The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Gameplay
There are five main worlds, or "Monkey Kingdoms", through which the player progresses: Jungle Island, Moonhaven, Zootopia, Monkitropolis, and Kongri-la. The goal of the game is to unite the feuding kingdoms of Monkitropolis and Kongri-la. Follow the normal story and complete over 60 quests from the monkeys around the Monkey World, using up to three different files.
There are on average, four sections to each world. To enter a different section, the player must wait several seconds. During that time, the game depicts the entire level from a high angle, showing everything in the level in an animated style. The same style shows up when AiAi teleports to another level. It depicts the four main monkeys blasting off into the sky while loading the level.
Story
AiAi, MeeMee, Baby and GonGon are barbecuing bananas on Jungle Island when, all of a sudden, the alarm bells of the Tree Palace sound. King Junjun of Jungle Island tells them the sorrow and naysayers that have spread throughout the five kingdoms, brought on by Prince AbeABE of Monkitropolis and Princess Dee-Dee of Kongri-la's visit to the island. Once the prince and princess's identities are revealed, their true love for each other is, too. King Junjun and the Super Monkey Ball team work together to bring on the wedding of the year - but it is not easy. Monkitropolis and Kongri-la are great rivals, and before the wedding can happen, AiAi and friends must help bring peace to them.
If the game is 100% completed, a visit from AiAi from the future will tell how the monkeys are inside magic energy balls, which are invented by AiAi and GonGon from a later time period, which is the reason the monkeys have balls. Baby returns home with this version of his father.
Development
Whereas previous Super Monkey Ball games focused mainly on innovative gameplay, Sega emphasized plot in Super Monkey Ball Adventure as a move to make the game more accessible.
Reception
Super Monkey Ball Adventure received "mixed or average reviews" from critics on all platforms, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. It obtained a rare ranking of zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes' video game section. The game was criticized for the series’ unwelcome shift to platform-adventure gameplay, controls, and difficulty, with many publications deeming it the worst in the series. 5 out of 10 rating and it, along with many other sources, claimed it was the worst installment thus far in the Super Monkey Ball series.
X-Play gave it a one out of five. 8 out of 10, criticizing the gameplay and difficulty, but the game's soundtrack was highly praised.
