2. Super Monkey Ball
GameCube launched with an odd collection of games. Mario was literally kidnapped and Super Smash Bros. Melee wouldn’t arrive until nearly a month after the console’s debut. Fortunately, GameCube owners were blessed with a wonderful multiplayer game to tide them over in the meantime. Sega’s Super Monkey Ball mainly focused on the task of guiding Aiai and his monkey pals to each goal point without falling off the platform, but it was the title’s bevy of party games that captured the interest of players. Options like Monkey Target, Monkey Race, and Monkey Bowling (to name but a few) were strong highlights, and resulted in Super Monkey Ball becoming a full-fledged franchise for Sega.
Super Monkey Ball has been a wonderful success for Sega. The game proved popular enough to inspire so many sequels that Aiai and his monkey compatriots have appeared in some form on every Nintendo system since, including Game Boy Advance, Wii, DS, and 3DS. While Wii U does not have a Super Monkey Ball title just yet, Aiai is playable alongside Vyse in Sega and All-Stars Racing Transformed.