By now we're all somewhat familiar with the unlucky simian quartet of Super Monkey Ball. They're obscenely adorable, baby-voiced tykes that can't seem to escape the glass ball / perpetual hamster wheel that encases them. Usually, you'd be tasked with wheeling them through a floating, twisting maze (like the wooden Labyrinth board game), but this time the primates are rolling into some Mario-style platforming.
Super Monkey Ball Adventure keeps the little guys inside their round prisons, but lets them loose in more traditional environments. Instead of dangling on a flying corkscrew, searching for an exit to the next puzzle floor, the monkeys are investigating jungles, theme parks and elaborate monkey cities.
Seeing as you're still trapped in a ball, expect the series' puzzle history to crop up frequently throughout the adventure. But without the constant, heart-exploding tension of the old titles (ticking clock, paper-thin routes to navigate), what could keep this interesting?