The primary objective of the game mode is to navigate a monkey trapped inside a ball from one end of a stage to the other. Players control the slant of the stage by moving the control stick, thus making the ball roll and can fail a level by falling off or by running out of time. The stages contain platforms such as slopes, half-pipes, moving platforms, etc. The game introduces new gimmicks such as teleportation doors, switches which control the speed of a stage, massive obstacles, and more.
Story Mode is single-player only and introduces Dr. Bad-Boon, an evil scientist who steals all of the bananas from Monkey Island. The four protagonists, AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon, and Baby give chase and must navigate booby-trapped stages to reclaim the bananas. The story takes place over 100 levels split between 10 worlds with animated cutscenes that play in between each. The player is given an infinite number of lives and can complete each world's ten stages in any order.
Challenge Mode
Challenge mode allows up to four players and plays like the main mode of the original Super Monkey Ball. There are three sets of stages split up by difficult: a 10-stage Beginner set, a 30-stage Advanced set, and a 50-stage Expert set, totaling 90 stages altogether. Players navigate each set in order with a limited number of lives and continues. If a player completes all 10, 30 or 50 stages without using a continue, then that player will go to the Extra Stages, a series of 10 bonus stages. If a player completes all 50 Expert stages and all 10 extra stages without using a continue, then they will go to the hidden, 10-stage Master set. At this point, the player will be able to select this difficulty as if it were a normal mode. If a player completes all 10 Master-stages without using a continue, they will go to the Master Extra stages.
Party games
Twelve party games are accessible from a separate menu and feature 1-4 player co-op and competitive multiplayer modes. Six games return from the original game with updates, including Monkey Race, Monkey Fight, Monkey Target, Monkey Billiards, Monkey Bowling, and Monkey Golf. The remaining six games are new and must be unlocked with 2500 Play Points apiece. These include Monkey Tennis, Monkey Baseball, Monkey Soccer, Monkey Boat Race, Monkey Shot and Monkey Dogfight.
Reception
The game won the E3 2002 Game Critics Awards for Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game. Super Monkey Ball 2 was released to generally favorable reviews from critics. Metacritic gave the video game a Metascore of 87, based on 34 reviews. IGN praised the game for its core gameplay concepts, stating that it was "just as simple as the original, and also just as addictive... But where it's an entertaining single-player experience, it's a superb multiplayer one. All of the revamped mini-games are fantastic... this is one of the bestmultiplayer games for GCN, without a doubt and hands down." Famitsu magazine scored the GameCube version of the game a 31 out of 40. By July 2006, Super Monkey Ball 2 had sold 760,000 copies and earned $22 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 80th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of games in the Super Monkey Ball series released between those dates reached 1.1 million units in the United States by July 2006. The game sold well enough to warrant a GameCube Player's Choice budget re-release game.
Legacy and impact
A 2002 study recognized Super Monkey Ball 2 as one of several video games associated with improved performance in laparoscopic surgery. An extended study, performed over three years with 300 participants, found that surgeons who played Super Monkey Ball 2 and other video games for at least six minutes prior to operating performed better in a virtual surgery simulation than surgeons that did not play. Results include a significant drop in errors and an increase in speed and overall score. In response to these findings, Dr. James Rosser created a gaming area in the physician's lounge at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, saying "I want all the surgeons to warm-up and make sure they give Super Monkey Ball a chance."
