Super Monkey Ball Deluxe Xbox

It's a MONKEY. In a BALL. And you move the WORLD around the MONKEY! This concise and brilliant premise was the concept behind Super Monkey Ball. The balancing masterpiece by Toshihiro Nagoshi's Amusement Vision was the SEGA department's flagship during their glory days and, we would argue, the strongest title by far in the European Gamecube launch line-up. Carrying on in the tradition of the greatest games on the N64, the game challenged the solo player to master its deep yet intuitive gameplay, tempering this with a selection of party games ideal for playing with visiting friends. Even these gem-like minigames threw a gauntlet down to obsessive perfectionists: Monkey Target was as accessible as a pub pool table to the masses, but its shimmering azure environment also became the arena for showdowns more reminiscent of a Grand Master duel at the Crucible. Collecting five bananas and landing on a 500 point buoy, without magnet ball, in a piffling 8mph wind? Not only was this feat possible, it was a pre-requisite if you wanted a chance of appearing on the internet leaderboards in the later days of competition. Comparatively few people managed to finish the full game. Completing the 10 Beginner, 30 Advanced, and 50 Expert levels was challenge enough even with plenty of credits, never mind the fabled Master mode that was unlocked if you managed to complete the whole lot on one life. Nonetheless, people clamoured for a sequel, and after a painstaking wait - at least for European console owners - a sequel was delivered. In this, AV addressed many of the criticisms of the original that people were churlish enough to make. Point-missers noted the lack of any kind of storyline explaining the antics of the sphere-bound simians; Story Mode was added, which introduced Dr. Badboon, an evil ape who wished to deprive the peaceful Jungle Island monkeys of their much-loved bananas. Story mode also addressed another problem, allowing players to try troublesome levels over and over again without loss of life. Whilst this would ha