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Techtite's GameCube Reviews! |
"Whoever said that it would be easy trying to find reasons for a monkey to be in a rolling ball?" ---from the review ----------------- Sidebar : ----------------- No "Sidebar" Comments for this review. Yet... ----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
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Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Click picture to order this game (Game Cube) A Techtite ReviewRealists will tell you that monkeys don't speak English. So, if their language meant anything, it would still sound like "Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki" spoken 100 times. That's the "realist" way of looking at it. All of these realists should be rounded up and forced to play Super Monkey Ball Adventure...which, aside from hearing "Ooki" 10 thousand times in one game sitting, could've been a really fun game.
Spin doctors everywhere will ask what the problem is here. When it comes to silly adventuring, I agree. Why does Mario always need stars? The same reason Sonic needs rings, I suppose. Which is to say: it's all just a game. I have no problem with a monkey going up to the top of a precarious lighthouse so his buddy can take a picture of him up there. When it comes to gaming, that's totally understandable. What a game must always be, however, is fun. That is to say: prior to each and every challenge, you shouldn't have to endure yet another monkey saying "Ooki" 1,000 times. Have I mentioned enough yet, how annoying it is to hear "Ooki" every five minutes? No. Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki!
One may wonder what the original game designers were thinking, when making an otherwise enjoyable game so unnecessarily annoying. The best answer is: they weren't, because they didn't design this. Travelers Tales was called in to make this not-exactly-sequel to the monkey ball games. They apparently felt that monkeys need to be doing something while in a rolling ball. That's fair enough, yet what's with all the Ooki nonsense? It sounds like I'm nitpicking on one gripe, and believe me; play this game for two hours straight, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki...! All this is a shame, because at its core this is still the same "monkey ball." It's adventure format often makes it even better, with you often asked to roll through a maze in a specific way to find an item, as opposed to simply finding the "finish" line. The special moves are cool, too, and aside from all the Ooki Ooki Ooki malarkey, the overall game is pretty fun. It's also an easy game for even little kids to get the hang of. It's not like they make you run around with a squirt gun on your back, which must be precariously aimed with every shot. No; only Super Mario can get away with game formulas that dumb.
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
Not
that all is a rose bed of thorns. In its
most basic form, this is exactly what you'd expect another monkey ball
game to be...in adventure game form.
What the word "adventure" means is that all of those ball
mazes that you used to roll the little monkeys through, are now part of a
larger world with challenges to solve. You seek out monkeys that
look distressed, and you talk to them, to see what you can do to cheer them
up. For the most part, these challenges are "search for a missing baby monkey"
or "glide overhead to catch all the baby bird eggs floating over geysers."
Yes you read that last quest correctly. Whoever said it would be easy to find reasons
for a monkey to be in a rolling ball?
Fans of
the classic monkey ball game formula should not be too disappointed.
The "maze floating in mid-air" monkey ball levels are, oddly enough, parts of
"door locks" on various islands. These locked doors have five warp pads in
front of them. Each warp pad leads to one classic-style
monkey ball maze floating in mid-air. Only four warp pads need to be
unlocked (or solved, as it were) in order for the door to open. This is where this "adventure" is just like any
other game in the series, so fans should be happy.
These doors are within a larger
"adventure" world, and therein lies both the pluses and minuses of
this sequel. Let's cover the good news first. For one thing, these levels are
very well
designed. While the first parts of the game are within the obligatory
"monkeys in the jungle" setting, don't be fooled. Later levels are
within a giant amusement park, and another place with giant gears and
mechanics all around, that sort of looks
like what might be built if 100 monkeys played Myst. These levels are
lots of fun.
Here's
what's even more fun:
special powers. On occasion you're given a secret code. These codes unlock skills, like a giant boxing glove that breaks giant boulders in
your way, or learning the ability to fly (or glide, to be precise). These
codes are easily remembered so you'll be making your monkey say "Eek
eek Poo" in no time. Hey; at least "eek eek poo" is better than Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki
Ooki Ooki...
Now
for the bad news: while this adventure world has most of the pluses of the
original games, and even adds one or two more, it still follows the "monkey ball"
game formula. If you fall, you are sent back to square one of that challenge. This is always the moment before
you spoke to the monkey, so you must talk to that monkey, again and again, to
restart the challenge. What did you just say, monkey? Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki
Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki? Really...? Well, I'll try...d'oh! I
fell. Okay; I'll try again. What's that, monkey? Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki
Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki? You don't say. I'll try again...and slip off the
thin little bridge. Time to try again. No, monkey; I know what to do. What?
I still need to hear you tell me what to do like I'm still in diapers?
Oooookayyyy. Ooki
Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki Ooki. Whatever, dude.