Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania (Switch) Review
Release Date: 5 October 2021
Date Played: 1 July 2022
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a remake of Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe and was released for the 20th anniversary of the series to appease the hordes of rabid fans that had been clamoring for a new entry into the series. It was met with generally favorable reviews from the public and critics alike, but was strongly disliked by veterans of the series due to some blatant technical issues. It was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega.
Gameplay:
Banana Mania contains all 300 stages and minigames from Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (which is a compilation of all stages from Monkey Ball 1&2). Just like all of the previous Monkey Ball games, your goal is to navigate your monkey ball from the beginning of the stage to the goal at the end. Rather than controlling the monkey itself, you instead tilt the entire stage and allow gravity and the game’s physics to maneuver yourself around the obstacles, ramps, jumps, and other barriers as you make your way to the goal before the time limit runs out. You’ll also need to be wary of falling off of the edge of the level as most of them have no walls to prevent you from plummeting to the void below. Falling off the edge restarts you at the beginning of the stage and you get as many attempts as you would like. This is a departure from some of the earlier games in the series that had a limit to the number of attempts you could make. As you make your way through the ever increasingly difficult levels, you’ll not only need to rely on a steady hand to keep from careening over the narrow and precarious platforms, but you’ll also need to whip out your fast-twitch reflexes for some of the more speed based levels. At times the stages are more like a puzzle with hidden switches and odd timings. Sometimes, you can’t even figure out what you’re supposed to do as there is no seemingly possible way to tackle the level. If you fail enough times, the game will take pity on you and give you the option to get help. This will give you more time for the stage as well as giving you yellow arrows to follow that will attempt to show you the most optimal course. Even with these, figuring out some of the levels will make you pull out your hair.
See, Super Monkey Ball is hard. Despite its cute and bubbly presentation, it’s tough as nails. Some of the stages are so difficult that they may take hundreds of tries to reach the goal and learning to master these games is only for the most hardcore and serious gamer. It could take hundreds and hundreds of hours to become a Monkey Ball expert and there is a significant number of people out there who fall into this category. They are the ones that know these games so well inside and out, that they were the first ones to detect that something wasn’t quite right with Banana Mania. According to the developers there are some “rebalances” to some of the stages that are supposed to make the game easier. Coupling this with the unlimited continues, Banana Mania is purported to be a more casual experience for a new generation of gamers while having enough fan service to bring back the old school fans. Banana Mania was remade in Unity, a video game engine that was different from the one used in the original games. While it does look flashier and seems to work well, the physics, camera, and control are just a bit “off” from the way they felt in the original games. On top of that, the Switch’s analog sticks don’t aren’t precise enough to give you that extremely tight control that you need. I heard stories of expert Monkey Ball players that can clear the original games without ever dying not being able to complete some of the beginner stages in Banana Mania. One Youtuber who held a world record in the game at one point couldn’t even finish the story mode because the control was so bad and he struggled so much. Tons of fans of the series said the camera was so abysmal that the game was essentially unplayable and it’s better to just disable it because it has a habit of rotating on its own. Not only does this often make it difficult to see where you’re going, it will also change your trajectory. So, if you’re on flat ground and you hold directly down on the analog stick, you will begin by heading down, but the camera will then start rotating to position itself behind the monkey. Once it has rotated 90 degrees, pressing down no longer moves the monkey down, instead it starts moving it 90 degrees to the left. It’s so incredibly frustrating and if you’re in a hectic area where you’re bouncing all around, you’re constantly having to fight against the camera. Never has maintaining a straight line been so difficult.
On the other hand, newcomers to the series seemed to have no issues with the game and said that it was totally fine and that the old players were just so used to controlling the games with a different controller that they were having a difficult time adapting to the Switch’s analog sticks. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Yes, the controls and camera aren’t as tight as they were in the originals. Yes, the Switch’s analog sticks aren’t well suited for the game. However, if you don’t have deep rooted Monkey Ball muscle memory, you can learn to adapt to playing the game this way. That is, until you start getting into some of the more difficult stages. Now, I’m not a Monkey Ball master, but I can give you an example. On the stage, “Sieve” you have to navigate down a narrow path that has rings zipping up and down its length. If your monkey ball is hanging slightly over the edge of the path, the rings will collide with it as they shoot by and knock you off the edge. For the final part of the stage, you have to traverse an extremely long and narrow path with a very tight ring that leaves very little tolerance for being anywhere but dead center of the path. Right before this section, there is a safe zone where you can line up your ball and make sure that you’re perfectly centered and traveling straight. Now, at this point, no matter how slowly I went, or how softly and gingerly I tapped the analog stick, I couldn’t get anywhere remotely close to centered on Banana Mania. I turned the analog stick sensitivity down as low as it would go (and likewise for the camera), and used all my skills to try to center up my monkey ball. I would just barely touch it and it would overshoot my mark. Then, I would tap it to correct and it would overshoot the other way. I would sit there and fiddle around with it until time almost ran out, and could never get it right. Once I finally tried to traverse the narrow path, I would start to veer off of the edge and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t correct my trajectory in small enough increments to keep the ball centered and would inevitably get knocked off by the flying ring. It took me almost 45 minutes of trying this stage just to complete it (over 100 tries) and I only felt like I was able to beat it with sheer luck. Fast forward to this morning, and I popped my copy of Super Monkey Ball 2 into my Gamecube and tried the same level. I was able to beat it on my first try. I got in the safe spot, tapped a few times to center myself, and then just pressed up on the analog stick. The controls are just so much more precise and the gamecube controller has plastic segments shaped in an octagon that surround the analog stick. So, if you press up, the analog stick snaps into position at exactly 12:00. On the Switch, if you press up on the analog stick, you might be off by 3% because there’s nothing there to guarantee you’re in the exact correct position. For a game like Monkey Ball, a 3% margin of error is just too much to succeed. It can be extremely frustrating getting close to finishing a level over and over while failing because the controls just don’t work the way they should. There are different monkeys you can choose to play as that have different attributes, so trying different ones might help you get over a hump that you’re struggling with. Still, sometimes it feels like you need sheer luck to help you finish certain stages.
In addition to the main story mode of the game and the challenge levels, you also have all of the beloved minigames from Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.
These include:
Monkey Dogfight, where you have to shoot down the other players in an aerial combat scenario. It’s pretty fun and controls rather well, but the levels are huge and there’s a lot of time just looking for your opponents rather than firing at them.
Monkey Boat, where you have to race down a river by alternatingly tapping the shoulder buttons to row your boat. There are combat powerups a la Mario Kart. It’s fun, but can be a bit of a chore to play.
Monkey Tennis, where you just play tennis.
Monkey Billiards, where you just play billiards.
Monkey Fight, where you try to knock/punch your opponent off of a platform for points. You’re in the monkey ball for this one, so it’s very physics heavy.
Monkey Golf, where you’re the golf ball on a miniature golf course. It’s a lot of fun, but in the end it is just a golf game.
Monkey Soccer, is a simplified version of the game where everyone is in a monkey ball. It’s quick paced and a lot of fun.
Monkey Target, where you roll down a ramp before launching your monkey into the sky where you have to glide towards various targets to earn a high score. This was one of the most popular parts of Monkey Ball Deluxe.
Monkey Baseball, where the pitcher throws themself at the batter who then attempts to knock them into sectioned off areas that determine if it’s a base hit, homerun, or out. There is no fielding in the game and it feels very arcade-like and fun.
Monkey Race, that’s basically just Mario Kart with everyone in a Monkey Ball instead of a go kart. It works well, but nothing will ever live up to Mario Kart.
Monkey Shot, is an on rails shooter where you go through three levels of shooting down enemies before having a boss fight. It has nothing to do with Monkey Ball, and I’m surprised it’s here. But, it really is a nice inclusion.
Monkey Bowling, is bowling with monkey balls. Line up your shot, and let it fly.
These minigames/party games are a huge draw to the whole package and there are more than a handful of people that bought the entire game just to play them with their friends. The problem is that the physics in some of the games are just broken and don’t work. Monkey Target is probably the favorite minigame for most people, and it is essentially unplayable. None of the controls perform like they should, and it’s almost impossible to score any points. It completely ruins the game because you repeatedly crash into the water over and over and can’t seem to keep elevation. In addition to this, baseball’s physics are off too and it’s nearly impossible to aim your shots when batting. The other minigames perform fine, especially when playing with other people.
Presentation:
Banana Mania looks good and does a lot to update the appearance of some games that are 20 years old. There are new textures abound and the game is as bright and colorful as ever. All of the monkeys are really cute and charming and are able to carry the over-the-top silliness of the game. Also, I think the game runs at a pretty constant 60 frames per second. In story mode, there are little vignettes between the various worlds where you get to see some animation of the monkeys watching craziness on TV. It’s a nice addition, but they weren’t really able to hold my attention and I found myself going for my smartphone whenever they came on. The soundtrack that accompanies the action has a late 90s, early 2000s dance music sound to it that works well overall with the whole package and really helps it keep its feel of being an arcade game. It’s good, but I don’t find it particularly memorable or catchy. That’s probably due to my being so white-knuckled focused on the gameplay that I can’t concentrate on anything else. Of course, in true Sega fashions, you have an announcer calling out the game’s title and little quips like, “Get Ready!” At the beginning of every stage.
Conclusion:
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a complete package that is executed a little below what it needed. It has everything you could ever want in a Monkey Ball game, but its poor controls and camera don’t give you the tools you need to actually make progress in the game. In addition to this, the best minigames aren’t really functional and you can’t play them the way they were meant to be played. If you’re a casual Monkey Ball fan and just want to play a few of the easier-medium difficulty stages, Banana Mania is a fine way to do that. If you are already a Monkey Ball expert (or want to become one), I don’t think Banana Mania is going to let you do that. It just makes the game way too difficult.
I guess you could spend an incredible amount of practice learning to deal with the poor controls and camera. But, why waste all that time when you can just play the older versions of the game and be instantly better?
Pros:
The Monkey Ball games look better than ever
It’s a fun concept for a game that will give you tons of fun (and frustration)
There is an abundance of content to sink your teeth into
Great pick up and play arcade feel that’s very welcoming
Easy to learn, hard to master
Cons:
The physics engine is different from the original games and doesn’t work as well
Some stages that are relatively easy on the old versions are nearly impossible here
The best minigames don’t function like they are supposed to
Final Status: Played
Final Score: 7/10 (good)
