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Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re starting our hopefully not recurring theme month of Ape-ril by talking about Super Monkey Ball! While we ended up playing a little of the first game and a bit of Banana Mania for this episode, the original games do sort of conglomerate in your head if you’ve played them both, so it seems fair to consider this more of a look at the series rather than a specific game. The Monkey Ball games are defined by their mechanical design: similar to a Marble Madness type game, your goal is to roll the ball from the start to the goal in a physics simulation by tilting the stage and navigating obstacles. Because of this unchanging mechanical throughline, you can almost consider the game’s sequels (apart from Banana Blitz) as expansion packs, adding new stages and mini games but keeping the same core engine that makes the game work. These stages can be absolutely dastardly at times though, with later levels requiring a mix of fast reflexes, careful navigation and a deep understanding of the game’s physics to competently complete. While we were not always competent, we persevered. We’re going to be talking about the style of engagement this game traffics in, the juxtaposition of cute monkeys and colorful presentation with tough as nails level design, and the dystopian banana future the Dole corporation previewed in the original title.
Thank you for joining us again this week! Is Super Monkey Ball the hardest game you’ve ever played, or are we just babies? What was your favorite stage name and what did the level it’s associated with make you feel while looking at it? Let us know over on Discord or in the comments on YouTube! And strap in, because it’s a weird theme month again, so next time we’re going to be talking about Ape Escape and we hope you’ll join us for that.