Super Monkey Ball 2

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Super Monkey Ball 2
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Amusement Vision
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Toshihiro Nagoshi
Platform(s)	Nintendo GameCube
Release date(s)	NA August 25, 2002 JP November 21, 2002 PAL March 14, 2003
Genre(s)	Party
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E OFLC: G8+
Media	1 × GameCube disc
Input methods	GameCube controller

Super Monkey Ball 2 is the second installment in the Super Monkey Ball series developed by Amusement Vision. It is the first installment to have a storyline and to be released solely on a home console.

Gameplay

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 obstacles.

The levels have extreme variety. For example, one level comprises a haphazard collection of platforms that rotate vertically, while another is nothing more than a giant 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 the stages 'Melting Pot' and 'Teapot', 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. It tells the story of the four monkeys from the original Super Monkey Ball (Aiai, Meemee, Baby, and Gongon) pursuing the evil Dr. Bad-Boon, who has stolen all of the bananas from their island for an even more evil purpose

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 next 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. The Master difficulty stages, the Advanced Extra stages, and the Expert Extra Stages are not found in the Story mode. Some backdrops are different between the two modes. For example, the "Amusement Park" stages in the Story Mode become the "Boiling Pot" stages in the Challenge mode.

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.

Just like the first game, the player is given five continues at the start of each game.

Another difference between the challenge and story modes is that you can skip levels in challenge mode. While all stages have a blue goal which, when crossed, brings the player to the next level, a number of stages also include a green and/or a purple goal gate. The green goal gate skips the level that would usually follow, while the purple goal gate skips the following two. (Note that this is different than the warping system of Super Monkey Ball, where the color of the gates did not warp a consistent number of levels.) These warping goals are usually more difficult to reach than the standard blue goals, but offer considerably more points and may help to avoid a difficult level under certain circumstances.

One more difference is that there are bonus levels in challenge mode. These levels have lots of bananas scattered around them and a goal that awards points when it is crossed. Also, the player will not lose a life if he or she falls out or runs out of time. However, it does affect your play points. There are nine Bonus stages in all, each of them more difficult to obtain bananas from than the previous one.

Practice mode

This is the user interface for practice mode and the main game. Some levels, such as this one, allow for extreme stunts as shown here.

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 and 1,000 points. There is a side benefit from collecting bananas: every 100 bananas gives the player an extra life in challenge mode.

The number of points earned for the completion of a level is determined by the clear score and a number of possible multipliers, defined below.

• The Clear Score is the number of centiseconds remaining on the clock when the monkey breaks the goal tape. In addition, an extra 10,000 points is awarded for every level skipped (if the player enters a green or red warp goal).
• This score can be multiplied by the Time Bonus, which doubles the player's clear score if he or she finishes in less than half of the allotted time. If the player finishes with exactly half of the time left (15.00 or 30.00 seconds), no bonus is awarded.
• The number of points earned to this point can be further increased by the Warp Bonus, which multiplies the points already won on the stage by a factor of the number of stages passed by taking a warp, when applicable. A green goal gate's warp bonus is x2, while a purple goal gate awards a x3 bonus.
• The points earned on the stage to this point are referred to as the Stage Score, and are added to the player's running total score.

One peculiarity of this scoring system is that an excessively difficult level will not necessarily award more points than the easiest levels. This is especially true in stages that force the player to take a considerable amount of time to reach the goal, such as "Gimmick."

The final score, achieved after completing all levels in a particular difficulty, can be recorded into a high score chart specific to the level of difficulty if it is one of the top five in value. It should be noted that any continues used during the course of play will reset the running score.

Play points

Play points are earned by playing the game. The longer and better one plays the game, the more play points are awarded. Unlike regular points, play points are carried over from each game.

Play points can then be redeemed for minigames, additional lives, and cut scenes. At first, one can only use play points to unlock all six minigames for 2,500 points each. Once those are unlocked, a new menu option, "Gift", will be available in the Options Menu. Here, the starting number of lives in challenge mode can be increased for 500 points a life (up to 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 Play Points earned in a single game will be recorded, and the player is invited to try to beat his or her record continuously. The maximum amount of play points achievable in a single game is 17,080, which can be achieved by beating the Expert, Expert Extra, Master and Master Extra without losing a life or using warps.

Awards

• E3 2002 Game Critics Awards: Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game
• This game has been cited by a recent research study as the game that most increased the tested performance of laparoscopic surgeons.^{[citation needed]}
• This game is a Gamecube Player's Choice game.
• Malcolm and Oleg hold the SMB2 World Title after winning the 2008 Tokyo Game Off under the alias 833R0N^{[citation needed]}

Medical applications

Super Monkey Ball 2 is one of three video games that are associated with improved performance in laparoscopic surgery.^[1]

References

External links