Super Monkey Ball 2

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Super Monkey Ball 2
Developer: Amusement Vision Publisher: Sega Platform: GameCube Released in JP: November 21, 2002 Released in US: August 25, 2002 Released in EU: March 13, 2003 This game has unused areas. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Super Monkey Ball 2 is the sequel to the popular GameCube puzzle game and release title Super Monkey Ball. This sequel is a complete rework of the original game. Along with the normal modes, a new mode known as Story Mode is added. This features a 'campaign' with cutscenes (rendered by the game engine rather than being a video file). However, the basic premise of the game in both modes is the same: guide the monkey in the ball to the goal. The game also includes several new Party Games which can be unlocked by obtaining Play Points. Six party games are already unlocked, three are remasters from the original game, and the rest are completely new.

Sub-Pages

Development Notes about the development and history of Super Monkey Ball 2.

Beta Logo

The game still has the file for the old logo.

To do: Expand of merge this section.

Debug Mode

Introduction

Just like the first game, Super Monkey Ball 2 features a debug mode. The debug mode includes a stage selector, full-fledged model viewer, effects testing, sound player, bitmap reader, and more. The debug menu can be accessed via the following Action Replay codes:

Region	Code
NTSC-U	BY50-BFRX-BGGNR RBUA-FCGP-K7FVV F8XP-P5GY-JPBJQ
NTSC-J	13QN-UBG7-FKBHQ NPDM-4XAU-005MD 3R7R-Z1KT-YGDFU
PAL	KXC6-KNG5-FDZX0 81RZ-X9U5-Z3VR2 A40E-9BDK-C7QM5

(Source: Ralf (PAL Code), PatSter21 (NTSC-J Code))

Images

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  Main debug screen, which allows access to debugging elements.

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  Test mode, where the interesting stuff is.

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  Extremely early options menu, possibly a leftover from the Japanese Super Monkey Ball. The text is in Romaji with large spacing - which ends up causing problems.

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  Author Mode, which allows you to access Story Mode cutscenes.

Test Mode

Images

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  Main screen of the Test Menu.

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  AV MODEL - This is a model viewer for viewing the various models found within the game.

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  NAOMI MODEL - This model viewer seems to only be able to view older resources that were leftover from Super Monkey Ball and even the arcade Monkey Ball.

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  PATTERN CHANGE - Appears to be a texture viewer. The options crash the game immediately.

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  BLUR - Motion blur testing.

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  SHADOW - Shadow testing.

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  FOCUS - Depth of Field effect testing. This has an option which allows the intensity and distance of the blur to be modified.

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  INDIRECT - Overlay testing. There is only one overlay viewable - the water effect from underwater levels.

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  DIP SWITCH - Allows for modification of DIP switches.

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  BITMAP - A basic bitmap viewer.

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  FONT - Views font sheets.

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  ROMFONT - Doesn't appear to do anything at all.

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  PREREND - This tests the prerendering of level images in Practice Mode.

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  INPUT - Tests controller input.

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  SOUND - Plays normal sound files.

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  ADX - This is a ADX sound player. Interestingly, all the ADX files included are used nowhere in the game.

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  REPLAY - Plays back replays made using the other debugging tools.

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  REPLAY SIZE CHECKER - Checks the average size of a replay file by testing it on each of the levels.

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  DIFFICULTY - A win/loss ratio chart - a carryover from both Super Monkey Ball and Monkey Ball. The feature wasn't introduced outside of debug mode until Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.

Early Options Menu

A very early version of the options menu is accessible through the main debug menu. It appears to be the version from Super Monkey Ball. The text is in Romaji (Japanese in Roman letters). However, since the SMB options menu was designed for English/Kanji, the Romaji breaks the layout and falls off the box or clutters up with other text. The options menu performs all the functions of the normal Super Monkey Ball options menu, except it doesn't load the old Replay manager because it was scrapped.

Gallery

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  Play Points screen. The Romaji overlaps the Play Point counter.

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  Ranking hub.

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  Interestingly, the ranking menu calls for the SMB2 rank screen even though the ranks are for SMB1 modes.

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  Sound settings.

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  Multiplayer screen settings.

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  Controller settings.

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  This is interesting. This setting saves debug information to a memory card. Unlike the rest of the settings, this is in English. The exact purpose of the Debug Data is unknown.

Video

A full-length tour of the Debug Menu for Super Monkey Ball 2:

(Source: PatSter21)

Hidden Developer Messages

Super Monkey Ball 2 has various hidden developer messages within it.

Beginner Stage 3 / Library 203

Beginner Stage 3 (named Bumpy) is named after its seemingly random bumps spewed across the stage. Except it turns out that these bumps may not be so random, because they appear to be in Braille. Here is the message translated:

 Hi! This is Jamad.
 That is right.
 Braille Alphabet.
 I respect you !!

Test Level Messages

In several multi-stage test levels, a board with Kanji on it can be found, with Japanese writing in the foreground and a texture map in the background. These messages are signed by Jamad. Jamad is most likely a nickname of Junichi Yamada, the Stage Design Director of Super Monkey Ball 2.

  Hope that there's
  a texture map here
  created from 
  a buffer. 
            by JAMAD

(Translation: Divingkataetheweirdo)

Unused Models

A lot of unused models were left over from both the arcade edition and its sequel.

NEW_GOAL

This appears to be a planned design for a new goal. Its resources can be found within the various test levels.

Regional Differences

Alterations

To do: Pictures!

In the NTSC-U version, when the 5th position in the leaderboard is not filled, the placeholder name "BANANA" is used. In the NTSC-J version, "AIAI" is used instead.

When selecting a stage for Practice Mode, a percentage value is displayed above the stage preview window which displays the rate of completion for the level. For example, if a player completed a stage successfully twice and did not complete it once, the value will read 66%. The value is also shown under the score counter when playing a level in Practice mode. Why this was removed from the American and European versions is unknown.

The end-game name entry in the Japanese version uses a keyboard, whereas the US version features a rotary letter selector instead.