Vertigo and verticality in Super Monkey Ball

Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any forms or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, filming, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holders. 1 That is in all " games " , as the Nintendo GameCube terminology has it. ABSTRACT The vertical dimension is crucial to Super Monkey Ball on all levels 1 , and invites us to meditate on vertigo and verticality, falling and failing in the construction of space and game-play in this game and in computer games as such. In Super Monkey Ball, the vertical dimension should be mastered (landing on tiny islands with the ball glider), avoided (off golf courses, off race tracks, or off fight arenas elevated almost astronomically above the ground), although it may also invite to dangerous downslide acceleration or shortcuts that will give your baby monkey ball a lead in the race (descending tilting planes, falling from one level to another while staying on the course). But most notably, verticality is emphasized by falling and failing. Slipping off the racetrack or shooting oneself off the golf course by mistake always means dropping into a spectacular free fall; losing the poor baby monkey in dark swamps, sparkling oceans, or void, endless desert-like spaces. Meditating on this aesthetization of falling and failing in Super Monkey Ball, this brief study outlines the peculiar allegorical, albeit funny and social character of this game, which seems just as important as the playing of the game as such. INTRODUCTION As a computer game, Super Monkey Ball (SMB) is a bagatelle. If we are to believe Klastrup's informal observation elsewhere in this collective presentation , players of SMB enjoy playing this game although they do not normally play computer games. SMB's appeal to otherwise non-gamers (as well as gamers) seems to be based on the fact that this game is not to be taken seriously in the same way that computer games usually are since its social aspect is just as important as—and in a certain sense dominates—the playing of the game itself. Although SMB does function well as a game and probably could be taken very seriously, the console setting, its cute monkey imagery, caricatures of infantile egos and ego-centric player behavior, and the thematization of motor …