Super Monkey Ball Needs Its Own Mario Maker
Games Done Quick is an annual celebration of speedrunning and charity that showcases some of the world’s finest gamers playing various titles unintendedly and creatively for charity. There’s usually an entire week worth of festivities to take part in; as for me personally, I prefer watching individual runs as soon as they appear online afterward on YouTube; often when I should have been working! Sorry Jimmy.
Recently, I witnessed IkeSMB perform Kaizo Monkey Ball at this year’s Summer Games Done Quick tournament. A fan-made version, Kaizo takes an unusual approach to level creation called “Kaizo,” applying it to Super Monkey Ball physics-based world – creating levels which were absolutely ridiculous to witness and yet showed how versatile gameplay design can be when taken to its maximum extent.
Kaizo level design first made its debut with ROM hacks of Super Mario World back in 2007 when YouTube became an outlet to display these higher skill and precision-driven levels. Once Super Mario Maker came along and became widespread, an entire player base began competing to design harder levels – culminating in Kaizo Mario World being created.
Mario may receive most of the Kaizo love, but other titles have received equal treatment – Super Metroid and, perhaps most cruelly of all, Super Monkey Ball have both seen presentations by IkeSMB that feature levels compiled from various Super Monkey Ball fan games throughout its existence with some truly terrifying levels popping up during his run!
Witnessing the depth and breadth of creative output within SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball community makes me wish they would give their silly simian series its own Super Mario Maker treatment. There is immense potential in level design that takes advantage of both physics engine or using strange obstacles – so giving players access to this tool would surely prove fruitful for SEGA and it could prove an absolute blast for fans!
At first blush, Monkey Ball Maker may never reach the same levels of success as Super Mario Maker; Monkey Ball has long been seen as an underdog platformer compared to Mario. That doesn’t mean SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (who developed Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania) couldn’t create an interactive creation tool that allows players to express themselves – or more precisely force other players’ controllers through walls! SEGA could even include such an update for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania which would increase replay value further!
Mario Maker inspired version of Super Monkey Ball is an intriguing idea. After Banana Mania collected content from all three titles (plus Deluxe), now that Super Monkey Ball can do whatever it wants with no limits imposed, why not put some creative control in the player’s hands by giving him/her total creative control of their experience with each ball they touch?
