Flawless, almost perfect gameplay, this "childish" game can only be beaten by a teen or an adult.
--Gameplay--
The gameplay is very simple; just advance to the goal. Only the joystick makes you do something, so much for non-figurable gameplay ^_^. But usualy, simple gameplay means harder gameplay. Sega didn't hesitate on difficulty for this one, that's for sure. The beginning is very smooth; beginner mode is 10 easy stages to get started at. Of course, beginner usualy fail to complete it but after a week to a month of training, you'll be walking advanced quite easily. The transition of difficulties (like beginner to advanced) is slightly rough for going to advanced, but you quickly get used to it. Expert takes more time to be able to go above floor 7, but don't get discouraged: every (almost) stages have a trick. You can also practice on them, too. But, the greatest challenge human kind has ever faced on games: master 3. First of all, master stages are very hard to obtain without cheats ;). By very hard, let's just say it's harder than doing a lv. 11 run in FF1 (DoS), clearing Sonic the Hedgehog (The first one on genesis), and clearing SMB3 within 30 minutes. It's hard, but not impossible. I used cheats, but I know I fart, I burp and I smell, but I was bored of the game (Pushing your skills to the limit at 9 years old isn't as fun, since you usualy don't have the ability to do that and have good notes in school to stay alive) and I had it for 4 years, so why not? It doesn't mean I encourage you to do it, I was my own choice... it gives you less advantage once to the master stages, TRUST ME.
If you get bored of the "Main Game" or just finished it, Party Games and Mini Games are here for you! Party Games are games that are here from the start, which are fun, too. Monkey Race is well-made, and I currently can't find a flaw. 6 tracks to run around, and topping the high score someone (or yourself) worked hard on isn't so easy! Monkey Fight is also fun, although you can occasionaly lose control of your monkey. I just don't like it as much as everyone... but in my opinion the best game apart Main Game, is Monkey Flight (Not sure of the name, or something like that). Same as Monkey Race, beating a score above 2000 in 15-stage games is tough and needs a lot of training. Every party game has a good amount of powerups to enhance gameplay. The Mini Games need 2500 (or something similar) to unlock, which encourages to play something else than Party Games. Monkey Bowling is a nice game that is easy to master, it's like playing real bowling. Monkey Billiard is something I didn't play, since I just learned how to play billiard recently (I never got how it worked... probably because I didn't care) so I remember playing a bit, but that's it. Monkey Golf is another hard thing. Some holes seem impossible to get to, so you'll end up with a lot of 9's in your score board. BTW, I used to buy Bananas from Dole. Dole in a video game? Creepy at start.
--Graphics--
In the first days of the NGC, like every console, there is no exceptional graphics. But this one has great stuff: nice water effect (Monkey Flight), almost no lag/frameskip at all, and you can easily understand what things are. The camera was well made and I had no problem using it, except slightly at master 3.
--Sound--
I usualy don't comment a lot on sound, but the sound effects were appropriate to the kind of game and they.... sounded right. The music is fun to hear and music match well the areas you're in.
--Value--
This is one of the best and challenging games ever. This thing is worth the buy if you like puzzle and platform games. Although you've gotta be patient at times...
So, this thing is really a game you should own (unless you only go into blood, violence, and you hate monkeys. Wait, wait, I didn't say I don't like RE) in your pile of NGC games. Be aware to accept loss of things around your NGC because stress this game causes may be fatal for some objects around. In other words, you most likely to scream or something like that if you're not too patient. Don't lose hope!