I certainly did not expect to be playing an actual portable version of the Gamecube modern classic when I heard that Monkey Ball was announced for the GBA. All I expected was something like Marble Madness which is what everyone compares Monkey Ball to anyway. I would have been perfectly fine with that. Marble Madness was an excellent game and having it in any form would be wonderful on the GBA, however, Realism apparently had other ideas.

I am a big fan of the Monkey Ball series on the Gamecube. The premise is quirky with loads of personality and plenty of simple addictive gameplay to spare. Amazingly, the portable 'Junior' version stacks up quite well against its console cousins. Realism developed a 3D engine that makes it possible to translate Monkey Ball to the GBA while still making it extremely playable and fun. Realism even managed to tweak the controls to make up for the lack of having an analog control stick on the GBA. Realism should be commended for pulling off what most people felt was impossible on the portable system.

I will just start on the graphics of Monkey Ball Jr. which simply boggled my mind. The playfields are made up plenty of polygons and feature a plethora of scaling and rotation effects as you weave through the different obstacles in your path. All of the polygons are made up of flat colors and no real texturing to speak of which makes perfect sense given that the hardware was never really intended to handle fully 3D games. The game engine does an admirable job at handling the geometry being thrown around as it allows you play through some tense levels without too many serious hitches. Speed and framerate are respectable and remain pretty constant for the most part. The 3D aspects of the game are simply amazing considering the hardware and it's nice to see developers going above and beyond to milk as much as they can from the system.

The other graphical touches in the game are also quite nice. The character graphics, especially the sphere move fluidly with the actual character animation being adequate to slightly choppy in some instances. Most likely, you won't notice any flaws. The game also seems to include some rudimentary lighting effects as seen by the floor colors changing to a different shade depending on the light hitting the playfield as you tilt around. In addition to that, you will get a nice little lens flare effect, which really doesn't add a whole lot but it's a nice touch at least. The backgrounds are made up of decent resolution bitmap which sometimes even feature a little bit of animation. The background will even scale in as you fall out of a playfield, giving you a excellent sense of depth.

The sound in Monkey Ball Jr. does a respectable job of emulating the console version of the game. First of all, it was a nice throwback for the developers to include the classic "SE-GA" splash screen with the voice. It was just nice to hear that after so many years. We are also treated to a lot of samples from the console games like the announcer as well some of the chirps and screams of the monkeys as they collect bananas or fall to their horrible little simian deaths. The music even does a decent job of sounding like the console versions, however Monkey Ball will never be accused of having a stellar soundtrack. All in all, there isn't too much to be disappointed about.

Gameplay in Monkey Ball Jr. is spot on. Realism incorporated an excellent gameplay tweak which allows you to use the B button for a subtle grade tilt of the playfield or the A button for a steep tilt for speed or some momentum to get past an obstacle. Without any button pressed, you get a normal tilt which should get you past most normal conditions. The idea is simple: Guide your sphere encased monkey to the goal, snagging some bananas along the way for points and bonus lives. Another neat addition to the gameplay is a bonus multiplier for collecting all of the bananas on a level. This will add a lot for Monkey Ball pros who want to max out their scores.

The other thing about Monkey Ball games that fans have come to love are the mini-games, which have even found their way into Monkey Ball Jr. While playing the normal modes in the game, you earn play points which can be used to unlock mini-games or other features such as unlocking the Master Levels or adding extra needed continues to your total. Even though the selection is small, the games selected are some of the best and will provide many hours of fun. The first game, Monkey Duel, is only available when you link up more than one GBA. Monkey Duel basically lets you play through the levels with more than one players, competing for scores and trying to knock the other monkeys off the playfield. Monkey Fight is just like the console cousin, allowing up to four people to battle it out on three playfields with various powerups at their disposal.

Then we have Monkey Bowling which emulates the first version of the game which allows for a basic game of bowling as well as a challenge mode where you have 11 chances to take out 10 situational frames. Nothing major, but a nice little time waster. The best mini-game is certainly Monkey Golf, which features two courses with 9 holes each. (You get 9 holes when you first unlock the game and then get a chance to unlock the other 9 holes when you earn more points.) Monkey Golf is easily the best game of the bunch which offers the most challenge and replayability. It's a wonderful inclusion on the cart and really adds value to this cart. I would bet that a ton of people will end up playing Monkey Golf more than anything else on the cart.

In addition to all of the standard and mini-game play modes, Monkey Ball Jr. also features playable credits, much like the console versions which is one feature I though we were going to lose. Realism really packed in the whole Monkey Ball experience into a tiny cart on a system that shouldn't have been able to run the game. I hope every Sega conversion was this good on the system as we've seen some sloppy jobs with the first Sega Ages and a stinker like the recent Shinobi. Hopefully, as they proved with Monkey Ball Jr., we'll see more good then bad in the future as we are on the verge of Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi conversions. Realism did an incredible job bringing Monkey Ball to the GBA and I highly recommend this game to any fan of the console versions.