If you’ve ever dreamed of being a monkey traveling through the world in a rolling, plastic sphere (and who hasn’t?), this is your chance to make your fantasy a reality. The object is to roll your way through each of the game’s tricky mazes, collecting items and power-ups along the way. Your goal is to avoid plummeting to your death; however, that will take some fancy finger work and a steely resolve. MONKEY BALL debuted as a hit arcade game in 2000, and this update boasts a bunch of new mini-games to spice up the action. The graphics are perfectly replicated from the coin-operated version, and the sheer tension built into the gameplay trumps any platform game ever created. Multiplayer fans will revel in the ability to play in split-screen or same-screen modes, with as many as four players trying to trip each other up. It’s hard to think of a better party game, or any better way at all, for that matter, to showcase the power of your Nintendo GameCube.
