Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble

Platforms: Nintendo switch

There’s always a bit of cognitive dissonance when you realize that Super monkey ballSega’s long-running series of cute, physics-based puzzle platformers is the work of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, the same developers behind the crime sagas of the Like a dragon/yakuza franchise. Then you remember that the latter consists of lesbian warrior crabs and flying UFO-sized robot vacuum cleaners, and suddenly the idea of ​​rolling cute monkeys trapped in Gashapon eggs around strange floating worlds doesn’t seem like such a disconnect.

The first brand new one Super monkey ball entry over a decade, Banana rumble feels reassuringly familiar to long-time fans, but manages to throw in a few tweaks to the formula that keep things fresh. As always, players do not have direct control of the titular monkeys, but instead tilt the map themselves to roll them towards a goal, collecting as many bananas as possible along the way. It’s the epitome of “easy to learn, hard to master”, especially as the levels evolve from simple flat courses to multi-level nightmares littered with obstacles where you have to navigate your monkey’s balls along a paper-thin curved path. without safety rails. The slightest mistake will send you plummeting into the abyss – racing against the clock all the time.

It’s all surprisingly tactical, especially when the stats of each playable character are taken into account, namely speed, brake, weight and spin. For example, lead monkey AiAi has a perfectly balanced spread, while its female (yes, really) MeeMee is slower, but braking power has been improved, allowing for more precision around the maze-like maps, and YanYan tops the charts in terms of speed, but misses some real control – great for speeding through a map, but with high risks of ending up in the void below. Players will want to take advantage of each monkey’s unique abilities to master the levels’ three challenges: completion time, number of bananas collected, and finding a tricky-to-grab golden banana.

Banana Rumbles hundreds of levels are housed in Adventure mode, a cute framing story (the first the main series has seen since its 2002 release). Super Monkey Ball 2) where AiAi and his friends help newcomer Palette track down the “Legendary Banana” while evading the nefarious Gala family: Fes, Tee and Val (geddit?). It’s nonsense, of course, but younger players in particular will appreciate the animated cutscenes between chapters. Likewise, a host of unlockable monkey customization options – from individual clothing items to entirely new skins – are a fun costume diversion, but unlikely to have much to offer anyone other than completionists.

Super monkey ball However, has always been both a party game and a puzzle platformer, and Banana rumble is no exception and brings five new forays into Battle mode. Race is as simple as it sounds, with players tearing through a map towards a goal, while Banana Hunt is a free game to collect the most bananas during a match. Ba-boom! is an explosive, pass-the-pack game where the last one holds a bomb at the end of a round and is blown to smithereens, while Goal Rush offers a touch of capture-the-flag play where you play in teams to collect dozens to control scattered goals across a map. The big draw, however, is Robot Smash, another team-based game where you try to do the most damage to a battalion of bots and win the highest score. A large number everywhere Mario Kartstyle items and power-ups can be collected to turn the tide.

Unfortunately, with just those five Battle Mode games, Banana rumble feels undervalued as a board game offering compared to the past Super monkey ball entries – especially those from 2021 Super Monkey Ball banana mania, an HD remake of the first two games in the series featuring 12 competitive mini-games. While Banana Rumbles the offering is bigger, bolder and more deliriously chaotic – especially with up to 16 players rolling around in the online multiplayer – the relative lack of variety works against this.

Whether you play the minigames in Adventure Mode or Battle Mode, Banana Rumbles The biggest gameplay update to the long-running series is the introduction of a new Spin Dash move. Hold down B and you’ll get an extra speed boost, propelling your monkey forward. It may seem like a small tweak to the mechanics, but it can change everything if used wisely. Spin Dash plays wonderfully with the game’s physics, with a well-timed rise up a ramp allowing extra momentum to fly over another hazard or gap, or knock another player out of the way in competitive battles. It can make all the difference in taking on one of those timed challenges – some of which task you with reaching the goal in a matter of seconds – or in achieving victory in a race. It’s a brilliant example of how a small tweak to a game’s design can improve the entire experience.

It all makes for a fun return for AiAi and friends, as much fun for masochists looking to master each brutally challenging course in single-player as it is for casual bursts of party game mayhem. It’s just a shame that the multiplayer aspect of Banana rumble lacks variety compared to its predecessors, leaving a core component of the Super monkey ball experience.