Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is an awesome collection of some of Monkey Ball’s most exciting and challenging levels with a surprising amount of extra content. Whether or not you’ve played Monkey Ball before, this is an excellent addition to one of SEGA’s most fun franchises.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania
Developer: Ryu ga Gotoku Studios
Price: $40
Platforms: PS5 (reviewed,) PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 code for review
Super Monkey Ball is a fascinating franchise. Made by the man who went on to create Yakuza, Toshihiro Nagoshi, Monkey Ball is a test of reflexes, patience, and skill wrapped up in adorable gachapon monkeys. It’s a ton of fun and super stressful, and Banana Mania exemplifies these qualities perfectly.
The story of Banana Mania is as basic as you would want from a Super Monkey Ball game. Dr. Bad-Boon (great name) is doing bad stuff, so AiAi and his primate pals have to roll through various courses to stop him. The little TV program-styled cutscenes are cute and help to separate the theming between the levels nicely. You also get to see all the monkeys do a funny dance, which makes it all worthwhile, naturally.
Banana Mania takes stages from the first three Monkey Ball games and, with a few tweaks here and there, presents them in all-new remastered glory. You can still play the original, unaltered stages too, so purists and newcomers alike will enjoy what’s being presented here. If you’ve never played Monkey Ball, your goal is to tilt the stage in various directions to roll your monkey ball across each stage to reach the goal. Stages get harder and harder, as they begin to include narrow paths, obstacles, and all sorts of crazy layouts. Controlling the stage instead of directly controlling the monkey adds some unique challenge to the series, which works just as well in Banana Mania.
“There’s so much to unlock that I can hardly imagine getting everything, so if you find you’re fond of playing Monkey Ball, there’s plenty of incentive to keep playing.“
The sheer volume of courses available in Banana Mania is impressive, with over 300 unique stages being included in the game. They range wildly in terms of visual theming and layout, which keeps the gameplay fresh. While I don’t think every level is great (the ones based on launching into the air aren’t great to control,) most of the stages keep you on the edge of your seat and push you to keep trying when you lose. Competing to get the best time online is thrilling too, even if you’re like me and don’t have much of a chance of reaching the very top.
There’s a ton of content to unlock in Banana Mania, with even more coming as DLC. You can unlock famous SEGA characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Beat from Jet Set Radio, and even the Dragon of Dojima himself, Kazuma Kiryu from Yakuza. There are multiple costumes for each of the main monkeys, and entire game modes to unlock, all using points you earn for playing through stages. There are items to customize your monkeys’ appearances, photo mode filters, rendering modes, and more. There’s so much to unlock that I can hardly imagine getting everything, so if you find you’re fond of playing Monkey Ball, there’s plenty of incentive to keep playing.
If that’s not enough for you, there are also various minigames available through Party Mode, which can be played alone or with friends. These range from bowling and pool to Mario Party-esque battle games, but without all the lame parts of Mario Party. These minigames are quite enjoyable, and add some extra multiplayer fun to Banana Mania,
The music in Banana Mania is exactly what you would want from a Monkey Ball game: energetic and silly. Every time you boot up the game, a lady yells “SUPER MONKEY BALL,” and it really gets you ready to get your monkey ball to the goal. The visuals are cutesy but very charming, and I love the little touches, like how different characters collect different items instead of bananas. Kiryu collecting Staminan Xs will never not be funny to me.
The Final Word
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is a grand collection of the best that Super Monkey Ball has offered over the last 20 years. Though some stages are less enjoyable than others, most of the stages will have you itching to play more. The amount of content seals the deal, making Banana Mania the definitive Super Monkey Ball experience.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
