhanced, thanks to the addition of more ?in-flight? items to grab, five-ball formations, and the fact that you and your friends can all play simultaneously instead of taking turns. Monkey Golf is now much closer to ?real? golf than the previous mini-golf game. The only ?obvious improvement? that didn?t get addressed was the lack of a much-needed save feature to break up long rounds of Monkey Golf.

The six new games (Boat, Shot, Dogfight, Soccer, Baseball, Tennis) are just as addictive, if not as finely polished. Monkey Shot is a sort of (rather inexplicable) Time Crisis clone; Monkey Dogfight missile-laden deathmatch recalls the fun 4P battles in the N64 Star Fox; and Monkey Baseball wisely shirks any notion of playing like real baseball in favor of being something akin to a board game crossed with monkey pinball (hey, wait, why isn?t there Monkey Pinball?). Dogfight, Tennis, and Baseball are all big winners; Boat and Shot are at least decent; if there?s a ?loser? in the bunch, it?s probably Monkey Soccer; the controls seem unresponsive, and the game for some really annoying reason doesn?t let you manually choose which Monkey teammate to control on defense.

Fabulous Simian Sphere
Not only is SMB2 packed with monkeys, it?s also packed with gameplay and ridiculous multiplayer value, and makes the original game all but obsolete. No, Monkey Golf isn?t quite Hot Shots?and no, Monkey Race isn?t quite Mario Kart?but they?re closer to ?em than a mini-game has any right to be. The presence of apes in clear plastic balls picks up the slack.