Super Monkey Ball 2
| Super Monkey Ball 2 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Sega |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Toshihiro Nagoshi |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Gamecube |
| Release | August 26, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer, Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
Super Monkey Ball 2 is the sequel to Super Monkey Ball. Like its predecessor, the game is played by guiding a monkey across mazes and obstical courses. Unlike the original Super Monkey Ball game, however, there is a story that accompanies the main game.
Game play
Levels
Each level is made up of a large starting platform, checkered platforms, and at least one arch-shaped goal that marks the end of the level. Many levels also have moving platforms, buttons that control the speed and direction of moving parts, and other various obsticals.
The levels have extreme variety. For example, one level comprises of a haphazard collection of platforms that rotate vertically, while another is nothing more than a gaint ramp. In the first level, there are no obstacles whatsoever, while one of the last levels requires players to memorize a maze that has invisible passages.
There are two ways to fail a level: falling off the maze or running out of time. In most mazes, there is a one minute time limit. However, in some mazes, players are only given thirty seconds. Very few of the levels have any protection from falling off the maze. Falling off the maze is called a "fall out."
Modes
There are three game modes for the main game (there are minigames in Super Monkey Ball 2, see below). They are story mode, challenge mode, and practice mode.
Story Mode
In story mode, the player is given an unlimited number of lives to complete 100 levels. The levels are grouped into ten sets, called worlds, of ten mazes each. Within a world, the player is free to complete the levels in any order he or she chooses, but the worlds must be played in order, no levels may be skipped, and no level may be played again after it is cleared. In-between worlds, a story about how the four monkeys from the original Super Monkey Ball (Aiai, Baby, Meemee, and Gongon) attempt to regain bananas stolen by the evil professor Dr. Bad-boon is told.
Challenge Mode
There are four difficulties to challenge mode: beginner, advanced, expert, and master. The beginner difficulty goes through the first ten levels of the story mode, advanced goes through thirty more, and expert uses the last fifty. (The last ten levels of story mode are not used in challenge mode.) By completing all of the levels in a difficulty without running out of lives, players advance onto ten extra stages, which are significantly more difficult. Finishing all of the levels in the expert difficulty (including the extra levels) without running out of lives unlocks the master difficulty, which has twenty levels (including the master extra ones) that are extremely difficult.
One main difference between story mode and challenge mode is that challenge mode does not grant players a limitless supply of lives. At first, the number of lives is set to three, but that number can be increased later.
Depending on the difficulty chosen, the player is given three to five continues. The harder the difficulty, the more continues are given to the player.
Another difference between the challenge and story modes is that you can skip levels in challenge mode. Most goals are blue and advance you to the next level, but occasionally a green or red goal will appear. (Green goals cannot be found without a blue goal on the same level, and green goals are usually a prequisite for the appearance of red goals, except in one level which contains only a red goal and blue goal.) The green goals are harder to reach then the blue goals and the red goals are even harder than the green goals. The payoff is that they give you several thousand bonus points in both story and challenge mode, and they let you skip levels in challenge mode. Green goals skip one level, but red goals skip many more. The number depends on each red goal.
One more difference is that there are bonus levels in challenge mode. These levels have lots of bananas scattered around themselves. Also, the player will not lose a life if he or she falls out or runs out of time.
Practice Mode
Practice mode allows players to play any level they have reached as many times as they want in either of the two other modes. The player is given an unlimited number of lives, but scores are not recorded.
Points
There are two types of points: regular points and Play Points.
Regular Points
These are earned by picking up bananas scattered around the levels and quickly completing mazes.
There are two sizes of bananas. A lone banana is worth 100 points. However, a rarer banana bunch is worth 10 bananas, or 1,000 points. There is a side benefit from collecting bananas: every 100 bananas gives the player an extra life in challenge mode.
When a player finishes a level, he or she is awarded 1 point for every 1/100th of a second left (or 100 points for every second). That figure is doubled if the player finishes the level in less than half the time limit.
Points, like the ancient games of previous decades, are used to rate how well you played the game. The more points you earn, the higher up your name appears on a high socore list.
Play Points
Play points are earned by playing the game well. The longer and better you play the game, the more play points are awarded at the end. Unlike regular points, play points are carried over from each game.
Play poinsts are used to "buy" minigames, additional lives, and cut scenes. At first, you can only use play points to unlock six of the minigames for 2,500 points each. Once those are unlocked, a new menu option, called Gifts, will be available. In this option, the starting number of lives in challenge mode can be increased for 500 points a life (for a maximum of 99 lives), each cut scene can be played any time the player wishes for 1,000 points each movie, and the credits minigame can be played after unlocking it for 1,000 points.
After everything is unlocked, the highest number of playpoints earned in a single game will be recorded, and the player is invited to try to beat his or her record.
Party Games
There are 12 mini games, called party games, in Super Monkey Ball 2. They are Monkey Race 2, Monkey Fight 2, Monkey Target 2, Monkey Billiards 2, Monkey Bowling 2, Monkey Golf 2, Monkey Boat, Monkey Shot, Monkey Dogfight, Monkey Soccer, Monkey Baseball, and Monkey Tennis. All of the party games without "2" in their name are locked at the start of the game and are unlocked by earning play points.
Monkey Race 2
This game is straightforward: players try to make monkeys go around looped mazes faster than anyone else. The mazes are littered with items, which can be used to slow down other players or speed the user's monkey up. If a player falls, out, he or she will be placed back on the maze, but the player will have lost time.
Monkey Golf 2
This game ranges from regular holes to insane crazy golf types. Playing is straight forward, trying to get the ball into the hole in the smallest number of shots.
Monkey Fight 2
In this game, all of the monkeys have giant punching gloves attached to the outside of their balls. Players try to use the gloves to knock other monkeys off of an arena. Depending on how the game is set up, either the last person left wins or knocking another player off wins the attacker points and whoever has the most points after a minute ends. Items will occasionally appear in large blue boxes and increase the power of the collector's glove.
Monkey Target 2
The goal of this game is to fly a monkey to and fall on a target. At the start of every round, the players are placed on a huge ramp facing an ocean with floating targets. The monkeys are rolled down the ramp and launched into the air, where the monkeys' balls open up like wings. The monkeys fly over to the targets and then close their balls to fall onto them (the targets). Depending on where the monkeys land, they score a different amount of points.
If a player flies his or her monkeys around carelessly, he or she may cause them to lose control and fall into the ocean. This does not end the game, but no points are scored for the round. A game lasts three or six rounds.