Super Monkey Ball (GameCube)

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Super Monkey Ball
Developer: Amusement Vision Publisher: Sega Platform: GameCube Released in JP: September 14, 2001 Released in US: November 18, 2001 Released in EU: May 3, 2002 This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has a notes page This game has a bugs page This game has a prerelease article

Super Monkey Ball is a port of Monkey Ball to the GameCube. It has 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

Enabled by using one of the following Action Replay codes:

Region	Code
U.S.	HUEA-0C49-D4Z7Z M8EC-TBAC-P5CQ2 FP4C-4E4V-9BN0U
PAL	JGJT-TEX1-UYETV 1646-TKZA-X9HWX YY6T-H3JQ-1K8HA

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.
• 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.

To do: Document this thing.

(Source: Parasyte, Kola)

Unused Graphics

To do: A whole lot more.

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; SMB2 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.

(Source: Inuyasha)

Unused Song

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 Levels

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 is extremely bumpy (albeit it's smooth appearance). It might have been used in the arcade version, judging by the arcade textures and background.

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.

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.

Regional Differences

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.

There are also extra animation sequences in the Japanese release, where the monkeys dance along to the music.

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

In the Japanese version of Monkey Target, there is a different speech sample used when the "floating spiky balls" option is selected from the item wheel. The what is actually said is difficult to understand, so maybe that's probably it was removed for the 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 version, the main theme music is different. The NTSC/PAL had a new one made instead, however, the original Japanese version is still in the sound files.

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.

To do: Get pictures of spelling/punctuation mistakes.

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 Ex17, as well as some particulary 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 the final level of Expert (EX10) in the PAL and Japanese versions.