Monkey Ball
From Sega Retro
Monkey Ball |
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System(s): Sega NAOMI |
Publisher: Sega |
Developer: Sega |
Genre: Puzzle |
Number of players: 1 |
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Monkey Ball is a Sega NAOMI arcade game, originally released in 2001. It is the often-forgotten predecessor to Super Monkey Ball, which went on to found the Super Monkey Ball series.
The arcade cabinet of Monkey Ball is unique for its banana-shaped joystick. All the bananas in the game are sponsored by Dole, a practise that would carry through to its successor, Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2. There are three characters, AiAi, MeeMee and Baby, three difficulty levels and numerous puzzles to complete.
Monkey Ball was unique at the time of release. Though marble/ball rolling games had been done in the past (see Marble Madness), none had ever been presented in 3D, and no games had ever put the user in charge of the scenery rather than the ball itself.
Monkey Ball was not ported to home consoles, however Super Monkey Ball contains all the levels seen in Monkey Ball, as well as adding the benefit of enhanced graphics and extra features.