Super Monkey Ball Adventure

Infobox VG
title =


caption =
developer = Traveller's Tales
publisher = Sega
designer =
engine =
released = PlayStation 2
vgrelease|PAL=June 30, 2006|NA=August 1, 2006

PlayStation Portable
vgrelease|PAL=June 30, 2006|NA=August 29, 2006

GameCube
vgrelease|PAL=July 14, 2006|NA=August 1, 2006
genre = Platform
modes = Single-player, Multiplayer
ratings = vgratings|ESRB=Everyone|PEGI=3+
platforms = Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable
media = 1 × GameCube Game Disc, DVD, Universal Media Disc
requirements =
input =

"Super Monkey Ball Adventure" is an arcade video game developed by Traveller's Tales in parcery with the division Traveller's Tales Oxford and distributed by Sega in the "Super Monkey Ball" series, released on June 30, 2006.

"SMBA" is a departure from the series in the sense that the puzzle-based gameplay is replaced by a more traditional 3D platform game world. Traveller's Tales has retained some of the mini-games, however, and integrated the features into the gameplay. Some new mini-games are also integrated into the adventure world.

Plot

On Jungle Island, Aiai meets Princess Deedee from Monkitropolis and Prince Abeabe, the ruler of the island from the second portion of Monkitropolis; the underwater city, Kongri-la. As written by IGN, the rest of the storyline is as follows:

blockquote|"It's a tale of forbidden monkey love. Two monkeys have fallen in love but their royal families are not on the best of terms and are keeping the two love monkeys apart. The resulting bad mojo has cast a dark cloud over the monkey world and it's your job to bring light and happiness back, and find a way to unite the star-crossed monkey lovers." [cite web
url=http://cube.ign.com/articles/700/700534p1.html
title=Super Monkey Ball Adventure Reviews]

Here, before Aiai has completed quests by monkeys around Kongri-la and Monkitropolis, The two cities both blame each other for their problems in their cities. This causes the monkeys to be rivals, including the parents of the Prince and Princess. Since the parents are in different cities, the rivalry between the parents causes both Prince Abeabe and Princess Deedee to be apart. Aiai has to complete different tasks to make both areas happy again and not to blame each other for their problems.

After Aiai successfully does all the quests, Aiai must complete the rest of the quests at Jungle Island to set up the wedding of the Prince and Princess, so the King can pronounce them as married.

Gameplay

tory mode

There are five main stages, or "Monkey Kingdoms", through which the players progress. The goal of the game is to unite the feuding monkey kingdoms. Follow the normal story and complete over 60 quests from the monkeys around the Monkey World, using up to three different files.

There are on average, four sections to each level. To enter a different section, the player must wait several seconds. During that time, the game depicts the entire level from a high angle, showing everything to the level in an animated style. The same style shows up when Aiai teleports to another level. It depicts the four main monkeys blasting off into the sky while loading the level. Levels, in order from newest to last unlocked, are: [ cite web
url=http://www.gamershell.com/gamecube/super_monkey_ball_adventure/screenshots.html
title=Super Monkey Ball Adventure Gallery
author=GamersHell.com]
*Jungle Island — Includes two far away islands from the main area, just like "Moonhaven's", where goals still await there. The Prince of Monkitropolis and the Princess of Kongri-la crash-land here, resulting in the Naysayers appearing.
*Moonhaven — A level high above the clouds with mechanical devices to work. Despite its factories, it features a water-filled area. Using the gears, Aiai can transport to different platforms of the area. Monkeys of Moonhaven live in fear of 'Automatons', giant robots that need to be calmed down.
*Zootopia — Is a carnival themed zone with a long roller coaster where Aiai can run on above an ocean. This level includes a large mechanical factory inside a body of a grinning cat with a magician's hat on top. Zootopia was taken over by 'Fat Cat', who made all of the rides automated; they never stop. It is revealed that Fat Cat was a robot that was only allowed to let people out of Zootopia when they had had enough fun. However, their joy cannot be measured, so it never knew when to let people out.
*Monkitropolis — Includes a large second area of an underwater city named "Kongri-la", a downtown area and mountain where a speedway of odd-looking cars race around. The Monkitropolitans believe the Kongri-lans to be monsters, while the Kongri-lans are forced underground by the Monkitropolians 'Noise Factory'. Aiai must create a peace between the two sides.

tory mode accessories

*Bananas — Like all other Super Monkey Ball games, bananas have a short role in story mode. There are only to be collected to increase the game's completion rate, and number of collected bananas in each level. A noticeable fact is that they do not include the "Dole" sticker on the bananas, since Dole has sponsored the previous Super Monkey Ball games. Bananas are more specifically used to buy items from the store in each level. "(see below)"
*Joy meter — This is Aiai's morale, and can be increased by completing goals in the each level. At the beginning of the game, Aiai first looks quite angry and grumpy in an area at the side of the screen; however when all goals are completed in the level he will be smiling large. Bananas don't necessarily raise the joy level. The joy meter is from zero to 100, and the number increases by 7 on average after a goal is complete.
*Radar — The radar is a quite important feature in this game. The radar can help out to find monkeys looking for help, places you are supposed to go during the quests, cannons used for Aiai to fly, and more. The radar is a red circle, using either arrows or circles to direct you where you are supposed to go to complete the goal or how to get to a cannon. For example, if Aiai is higher up than the cannon, and is right above or beneath it, the arrow will blend in to a circle, coming to the middle, meaning Aiai is right by the cannon.
*Speed meter - On the radar, the speed meter allows you to track your speed using colored dots. The more that light up, the higher speed Aiai is travelling. Challenge mode has this feature and uses the radar as a clock for how much time there is left to reach the goal.
*Cannons — Cannons are available all over the levels, allowing you to fly. When Aiai rolls in to the cannon, there is a hoop near it. Using the analog stick, Aiai can direct the cannon towards it. Once through the hoop, he can open his ball in half, enabling him to fly until he gradually glides downwards to the ground, or water. [cite web
url=http://www.gamershell.com/gamecube/super_monkey_ball_adventure/screenshots.html?id=44
author=GamersHell.com
title=Super Monkey Ball Adventure Gallery]
*Store — In only one section of each level, a slightly-old looking woman is standing in the corner of an area. She will show new party games, their new levels and new playable characters in party mode. They are all purchased by collecting enough bananas. For example, if Aiai has collected 116 bananas in a level and need 120 to purchase a party game, Aiai must grab four more bananas to unlock them. This is not included in the game's completion ratio.
*Map — In the pause menu, the map is available to display the entire area. Included are monkeys in their spots, to help the player find them to accomplish quests.
*Save feature — Unlike many games, SMBA has an autosave feature, saving after a completed goal. However, a significant goal of ringing the bells for the wedding for Prince Abeabe and Princess Deedee in Jungle Island does not save, leaving Aiai's joy stuck in the 90's area, with every other goal completed.

Challenge mode

Re-visit puzzle stages that have been unlocked in the game and compete for high-scores (possibly to win bananas that can be used to unlock new items). Unlike the previous games, SMBA has no practice mode to practice levels that were previously completed by the player. These levels are contained in story mode. There are five continues of three lives, totaling 15 lives altogether.

Like all games in the Super Monkey Ball franchise, you must control your selected monkey of the four main characters (Aiai, Meemee, Baby and Gongon) with the analog stick to cross platforms, to reach the goal in a time limit of a minute. The goal is a circle-shape with a party ball on above a banner reading "GOAL". The monkey must pass through it to move on, breaking open the party ball and celebrating. Falling off the platforms into the abyss below causes the player to lose a life. 100 bananas are required to gain a life, which are usually placed in corners of levels and hard-to-reach and risky places.

The monkeys has unlimited lives here, with the choice to give up and return to the game. The levels are themed as the same as the main Monkey Kingdoms, depending on the difficulty (ex. Jungle Island's color, green, and backdrop is used for the beginner levels). Also a feature removed is that there are no extra stages added on to the Beginner, Advanced, and Expert modes. There are 12 beginner, 20 advanced, and 17 expert stages. Stages have several random music playing, some from previous Monkey Ball games.

During Story mode, these levels are in areas of the Monkey Kingdoms. In order to unlock new areas of the Kingdom, Aiai must complete a majority of the levels to progress. Stages come in bunches of 4 to 10 stages per area.

Party mode

There are six different available mini-games, complete with multi-player support, with 20 selectable characters to choose from.

Previous games

"Main section: Super Monkey Ball 2 Party games"

The returning mini-games with revamped features that are included in this game are:
*Monkey Target — As a game for only human players, fly to the platforms that are labeled with points. The objective is to land and stay on the platform with most points, collecting bananas on the way, to increase the score each time by 10.
*Monkey Fight — Punch your opponents off one of four stages, themed like each story mode level with the help of power-ups; sporting boxing gloves,. The one with the most points (by the most hits) wins, facing three other fighters.
*Monkey Race — Race against seven other competitors and gain speed and momentum to climb up the standings. The format contains either a match, single game or time attack of four different stages and one to eight laps. Use items to slow down other racers.

New games

New games only included in SMBA are:
*Tag — Find balloons roaming around to gain points, however, your opponents want them too, so it is a race for the most balloons. The setting is on a small green globe with small buildings as obstacles. The player can throw bombs and get a momentary speed boost by picking up box items with a yellow '?' on the faces. [cite web
url=http://www.gamershell.com/gamecube/super_monkey_ball_adventure/screenshots.html?id=42
author=GamersHell.com
title=Super Monkey Ball Adventure Gallery] There is a time limit of a minute and a half. Players can also toss bananas to grab bananas from a lengthy distance, and also bombs. If the player hits a bomb, 1000 points are taken off the score plus one of the collected balloons. The same will happen to the opponents; and one to five rounds are available here.
*Bounce — Bounce off of blocks on a pattern of several square bunches to flip the blocks over to the colour of your player (1 player would be red). Once all the blocks are flipped over to any of the four players' colours, like reversi, whoever has the most of their colour on all the blocks wins. There can be a one to five rounds, and handicap for your opponents from a scale from one to five again. There are four different fields for each.
*Cannon — Direct your selected monkey to a stack of bricks (style can be random or selected) using a cannon, on each of your three opponent's bases. When all the bricks are knocked over on a monkey's base, that monkey is eliminated. [cite web
url=http://www.gamershell.com/gamecube/super_monkey_ball_adventure/screenshots.html?id=40
author=GamersHell.com
title=Super Monkey Ball Adventure Gallery] However, the statistic that determines the standings are the bricks knocked down by the combatants; however the match ends when the last human players' bricks are all knocked down. When all the opponent's bases are knocked down, you win. The last one standing wins out of a best of one to six series. Then whoever knocks the most blocks down out of the match wins the tournament.

A PSP Exclusive minigame called, "Monkey Trumps", a network game involving collectible cards, is also playable.

Ball abilities

The list of ball abilities, or transformations, used by a spell the monkey must do. The player must use chants to unlock them. The player must use three of the four possible chant words to access a specific ability. The three possible selected chants to use for the transformation of all four are "Yay", "Poo", "Woo" and "Ei". The list of transformations is as follows:

*WoodBall — Used to walk over water, and to transport fire from items with fire to some flammable items, such as torches
*ScalarBall — Will make the monkey's ball larger
*StickyBall — Sticks onto some metal objects that glow when the stickyball is active
*BoxingBall — Punches using a boxing glove
*HoverBall — Flies like a helicopter above the ground or water for an unlimited amount of time
*InvisiBall — The monkey is invisible, with only the ball showing (however the player can see a faint view of the monkey)
*SpeedyBall — Makes the monkey accelerate to past regular top speed
*TetherBall — Grabs onto several objects using a stretched spring [cite web
title=Younger players might have a ball monkeying around with Sega's latest adventure
author=Cole Smith
url=http://www.cheatcc.com/gc/rev/supermonkeyballadventurereview.html ]

Additionally, using the chants properly can teleport the monkeys into a different level. Using the chants must be unlocked first by doing something significant or by completing the major goal of the level.

PSP exclusive features

The Playstation Portable features not included on its original consoles, the Gamecube and Playstation 2:
*The game can save between PSP and PS2.
*Exclusive Spells. The Banana Vacuum brings all nearby bananas to the character.
*Collectibles. A card game allows you to collect unique cards when you play with all four characters.
*Unique task giver - the Sage. Beat him in the card game and win Reveal Cards which unlock future events or Teleport Cards.
*Unique quests and director's cut puzzles.
*Customize your own card. Use a special screenshot card to take a picture and send it to other players as your own custom card.

Critical reception

The game received mixed reviews, but has been nearly universally panned by critics, mainly due to the confusion of goals, the significant difference compared to the other Super Monkey Ball games, and repetitive and long loading screens. [cite web
url=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=65865
title=Super Monkey Ball Adventure Review by Tom Bramwell
author=Tom Bramwell] SMBA obtained a rare ranking of zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes' video game section. [cite web
url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/ps2/super_monkey_ball_adventure/
title=Super Monkey Ball Adventure - We chat with SEGA producer Marty Caplan about the game
author=Matt Casamanissa
date=April 6, 2006] Nintendo Power gave the game a 5.5 rating and it, along with many other sources, claimed it was the worst installment thus far to the Super Monkey Ball series.

References

External links

* [http://www.supermonkeyballadventure.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.sega.com/games/game_temp.php?game=smbadventure SEGA's official game page]