Remember Marble Madness. It came out a long time ago, during the mid-80's, and became something of arcade legend. Crafted by a seventeen year old kid named Mark Cerny, it built upon the simple concept of rolling a marble around a series of mazes, making your way from your drop-off point to the exit without running out of precious time. (If you did miss it, you can check it out on Midway's Midway Arcade Treasures 1.) Sega's Super Monkey Ball series has followed a similar formula, allowing you to roll around a monkey in a clear plastic ball through a series of challenging mazes, collecting bananas and reaching the exit before time ran out or, in some cases, rolling off the stage that you're on into what seems like an endless oblivion. The series made waves on the GameCube, and now it's time for Xbox and PS2 owners to get a taste with Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.

The game is basically a "remix" of the first two Monkey Ball games, as it includes all 114 levels from Monkey Ball 1, 140 levels from Monkey Ball 2, and 46 all new levels exclusive for this Deluxe edition. These levels range from simple (rolling in a straight line down a series of steps) to hard (rolling down what seems like a long inner tube, only having to time your rolling out through the exit before falling into the abyss) to mind-numbingly difficult (trying to traverse huge rotating hamster wheels with exits scattered around them, or, worse yet, trying to get through one attached to a high-speed skateboard). The goal is simple- get to the huge ball and banner before time runs out or you're toast.

Some may find themselves frustrated at the difficulty of the later levels. I know I sure did, especially after I SWORE that I had the right rolldown through a level and misjudged something at the very end. But it remains a delight to play, as the controls are very responsive and allow you to get handling down just right. I would've liked to have seen the ability to rotate the camera to get a view of the entire level, but it's not to be. If you miss a spot, the best thing you can do is inch forward, and the camera will swivel around to the path in front of you. It takes a little practice, but it works.

The game's look is rather simple, as you have the level itself to travel upon while looming, colorful background animation remains the same for each set. As you proceed, you'll find the detail getting more and more exquisite, from outer space galaxy designs to a well-lit volcanic setting, complete with flowing lava. It looks great, and the Xbox version doesn't suffer from slowdown- something that cannot be said about the PS2 edition. The music's got a nice techno beat to it, and drowns out the somewhat annoying sound effects, made up of monkey noises from both high-pitched youngens to some odd-sounding older ape who sounds like his voice was generated from scratching a record against the tire of a garbage truck. My only hope was that the game included customized soundtracks so you could get in a groove of your own.

But what the game lacks in some of its presentation and difficulty settings, it more than makes up for with the wonderful Party Mode. Here, there's twelve different games to choose from, such as Monkey Race, Monkey Fight, Monkey Target, Monkey Boat, Monkey Shot, Monkey Dogfight, Monkey Soccer, Monkey Baseball, Monkey Tennis, Monkey Golf, Monkey Bowling, and Monkey Billiards. Most of these games, like the sports efforts, are a complete blast. My personal favorites happen to be Billiards and Golf, just because they're easy to get into. Some might like the shooting action of Monkey Shot (sort of a take on the "point the cursor on-screen and shoot" games) and the antics of Monkey Boat, but I just couldn't get into them as much as the sports games. But it's an overall marvel of a package, and a must for those seeking multiplayer madness. Four players + monkeys + racing or competing= a must for parties.

That leads to my other big nag about this game- it completely lacks any kind of online play. Oh, come on! This is the sort of game that just begs for Xbox Live compatibility, allowing gamers to match up in everything from a Monkey Baseball league to a typical Monkey Race to see who's got the fastest sphere on the block. I could just imagine a community of people with annoying ape voices that, for once, aren't clamoring about politics and just want to play Party Mode. But it didn't happen here, and that's the main thing holding this game back from the legend status it could have so easily achieved.

But that doesn't make Super Monkey Ball Deluxe any kind of loser. Not only did it have a good online campaign (featuring a kid named Chad stuck in a ball of his own) and a good history of sales on the GameCube, but it got introduced at a meager $30, $20 off the typical game price. Not bad at all, considering the values it carries for both single player and multiplayer modes. Super Monkey Ball Deluxe may not be the granddaddy of the apes like it wants to be, but that doesn't mean he just fell off the tree either. Pick it up and go ape already. (OK, enough puns, just get the game.)