Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (June 25)
We’re just a few weeks away from the first brand new (non-mobile) Super monkey ball game over a decade, and Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble looks… pretty good. With plenty of cutscenes featuring the cute new monkey, tons of new stages and a ton of multiplayer modes, this is likely to be a hit with families this summer.
Otherwise… this is Super Monkey Ball as you know it. We’re looking forward to diving into the single-player levels, but we’re a little sad that fan-favorite mini-games won’t be returning. It also brings back the challenge, and we struggled to get some of the little “achievements”.
Fun fact, readers: this is the only Nintendo exclusive we got to play on the show. Everything else is coming to Switch And something else.
While waiting (to be determined)
What about a WarioWare that’s all about waiting for things to happen?
We think this is a pretty good summary of what While Waiting is. It’s a collection of ‘mini-games’ where you have to wait for things to happen. Waiting for the bus. Wait until the rain stops. Wait until traffic is free again. But you don’t have to just sit around and wait. Along the way you can perform hilarious tasks such as collecting ducks and getting run over. Ah yes, that beautiful, innocent task of getting hit by a car…
The game will first come to PC, after which Switch will have priority, according to the developers. Touch control is not planned and the movement feels a small slow, but this kept us chuckling during our brief 10 minutes with the game.
Years Rising (2024)
WayForward and Atari team up to create an iconic Atari series (Years) and turn it in a completely different direction. Add hundreds of nods to Atari’s history – like power-ups based on arcade machines and bosses designed entirely around an Atari game – and you get Yars Rising.
It’s part Metroidvania, part stealth game, and part hacking game. You can hack terminals to get new skills for Emi, and one skill we got allowed Emi to shoot enemies. Another saw her perform a jetpack-like jump. The game also has that classic WayForward sense of style and humor; it is extremely loud and colorful.
2024 has already been a banner year for Metroidvanias, with many more to come, but will Yars Rising be able to differentiate itself? We’re not too sure yet, but we’ll find out later in 2024 if WayForward has the magic again.
We recently spoke with WayForward and Atari about this new collaboration, so check out that interview for more: