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"First released on: GameCube (2001) Now avaialble for: iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7  The Nintendo GameCube&amp;#039;s launch surprised everyone when it didn&amp;#039;t arrive with a Mario game, instead opting to give the spotlight to overlooked brother Luigi with Luigi&amp;#039;s Mansion. While fondly remembered for its individuality and character, it wasn&amp;#039;t nearly as strong as Super Mario 64 or Super Mario World, and so it was up to the third parties to pick up the slack. There was the stunning dogfighting shooter Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, and of course Super Monkey Ball, an action-puzzle game that offered a striking and bold visual style, stacks of replayablity and healthy multiplayer options, everything you could want from day-one release. The core concept of Super Monkey Ball was simple to grasp. Easily described as a three-dimension version of Marble Madness, you simply roll the ball through a maze and into the end goal, with the only control input being the left analogue stick. A neat twist, however, is that you&amp;#039;re not actually rolling the ball, but twisting and moving the stage from the perspective of the ball, seeing rapid movements rapidly tilt the stage around you. It was an entirely natural sensation, though, and a control scheme that felt pinsharp in its accuracy, something that was essential for the trials ahead.  Super Monkey Ball was very tough, ruthlessly so. The opening world&amp;#039;s stages broke you in nicely, with linear path ways, comfortable drops and easy bananas to collect, bar one or two tricky stages (remember the steep slope, jump and subsequent wall that would see you fall if you failed to gain control in time?) But from there, the worlds would dial up the difficulty rapidly, with all kinds of simple but crazy designs, from rapidly twisting platforms to high speed chutes. Some would require perfect handling to overcome, others a spot of timing and judgement, but all soundly beatable with practice and a solid approach. Sneaky shortcuts would shave time from later runs, propelling you into later stages, while perfect playthroughs would unlock even tough Master stages. As well as an addictive and incredibly challenging suite of single player stages, there were the mini-games, a God-send to the GameCube&amp;#039;s multiplayer-sparse launch lineup. Monkey Target was the absolute favourite, where in turn each player would roll down a massive ramp before gliding through the air, collecting bananas and landing on one of several targets with different scores. When bored of Monkey Target (which is probably impossible, but let&amp;#039;s pretend) then there were Monkey Fight, seeing players attempt to smash each other with giant boxing gloves, and Monkey Racing, which turned the high-speed funnels of the campaign into super fast courses, which acted as smart and fun additions.  Super Monkey Ball soon become incredibly popular, and has since become one of Sega&amp;#039;s most established puzzle franchises. A direct sequel added tougher stages and more mini-games, and both titles were combined for Super Monkey Ball Deluxe on PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox, the latter of which is compatible with the Xbox 360 and is a package well worth collecting. From there, however, its fortunes have declined; while the Game Boy Advance version wasn&amp;#039;t particularly bad, it did usher in a 2D cartoon art style that has since plagued the franchise, while spinoffs such as Super Monkey Ball Adventure failed to make a dent. Super Monkey Ball variants currently exist across most mobile platforms with often uncomfortable motion control support, while the latest entry on Nintendo 3DS can only be described as criminally easy. Regardless, Super Monkey Ball still remains one of the best properties Sega&amp;#039;s introduced in the past ten years, and hopefully will go back to its tough-as-nails and simplistic routes again soon. Do you have many fond memories of Super Monkey Ball? Add a comment to the space below!      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/retro-corner/news/a339615/retro-corner-super-monkey-ball/>