Ironically, the Gamecube's best launch game is also its least impressive graphically. It's not ugly, by any means, but the graphics are mostly purely functional and subservient to the gameplay. It may sound simple and repetitive but Super Monkey Ball is pretty much the dictionary definition of addictive, perfectly balancing the intense frustration at failing to complete a course with the absolute desire to have "just one more go". To make matters worse the later courses are so fiendishly difficult it' s as if Beelzebub himself has risen up from hell and designed a puzzle game.

The single player mode is maddeningly addictive, but it's the four-player larks, either on the standard puzzle courses or through a bunch of wacky mini-games including monkey bowling and monkey fight, that mark Super Monkey Ball as a true gaming classic. Its lack of showy graphics may unfairly limit it to cult status--just make sure you're part of the cult.--David Jenkins