By William Rogers

After a 15-year drought, video game publisher SEGA has revived a dying franchise with their latest “Super Monkey Ball” game.

“Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania,” released on Oct. 6, is a blast to play. The franchise has gotten the ball rerolling with this remaster of its original three games, “Super Monkey Ball,” “Super Monkey Ball 2” and “Super Monkey Ball Deluxe,” released in 2001, 2002 and 2005, respectively.

The main objective of the game is to roll your monkey as fast as possible to the goal while collecting bananas along the way. Each level has a time limit and many obstacles designed to knock you off the map. Many levels feature secrets to discover and shortcuts to help you shave off previous seconds from your score.

Each of the over 300 levels has been beautifully recreated to match their originals and remastered with HD textures. It is amazing what developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has created within the Unity game engine.

“Banana Mania” does away with many disliked aspects of previous titles by returning to the core roots of the game. Motion controls and the jump button are no longer the default and may be toggled in the options menu. The jump button is also not allowed in the ranked online mode.

With the all new online leaderboards, players can upload their highest scores and can even race other players’ ghosts. 

The revamped practice mode allows players to view their “personal record” for individual levels and can practice ones they struggle on. 

Story mode also returns from Super Monkey Ball 2 with all new beautifully rendered comic book styled animations and storyboards. 

Party mode also makes a comeback, featuring all 12 minigames allowing up to four players to play simultaneously. Unfortunately, this mode is not available online.

The base game also features a new costume system. New hats, shirts, shoes, balls and even face masks can be unlocked using currency in the shop to customize your monkeys.

The game features all the main characters from the Monkey Ball series. SEGA has also given players the ability to play as Sonic or Tails which changes the in-game bananas to rings.

Extra characters and outfits are also planned to be added with Hello Kitty being the first newcomer available now for an additional $4.99. Morgana from Persona 5 is also planned to be released on Nov. 2.

Although the game brings a bit of nostalgia from the originals, the new in-game soundtrack fails to provide the same feeling, with new tracks seeming like forgettable background noise than actual music. The developers have attempted to bring back this nostalgia by giving players the ability to purchase the original soundtrack for an additional $4.99, which adds the ability to toggle between the new and original soundtracks. However, it is troubling this featured was not included in the base price.

Sound design also fails in comparison to the original with sound effects of the ball really struggling to portray the movement of your character. The new voice actors for the game fall short of bringing back the feeling of the original, and one begins to miss the jeers and calls of the original voice actor Brian Mathew Uhl (“Beach Spikers”).

All in all, “Banana Mania” is a step in the right direction for the franchise. By returning to its original design, SEGA has recreated a masterpiece for a whole new generation of gamers to enjoy.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X/S.

Image from Nintendo via YouTube