As we all should, I salute the modders who devote their time, effort, and attention to bug fixes, quality of life, and general playability. But as pure as those souls are, my favorite kind of modder is less good samaritan and more mad wizard: those who mold a game’s clay into new, terrifying shapes simply because they can.
Of those practicing sorcerers, I’m particularly fond of modding Renaissance man Blurbs, who’s completed yet another work of game-modifying blasphemy by turning Red Dead Redemption 2 into Super Monkey Ball.
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We’ve covered Blurbs’ terrible works in the past, from forcing the player to relive the memories of every RDR2 civilian they murder to letting his chat voice-act Skyrim NPCs in real time. His project in recent weeks has been realizing the mod idea submitted by other YouTubers, like fellow unhinged artisan Shindigs and premier videogame powerline inspector Any Austin.
Among those suggestions, the most involved came from PaymoneyWubby, who simply demanded “Super Monkey Ball.” Undaunted, Blurbs went about adding the functionality to—with a single button press—encapsulate Arthur Morgan in an orb so he can tumble around the wild West at high speeds.
But there’s more to Super Monkey Ball than a primate in a shape. A key component in the Monkey Ball formula is that you don’t control the ball; instead, you tilt the level itself to roll it around. To capture the spirit of that gameplay in Red Dead Redemption 2, Blurbs created a bespoke Unity app for his phone that sent its gyroscope data to his PC, to provide readable tilt controls for his Monkey Ball mod.
“It’s surprisingly easy to control,” Blurbs said in the video showcasing his work, which you can watch embedded above. Which is good, because the last thing we’d want is for rolling a human man in a large sphere around late 1800s America to be clumsy. Can you imagine?
For good measure, Blurbs also made it so any pedestrian or vehicle that the Morgan Ball collides with gets launched with incredible force. And yes, he was able to implement a functional Monkey Ball UI timer overlay, too. And collectable banana trails. And a game over screen if you fail to collect 30 before time runs out. You have to admire the craftsmanship.
It’s worth watching the full video to see what else Blurbs was able to cook up. I’m particularly fond of the Umamusume gun: a firearm that turns anyone shot with it into a horse with random stats. Next on his modding journey, Blurbs is turning his attention to Fallout 4. I’m sure the results won’t be at all horrifying.
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