LogFAQs > #876632770

the original super monkey ball has always been the best in the series
great level design and the high difficulty makes it consistently engaging despite the occasional spikes like expert 7 and advanced 30
it's very fast-paced and doesn't waste your time, and it's a perfect arcade game to jump back into for a run
every game since has had a sort of combination of worse level design and controls

2 has the same format but the level design is leagues worse, with a lot of dumb gimmicks and bland, empty levels and the game never gets hard until very late expert
some levels are just bad, like folders, dribbles, entangled path, switch inferno, train worm, air hockey, switch inferno, bumpy split, and the several levels that are literally "hold up to win" (triangle holes, simple, folders, quick turn, spasmodic), levels like gimmick and flock that waste your time, gimmicks that don't even fucking work properly like domino and folders, etc
i'm honestly not sure why people would prefer 2 over 1
is it just that people like the minigames so much? that game's a perfect example of the "quantity = quality" mistake

pretty much every game past is either horrible (adventure, banana blitz, or just plain boring (step & roll, 3d)
the vita game is supposed to be some sort of return to form but i don't own a copy of it to test it