Super Monkey Ball (series)

The Super Monkey Ball series is a series of arcade platform games developed by Amusement Vision and distributed by Sega. It features 4 characters (3 in the arcade version) named AiAi, MeeMee, Baby and (appearing only in the console versions) GonGon. The game debuted in Japan in 2001 as an upright arcade cabinet called simply Monkey Ball (which featured a banana-shaped joystick) and later that year was released as one of the three original Nintendo GameCube games. Since then, many sequels and ports have been created.

Games
Here is a list of games in the Super Monkey Ball series.


 * Monkey Ball (original arcade game)
 * Super Monkey Ball (GameCube, N-Gage) (remake of the arcade game with new features)
 * Super Monkey Ball 2 (GameCube)
 * Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (PlayStation 2 and Xbox)
 * Super Monkey Ball Jr. (GameBoy Advance)
 * Sega Superstars (PlayStation 2 EyeToy game which features Super Monkey Ball as a minigame)
 * Super Monkey Ball Touch & Roll (Nintendo DS)
 * Super Monkey Ball Adventure (PlayStation 2, Gamecube, PlayStation Portable)
 * Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii)
 * Super Monkey Ball (iPhone)
 * Super Monkey Ball 2 (iPhone remake)
 * Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition (iPad)
 * Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll (Wii)
 * Super Monkey Ball 3D (Nintendo 3DS)
 * Super Monkey Ball: Ticket Blitz (Arcade)
 * Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz (PlayStation Vita)
 * Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Steam, PlayStation 4)
 * Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania (Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5)

Gameplay
As opposed to normal games where the player takes control of the character itself, Super Monkey Ball has the player move their character around by tilting the world itself (the exception of this being Super Monkey Ball Adventure). By tilting the board at various angles, players can control the speed and turning of the character. The goal of each level is to reach a goal banner before time runs out and without falling off the edge of the level. Bonus points and extra lives can be earned by collecting bananas littered across the stage. Early games use traditional controllers to play whilst many recent titles utilise some of the modern technology, such as the accelerometers of the Wii and iPhone titles.

Characters
The main playable characters are:


 * AiAi, a banana loving carefree hero who finds himself in all manner of trouble due to his love of bananas. AiAi often has the most well rounded stats.
 * MeeMee, AiAi's sweetheart, future wife and future mother of Baby. She is the object of Dr. Bad-Boon's affections, but doesn't return his feelings due to him being evil. She's more grounded than AiAi. She has less weight than AiAi, but better jumping and acceleration.
 * Baby, AiAi and MeeMee's future son. He traveled from the future to make sure Dr. Bad-Boon didn't split his parents up. Very smart, Baby can create robots to help him. Baby has the smallest Monkey Ball and is the lightest individual overall.
 * GonGon, AiAi's former rival and once the leader of the Gorilla tribe. GonGon and AiAi are now good friends and even invented the Monkey Ball overall. GonGon is the heaviest and has the biggest ball and fastest overall speed although his jump and acceleration are poor as a result.

Sometimes they are joined by:


 * YanYan, a martial arts practicing lemur who has a huge crush on AiAi. She has the best jump ability in the game, and ties Meemee and Baby for the second fastest acceleration, but all of the rest of her stats are below average.
 * Doctor who is a brilliant scientist with severe amnesia. He has the best acceleration in the game but the worst jump and top speed of the monkeys and most other stats are average.
 * Jam who is a fitness fanatic always cheering the gang on. Jam has above average speed but below average jumping skills.
 * Jet, a kung fu loving travelling monkey who has declared AiAi to be his archrival, antagonising him at times. Like AiAi he has average stats in every area with no glaring strengths or weaknesses.

Starting with Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD, guest characters started appearing as playable characters too:


 * Sonic the Hedgehog (Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania)
 * Tails (Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania)
 * Beat (Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania)
 * Kazuma Kiryu (Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania)
 * Morgana (Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania)
 * Hello Kitty (Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania)
 * Suezo (Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania)

Additionally Super Monkey Ball 2 added a villain to the game;


 * Dr. Bad-Boon, a baboon from the future who fell in love with MeeMee. He was devastated when he discovered she was already married to AiAi, and so has travelled back into the past to undo their getting together and try and force MeeMee to get together with him instead. He uses various inventions throughout the story but has never been a playable character within the Super Monkey Ball titles.

AiAi is a playable character in Sonic Riders and Sega Superstars Tennis‎ (the latter of which also features MeeMee as an unlockable character). AiAi also appears in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing Transformed. MeeMee is also a playable character in both Sega Superstars Tennis and Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed.