The latest entry in the Super Monkey Ball series is the first game we got a chance to check out at Sega’s Summer Game Fest booth, and it’s shaping up to be a game that’s sweet in nature and quite ripe in gameplay.
Developed by RGG Studio (yeah, the Yakuza guys), Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is actually the first original mainline game in the series since Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz came out on the Vita in 2012, marking 12 years since the last original game. We’ve had a handful of remakes since then that had moments of fun few and far between, and Sega is hopeful that this is the one that makes fans go bananas.
We didn’t get to play it all that much, but Adventure Mode is back in Banana Rumble, and it also features fully produced cutscenes for the first time since the release of Super Monkey Ball 2 on the GameCube–which also happened to be the last Monkey Ball game I’ve spent more than 10 hours on, so it’s quite clear that Sega is trying their hardest to give the series some much appreciated legs. As anyone would expect, the happy monkeys speaking their language while saying all sorts of cute things was endearing, and I’m not gonna lie–I wish I spent more time on the Adventure Mode aside from just the tutorial.
This Rumble mode where you go through the hoops? It’s bananas.
The tutorial was traditional Monkey Ball fare. You tilt the stage and try your best not to make the monkeys in their balls fall out, but the new mechanic being brought in is the spin dash. If you’ve played any Sonic game, you know what that is. So after almost two decades, AiAi and company can finally spin dash through their fun mazes. But in return, the jump button is gone. It’s not a huge loss, because it’s historically been one of the most clunky things in the series, but there’s also a power-up in certain modes in the game that’ll allow your monkeys to jump too, so it’s not entirely gone.
The main mode we were encouraged to check out was Banana Rumble‘s Rumble Mode, which is basically a collection of minigames with objectives not unlike something you’ll find a game in like Mario Party or Fusion Frenzy.
Among some of the modes was a Race mode where you obviously try to get to the finish as fast as possible, a Collection mode where you try to hoard the most bananas on a map without falling off and having your score docked, a capture the flag-esque mode where you hold onto a golden banana and try to keep it away from the other monkeys, a mode where you have a time limit to roll down a course scoring points by rolling through hoops of a specific point total depending on the difficulty of the hoop’s location, and a mode where you have to destry as many robots as possible with the help of the spin dash. There were more modes then this, but I’m working off memory, so I apologize that I don’t have the actual names of these modes.
Of the Rumbles I tried out, my favorite ones were the last two mentioned. These games actually separate your team into two, and you have to work together to rack up the high score. In that mode where you have to roll through different hoops, at various times of the level, bonus hoops worth as high as 60 points are put in easier places to reach, and it’s both fun and stressful trying to make sure you get to that hoop. In the robot rumble example, there are also robots dropped in that get you more points too. The race mode was also pretty fun, as there’s a bunch of Mario Kart-esque power-ups you can find for all the monkey balls to wreak havoc on one another.
As for why I liked these modes, it’s probably because I won in all of them with the exception of the races. Every other mode was just all sorts of tough, and it’s made tougher (and more enjoyable) by the fact that each of these minigames allows up to 15 players to compete. It’s absolute chaos in the best way. Speaking of chaos, Sonic and his friends Tails, Knuckles (who I used), and Amy are also available as playable characters, and I was told there’ll be a whole lot more coming after launch.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is coming out exclusively on the Nintendo Switch next week on June 25th, 2024.
The latest entry in the Super Monkey Ball series is the first game we got a chance to check out at Sega’s Summer Game Fest booth, and it’s shaping up to be a game that’s sweet in nature and quite…
The latest entry in the Super Monkey Ball series is the first game we got a chance to check out at Sega’s Summer Game Fest booth, and it’s shaping up to be a game that’s sweet in nature and quite ripe in gameplay.
Developed by RGG Studio (yeah, the Yakuza guys), Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is actually the first original mainline game in the series since Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz came out on the Vita in 2012, marking 12 years since the last original game. We’ve had a handful of remakes since then that had moments of fun few and far between, and Sega is hopeful that this is the one that makes fans go bananas.
We didn’t get to play it all that much, but Adventure Mode is back in Banana Rumble, and it also features fully produced cutscenes for the first time since the release of Super Monkey Ball 2 on the GameCube–which also happened to be the last Monkey Ball game I’ve spent more than 10 hours on, so it’s quite clear that Sega is trying their hardest to give the series some much appreciated legs. As anyone would expect, the happy monkeys speaking their language while saying all sorts of cute things was endearing, and I’m not gonna lie–I wish I spent more time on the Adventure Mode aside from just the tutorial.
This Rumble mode where you go through the hoops? It’s bananas.
The tutorial was traditional Monkey Ball fare. You tilt the stage and try your best not to make the monkeys in their balls fall out, but the new mechanic being brought in is the spin dash. If you’ve played any Sonic game, you know what that is. So after almost two decades, AiAi and company can finally spin dash through their fun mazes. But in return, the jump button is gone. It’s not a huge loss, because it’s historically been one of the most clunky things in the series, but there’s also a power-up in certain modes in the game that’ll allow your monkeys to jump too, so it’s not entirely gone.
The main mode we were encouraged to check out was Banana Rumble‘s Rumble Mode, which is basically a collection of minigames with objectives not unlike something you’ll find a game in like Mario Party or Fusion Frenzy.
Among some of the modes was a Race mode where you obviously try to get to the finish as fast as possible, a Collection mode where you try to hoard the most bananas on a map without falling off and having your score docked, a capture the flag-esque mode where you hold onto a golden banana and try to keep it away from the other monkeys, a mode where you have a time limit to roll down a course scoring points by rolling through hoops of a specific point total depending on the difficulty of the hoop’s location, and a mode where you have to destry as many robots as possible with the help of the spin dash. There were more modes then this, but I’m working off memory, so I apologize that I don’t have the actual names of these modes.
Of the Rumbles I tried out, my favorite ones were the last two mentioned. These games actually separate your team into two, and you have to work together to rack up the high score. In that mode where you have to roll through different hoops, at various times of the level, bonus hoops worth as high as 60 points are put in easier places to reach, and it’s both fun and stressful trying to make sure you get to that hoop. In the robot rumble example, there are also robots dropped in that get you more points too. The race mode was also pretty fun, as there’s a bunch of Mario Kart-esque power-ups you can find for all the monkey balls to wreak havoc on one another.
As for why I liked these modes, it’s probably because I won in all of them with the exception of the races. Every other mode was just all sorts of tough, and it’s made tougher (and more enjoyable) by the fact that each of these minigames allows up to 15 players to compete. It’s absolute chaos in the best way. Speaking of chaos, Sonic and his friends Tails, Knuckles (who I used), and Amy are also available as playable characters, and I was told there’ll be a whole lot more coming after launch.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is coming out exclusively on the Nintendo Switch next week on June 25th, 2024.
by Danreb Victorio
