is a 2002 platform video game developed by Amusement Vision and published by Sega for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the Super Monkey Ball series, and the first installment to have a storyline and to be exclusively released on a home console.
Super Monkey Ball 2s stages were remade as a part of Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania.
Gameplay
Super Monkey Ball 2 continues its predecessor's core Marble Madness-style gameplay.
thumb|left|Screenshot of Super Monkey Ball 2, showing the player's [[HUD (video gaming)|head-up display and rolling mechanic. Unlike its predecessor, Super Monkey Ball 2 features widescreen support.]]
Challenge mode allows up to four players and plays like the main mode of the original Super Monkey Ball. There are three difficulty levels: Beginner, Advanced and Expert, consisting of 10, 30 and 50 floors each. Players navigate each set in order with a limited number of lives and continues. A hidden set of ten Master floors can be unlocked through playing the Expert Extra floors without using a continue. At this point, the player will be able to select this difficulty as if it were a normal mode. If a player completes all ten Master stages without using a continue, they will go to the Master Extra stages.
Multiplayer
There are 12 multiplayer mini-games, six of them reprisals from the predecessor with more gameplay styles and level types: Monkey Race, Monkey Fight, Monkey Target, Monkey Billiards, Monkey Bowling and Monkey Golf.
| EuroG = 8/10
| G4 = 8/10
| GamePro = 9/10
| GSpot = 9/10
| GSpy = 86/100
| GRadar = 8.2/10
| GameRev = 9/10
| GameZone = 9/10
| IGN = 9/10
| NWR = 9.5/10
| NP = 4.9/5
The game won the E3 2002 Game Critics Awards for Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game. GameSpot named it the best GameCube game of August 2002, and later declared it 2002's "Best Party Game on GameCube". It was nominated for GameSpots annual "Best Sound on GameCube" and "Game of the Year on GameCube" awards, which went to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Metroid Prime, respectively.
Super Monkey Ball 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The game sold well enough to warrant a GameCube Player's Choice budget re-release game.
Legacy and impact
A 2002 study recognized Super Monkey Ball 2 as one of several video games associated with improved performance in laparoscopic surgery. An extended study, performed over three years with 300 participants, found that surgeons who played Super Monkey Ball 2 and other video games for at least six minutes prior to operating performed better in a virtual surgery simulation than surgeons that did not play. Results include a significant drop in errors and an increase in speed and overall score. In response to these findings, Dr. James Rosser created a gaming area in the physician's lounge at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, saying "I want all the surgeons to warm-up and make sure they give Super Monkey Ball a chance."