So, I recently played through most, if not all of "Super Monkey Ball Jr." The game originally piqued my interest, when I saw the game's cover among the other games in the RGR, and I thought about how such a game could be pulled off taking into the account the limitations of the Gameboy Advance.

I've been a fan of the series for about a year, owning the GameCube ports of the first AND second games in the series, as well as both iPhone games plus their iPad counterparts. I've noticed that it's aimed to a more female audience but the addictiveness of the gameplay kept me coming back no matter how hard or challenging it is, which is very rare in my case because I will easily put down a game and never play it again upon reaching a difficult roadblock.

So, inevitably, I ended up buying the RGR version of Super Monkey Ball Jr. Upon starting up the game, I noticed an interface almost IDENTICAL (despite graphical inferiority) to that of the GameCube version of the original Super Monkey Ball. So, I was surprised. Finally I started up the game, and began to play. The levels, if memory serves me correctly, were also the same as the GameCube version.

So the first criticism I had was that it's name, Super Monkey Ball Jr. suggests that it's a whole new game, rather than a port of the original. I was hoping to see some unique, fresh new challenges, but instead, I got a graphically inferior version of the same game I already have. Now, this is an advantage in the case of actually OWNING a physical copy, because then you can take the game around you wherever you go- but you see how in the case of an RGR rom, it really could be a waste of Viz for me since I already pretty much have it.

Now, the game itself, as are most Super Monkey Ball titles, is pretty tough. The first few levels are going to be pretty easy and simple, but the further you go into the game, the harder it gets. It's so difficult that I issued the game a Difficulty rating of "9". Now, normally I'd rate it lower because this is the norm for Super Monkey Ball games, but the controls are actually alot harder. Obviously, due to the limitations of the GBA, the physics of the controls leave alot to be desired, and this is a great hinderance to the gameplay.

Despite the difficulty, this will be a pretty quick game, as it doesn't offer alot of content. You have the minigames, which are pretty good, and then you have the regular mode. Basically, it's just three different selections you can choose from- Beginner, which has 10 stages. Advanced, which has 20 stages. And Expert, which has 30 stages. Now, to be totally honest, I didn't complete all of the stages. And unless you're a veteran to the franchise, I'm guessing most people won't be able to get to them all either. Since these modes are really all that the game has to offer, there is not very much Depth.

And thus, a Depth rating of 3. It's nothing more of a port of an arcade game. Now, arcade games are great and all, but I'd think that if they can push the limit as much as they did when it comes to the game's graphics quality, you'd think that they'd add a little more to the game such as cut-scenes, extra modes to unlock featuring varying gameplay styles, I don't know. Maybe this really is all that was possible for them to do. Either way, it's still essentially the same as the arcade game, and if you compare the arcade version to, say, Super Monkey Ball 2... well, you'll get the idea.

The story score was left blank of course, because there was absolutely no story whatsoever at all in this game.

The addictiveness, however... scored 8. This game is, just like the other titles, extremely addictive. Super Monkey Ball Jr. may not be as addictive as other entries in the series, but it's still got a good deal of replay value and if I didn't have a better version of it on my GameCube, I'd be playing this game for hours.

The sound is a 6. Mostly because I don't usually pay much attention to the sound quality of games, so maybe I'm missing something, but from what I remember, the music is essentially the same as every other game in the franchise. The same stock sound effects you should be familiar with if you score a banana, make it through the goal, or fall off the edge of the stage into a pit of endless failure.

Now, the graphics... while no game on the Gameboy Advance has truly superb graphics, I just had to rate this game a 10 in the graphics department because it is just one of a handful of games that REALLY pushes the boundaries of what the GBA's technology is capable of. I mean, for those of you that have played other entries in the series and have not played this, you're probably reading this thinking that the game is played from some sort of top-down perspective. No. This game provides you with full 3-D graphics that are borderline DS quality.

Its hard to explain how flawlessly they pulled off the graphics, I seriously don't believe they could have done a better job. The only way you can find out for yourself is to go to the RGR and check out the game on your own. I cant think of any GBA game off the top of my head that can compare when it comes to the graphics. If it weren't for the graphics of the game, it wouldn't have achieved an overall score of 9.3 .

I think if the graphics weren't so good quality for GBA, I would have given the game about a 6 or a 7, maybe somewhere in between. Super Monkey Ball Jr. just impresses that much.

Now, I realize I probably haven't written this review for people who have never played an SMB title before. If you haven't, this game is NOT the game to introduce you to the series, due to the slightly buggy physics in a game where physics are everything. However, I do reccomend you go out and buy yourself the GC copy of the game, or any of it's sequels such as Banana Blitz, Touch and Roll, Step and Roll, SMB: 3D... but not Super Monkey Ball Adventure, thats a whole other game entirely.

I think that just about concludes my review! Thank you for reading. Veterans of the series will appreciate this game and it's graphics capabilities, and it may inspire them to go and play the original again. Newcomers to the series will not enjoy it's slightly broken physics. People looking for games with lots of story and depth, well.. shouldn't be reading this review at all, and people who have played through alot of the RGR library and are looking for something to entertain them while the find a better game to play should enjoy this game.

If anything, it's worth taking a look at no matter who you are or what your interested in, just to see how well the graphics were pulled off. That's really all I have to say! Thanks once again for reading, I'll see you next time I review a game! Bye for now!