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[Thoughts] Super Monkey Ball Stage Environments Are Awesome.... And Weird (1)


The backgrounds of monkey ball have always been a standout thing for me
source: www.youtube.com/@xbox

With a new monkey ball game coming up, I wanted to talk a little bit about something that I really liked about the series, the environments . With how the gameplay looks of the new one, it seems like we will be getting some more fun and unique backgrounds.

When I was younger I didn't appreciate the environments  of monkey ball stages much, but as I have grown older I have been able to recognise how interesting and cool they are. In this blog I am going to highlight some of the environments I find to be the most interesting in the series. I will be picking 2 environments from each game I have played. This Blog will feature Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2.

Super Monkey Ball

The stages I chose for Super Monkey Ball are labelled as "Monkey mall" and "Storm". These are for sure my favourites from this game. 

Source: www.youtube.com/@GoldCobra111

Monkey mall features such a weird and wacky environment for a stage. You are up in the sky at night time but so are some floating buildings and other decorations. It's a odd combo and makes no sense but that's why I like it. The fact that the monkeys in the diners can be seen parting is great too. The attention to detail with the menu you can see is so good, they really didn't need to do all that for it but they did. The lights below imply there is a city there and it reminds me of Mario Kart's rainbow road which is always a great stage in it's respective game. In general, I just love how colourful and vibrant the random assets are.

Source: www.youtube.com/@GoldCobra111

Storm trades uniqueness for perfect vibes. This is the environment for the hardest stages in the game and I think it perfectly fits that. The large towers and statues are great background assets that make you feel small amongst the gigantic challenges ahead of you. The detail on these assets is really nice too. The buildings stain glass looks particularly good and it's great how they have a glow to provide some light amongst the darkness. The thunderstorm skybox is great for further setting the mood as well and the rain goes with it great. The huge wall all around you makes you feel like there is no escape and sort of gives off ancient vibes like it's an ancient test of skill. It all comes together to give the final level feeling.

Super Monkey Ball 2

The 2 stages I choose for Super Monkey Ball 2 are labelled as "Inside a whale" and "Boiling pot". Super Monkey Ball 2 has the best environments in the series in my opinion so it was hard to narrow it down to 2. 

Source: www.youtube.com/@GoldCobra111

Inside a whale has so much going on in it and it's all really mysterious. You have the cool mini cities in snow globe like things hanging from the insides of the whale. I always wondered what lives there since the lights are on for the houses. Then you have the actual insides of the whale, including it's ribs. These are actually joined together with bridges. Makes you wonder how the bridges got there though. Then the last main feature is the sunken cities in the water, which look different from the hanging cities so it must be from another type of people. There are so many mysteries about this stage and I love that they have remained a mystery. I did not expect all this interesting design for inside a whale but I am very happy they did all this for it.

Source: www.youtube.com/@GoldCobra111

Boiling pot isn't as mysteriously cool as inside a whale but the idea of it is very good. All the stages hover over a literal boiling pot which bad boon is cooking with. It provides a huge sense of urgency to stay on the stage. The other details of the stage should not be ignored too. The forest background looks great and I like how this is a little camp area as made apparent by the tents. The fog really adds to the illusion of the forests scale. You can't see it in the above image, but there are also a bunch of food items to show scale which is especially relevant at this time in the game's story. You can just tell there was so much thought behind all the stages in this game and this one is no different.

These are some of the enviroments i really liked in Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2, stay tuned for Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz and Super Monkey Ball 3D.

That's it for this blog, stay connected!

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