SEGA has never ceased to amaze gamers with its seemingly endless ability to come up with bizarre, yet completely enthralling games. In the past, they used the Dreamcast as their key platform to give us such strange titles as Seaman, Chu-Chu Rocket and Space Channel 5. All of these titles offered up something truly bizarre (Seaman had you talking to fish over voice control, you were saving mice in Chu-Chu Rocket and dancing with aliens in Space Channel 5). So when Super Monkey Ball 1 and Super Monkey Ball 2 were released for the GameCube, they really came as no surprise to us. After all of SEGA's other oddball titles, the idea of getting a monkey in a hamster ball across a 3D rotating level to a final goal wasn't that surprising for SEGA. What was surprising is how fun both titles were, and how they both became instant best sellers for the Game Cube.
Now Game Boy Advance owners can get in on the fun of the Super Monkey Ball series with THQ's release of Super Monkey Ball Jr., which I would argue is one of the best games made for the GBA thus far. While the GBA doesn't have the pixel-pushing 3D power of a full console, THQ has somehow managed to squeeze a lot of the graphical beauty and fun of SEGA's title into the little GBA screen.
Gameplay
The premise behind Super Monkey Ball Jr.(and all the other games in the series) is odd, yet simple. You play the part of a monkey trapped in a plastic ball who gets rolled around a variety of platforms in his quest to cross the finish line. Along the way, you pick up bananas (what good is a monkey game without a banana or two ?) and try to survive levels that break apart, float away or are booby trapped.
The game starts with you picking out a monkey to control. Most of the difference is cosmetic as the monkeys all tend to react the same way. Once chosen, your monkey is dropped into the level. You must direct the monkey on a path through the levels, which consist of floating platforms. Fall off the platform, and your monkey gives a sad little cry and you start the level over.
To control the monkey, you use the D-pad on the GBA combined with the A and B buttons. The D-pad controls the direction your monkey rolls, while you use the A and B buttons to change the pitch of the level, raising or lowering it as needed. Obviously, raising the level serves to slow your little monkey's movement down, while dipping the level down speeds him up. The steeper the pitch, the faster he's going to go or the more quickly he'll slow down. While this control scheme works quite well, the D-pad's lack of sensitivity options can be frustrating. There will be times when you'll want to scream at the impreciseness of the control, but there's so much fun to be had in this game, you'll quickly forget what made you so mad !
As you complete levels, you'll earn special "game points" which can be used to unlock mini-games. These mini-games are definitely something worth putting in the time to earn, since they are a ton of fun. The mini-games include Monkey Golf, Monkey Bowling, Monkey Fight and Monkey Duel. Monkey Bowling is a favorite of mine, as it's straightforward bowling, except your monkey is the ball ! Monkey Fight pits you against another monkey, armed only with a giant boxing glove and a whole lot of courage. Throw the right combination of punches and blast that other monkey out of the ring !
Graphics
There have been a lot of naysayers who believed the Game Boy Advance could never handle a 3D game, but this title proves them wrong. The 3D representations of the levels are spot on, and the rolling monkey graphics are, well, too cute for words. Super Monkey Ball Jr. sports the best graphics I've seen in a GBA title thus far, and has raised the bar for all other GBA titles that could hope to claim they are 3D.
(Editor's Note: While our screenshots may appear fuzzy, the in-game graphics are much crisper)
Sound
As with the graphics, the sound in Super Monkey Ball Jr. is top notch, especially considering the fact that the developers had to work with the GBA's built-in sound processor, which is less than marvelous. The music is the stuff happy dreams are made of; plenty of goofy up tempo beats to keep you chuckling as you play.
Replayability
Once you've finished Super Monkey Ball Jr.'s levels, you probably won't be going back for more. That's not to say it's bad in any way, it's just that once you finally find the best path through a level, the challenge will be gone. However, you do have to understand it'll take a ton of work to find that magical path, so you'll get plenty of gameplay time out of this title. And once you're done with the main game, don't forget you have plenty of hilarious mini-games to play ! You'll be enjoying this game for a good long time.
In the end, you'll be hard pressed to find a title so fun and so challenging for the GBA. While the controls can frustrate you at times, the graphics, gameplay and sound more than make up for it. The mini-games can keep even the staunchest anti-gamer busy for hours on end. After all, there's nothing funnier than a monkey wielding a giant boxing glove. Super Monkey Ball Jr. is a definite purchase for anyone looking for a unique title for their GBA.
See more screens on the Super Monkey Ball Jr.media page
