AiAi

AiAi (アイアイ) is the main character in Super Monkey Ball. He has appeared several times in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, most notably in Sonic Riders, Sega Superstars Tennis, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. He is voiced by Kaoru Morota.

Appearance
AiAi has similar traits to a Spider Monkey. Although he lacks a tail, he does have an orange shirt with the letter A on it (possibly for AiAi). He has dotted eyes, a small scruff of hair, and rounded ears that stick out of his head. In Super Monkey Ball: Touch and Roll, his look was modified. Also, In Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz and Sega Superstar Tennis, his look was updated, giving him a blue backpack, red oval shaped cheeks, a cat-like smile and a much sweeter look all in all.

Sega Superstars
AiAi appears in Sega Superstars with a minigame based on his own series of games where the player has to use their own body to move him around and get to the end in time, like his own games.

Sonic Riders
AiAi appears in Sonic Riders as an unlockable character. Oddly enough, he is a Power-type character, and as such, pushes lighter characters around easily. However, due to his small posture, he is easily pushed around just as much.

Sega Superstars Tennis
He reappears in Sega Superstars Tennis Tennis with other Sega Superstars like NiGHTS and Ulala. In this game and from now on, he has his updated appearance.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
AiAi once again appears in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing driving a racer called the Blazing Banana which is modeled after his favorite obsession: Bananas. his All-Star Move has him rolling around in his monkey ball with friends while running over anyone that gets in his way.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
The cheeky little monkey appears in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed again driving his vehicle from the previous game, but redesigned to look more like a conventional race car, like a dragster. For transformations, the car loses its wheels and sprouts banana-like structures to become a boat. Then it uses the same banana structures, but they stick from the bottom of the vehicle in a upside-down 'V' and reveals a booster to make it a jet.

Personality
AiAi is a monkey who loves bananas. He is usually absent-minded, always thinking that every time he eats a banana, it was really delicious. AiAi deeply cares for his wife MeeMee, his son Baby, and friend Gongon. Despite being absent-minded at times, he is very kind and very brave, going as far as exploring the inside of a volcano on his home island of Monkey Island.

McDonald's
In the 2003 set of Sonic Happy Meal McDonald's toys, Sega included a toy starring AiAi in a Super Monkey Ball themed, banana grabbing game. He being the only non-Sonic character included in that set. This toy was also one of Sega's free giveaways at the E3 convention in 2003.

Trivia

 * He has the same name as the Japanese name for Coconuts.
 * AiAi bears a resemblance to another non-Sonic character, Amigo: they are both monkeys, both of their names start with the letter A and they are both similar in appearance.
 * AiAi is the only non-Sonic character that is on the cover of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.