Since I first read about Super Monkey Ball, I have been waiting to play it and the long wait was sure worth it. To get an idea about what this game is like, picture those wooden mazes where you have to tilt the board to get the silver ball through the maze. You have to tilt the floor of each level to get the monkey from point A to point B in a certain amount of time.

There are 90 levels total, 10 beginner, 30 advanced and 50 expert as well as some bonus levels if you can make it through a set of levels without dying. If you were to glance at this game you might think it’s a game for little kids but it is not a kids game at all. Sure the beginner levels are easy but once you get past those you are going to face some really difficult levels. For example, level 26 on the advanced levels is just a corkscrew sprial, sounds easy right? Think again, not only is the level already on an angle but so is the exit! Be ready to throw the controller many times if you do plan to play the harder levels. Now just a port of the arcade wouldn’t be that great would it? Of course not! So Sega decided to add 6 other games to the home version.

There is a racing game with 6 tracks, a mini golf course, a bowling game, a billiards game, a flying target game and a fighting game. Some of the games like bowling are good enough to be released on their own. If you have a bunch of friends over, this game gets even better especially because 4 people can use the same controller except in racing and fighting. If you are looking for a Gamecube game that is a lot of fun but has lots of value, Super Monkey Ball is a great choice. The only problem like I mentioned before is the difficulty of the game.