Home This guy is playing Super Monkey Ball with an actual super monkey ball. Why can’t he become the next President?

This guy is playing Super Monkey Ball with an actual super monkey ball. Why can’t he become the next President?

Put a monkey in a ball (not a real one, monkey obviously, the ball should be fine) and make a video game where said monkey, called AiAI rolls around collecting bananas around fiendishly difficult courses and you have the premise for one of the best-loved puzzle games in gaming history.

Super Monkey Ball is ace, always has been, and probably always will be, and now with the latest version, Sega’s Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble on the Nintendo Switch, AiAi is rolling out (pun, very much intended) to a brand new audience.

But what could make it even better? What one thing could possibly create the greatest Super Monkey Ball experience in our lifetime? Well playing the game with an actual monkey ball of course.

Friends, cast away your Joycons. Joystick drift is a thing of the past. Well, it is as far as Dr Tom Tilley is concerned.

You see Dr. Tom is a computer scientist and he has put all that intelligence and education into making a controller for Super Monkey Ball that features a model of AiAI in a ball and made a massive trackball out of it so he can steer AiAi around the courses by rotating the it with his hands.

Using some cardboard (scientific cardboard obviously) and a 3D printer to print the monkey he shows in his post on X how he’s put it all together and how it all works. The man is a genius. A bona-fide genius and he has my vote.

His post said, “Everybody’s adding AI to things these days so I thought I’d add AiAi to my DIY soccer/football controller.

This is also funny. He is a genius and a funny one at that. Please make us a Monkey Ball controller Dr Tom. We are pretty much begging you.

Check out the video above to see why hardware modders will one day rule the earth.

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The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Paul McNally
Gaming Editor

Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title published by IDG Media. Having spent time as Head of Communications at a professional sports club and working for high-profile charities such as the National Literacy Trust, he returned as Managing Editor in charge of large US-based technology websites in 2020. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine,…

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