Monkey Ball

Monkey Ball is a 2001 Japanese arcade game by Sega. It is the origin of the Super Monkey Ball series and is best known for it's banana shaped arcade stick.

Gameplay
The player must transport one of three monkeys; AiAi, MeeMee or Baby encased in a gacha like sphere known as the monkey ball across an assortment of platforms placed high in the sky to the goal.

The player must collect as many bananas as possible before heading to the goal whilst avoiding falling off the stage or running out of time. This is done by the player controlling the level around the monkey ball, causing it to tilt rather than controlling any of the monkeys themselves.

Trivia

 * This is the only game in the Monkey Ball franchise where GonGon is absent.
 * Each and every banana is sponsored by Dole.
 * The game was originally prototyped with a plain ball but this proved visually unappealing and made the direction the ball was facing hard to interpret. AiAi, MeeMee and Baby were designed and placed in the balls, with that leading to the decision to make the pick ups be bananas and the stick be made banana shape.