WATCH
THE VIDEOS!
Challenge
Mode
16.5 MB
Monkey
Race
12.7 MB
Party
Fight
8.4
MB
A Whole
New Look
Although you’d
expect a new developer to bring a whole lot of new
improvements to the table, sadly this isn’t
the case. In the past, Super Monkey Ball has never
been a real visual masterpiece, but instead it delivered
colorful environments and an overall enlightened character
design. In Adventure, the color palette is significantly
dulled down and the levels feel and look more generic
than the creative designs we saw in previous releases.
It’s been years since other titles in the series
have been out, and unfortunately this series is moving
in the wrong direction. To add insult to injury, the
framerates drop a noticeable amount in the story mode
and the camera acts bizarrely from time to time.
Likewise, the
sound department doesn’t offer anything to be
excited about either. The cutesy monkey voices seem
alright at first, but as the game progresses the recycled
clips can really give you a headache. All of the sound
effects in general keep recurring throughout the game,
which is distasteful to say the least. The soundtrack
consists of a few bland techno-style beats that break
up an otherwise awkward silence, but it’s hard
to find a tune that you might actually enjoy listening
to.
Let
the Adventure Begin
The premise
of the game revolved around four adorable monkeys
named AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon, and Baby that need to
solve the widespread state of depressions that is
sweeping across the five kingdoms on Monearth. The
story isn't deep at all, and instead of actually feeling
like you're making progress the story mode feels more
like a chain of loosely based missions. As a result,
the gamer is left with a repetitious campaign of tedious
quests that can generate a frustrating gaming experience
in the long run.
As you roam
the lands, various monkeys in need will ask you to
help them on tasks. Most of your jobs will involve
fetching objects, whether it is a lost child or a
hive of bees. Unfortunately, the mission design sequence
is flawed and can really become an annoyance. For
example, you can only have one active objective at
a time. Accepting a new task will cancel your old
one, so all of your progress will be lost. Furthermore,
falling of a level will cancel your mission and bring
you to the closest spot on land. Rather than being
able to take you back to the beginning, you need to
trek all the way back to the quest giver in order
to restart. In the end, it can be really frustrating
to have all your progress wiped out instantly, which
in turn takes most of the fun out of the game. Instead
of flying through levels as quick as possible, you'll
end up slowly moving throughout the world trying not
to fall off the edge, which is especially tricky this
time around due to a jerky camera.
Plenty of puzzles
in the story mode require the use of magical chants,
which will grant your Monkey Ball special powers.
Some new abilities include turning invisible, increasing
the size of your ball, being able to stick to special
surfaces, or even teleporting to an entirely new location.
Although these new abilities seem like a good idea,
their implementation is rather poor. Throughout the
game you can come across plenty of puzzles and obstacles
that are otherwise impossible to overcome if you don't
have the right chant on hand. Because of this, it's
easy to spend a seemingly endless amount of time to
get past an area only to realize you've been trying
to use the wrong power.
One major annoyance
in the story is the loading sequences, or lack thereof
for that matter. Frequently spread throughout small
sections of an island is a turnstile that requires
you to make about ten full rotations before you can
move on. While this obviously is a trick to mask loading
times, these tiring and monotonous obstacles can be
really bothering, especially if you fall off by accident
and have to start over. While the developers did try
to be clever with a loading screen solution, a cheap
little minigame would’ve been a much better
touch than a boring rotating sequence.
The story mode
is ultimately a flop, but that doesn't mean all hope
is lost for Super Monkey Ball Adventure. The bulk
of the entertainment lies within the party mode that
allows for up to four players to compete in a variety
of different ways. Monkey Races are fast paced and
require a lot of precision lest you fall of the edge,
and it's always fun to punch your buddy off the edge
in a Monkey Fight. Easily the best new minigame is
Monkey Cannon, in which each player build their own
castle and then proceeds to launch monkey balls at
their opponent's castle in order to break them down
and obtain new building blocks. These multiplayer
brawls do add some life to this game, although it's
nearly impossible to redeem this game's unforgivable
story mode.
Luckily, the
developers included a puzzle mode that pays respect
to the original Super Monkey Ball. These challenging
scenarios require you to race to the finish within
the given time limit. Although the first few levels
are straightforward, as you progress you'll be faced
with plenty of inventive obstacles. These fifty or
so puzzles are difficult enough to survive as it is,
but again the jerky camera and world tilt can make
it extremely difficult to maneuver around tight areas.
Nonetheless, it's nice to know that this series hasn't
gone completely to waste.
Conclusion
The puzzle and party modes
in Super Monkey Ball Adventure show that remnants
of the original formula are still intact, but sadly
the remainder of the game is nothing but a series
of random tasks held together by a high level of frustration.
Newcomers to the series should check out any of the
earlier releases in the series, and veteran Monkey
Ball fans will probably be better off waiting for
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz when it’s released
for the Nintendo Wii.
Gameplay
12/20
Graphics 14/20
Sound 10/20
Lasting Appeal 13/20
Value 14/20
Overall
63/100
