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Streamlining is a process that almost every game inevitably goes through. It may happen during development as a consequence of refining the game's core systems. Or it may be undertaken by a new dev team decades down the line in an attempt to bring in a new audience. But no matter what circumstances cause it to happen, it’s always a question that has to be answered;
How do we simplify our video game in a way that invites inexperienced players whilst still retaining an edge that experienced players will enjoy?
And there’s no better case study for this, than Super Monkey Ball
First released by SEGA in 2001 for the Arcade and then later the Nintendo Gamecube. Super Monkey Ball was created by Toshihiro Nagoshi, who you may know now as the creator of the Yakuza series who tries really hard to look like a Yakuza, but back in the day, he was an arcade game developer, more known for the streamlined high octane fun of F-Zero GX and Daytona USA than the complex gritty crime stories of Yakuza and Super Monkey Ball was no exception.
You roll around simple, arcadey levels with tricky turns and levitating ledges that require you to tilt yourself around the course with such precision that one slight misplacement of the analog stick can make your monkey fall to his death. But despite the game's inherently precise nature, Super Monkey Ball is the very definition of Streamlined. Your 1 major control is the analog stick. That’s it. You press A to select and speed up level openings, but apart from that, Super Monkey Ball is a 1 button or 1 stick game. You’d think that this amount of streamlining borders on oversimplification, but the challenges of navigating a movement system based on physics and momentum means it is a game that appeals to anyone, can be easily understood by anyone, and can be taken to its absolute limits by casual fans and fans who partake in Speedruns alike, and the added touches of the plethora of extra minigames and the cute monkey characters rolling around in the balls makes for an experience that is so bizarre yet unfathomably genius that I am sat here wondering how Nagoshi and his team at SEGA even came up with it. Streamlining isn’t just a process to Super Monkey Ball. It IS Super Monkey Ball, and not only is that by far its biggest strength, but also, historically, its biggest weakness.
This video will go through the rise and fall of the Super Monkey Ball series, its sharp decline in quality after the first 2 games, and how it could possibly bring itself back for modern audiences through a well maintained live service.
11 июл 2023
