AS SUPER MONKEY BALL CELEBRATES ITS 2OTH ANNIVERSARY, WE TURN THE CLOCK BACK TO 2OO1 WHEN AIAI AND HIS PALS SPUN ONTO THE GAMECUBE AND CAPTURED GAMERS’ HEARTS WITH THEIR PUZZLING PLATFORMS AND PARTY GAMES. LET’S ROLL!

WORDS BY MARTYN CARROLL

» [GameCube] They’re small and cute and they dance too! How utterly charming.

» [GameCube] The famous ‘guitar’ level. Did you dare to attempt the 0.1 diameter wires in pursuit of extra bananas?

» [GameCube] The final Beginner floor presents the game’s first real challenge, as you wobble along a narrow track to the goal.

SuperMonkey Ball was surely the biggest surprise in the GameCube’s launch line-up when the console debuted in 2001. Sega’s game was not an unknown quantity, as positive word of mouth spread following its reveal at the Nintendo Space World show in Tokyo. There, where the public were able to sample GameCube software for the very first time, NGC Magazine reported that, “It was the game of the show for many people.” This was some statement to make, particularly as Sega’s game was competing for attention with two first-party launch games, Luigi’s Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm, a sequel to the acclaimed N64 game.

Yet, there were still question marks about the name, the look, the whole concept of monkeys rolling around in transparent balls, collecting bananas and trying not to tumble into the abyss. Was it too quirky, too cutesy, too oddball? Admittedly, it wasn’t an impenetrable Japanese RPG or a human-faced fish simulator, but would this crazy mix of simian mayhem work in the West? That was quickly answered when the import reviews for the game started to appear in the press. Both NGC and Edge scored Super Monkey Ball higher than Luigi’s Mansion and Wave Race: Blue Storm, with the former awarding it 92% and calling it, “A great concept beautifully executed,” and the latter summing up its 9/10 review with a single word “genius”.