Review: Bananarama's Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania
Our Verdict
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a blast for veterans and newcomers, featuring plenty of appealing content, though I was slightly split on multiplayer. But with so much sheer monkey madness and unbridled fun, I’m very glad SEGA didn’t drop the ball.
The fundamental goal of Monkey Ball is to get your adorable little monkey over a succession of absurd levels that verge on animal torture in order to reach the finish line. However, you are in charge of the level—not the monkey. These poor monkeys endure a great deal—they jump over several obstacles, hurtle at great speeds, balance on seesaws, and much more. The most apparent route isn't always the fastest one; the cunning may frequently find shortcuts with a few cunning moves and several brass monkey balls.
It's an intoxicating mix that instantly returns you to the beginning of a level and keeps you wanting to play more. Deaths are seldom unjust, and even if it seems strange to manage a level rather than your character, you always feel in charge of the situation.
While there are a few easy games to begin with, the complexity of the game quickly increases, and these poor monkeys suffer as a result. The stages become into mazes, and the only way to get through them all is to become an expert at your monkey methods. Fortunately, you have the option to either continue playing the traditional narrative mode or bypass some stages by paying in-game money to finish them. After trying certain levels more than twentysomething times, I enjoy the tidy boost in quality of life that this brings about even if it doesn't really finish the level on the menu.
You will, in fact, get trapped in a few of these stages. Even though Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania only includes levels from earlier games, there are some really difficult ones, and the various stage dangers may temporarily make an unusual level appear unsolvable. But that didn't stop me from having fun. Although there are sometimes truly annoying obstacles, being able to skip and go back to previous stages has been a huge time and patience saver for me. There are several options to make levels really reachable for younger players, including the option to somewhat ease levels or sometimes slow down the pace of dangers.
You must gather a lot of bananas on each level, often in a pattern that will help you advance through it. This resource is collectible and offers much more than simply potassium. In addition to using bananas to "complete" stages in case you run into trouble, you can also use your money to acquire additional playable characters, accessories, clothes, and even game modes. Sonic can hurtle a hedgehog, Tails can throw a fox, Beat from Jet Set Radio may drop the beat, and you can even yeet a yakuza by unlocking a chibi Kazuma Kiryu. For some completely perplexing reason, there are even more ridiculous characters to acquire as paid DLC, such Hello Kitty, and vintage Sega systems like the Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, and Game Gear. Well, I'll take it, however!
In addition, a plethora of customization choices are available, all of which are accessible inside the game (with the exception of DLC) and include various balls, clothes for the primary monkey characters, and optional picture mode frames. Even though I was already really addicted, I love unlocked stuff, so I'm very appreciative that the quantity of bananas required to get goodies seemed like exactly the perfect amount to make me want to keep playing. Additionally, you may unlock new game modes like Golden Banana, which requires you to locate every banana on a level. For gamers who are dedicated to finding material, there is a plethora of options available to them.
Along with the multitude of supplementary activities like Monkey Billiards, Monkey Tennis, Monkey Target, and Monkey Golf, multiplayer is also included and accurate from the early versions. While they may lack the polish and fine controls of comparable retail releases, they do a great job at maintaining the whimsical monkey spirit and providing some enjoyable diversity. But, it's evident that some may need some adjustment since in some cases, the controls and the physics seem strange. We became so frustrated with Monkey Bowling that we gave up on it, and Monkey Target seemed to be an absurd proposition. Fortunately, simpler minigames like Monkey Tennis and Monkey Golf seem extremely doable and are a lot of fun to play once everyone knows how to play them. Monkey Golf relieves the pain of other disappointing games since it seems particularly like it might be a game unto itself.
Beyond this, there's still a ton of content to go through, such as missions (which are essentially accomplishments) that, if completed, will provide you an abundance of bananas. A wonderful method to get enough of the yellow fruit to unlock some beautiful bonuses, and a fun boost to ordinary gameplay. Online leaderboards are another feature that allows you to compare yourself to the globe and brag to friends about your greatest moments. In ranking challenges, you may put your talents to the test by trying to finish a whole universe of levels as fast as you can. To be honest, I don't know what more a Monkey Ball fan could want from this. Complete with all the contemporary bells and whistles you would expect, this is such a perfect synthesis of everything that made the series so wonderful.
Switch is the best platform I can think of for Monkey Ball, and this version works really well on portable devices. This is a match made in heaven because of the individual missions' easy pickup and play format and the abundance of multiplayer options that can all be controlled with a Joy-Con. Even while this game may also be played on modern systems like the PS5, the port doesn't seem to be limited or simplified. Bright and colorful locations, a strong framerate, and—most importantly—instant death-related level restarts are all present. It will occur often.
Although it's obvious that certain textures have been reduced to make everything fit onto the smaller screen, it doesn't seem insignificant in a game like this. Everything you need to play and enjoy is present, and it works well. I'm a little disappointed that I haven't gotten an opportunity to test it out on an OLED Switch yet since I would love the vibrant pandemonium.
With remixes of famous tunes that bring many of them up to date with improved production qualities and a modest rearranging, the music is also more ridiculously entertaining than a barrel of monkeys. Returning to the original tunes, there's the occasional one that doesn't sound much better—at times, it seems like the songs were scrambled for no apparent reason. Additionally, while the original music may be found, it requires costly DLC to access. It's an oddly frugal play in a generally highly giving game. Although paying for DLC characters doesn't seem to detract from the package, I'm sure that many devoted fans would like having the choice to modify the package's music.
It's difficult to evaluate Monkey Ball objectively overall since it always seems like the kind of game you either love or hate. Even if this bundle is intricate, tough, and completely insane, as a fan, I can't ask for much more. This is the stuff that dreams are made of, with plenty of material from beloved games, a plethora of customizable equipment that can be unlocked, and a ton of various modes that even seasoned players can enjoy. If you're going to go to the effort of creating these modes, I would want to at least like them, so maybe, that gets adjusted later. I do wish multiplayer was tightened up a little bit.