I have to confess that Super Monkey Ball didn't really interest me at first glance. The concept of monkeys in balls alone may be enough to satisfy a whole bunch of people, but unfortunately, I've become a bit more jaded than that, and I need a bit more than a few cute monkeys (and, damn, they are cute!) to be sold on a new game and the new hardware it requires. And that's ignoring the whole chunk of gamers for whom "cute" is an immediate turnoff - at least when it comes to games. So it's understandable that a lot of people might pass this game up as another kiddy game on the purple kiddy Cube - I may have, too. People laugh at me all the time when I preach the merits of Super Monkey Ball - but never after they play it.

Super Monkey Ball has been described as the successor to Marble Madness, but in truth, it's not even that complex. First of all, there were absolutely no monkeys inside the marbles in the earlier game. Like Marble Madness, the control in Super Monkey Ball is limited to one button, although the smooth, responsive analog pad is worlds better than the d-pads and digital joysticks of yore. But unlike its predecessor, Super Monkey Ball contains no pools of acid, no rival black monkey balls, and no aggravating punching gloves (well, except for Monkey Fight). In that respect, it's more like a cute, flashy tilt on that old wooden labyrinth, or maybe even a simplified Kirby Tilt 'n Tumble, just without having to tilt anything directly. In Super Monkey Ball, you roll your monkey around each floating gameboard, avoiding obstacles and edges, collecting bananas, until you reach the goal. More accurately, you tilt the gameboard, causing the monkey to roll, but that's a distinction without a difference. And, yes, that's really all there is to it.

But if ever there was a game that proved that "simple" doesn't equal "easy", this would be it. Sure, the beginner stages are easy enough - the first few, laughably so - but even towards the end of these, you'll begin to see that there's more to this game than just pushing up on the stick. The advanced levels become quite a bit more difficult, and sometimes frustrating - some require you to navigate narrow platforms while others require you to approach a banked segment from a strategic angle, since you won't be able to compensate for the tilt otherwise. And some make you do this, and then some - beat Advanced 15 on your first try, and I'll buy you a banana. The expert courses are beyond frustrating - they're actually laughable in a "you have got to be kidding me" kind of way. And if you can pass all 50 expert levels - plus 10 extra - on one continue, you can unlock the master set. The two players (as of this writing) who claim to have reached the master levels have said that they make the expert levels look like the beginner levels. For some, this maddening level of difficulty is a god-send, but for perfectionist gamers who absolutely must beat their games to death as well as the rest of us mortals who would just like to see all of what the game has to offer, it's a bit of a drawback. Still, the unattainability of some secret mode shouldn't detract from what fun the easier levels provide.

Fortunately, the difficulty of Super Monkey Ball comes from its insidious level design, not from its spot-on control. Your monkey of choice will control smoothly and accurately, and will gain momentum just as you might expect a ball full of primate might. I've heard that the monkeys have some nuanced control differences, but I personally didn't notice any - perhaps because I can't bring myself to use anyone but Aiai, the scruffy little monkey with the orange shirt. I have only a few small gripes about the control - first, that you can't ever quite bring your monkey to a complete stop (but this is forgiven, since, after all, he's in a ball) and, second, that the rotating camera sometimes makes it difficult to quickly roll back without turning to a side. Occasionally, the camera spin results in a few unwanted falls, particularly when you try to tackle a steep, narrow path and you don't have enough momentum to reach the top. Otherwise, the control is perfectly intuitive (hey, it's just one button!) as well as precise and responsive. The only thing I could wish for is the banana controller of the Monkey Ball upright.

Just like the control scheme, the structure of Super Monkey Ball's main game is simple and satisfying. You choose the difficulty and you monkey, and you start at the first level, rolling your monkey to the goal. Your only concerns are the edges (although there are often obstacles which knock you off those edges, as well) and the clock, which will count down from 30 or 60 seconds, depending on the size of the stage. Bananas are scattered all over the platforms, alone of in bunches of ten - and like Mario's coins or Sonic's rings, 100 of them will net you an extra ball. Every fifth or tenth (or so) stage is a bonus round, offering you the chance to pick up 50 bananas in a limited amount of time. Some stages offer you "warp" goals that shoot you ahead a few stages and yield a massive point multiplier bonus - but these special goals often require a leap of faith, a tightrope walk, or some other death defying maneuver to reach. In addition to the normal sets of stages, each set has a few extra levels that are unlocked only by clearing the main set on one ball. Between the three difficulty levels and the extra stages, there are 118 known unique levels to be mastered. Fortunately, there is an option to practice any one stage you've already seen to your heart's content - a nice touch, considering how fast the main game can burn continues.

As good as the main game is, the real fun comes in its multiplayer modes. Super Monkey Ball has six different and unique multiplayer games that range in quality from "worth playing" to "wildly addictive." In addition to these, you can play the main game with up to four players, either taking turns (much like that other game that went by the letters SMB) or simultaneously. The simultaneous mode allows players to choose up to five stages already unlocked in the main game and compete by collecting bananas and finishing the levels first. I only wish that the balls could contact each other - it would be fun to knock your friends off the edges, assuming they wouldn't hurt you.

More generally, another nice thing about the multiplayer modes is that the alternating games (the main game, Monkey Target, and all the mini-games) can be played with multiple controllers or by sharing one controller (like the Worms games on Dreamcast). Although you obviously can't play everything this way, Super Monkey Ball offers a ton of multiplayer goodness to gamers who don't want to spend over $100 on extra controllers. On the other hand, you may want to invest in those extra pads to partake in the party games with your friends. Unlike the mini-games, all three of Super Monkey Ball's party games are immediately available.

Monkey Racing is a simplified take on Super Mario Kart, consisting of the four monkeys and six different courses. There are no acceleration or slide/sharp turn buttons - only the analog pad controls the rolling. However, you can pick items up from the track and use them with the A button. You'll find the old standbys like speed boosts, homing bombs and banana peels, but my favorite is a polygonal projectile that turns your opponent's sphere into a cube, making for a bumpy ride at best or a temporary standstill if your victim's cube settle on its side. A nice feature here is the option to toggle the rubber-band effect that gives the last-place monkey an increase of speed.

Your monkeys will lace up the gloves in Monkey Fight, a simple but entertaining overhead platform fighter where each monkey earns points for punching opponents off the edge. Here, too, you'll find power-ups that will make your glove bigger, your reach longer, or change your punch from a straight-ahead shot to a circular swing.

Monkey Target is the final party game, consisting of an odd mix between darts, Skee-Ball and, from what I've heard, PilotWings. You launch your monkey from a long ramp, press A to spread his "wings" (the two halves of his ball), and glide to one of the floating targets before you close up your ball and land, hopefully onto an area with a high point value. Hazards such as wind, fog and floating bombs make your already tricky flights more difficult, but you can balance this by picking up bananas which can "buy" you power-ups like score multipliers and increased stopping power during landing. While it may sound odd, Target is my favorite of the party games, although I may be biased because I haven't played the other two in four-player games.

Unlike the party games, the mini-games take established real-world pastimes and throw a whole lot of monkeys into them. Monkey Billiards is faithful two-player rendition of nine-ball, where the object is to be the first to sink the nine while always striking the lowest ball in the table first with every shot. The controls are quite simple (notice a trend?) - line up your shot with the analog pad, press A to bring up a power meter, put spin on the ball with the pad or toggle between normal and hard shots, and shoot. Nine-ball is fun, but I think AV could have easily included other pool games as well, since the engine is would be the same. Also, the balls cannot leave the table, and the spin control is limited to four directions and none - analog control would have been more nuanced and realistic.

Monkey Bowling is my favorite part of Super Monkey Ball - and I can't stand real bowling. The control is both intuitive and precise - you set your starting position manually, your angle by stopping a pendulum-like arrow, your power through a traditional meter, and finally your spin with a press of analog triggers. Like real bowling, throwing nines and spares becomes second nature while the strikes remain elusive. Like the rest of the game, Monkey Bowling is easy to learn but hard to master, and incredibly addictive as a result.

The final mini-game, Monkey Golf, is fun but not as much as the previous two - partially because good golf games are a lot easier to find than good pool or bowling games. Monkey Golf is a simple rendition of mini-golf, complete with an 18-hole course. The real problem with the golf game is that some of the holes will remind you of the main game's levels - meaning that you'll have to make some perfect putts to avoid repeatedly falling off the courses, and that kind of skill requires practice. As a result, Monkey Golf isn't as easy to pick up and play as the other mini-games, but seeing a friend fall off Hole 15 for the fifth time in a row sort of makes up for that.

The mini-games each require 2500 Play Points to unlock, earned from the main game - so each game will cost you roughly four perfect trips through beginner mode. While this isn't enough to matter to anyone who owns the game, those point requirements make what would otherwise be the perfect party rental game a little bit tedious if you're not interested playing through the main game.

Visually, Super Monkey Ball won't knock you off your feet, but the graphics are clean, attractive, and fit the game perfectly. It's fairly safe to assume that this game was originally destined for the ill-fated Dreamcast, and there's nothing here that the Dreamcast couldn't comfortably reproduce. If you're looking for a launch title that showcases the Cube's graphical power, look elsewhere - Rogue Leader is a very nice looking (and nice playing) game. Basically, you'll see your ball, the level, and a themed background, far off in the distance. There's not very much going on, but given the level of precision and concentration required for even the advanced levels, less is more - busy backgrounds would be distracting. Even the occasional lens flare will drive you crazy, and the graphical representation of the tilting of the board can sometimes obscure your view. Apart from technical concerns, the animation of the monkeys is extremely detailed and accounts for most of their endearing charm. They'll run with the ball, only to lose their balance if they go too fast, they'll panic on the edge, they'll crouch into their starting positions before races; and they'll line up their next turns in bowling and golf just like bowlers and golfers. Overall, Super Monkey Ball's graphics follow the same mantra as the gameplay - extremely simple, but extremely well done.

The sound effects and music of Super Monkey Ball are upbeat and impressive. Each monkey has a variety of screams and squeaks, covering their celebrations, disappointments, and plummets. I personally love Aiai's voice, but I find Baby's squealing and Gongon's grunting to be quite aggravating. The game sound effects are rather simple, consisting of modern-day takes on the blips and bleeps of the score-based games of twenty years ago. You'll hear every tick of the game clock, until, with ten seconds left, a voice breaks in and counts down your final seconds, adding to the pressure. Musically, Super Monkey Ball's tracks are simple but very catchy. Each of the level themes in the main game has a unique tune, and I often find myself humming the music from the desert and the 50s burger joint stages. And the billiards theme is hysterical - it sounds like it was ripped directly from a porn flick (or so I've heard…*ahem*). The only thing missing is the "Hey Hey Chu" tune from the Japanese attract sequence. I guess it was too off-the-wall for a game about monkeys in balls searching for bananas one mile above the earth's surface. Go figure.

Super Monkey Ball is definitely a fruity game, but that alone shouldn't make anyone shy away from it. If you absolutely require cutting-edge graphics or cinematic storytelling in your games, than I suggest you look elsewhere this fall - you have plenty of other excellent choices. But if your looking for a damn fine game that doesn't pretend to be anything else, you'd be silly not to at least rent Super Monkey Ball. I can't think of another game that will amuse your six-year-old cousin in the morning, beat you to tears all afternoon, and keep all your drunk friends entertained through the night. If you haven't experienced Super Monkey Ball, do yourself a favor and find a friend or a Blockbuster and give it a roll - I'm sure you will pleasantly surprised.

· · · Burgundy