As weird as it is that a majority of the background elements are removed, I actually think World 9 with just the cosmos and nebula looks really neat on its own, even if it really wasn't intended. And Switch Inferno feels like you're in the dark depths of the whale, so in a sense, that adds some unintended atmosphere. ...that said, World 10 does look very barren. Surprised I didn't really notice these things when I played it, but that was years ago, so maybe I did notice but forgot.
As a kid, I never really noticed these incomplete backgrounds until I got to Switch Inferno and Ring Bridges. As shown in this video, this version of SI is even broken as you can clear it by pushing the party ball. And so I thought this was the intended way to clear it and not by pushing the right button. As for Ring bridges, I thought that it was what was left in Space after blowing up the Space colony during Story mode. Needless to say, both of these appearances really creeped me out as a kid
My guess is that the PS2 couldn't handle the full backgrounds in certain stages because it was just too much geometry to put on screen without slowing down, so they removed parts of them based on how many polygons the level had. It is rather interesting to look at these levels without these flourishes, but otherwise the PS2 port really isn't good at all, especially considering it only runs at 30fps, 480i, and has some really compressed textures.
It really makes you wonder why they bothered releasing this game on ps2 (outside of the ps2 being the best selling console of all time) If it meant downgrading the game in major ways.
Someone actually was brave enough to do an ULTIMATE run on the PS2 port! By the way, the PS2 could and DID handle the backgrounds, it's just awful optimization for some of the stages (especially as some with more geometry had the backgrounds) See the video below at like 17:35, and take note of the background ruclips.net/video/ofyanFrf7bk/видео.html
@@Maxxieuguuyeah, the gamecube was very much a beast compared to the ps2’s emotion engine even when super monkey ball first released, so much was sacrificed that when porting they genuinely should have just stuck with the xbox port to avoid gimping the experience so much.
@@MarauderYT mhm. Actually the 360 came out in 2005, they should have just waited to have this game be a cross generation release on xbox and xbox 360. It would have gone a long way imo.
@@Maxxieuguu absolutely, but as we saw with the ps2, I don’t think quality was at the forefront of their minds. Would have been great.. would have been.
I notice the bells in the Clock Tower world will sometimes either go missing or have fewer amounts of them in both versions of Deluxe. It’s most noticeable after the monkey goes through the goal and flies into the sky.
Honestly as a religious GameCube fanatic of SMB2 who fell in love with the rich and detailed literal world building, this is all cursed looking and jarring. Edit: Especially Inside of a whale. Holy heck, it's like they stripped literally every level of any mention of life. The Space Colony's actual colony is missing. BadBoons base doesn't have any hydro batteries. The whale is dead and it's dark inside. There are no stars in space, it's just a void. What the f*ck?
I seriously can't get over just how botched of a port PS2 Deluxe is. For the longest time I thought that this was just how bad Deluxe was, until I learned that the Xbox version basically fixed everything.
@@mistx7115and still plays a sky high theme in the artic stages and the rolling noises when the ball moves are still gone too, and the party games version 1 still plays a version 2 theme
I like that someone finally documented these strange occurrences. I think these backgrounds are here because of the far weaker processing power of the ps2 compared to the xbox and gamecube. For these larger stages, these differing backgrounds seem like the only compensation and way for the ps2 to render them.
The Playstation 2 port is so botched that it really makes the console look significantly weaker than it really is. While it is less powerful than both the Gamecube and the Xbox, the PS2 had no excuse to run Monkey Ball as porly as it did. I've seen significantly more impressive things on the platform easily hit 60fps.
It's a case of bad or no optimization. They likely took shortcuts just to get the game running at an acceptable enough level because of the PS2 being so dang popular that anything would sell, while the Xbox port was the primary focus.
@@GothicCatgirlWitchakaSakerr1 Not only that... The PS2 was much more complex to develop for (it got MANY GAMES because everyone were invested on taking a piece of brand popularity). The GameCube was designed to be very developer-friendly (since Nintendo realized doing the opposite for the N64 was a bad idea), while the Xbox was almost literally a PC. I'm sure the PS2 could've run this game at 60 fps, or at the very least have the same level of loading optimization like the GameCube and Xbox games did, especially with the less detailed backgrounds. The PS2 isn't much weaker than the other two consoles. (in fact I think the PS2 is better than the GameCube on (V)RAM capabilities)
My thoughts (In order of where the world appears in story mode): Inside a Whale: Okay, I know this world is the closest we have to a "scary" world in this game, but this is a little ridiculous. Space Colony (UFO and Asterisk): All I'm gonna say is that this world looks even more ugly without the rest of the colony. Space Colony (Ring Bridges and Construction): Okay, I'll be honest, this world without any of the extra stuff looks much better than how it looks normally. But I may be a teeny bit biased on this because I've watched many older super monkey ball rom hacks and this iteration really reminds me of that (Yet surprisingly not the others...). Dr. Bad-Boon's Base: Gee, I never thought that if you removed the rest of the extra objects from this world, it ends up looking extremely... barren. And the fact that the pulsing green effect isn't here really makes this look extremely ugly imo.
No pulsing green blends with the stage itself... Wouldn't be surprised it's anti-colorblind-friendly. They should've at the very least made the background darker.
my own Monkey mall: dodegacon and stoppers will have no building or palm tress. jungle island: steps (story mode) will have nothing except for a waterfall (more coming soon)
Fun fact these stages aren't like this in Super Monkey Ball Deluxe on the Xbox Version and I made a comparison video of it back in the day on my old RUclips channel that had copyrights of anime stuff on it
To be fair, the backgrounds *are* huge models with full collision, but yeah, the GameCube did just fine. Might be due to Deluxe being close to AV's merge with Sega, though.
@@blaz9474 Someone actually was brave enough to do an ULTIMATE run on the PS2 port! By the way, the PS2 could and DID handle the backgrounds, it's just awful optimization for some of the stages (especially as some stages with more geometry had them). See the video below at like 17:35, and take note of the background ruclips.net/video/ofyanFrf7bk/видео.html
@@shockingrobert4379 Well the Xbox was a lot better but sometimes the bells in clock towet were missing in some levels and some Badboon Base levels were missing the spinning black thing that goes around the base's center
If the backgrounds are different does that mean that the test rooms are also different on ps2? I remember one of them was just bad boon's stage background and no level.
I believe what youre reffering to is a "stage" used in the monkey dogfight party game. Since the level itself is not present and wont put much work on the hardware, the background will most likely still be intact and unchanged
@@lightningmanectric3096 Someone actually was brave enough to do an ULTIMATE run on the PS2 port! By the way, the PS2 could and DID handle the backgrounds, it's just awful optimization for some of the stages. See the video below at like 17:35, and take note of the background ruclips.net/video/ofyanFrf7bk/видео.html
Probably because you got sick and tired of the loading happening and you stopped playing. I also have deluxe on ps2 and i stopped playing after like the beginner stages because of the loading times.
Deluxe was clearly rushed. Another example is that Exam B still has the Monkey Mall goal despite now being in the Storm Theme
Strangely that only happens on the xbox version.
W H A T
As weird as it is that a majority of the background elements are removed, I actually think World 9 with just the cosmos and nebula looks really neat on its own, even if it really wasn't intended. And Switch Inferno feels like you're in the dark depths of the whale, so in a sense, that adds some unintended atmosphere. ...that said, World 10 does look very barren. Surprised I didn't really notice these things when I played it, but that was years ago, so maybe I did notice but forgot.
the purple and blue is actually quite nice, even if it is incomplete. the world was always too dull imo
As a kid, I never really noticed these incomplete backgrounds until I got to Switch Inferno and Ring Bridges. As shown in this video, this version of SI is even broken as you can clear it by pushing the party ball. And so I thought this was the intended way to clear it and not by pushing the right button.
As for Ring bridges, I thought that it was what was left in Space after blowing up the Space colony during Story mode.
Needless to say, both of these appearances really creeped me out as a kid
My guess is that the PS2 couldn't handle the full backgrounds in certain stages because it was just too much geometry to put on screen without slowing down, so they removed parts of them based on how many polygons the level had. It is rather interesting to look at these levels without these flourishes, but otherwise the PS2 port really isn't good at all, especially considering it only runs at 30fps, 480i, and has some really compressed textures.
It really makes you wonder why they bothered releasing this game on ps2 (outside of the ps2 being the best selling console of all time) If it meant downgrading the game in major ways.
Someone actually was brave enough to do an ULTIMATE run on the PS2 port! By the way, the PS2 could and DID handle the backgrounds, it's just awful optimization for some of the stages (especially as some with more geometry had the backgrounds) See the video below at like 17:35, and take note of the background
ruclips.net/video/ofyanFrf7bk/видео.html
@@Maxxieuguuyeah, the gamecube was very much a beast compared to the ps2’s emotion engine even when super monkey ball first released, so much was sacrificed that when porting they genuinely should have just stuck with the xbox port to avoid gimping the experience so much.
@@MarauderYT mhm. Actually the 360 came out in 2005, they should have just waited to have this game be a cross generation release on xbox and xbox 360. It would have gone a long way imo.
@@Maxxieuguu absolutely, but as we saw with the ps2, I don’t think quality was at the forefront of their minds. Would have been great.. would have been.
The PS2 version feels like it's held together with Duct Tape
I notice the bells in the Clock Tower world will sometimes either go missing or have fewer amounts of them in both versions of Deluxe. It’s most noticeable after the monkey goes through the goal and flies into the sky.
Honestly as a religious GameCube fanatic of SMB2 who fell in love with the rich and detailed literal world building, this is all cursed looking and jarring.
Edit: Especially Inside of a whale. Holy heck, it's like they stripped literally every level of any mention of life. The Space Colony's actual colony is missing. BadBoons base doesn't have any hydro batteries. The whale is dead and it's dark inside. There are no stars in space, it's just a void. What the f*ck?
Luckily, it’s only for these few levels which the PS2 couldn’t otherwise handle.
I seriously can't get over just how botched of a port PS2 Deluxe is. For the longest time I thought that this was just how bad Deluxe was, until I learned that the Xbox version basically fixed everything.
except for the monkey ball one extra stages, they still have the wrong music.
@@mistx7115and still plays a sky high theme in the artic stages and the rolling noises when the ball moves are still gone too, and the party games version 1 still plays a version 2 theme
The background changes in Badboons Base just come off as uncanny and uncomfortable to me
Liminal Space vibes
I like that someone finally documented these strange occurrences. I think these backgrounds are here because of the far weaker processing power of the ps2 compared to the xbox and gamecube. For these larger stages, these differing backgrounds seem like the only compensation and way for the ps2 to render them.
The Playstation 2 port is so botched that it really makes the console look significantly weaker than it really is. While it is less powerful than both the Gamecube and the Xbox, the PS2 had no excuse to run Monkey Ball as porly as it did. I've seen significantly more impressive things on the platform easily hit 60fps.
It's a case of bad or no optimization. They likely took shortcuts just to get the game running at an acceptable enough level because of the PS2 being so dang popular that anything would sell, while the Xbox port was the primary focus.
Now i actually noticed some of these changes to the backgrounds. And i have to say they are peculiar
I still don’t get why the PS2 port is so unpolished.
Hardware was pretty weak compared to the original Xbox and Gamecube.
That’s a good point.
@@GothicCatgirlWitchakaSakerr1 Not only that... The PS2 was much more complex to develop for (it got MANY GAMES because everyone were invested on taking a piece of brand popularity). The GameCube was designed to be very developer-friendly (since Nintendo realized doing the opposite for the N64 was a bad idea), while the Xbox was almost literally a PC.
I'm sure the PS2 could've run this game at 60 fps, or at the very least have the same level of loading optimization like the GameCube and Xbox games did, especially with the less detailed backgrounds. The PS2 isn't much weaker than the other two consoles. (in fact I think the PS2 is better than the GameCube on (V)RAM capabilities)
My thoughts (In order of where the world appears in story mode):
Inside a Whale: Okay, I know this world is the closest we have to a "scary" world in this game, but this is a little ridiculous.
Space Colony (UFO and Asterisk): All I'm gonna say is that this world looks even more ugly without the rest of the colony.
Space Colony (Ring Bridges and Construction): Okay, I'll be honest, this world without any of the extra stuff looks much better than how it looks normally. But I may be a teeny bit biased on this because I've watched many older super monkey ball rom hacks and this iteration really reminds me of that (Yet surprisingly not the others...).
Dr. Bad-Boon's Base: Gee, I never thought that if you removed the rest of the extra objects from this world, it ends up looking extremely... barren. And the fact that the pulsing green effect isn't here really makes this look extremely ugly imo.
No pulsing green blends with the stage itself... Wouldn't be surprised it's anti-colorblind-friendly. They should've at the very least made the background darker.
@@_SereneMango I see. Makes it even uglier lol
I really like the purple space background at 2:33 and 6:24.
This is super weird lil ig Sega was like let's give them a striped version of the game 😭
my own
Monkey mall: dodegacon and stoppers will have no building or palm tress.
jungle island: steps (story mode) will have nothing except for a waterfall
(more coming soon)
Fun fact these stages aren't like this in Super Monkey Ball Deluxe on the Xbox Version and I made a comparison video of it back in the day on my old RUclips channel that had copyrights of anime stuff on it
You forgot about the artic background because there is an ocean view on a ps2, and usually, in the Gamecube, there isn't an ocean view
Basic Bad Boon's Base looks absolutely HORRIBLE!
Feels like if Super Monkey Ball was for an enhanced DS.
I can't believe they couldn't optimize the game well enough to render a background.
To be fair, the backgrounds *are* huge models with full collision, but yeah, the GameCube did just fine.
Might be due to Deluxe being close to AV's merge with Sega, though.
@@blaz9474 Someone actually was brave enough to do an ULTIMATE run on the PS2 port! By the way, the PS2 could and DID handle the backgrounds, it's just awful optimization for some of the stages (especially as some stages with more geometry had them). See the video below at like 17:35, and take note of the background
ruclips.net/video/ofyanFrf7bk/видео.html
Lol the Xbox version definitely didn’t have all of these… just ring bridges I think. And possibly treads or asterisk?
@@shockingrobert4379 Well the Xbox was a lot better but sometimes the bells in clock towet were missing in some levels and some Badboon Base levels were missing the spinning black thing that goes around the base's center
The only stage in the GameCube versions with simplified backgrounds I know of is Passage.
Imagine if monkey ball deluxe ps2 romhacks have monkeyed ball worlds with weird backgrounds
If the backgrounds are different does that mean that the test rooms are also different on ps2? I remember one of them was just bad boon's stage background and no level.
I believe what youre reffering to is a "stage" used in the monkey dogfight party game. Since the level itself is not present and wont put much work on the hardware, the background will most likely still be intact and unchanged
I don't get it though why did some stages in Super Monkey Ball 2 have incomplete backgrounds?
I don't think the PS2 could handle some of these stages.
@@lightningmanectric3096 Someone actually was brave enough to do an ULTIMATE run on the PS2 port! By the way, the PS2 could and DID handle the backgrounds, it's just awful optimization for some of the stages. See the video below at like 17:35, and take note of the background
ruclips.net/video/ofyanFrf7bk/видео.html
I’ve played deluxe on ps2 and the backgrounds showed up for me
I had the ps2 version and I don't remember it being this botched (though it might of been cleared up in the European version.)
That is interesting.
Hmm, I did have deluxe on ps2 but I don't remember ring bridges or switch inferno to have looked like that
Probably because you got sick and tired of the loading happening and you stopped playing. I also have deluxe on ps2 and i stopped playing after like the beginner stages because of the loading times.
@@richardhead7768 lol true. Ps2 just isn't meant to handle deluxe
Which is better? PS2 or Xbox?
Xbox by a long shot
Wow this version looks really slow and crusty.
forgor about passage
Ohhh interesting
Oh god this is pain to listen to... And it looks bad as an added bonus!
Looks worse than Adventure
hmmmmmmmm putting xbox disc in ps2 may be possible
PS2 Monkey Ball Deluxe is a piece of garbage.
Still better than the N-Gage game :^)
@@TravelocityKirby Of course anything is lol
And that's why I grap the Xbox copy back in the day when I found out this game can be played on Xbox 360
@@megablueman too true
Dear god, this port is crap...
I didn't know this the entire time I was growing up playing the PS2 version. Thank you for doing this video.