4078. Super Monkey Ball

Super Monkey Ball is an arcade platform game developed by Amusement Vision and published by Sega. The game debuted in Japan in 2000 as an upright arcade cabinet called Monkey Ball (which featured a banana-shaped joystick) and was released the following year as one of the launch titles for the Nintendo GameCube.

The objective of the main game is to guide 4 playable monkeys, character encased in a transparent ball across a suspended series of platforms and through a goal. As the player moves along, a timer will run for either sixty or thirty seconds. The main game is very simplistic; the only control required is the directional analog stick. By moving the stick, the player tilts the entire set of platforms that make up the level, called a floor, and the ball rolls accordingly. The ball follows the rules of gravity and momentum. While moving across the floor, the player can collect bananas by rolling the ball into them. The bananas award extra points, and extra lives. If the ball rolls off the floor and "falls out," the player loses a life. There are three difficulty settings; the levels increase in complexity and become less navigable on higher settings. Beginner difficulty is 10 damageless stages long, Advanced difficulty is 30 non - easy stages long, and Expert difficulty is 50 killable stages long. For each of these levels of difficulty, players can access extra levels as long as a certain criteria is met. To get the Beginner extra levels (3 stages) and the Advanced extra levels (5 stages), a player must go through all of these levels without losing a single life. To get the Expert extra levels (10 stages), a player must go through all the levels without using a continue. After passing the Expert extra stages without using a continue, there is a 10 near impossible leveled Master stage.