Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

With the release of the GameCube in 2001, Sega released an action and puzzle game called Super Monkey Ball. It had previously found fame on arcade devices, but upon release on the GameCube it gained widespread popularity and was one of the most popular games released on the device, and there were two sequel games. On the same device, before the levels of the game parts later decreased with the change of the development team behind it and also the weak development budget, the series celebrated the 20th anniversary of its first release, Sega decided to provide us with a new package for the title, which contains the first two games in the series that gave us the best experience. With its story, in addition to the deluxe version of the improved game, which includes: More stages, today we present you a review of this pack.

Super Monkey Ball: A Classic Game Remastered

The idea of ​​the Super Monkey Ball series is very simple: you control a ball with a monkey in it. “With the new pack there are many more options for the characters, with the possibility of playing the game as Sonic and others”, and you have to get this ball to the finish line while overcoming the obstacles in front of you in each stage. The idea seems very simple on paper. However, there are stages in the game that are impossible due to their difficulty in terms of ways to achieve the goal. Stages that require a fall from above and the accuracy of the landing site and other stages that allow you to choose the most appropriate path to victory, between wide and long corridors or very narrow paths, but they reach the goal quickly, and other stages contain obstacles that you throw away that you have to overcome. Bypass and other ideas with more than 300 stages that this pack offers.

Exciting Mini-Games and Updated Graphics

There are also various mini-games, including football, bowling, billiards and the popular game Monkey Target, where the monkey flies after a long jump and then you have to collect bananas in the air before falling into the best area As for the scores. This pack features a complete remake of the original game graphics in addition to music. New as well as modern versions of classical music, and this is where we start to talk about the problems with this package. The main issue here was changing the “weight” of ball control. Especially those who have experience with old games will quickly feel this, unlike new players, and the matter is not very bad in the original game, but in the games. Unfortunately, the mini-game, particularly the Monkey Target game, has become much worse and the new controls have made this classic an unpleasant experience for fans of the series.

Improved Gameplay and Additional Features

The new music, particularly the sound effects for the characters as well as the rolling of the ball and even the sound of the ending sections, also saw a significant level drop compared to the original version of the game. Regarding the graphics, although they have improved significantly compared to the original version, many small effects that made the game popular among its fans are missing here and there. The new package brings many good additions, the first of which is to “make the game easier for all players, since the original experience was difficult, especially as you progressed through the stages and reached the Pro level. Here you can now use the jump button in all parts (the second part of the game has been added) with complete freedom. By controlling the camera, an arrow showing the position of the ball movement, the ability to delete the number of losses and other options that made the experience easier and more suitable for all players.

A Fun Package for Multiplayer, but Lacking for Single Players

This pack also offers a larger number of experiential characters. In the second part of the game there is a story mode, but it is not worth mentioning much, especially since in this package there is a decrease in the type of storytelling in which there is a very large number of levels included in the package and also a large number of mini-games with different modes. The network exists to break records, which is one of the things that makes this series stand out, watching players try to complete the stages in innovative and very short ways that no one would think of. It’s a very entertaining package for those who have a group of friends to play with them, but for fans of single-player games, the experience becomes boring after a short while.