Super Monkey Ball is Sega’s premiere franchise involving monkeys rolling all around the place. Although Sega has broadly shifted away from arcade-centric gameplay, Monkey Ball still carries that torch. After a few remakes on Nintendo Switch, it’s finally time for a new game: Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble.
Ball Out, Fall Out
The core gameplay of Super Monkey Ball is deceptively simple. Using the left analog stick, you tilt the direction of the entire stage to influence the direction of your ball-bound monkey. In this game, there is no jumping, no power-ups, and no parkour as is typical of platformers. There is only your monkey, the stage, the goal, and the bottomless pit below. It somewhat resembles the Classic-style Sonic games, where emphasis is instead placed on the steady accumulation and control of your momentum and gravity. Unlike Sonic, once you start, stopping can be tough, so knowing what amount of speed you need is key to not hurdling out of bounds.
Thanks to the game’s nuanced and intuitive physics system, it’s a ton of fun in practice. Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble critically features the most accurate physics and controls since the GameCube outings. Touching even the slightest bump in the road at an angle can send your character flying in a different direction, but it’s never difficult to intuit how to get the result you want. With this in mind, learning how to exploit those bumps is part of the fun. If you’ve found a particularly devious shortcut and feel like it should be possible, it probably is with a bit of practice. It’s easy to learn, but the skill ceiling is surprisingly high.
Adding onto this further is Banana Rumble’s largely excellent and varied level design. True to the series’ legacy, it’s not long before the level design becomes incredibly difficult. You may end up pulling your hair out every time you see the words “Fall Out” pop up on your screen, but it’s frustrating in all the ways a Super Monkey Ball game ought to be. Levels feature differing gimmicks and layouts will test the player’s ability to control their speed in different ways, their understanding of the physics, and how to puzzle-solve. Since every stage has a time limit of 60 seconds, you’re under some pressure to quickly figure out what’s what as you go along. This will be more than enough time if you’ve got a good grasp on gameplay, though.
All told, the core gameplay in Banana Rumble is an excellent return to form. I dare say that the single player campaign is actually even more fun than that of the classic Monkey Ball games thanks to its great levels and engaging gimmicks. Thanks to its consistently high challenge and the various different ways my knowledge of the game was tested, I had a lot of fun from start to credits. Banana Rumble’s own additions make things even better, such as…
Spinning and Dashing
New to Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is the addition of the Spin Dash. Just like the series that inspired the name, the Spin Dash allows you to charge up a burst of speed that flings you in any direction. It’s not some all-powerful tool, though. It takes time to charge, can’t be spammed, and doesn’t have complete control over the direction you go in. If you’re hoping you can use a Spin Dash to save you from falling off the course at top speed, you’re sadly mistaken. Instead, what the Spin Dash allows for is subtle-yet-critical changes in direction when navigating levels. A well-timed Spin Dash can make the difference between hitting a bumper and falling off, or dodging it and reaching the goal.
It’s easily the best addition to gameplay the series has seen, feeling like a natural extension of everything that makes it good. It’s also well balanced, as while stages encourage it, its usage is never flat-out required to clear levels. Couple this with characters carrying different weights and attributes that affect how the Spin Dash functions, and you have a mechanic that helps to really broaden how players approach the gameplay. The Spin Dash is also necessary in completing each level’s bonus challenges. Every level comes with challenges involving completing it under a certain time, collecting a Golden Banana in a particularly devious spot, and collecting every regular banana in that level. Mercifully, these challenges can all be completed individually, and they add a lot to playtime too.
The Spin Dash also adds a lot to the game’s Time Attack element, as doing big level skips with it is regularly encouraged. As mentioned earlier, skips aren’t hard to find if you’ve got a good grasp of the physics. See a conspicuously placed bump in the road? Spin Dash into it to see if you can launch yourself into the goal. That kind of thing can happen a lot with practice, and it feels great every time. When coupled with the game’s robust Time Attack mode and Replay feature, this game is practically a speedrunner’s paradise.
Monkey Around Together
The “rumble” in this game’s title is to denote the bigger emphasis on multiplayer. Super Monkey Ball’s multiplayer was always one of its biggest draws for me, so I was excited to see where it would go this time. Unfortunately, it’s kind of a mixed bag.
First up, the entire game can be played through co-op. Up to four players can play together online to complete stages and work together. For what it is, it’s pretty functional and gives you lots of flexibility. Only one player needs to complete the level for everyone to progress, so this is good for struggling players who may need a helping hand. You can also adjust whether players collide with each other or not, which is a nice additive for those who don’t want to be frustrated. It’s a surprisingly natural fit for Super Monkey Ball, and seeing which players can reach the goal first gives levels a nice competitive flavor.
The big addition to multiplayer is a new 16-Player Mode, where players will compete in either a traditional racing mode or seeing who can grab the most bananas. As you would expect, it’s utter chaos and pretty hard to follow. The racing mode is fun, though I wish there was a way to play it with just four people. The banana grabbing minigame is almost nothing but luck, and wasn’t very fun for long. It wasn’t long before I headed back to the much more interesting single-player instead.
Not that I would want to play this mode for long, as there is one damning element that spoils the fun here: the frame rate. While the main game runs at a largely smooth 60FPS, the 16-Player Mode sees it cut in half. Even despite that, it’s not a very smooth 30FPS either. While in many games I wouldn’t mind this much, it’s all but a death sentence for Super Monkey Ball’s playability. This guaranteed that, despite whatever novelty the 16-Player Mode had, I wasn’t going to play it for long. Seeing as this is one of the game’s big selling points, it’s disappointing that this was the case.
Postgame
After clearing the main story, which consists of 100 levels split across 10 worlds, you’ll gain access to the EX Worlds. These are much harder worlds which feature much more punishing level design. It’s here where the game stops pulling its punches and you’re tasked with clearing another 100 brutal levels. Yes, the postgame is as long as the main game, and it’s fantastic. Outside of Deluxe and Banana Mania, Banana Rumble is the most bang-for-your-buck Super Monkey Ball game out there.
You’ll also gain access to the Mysterious Banana Tree, which doesn’t actually do anything in terms of unlocks or story. That said, it can be weirdly fun to donate points to it so it can grow bigger and bigger. It’s like a living representation of the player’s road to 100% completion. Besides that, there are also several unlockable characters and a boatload of customizable outfits too. The outfits are only for aesthetic, but as mentioned earlier, every character has different attributes that makes revisiting levels fun. It’s a nice cherry on top of an already charming package.
Graphics and Sound
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble looks much the same as the previous two games made for Switch. It’s colorful, cartoony, and generally as easy to read as it ought to be. Characters have also received redesigns that admittedly took getting used to, but I did wind up liking them quite a bit before long. They look great and animate with lots of expression. Eventually I wound up liking AiAi’s current design more than his old one. Special props must go to the UI, which imbues the whole game with a sort of tropical vacation vibe that fits really well.
As said earlier, levels in single-player mode or co-op run at a smooth 60 frames, and there are no load times between levels in a given world. It keeps up the pace nicely for speedrunning and getting good times, as I had to reset an awful lot to get a perfect run.
The music is the star of the show, though. Sega Sound Team truly never misses, as stars from RGG Studio and even Sonic Team combine to make a soundtrack filled with lots of catchy, energetic beats. It’s about what you would come to expect for the series’ already strong musical pedigree, but I was still surprised at just how often I was bobbing my head to it.
Verdict
After more than twenty years, the original outings on GameCube have finally found a worthy successor. Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is a rousing return to form for a series that had been struggling to find its footing. While it doesn’t quite reach the highs of the first two games, mainly due to performance inconsistencies and lacking multiplayer, I still really enjoyed myself. Above all else, it feels great to be excited about Super Monkey Ball’s future again.
SUPER MONKEY BALL BANANA RUMBLE IS RECOMMENDED
For another Sega animal-based platformer alluded to in this review, check out our review for Sonic Superstars.
Many thanks go to Sega for a Nintendo Switch review code for Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble.
A hobbyist who took up the pen to write about their favorite pastime: games. While a lover of many genres, Isaiah Parker specializes in Platformers, RPGs, and competitive multiplayer titles. The easiest way into his heart is to have great core gameplay mechanics. Self-proclaimed world’s biggest Sonic fan. Follow him @ZinogreVolt
