Weakness: The game just feels unnecessary in many ways
I love the Super Monkey Ball series and was ready to buy this game when it was released. Thankfully I had read some reviews that gave me pause, and I ended up waiting quite a while to pick it up. I'm glad I did, as it's really more of a platforming game than a Super Monkey Ball game. Which is good and bad, but it just feels like Sega/Traveller's Tales were more worried with being "unique" than continuing with a game series that's quite good on its own.
I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like the worst parts of the more recent Sonic games, with the worst parts of Monkey Ball, added in with some obnoxious camera issues, made a game that really didn't need to be made. It's a fairly generic platforming game using the Super Monkey Ball name. I'd agree with most of MadBeagle01's assessment-- it's for fans of the series only, and even then, rent it first to be sure that it's what you're expecting.
That said, the mini games are quite fun, as they usually are with Monkey Ball games.
Adventure: the Super Monkey Ball game that couldn't....
Strengths: New abilities (stick to walls, hover, become invisible), 50 new puzzle levels, six new party games
Weakness: Awkward new game play mechanics, monotonous/frustrating mission design, drab visual style
Sega's Super Monkey Ball series has previously carved a niche for itself as action puzzle games, but with Super Monkey Ball Adventure, developer Traveller's Tales takes the series into decidedly uncharted territories as an action/adventure title with mixed results.
Adventure find Super Monkey Ball team members AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon and Baby investigating the five kingdoms of Monearth as sadness overtakes the realm. Unfortunately, this sadness also mutes the once bold, colorful Monkey Ball visuals to give everything a drab, uninspiring appearance.
Unfortunately, the new adventure element brings with it a variety of tedious fetch quests and uninspired puzzles. While some of the classic action puzzle levels remain, they're only a small part of the overall experience this time.
Diehard series fans will probably want to look for a sale price as this isn't more of the same game you've played before. Players new to the series will probably want to rent this prior to purchase or pick up one of the previous games in the series instead.
Testseek.com has collected 6 expert reviews for Super Monkey Ball Adventure and the average expert rating is 41 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.
Super Monkey Ball Adventure receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS rating of 2.19 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #7,155 game of all time, #153 game of 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and #1,269 PlayStation 2 game of all time. The rating and ranking is based on an average of 49 critic scores, awards and other criteria. To see a breakdown of the game ranking, read individual critic reviews, or see how other...
What have they done to the monkeys?
Strengths: Mini games are fun, good graphics
Weakness: The game just feels unnecessary in many ways
I love the Super Monkey Ball series and was ready to buy this game when it was released. Thankfully I had read some reviews that gave me pause, and I ended up waiting quite a while to pick it up. I'm glad I did, as it's really more of a platforming game than a Super Monkey Ball game. Which is good and bad, but it just feels like Sega/Traveller's Tales were more worried with being "unique" than continuing with a game series that's quite good on its own.
I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like the worst parts of the more recent Sonic games, with the worst parts of Monkey Ball, added in with some obnoxious camera issues, made a game that really didn't need to be made. It's a fairly generic platforming game using the Super Monkey Ball name. I'd agree with most of MadBeagle01's assessment-- it's for fans of the series only, and even then, rent it first to be sure that it's what you're expecting.
That said, the mini games are quite fun, as they usually are with Monkey Ball games.
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