 |
| Credit: Memorix101 |
Monkey Ball was one of a number of Sega titles that should've been released for the Dreamcast. Given the game's origins as a Sega NAOMI arcade title, it was a completely natural fit for their home console which shared the same architecture. As we all know though, the Dreamcast's commercial failure would bring its life to an untimely end in 2001 (in theory), and so the game would instead show up in an enhanced form as a launch title for Nintendo's GameCube under the name Super Monkey Ball. The GameCube was cool and all, but us diehard Sega heads knew where the game really belonged...
In 2026, Memorix101 is looking to make what should've been a reality. Using assets from the decompiled GameCube release, they have managed to get the beginner courses (and extra levels) running buttery smooth on Dreamcast, as demonstrated below in this footage from The Sega Guru. Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself, and with all these amazing ports constantly coming to Dreamcast, my arm is beginning to get pretty damn sore.
At the moment, this port isn't available publicly, so fellow dreamers will have to wait a while before they can roll pantsless primate AiAi around in pursuit of his beloved Dole bananas (other brands of banana are available). Memorix101 did provide us with a playable version, and I can confirm that it plays great!
In the meantime, we've gotten word that a beta of the Sonic R port that was in the works from Jnmartin84 has finally been released publicly, so go grab that!