Super Monkey Ball

Super Monkey Ball is a port of Monkey Ball to the GameCube with improved graphics, more levels, an English translation, better control, and a new character (GonGon). There are also several multi-player and party game modes, with the ability to play with up to four players.

Debug Mode
The Debug mode can be enabled by using one of the following Action Replay codes:



Pressing Start on the title screen then enables a simple Debug Menu.
 * GAME START - Goes to the main menu.
 * STAGE SELECT - Goes to an unused level select screen (see below).
 * MINI MODE - Allows you to go to any of the mini games.
 * OPTION - Goes to the option menu.
 * TEST MODE - Lots of debugging material and settings.
 * MODEL TEST - Fully fledged model viewer, but some entries crash the game.
 * nIObjPut TEST - Views various oddball models. Scrolling up past the early Expert Extra floor 10 pillar returns to the main Test Mode screen; attempting to scroll past the cave background (bg_i) crashes the game.
 * EFC MDL TEST - Shows a customizable AiAi head distortion; could have been used for stretching animations.
 * PATTERN TEST - Shows the explosion animation as a rotatable model; also allows to control speed and filtering type.
 * PREREND TEST - Generates level previews used in Practice Mode and Competition Mode stage selection screens.
 * MOTION TEST - Views animations with options controlling the monkey and skeleton used.
 * BITMAP TEST - If the models can get a viewer, then textures can too. Shows basic overlay textures, nothing special.
 * FONT TEST - Shows various fonts used in the game; most of which have "HELLO, WORLD" as a test message.
 * ROMFONT TEST - Seems to show letters from the GameCube BIOS and bleaches out most letters in the main Test Mode menu when exited.
 * PREVIEW TEST - Shows level icons. Since the generation methods aren't level-specific, levels that wouldn't normally be shown in a certain mode can be viewed as such (e.g., race tracks in Practice Mode).
 * INPUT TEST - Test that indicates controller input; could be used to make sure controllers aren't broken.
 * REPLAY TEST - Use D-Pad Left/Right to select a replay and press A to view it. Note that Level 0 crashes the game.
 * BLUR TEST - Tests (de)fogging in replays. D-Pad Left/Right controls the fog level.
 * SHADOW TEST - Spins a sun-like model above solid cubes with a light shining on it (most likely to test shadows).
 * FOCUS TEST - Tests blur in replays. As in the Blur Test, D-Pad Left/Right controls the blur level.
 * INDIRECT TEST - Seems to test overlays, but the only one available is the water.
 * DIP SWITCH - Emulates an arcade's DIP switch board. Includes features that allow for use of the Monkey Ball ball model, unlimited time (timer stops at 60.00), and multiplying Play Point earnings by 10.

Unused Graphics


These models are leftovers from the original arcade game. This version uses sprites for selecting the difficulty.



While this is also from the arcade game, that version never had a selectable Master difficulty. In fact, it only had one single master floor altogether. Super Monkey Ball added nine other Master floors, but you still can't start straight at the Master stages from the difficulty select; Super Monkey Ball 2 was the first to allow you to do that.

Whether they were planning on making Master an actual difficulty setting in the original arcade game, or if this is something they were planning on expanding on much more than they actually did in the process of bringing the game to the GameCube, is hard to tell.

Unused Music
Found inside gcboot/snd/test. Interestingly, the first 12 seconds appear to be a guitar solo version of "Over the Rainbow". The purpose of this song is currently unknown, but because it was found in /test/ it most likely could have been a song for testing, or it could have been a demo by T's Music.

Unused Sounds
Monkey Fight

The sound file for the Monkey Fight round announcer has three unused announcements, for Rounds 17-20. The max possible announcement that can be heard is Round 16, if all four players alternate in winning.

Main Game

There are multiple unused takes on the announcer saying "Go" and "Goal". All of these takes were later used in Super Monkey Ball Adventure.

Main menu

Two unused difficulty selections, said by the announcer, corresponding to the Master and Extra difficulties.

Extra

Master This track is re-used in Super Monkey Ball 2 for Master difficulty.

There exist 3 unused sound files of the announcer regarding the main menu. They appear to have been left over from the arcade version and early versions of the game (as seen through early screenshots of the game).

Select Level

Select your monkey

Select stage Like other unused sounds, this one was used in Super Monkey Ball 2.

Unused Levels
The game features lots of levels as they appeared in their arcade counterpart. Accessible through the aforementioned stage select.

Stage 10


Arcade version of Expert floor 28.

Stage 19


Arcade version of Beginner floor 2.

Stage 20


Arcade version of Expert floor 9.

Stage 30


The Master level from the arcade version. Textures are a bit screwed up, though.

Stage 49


Arcade version of Advanced floor 4.

Stage 50


Arcade version of Expert extra floor 6.

Stage 60


Arcade version of Expert extra floor 9.

Stage 70


Arcade version of Beginner extra floor 2.

Stage 80


Arcade version of Beginner extra floor 3.

Stage 96


Arcade version of Expert floor 23.

Stage 97


Arcade version of Expert floor 12.

Stage 98


Arcade version of Expert floor 29.

Stage 100


Arcade version of Advanced extra floor 5.

Stage 114


A completely new level that isn't used. The red arrows do nothing. The stage is very glitchy; the terrain, while appearing smooth, is extremely bumpy.

Stage 117


Arcade version of Advanced floor 7.

Stage 118


Arcade version of Advanced floor 19.

Stage 119


Arcade version of Advanced floor 8.

Stage 120


Arcade version of Expert floor 6.

Stage 132


An unused Monkey Race track, with some ramps and what appears to be some spikes under the track that would presumably pop up.

It would appear to be a Desert theme track, as it also uses the Desert music.

Stage 141


A tiny platform made up of one orange block. Although the purpose of this level is unknown, it was most likely used for testing the meteorite effect found in the Extra levels.

Stage 142


Another goal-less level, most likely used to test the underwater effects.

Stage 154


An early version of the Monkey Target ramp.

Alterations
There is a significant difference between the NTSC-J and NTSC-U/PAL attract sequences. For a start, there is an entirely different song played in the Japanese version (the "Ei Ei Poo" song, sung in Japanese) which is cut completely from other versions. This is presumably because there was no time to produce an alternative version in English, and the song was disconcerting enough to warrant the cut.

The Options Mode config text fades out after an auto-save much slower in Japanese version, and character sizes are also slightly different from those used in the NTSC-U/PAL versions.

In the Japanese version's Monkey Target, there a different speech sample is used when the "floating spike bombs" option is selected from the item wheel. What is actually said is difficult to understand, so maybe that's probably it was removed for western releases.

The text used on the hi-score tables to indicate a single-credit run to Master stages is different between Japanese and PAL versions.

In the Japanese edition of the game, the intro to the game is slightly different to other regions. The monkeys dance to the music, and the intro music is different - it's a song - compared to the instrumental track that plays in other regions.

Also, when entering your initials in the circular pinball-style stage, the text at the bottom of the screen says "You are the greatest baller!" or "You are the 2nd baller!" for the Japanese version. The western releases changed this to simply say "You are the greatest" or "You are 2nd best", etc.

Optimization Bugs
During the credit sequence, for the title of "2D DESIGNER", the R (which is comprised of a 3D polygon) is missing in the PAL version, resulting in "2D DESIGNE". The original Japanese version has the correct text, so this is a conversion error.

There are several punctuation mistakes in the PAL version menus. See the Options Mode and the Sound Settings, for a quick example.

The PAL version has bits of slowdown on several stages, most notably Expert floor 17 as well as some particularly disastrous slowdown on a portion of the Ice Stage of Monkey Race that reduces the game's framerate drastically. The Japanese version does not have any slowdown.

There is heavy slowdown on Expert Extra floor 10 in the PAL and Japanese versions.