Super Monkey Ball 2 (Game Cube, 2002)

I bought this game for my kids, ages 9 and 4 year old twins. Because of the subject matter and cutesy graphics, I thought it would be one they could all play. Unfortunately, the game is very challenging. My 9 year old, who is a very experience gamer, has a difficult time playing it, and often gets very frustrated with it. There is no way that my 4 year olds have the motor skills and hand-eye coordination to keep up with the fast game play. The game consists of cute monkey characters who roll around inside of clear balls. The player has to manuever through increasingly difficult obstacle courses against a timer. Even an experienced adult game player would find this game challenging. I would not recommend it for young children. FOLLOW-UP: I've been meaning to add more for some time. After a couple of months, this game became and continues to be a favorite of all my kids (now 12 and 6). After some time playing, the kids adjusted to the controls and now are very good at the game. A few parts are still hard, but it's amazing to watch them conquer the levels. Some of them seem darn near impossible, but they get past through skill or sheer luck. They also are enjoying all of the minigames that they have unlocked through their progress. There's a lot of variety to the minigames so different kids are better at different ones depending on their abilities. I've even spent hours myself playing some of them. They are indeed addicting! This game develops both hand-eye coordination and puzzle solving skills.

I see a lot of people complaining about this game for various reasons. One reason is its difficulty...it's really not that hard. If you're expecting a 9 year old to have ease playing ANY game, regardless of it's rating and look...well...you've got your head in the clouds. This game SHOULD be challening and it IS. I love the fact that there are some levels that really make you work and work hard just to get by. If you've never seen this game before, it's quite a simple setup. You play as a monkey inside of a clear ball, the object is to get to the goal....sounds easy, but there's a catch: there's obstacles and such preventing you from just rolling into the goal. Each level is like a mini puzzle, with holes, bumps, moving belts, bouncing balls, etc. trying to make it more difficult. Each level will get harder and involve new tricks and traps. This is a great game for anyone, though, despite what anyone else may say. Yes, I said this game would be hard for younger children, but they will have fun playing it. Someone complained about the story mode not having a real story....well...what do you expect? It's not exactly easy to write a good plot about monkeys who roll around in balls, trying to get through a goal line. The plot to the story isn't well developed, but it's enough to just keep the levels coming. Each level has a different degree of difficulty. The sound isn't the best, the music can get on your nerves and the jibberish voices of the monkeys may want to make you turn it off...but they really don't speak often anyway. So that's the meat of the game, and it is LONG - you'll be playing for quite some time. There's a lot of other modes to play, especially when you get the multiplayer going. There's mini games like bowling and soccer and such...it's actually quite fun. Plus, the story mode will help you earn points to get all the unlockables. Also, if you don't want to play the story mode, you can just play a series of different levels that are ranked by their degree of difficulty. There is also a practice mode, so that you can play the different levels. It's a great game, even though the concept and design is very childish. The only qualm I have with this game is that there are a few levels that involve luck, rather than skill. Pushing those aside, this is a great game that everyone can enjoy. I've had friends and family play this game and they've all loved it, especially the younger children. There is an XBOX version which does remove many of the harder and more luck based levels, so if you own an XBOX, you might want to get the Deluxe version that was released for it - it's an improvement. Either way, you can't go wrong with this game.

This is a great game. With tons of unlockable mini games all with multiplayer option, this game proves to be fun alone or with a group of freinds. Also try the story mode, which is still fun to play after being beat the first time. Most of the levels are challenging and creative, to make this game one of a kind.

STRESSSSSSING!!!! I am an avid gamer and there are some courses that will drive you crazy. As someone already said, great hand-eye coordination and motor skills are a must at times or you will go insane haha. The multiplayer games are fun for a limited amount of time and they are definitly a plus over the single player game. If you really want a fun multiplayer game, get a title in the Mario Party series or a Mario Sports game. Heck, Mario Double Dash has never gotten old.

Pros
+ Addictive experience & great for parties.
+ Mini-games you'll never forget.
+ Fun for the whole family.

Cons
- Frustrating to control at times.
- Some puzzles are almost impossible.
- No real depth to the game.

Comments
Monkey Ball is great. This game is highly addictive & frustrating at the same time. Great for parties. Don't pass this one up.

Verdict
Great for parties. Not really more than a rental for the lone gamer. 3.5/5

I really like this game and really wished I had gotten it when it first came out. Playing this after already having the wii mote as an extension to my arm makes controlling this monkey a little bit boring and somewhat less challenging. It's really nothing to complain about just having such intuitive controls these days going back takes an adjustment and can get aggravating. As a party game its awesome, as a pickup and fly through levels whenever the mood strikes its great too. The monkey voices can be somewhat annoying but hey thats what the mute button is for. I do recommend this game especially if you like that old school arcade feel that you just can't seem to get out of your system.

I really like these games, but I suggest that you shouldn't buy it for your 8 year old. These games are extremely hard, and even my son who is 15 can't finish it! But, these make fun games while they last! A+

i decided to buy this game because it was supposed to be a pretty popular game although i'm not sure why because i was quite dissapointed with it. it is frustrating to play and not very entertaining, definitely not as fun as i had hoped!

This game is great! Exactly what to expect from Nintendo GameCube. I bought my girlfriend a GameCube and this is one of her new favorites for it. Game is not overly easy or too dificult...great gameplayer interaction and multiplayer games. Pick this on up if you bought GameCube for it's great puzzle and non-sports games!

The meat of this game is its multiplayer mode. It has an amazing 12 games to unlock with points earned in the story mode, and each one of them is complex while being a lot of fun. You can play these games single player as well, but they aren't as challenging nor as fun.

Story mode is fairly weak. Sure, it has a lot of levels, but the actual story isn't well-planned (the evil monkey wants to date Meme?) and the character voices are so annoying that you'll mute your television before the cutscene is finished. The levels are more complex than they should be in the later worlds, and most are more frustrating than they are fun.

If Nintendo had enabled WiFi for this game, it would carry a lot more weight than it does. As it stands, there is an outstanding multiplayer mode, but no high scores are saved so you don't really feel anything was accomplished. You can have lots of fun with your friends playing it, but you'll also need to play A LOT of story mode to unlock all the games. Sometimes it's not worth it.

My kids absolutely love this game. We had one and it got scratched and I had to immediately buy a new one. It is the game of choice for the gamecube in our house.

one of the better gamecube games. A little hard for a 6 year old and under... you have access to 5 or so types of games but you have to play a lot to get to the next level of games... not a great concept. My 5 year old and I still have not reached the next level of games (which include baseball and soccer plus a few others).

monkeys and balls. yeay. balls monkey monkey balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys. monkeys and balls. yeay. balls monkey monkey balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys. monkeys and balls. yeay. balls monkey monkey balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys. monkeys and balls. yeay. balls monkey monkey balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys balls monkeys.

Forget barrels, when the Gamecube debuted Sega's monkeys rolled out in plastic spheres challenging our dexterity as well as sanity. Old-school gamers can think of Super Monkey Ball as "Marble Madness" with a huge face-lift.

The courses range from short & sweet to expansive mad-dashes that challenge you to buzz through perilous twists & turns or face the dreaded "time over" message. 95% of the time the path to the goal is immediately clear, but getting there can get pretty challenging.

Many of the later courses incorporate movement into the platforms themselves adding to the challenge as well as providing opportunities to pull off some really cool stunts; Check 'em out on YouTube!


Here's my Pro(+)/Con(-) breakdown:

+ Very fun & challenging at the same time
+ Outstanding multi-player (up to 4) experience
+ Very high replay value (those Advanced & Master modes are doozies!)
+ One of the best games out there for developing hand/eye coordination & muliple strategies for clearing courses.


- May not be the best for people who are easily frustrated (some stages require a lot of patience to master).
- Though fans of the first one will probably like part 2, it is essentially "more of the same" without significantly expanding upon the first.

All-in-all this is a great game that only gets better as you add players. It provides a ton of fun and challenge while being very accessible to players of all ages and abilities.

Our family members - young to old - play this game, still, years after buying it. We love to compete against each other! We have a dear friend of the family who comes over just for monkey ball play time - and I promise you I am not exaggerating. We play racing (kids love most), monkey target (mom's favorite), monkey bowling (do the special lanes - lots of laughs!), monkey golf our whole family loves too - but dad and I love to play just the two of us... it's just that fun. The list goes on and on - oh! Monkey Baseball is too fun! This is not a game I would tag as addicting as much as fun gathering. We say, "what do you want to play?" and if someone suggests Monkey Ball 2 we all say, "Yes" every time. I should tell you that when we had monkey Ball the original it was fun, but we didn't play as much or agree as much. We sold Monkey Ball 1 soon after buying Monkey Ball 2. A side note: our good friend who plays with us tried the PS2 version and did not like it half so much... that is personal preference only, but might make a difference for one of you readers. Take Care, Play for Fun!

Nice clean game thats fun for the whole family. The best part is unlocking the mini-games. The further you get the harder and harder the levels get. Great game to have in your collection. Overall good!

I love this game its a good none voilent gamecube game which kids and adults can play together. My husband loves playing this by himself as well as with the family. The game is fairly easy there are some harder parts but that is for the actual one player game they have fun of short games which you can play as a one player up to a four player Highly recommend this game kids will love it so much fun.

awesome multiplayer game! love the monkeys! Hubby and I play this game every day!!! We mostly play the bowling and pool but also loved the challenge of unlocking the other games :-)

I bought monkeyball 2 for my grandkids to play. Thaey had a great time with it, lots of action and not a lot of violence. it was in the condition the seller stated.

My daughter expected this package in a few days and it took a few weeks. We love the game. It arrived in the orginal case. We are happy to have this game. The price was great however the shipping and handleing was a bit pricey. I believe the shipping was more than the item.

The game works perfectly This is very fun njhbgyuguygubybvuyvuy hu vyuvyuivuhv uviugviuvu vuvytvytvy v yuvyvyuvy

Good price for a fun product but wanted to let the seller know he did an excellent job in packaging! Wish all were so careful about sending their products off to customer!

yes this might be a weird game. yes it might also be a huge adverstizment for dole bananas. but this game is filled with single and multiplayer fun. from monkey baseball to the main game. it has bunches of fun.