Games Done Quick is a bi-annual celebration of speedrunning and charity that showcases various games being played in mostly unintended ways by some of the most skilled and imaginative gamers in the world. While there’s usually a whole week of festivities to watch and enjoy, I’m usually the type of person to catch specific runs or games as they’re uploaded to YouTube after the event, usually when I’m supposed to be working. Sorry, Jimmy.
This might sound like a long digression right out of the gate, but bare with me. Recently, I watched the run of Kaizo Monkey Ball by runner IkeSMB at this year’s Summer Games Done Quick. A fan-made game, this version of Monkey Ball takes the “Kaizo” approach of level creation and applies it to the physics-based world of Super Monkey Ball. The result is a collection of levels that are utterly ridiculous to behold, yet showcases the versatility of a gameplay design being pushed to its absolute limit.
A term that’s become synonymous with high-skill and precision, Kaizo as a whole first originated with ROM Hacks of Super Mario World, with the first instance of the word in the gaming space cited to Kaizo Mario World in 2007. While a somewhat underground movement initially, the idea of Kaizo level design became more mainstream as sites like YouTube took off, showcasing the creativity of these harder levels. After that, the release of Super Mario Maker and its sequel launched Kaizo levels into the stratosphere, as an entire player base started competing with each other to create the hardest, most soul-crushing levels possible.
Mario might see the lion’s share of Kaizo love, but other games have been given the same treatment, including Super Metroid and, perhaps most sadistically, Super Monkey Ball. According to runner IkeSMB, the Kaizo Monkey Ball presentation features levels that have been compiled from various Super Monkey Ball fan games over the years, with some truly fiendish levels turning up during the run.
Seeing that level of creativity within the Super Monkey Ball community just makes me wish that SEGA’s silly simian series would get its own Super Mario Maker treatment. The possibilities for level design that exploit the game’s physics engine, or utilise some utterly bonkers obstacles, are astronomical, and if SEGA were able to put those tools in the player’s hands, it could be a real winner.
Granted, it’s never going to be at the same level of success as Super Mario Maker. Monkey Ball has always been the niche little platformer that could in comparison to Mario, but that doesn’t mean that SEGA and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, who developed the last game, couldn’t whip together a creation tool that allows players to express themselves. Or, more accurately, express how much they want to force other players to put their controllers through the wall. SEGA could even add it as an update to Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania, which would increase the replay value of an already excellent game.
Even if it’s an idea that’s too big for an update, a Mario Maker inspired version of Super Monkey Ball could be a great place to take the series next. After Banana Mania, which compiled content from the first two games (plus Deluxe), Super Monkey Ball has the freedom to go wherever it wants to now. Why not put that freedom, and the creativity that comes with it, into the hands of the player?
READ MORE: 5 Games That Should Get the Super Mario Maker Treatment
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