Missions are an extra incentive to go back and master every level, which I kind of needed

I went into Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania knowing there would be some changes and ommissions, and that I'd still want to keep my GameCube copies of Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 around for the classic feel of Party Games like Monkey Target and Monkey Baseball. As Chris covered in his review, Banana Mania has draw??backs �but it's still pretty great despite them. My favorite part? The missions. They're such fun, satisfying challenges.

This? might seem like a tiny element of the game, but in context, it's really great.

The main draw of Banana Mania is the ability to easily bounce between Super Monkey Ball 1, 2, and Deluxe levels in one quick package, and use new potentially audience-boosting features like level skips and optional slow-mo to navigate the dicier stage layouts. Bolstering that ease of use, there are missions �little objectives that are tied to every facet, from the main Story levels to Party Games, that dole out points for the shop.

Super Monkey Ball is inherently fun to me. Super Monkey Ball with extra nudges that encourage me to master every?? morsel of content? Even more fun! (And pain!)

I was never one to obsess over clear times, and I'm still not that type of player in Banana Mania �I like watching the pros. That said, with these missions, I'm going out of my way to not just finish levels, but also beat them with a stricter time constraint, clear them with a certain amount of (of??ten deviously placed) bananas, and seek out every alternate exit.

Another "oh nice!" note: you can see the mission criteria in multiple places, including in the level itself (using the p??ause menu) and the stage-select screen prior to even loading it.

The missions in Banana Mania are also a nice counter-balance to t??he reworked difficult??????????????????????????y.

You don't have to worry about losing lives, or getting too frustrated when one particular stage in a set feels like a brick wall. You can spend points (earned with missions, level clears, and repeatable banana pick-ups) to outright skip a level that's stressing you out. I've done this a handful of times in the main Story, and I have no regrets. It's an ideal situation for me in that I ??can keep my momentum going as long as possible, and then, when I'm good and ready, circle back to hammer out that tough stage I bypassed. Then, assuming I pull off the most basic win with no assists, I'll go for those optional challenges.

In the older games, I would get as far I could, tap out, and return a few months later to try it all again with a renewed sense of hope. This time, with Banana Mania, there are no real breaks �I just keep playing it every ch??ance I get. ??The huge level selection helps, too.

I genuinely think I wou??ld dig the mission format even if it was just for bragging rights, but I like that there's a tangible reward with the points-based unlock system. Beyond clothing items, there are alternate characters (don't tell Kiryu but I'm a Jet main), photo-mode extras, and special modes like Golden Banana Mode, in which you've got to collect every pick-up rather than re?ach the goal. I'll never get the "all missions" trophy, and that's okay.

Are there nitpicks, even as a moderately invested fan? Absolutely. Inconsistencies prevent this version from being the inarguable, no-caveat definitive edition. But I'm glad Banana Mania turned out as well as it did. It is mostly good! And while I realize that? me droning on about missions isn't particularly compelling stuff to on-the-fence fans, I wanted to give this element a shout-out �I hadn't heard anything about it before I started playing.

While I was contemplating holding off for a deal, I waited a whole two weeks before my $40 burned a hole in my pocket. Now I'm making up for lost time. Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is my obsession, and its missions are a big r??eason why the feedback loop is so satisfying to me. Monkey Target just ain't right, but I can accept that trade-off.

(No really, we literally had to look up YouTube videos on how the hell you're even meant to play this version of Monkey Target. It's nuanced in a bad way. One pointer: forget your muscle memory from the GameCube version and, while you're mid-air, push up or down on the left analog stick as lightly as possible. It'll start to make a bit?? more sense.)

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Do Not Roll Your Dreamcast Down a Hill

Yesterday was the 22nd anniversary of Sega's misunderstood beauty, Dreamcast. And while the console itself might have not set cash registers alight, its presence is still felt today thanks to its famou??sly great launch lineup, online ga?ming capabilities, and bizarre VMU memory system.

Oh, and you can also stick the hapless console in a ball and roll it to oblivion in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck3YqCCebQo

In what, I guess, counts as an anniversary celebration, Sega revealed the "Super Monkey Ball Sega Legends Pack" DLC, which offers SMB fans the opportunity to place a Sega Dreamcast, Sega Satur?n, or Sega Game Gear in the sphere of doom before sending it hurtling down o?ne of the game's 300+ courses. Oddly, while 3D models have been used for the consoles, they do not actually rotate �or even animate �alongside the ball, which looks rubbish, frankly. Perhaps development is still underway.

The Super Monkey Ball Sega Legends Pack DLC will launch alongside Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania at a cost of around $5 USD. Alternately, it is also included as part of the Deluxe Digital Edition. The three cute consoles join other recently revealed guest stars such as Persona 5's Morgana, Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu, Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails, and the adorable fashion icon, Hello Kitty. We are still waiting on the arrival of Ha?tsune Miku... You gotta make this happen, Sega.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania launches on PlayStation, ?Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch October 5.

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A change to make Super Monkey Ball 'less frustrating to newcomers'

There's still a month to go until Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, and here and there, we're learning tidbits about this remastered collection �like the lack of a "lives" sy?stem.

Lately, Sega has been focused on cool and off-kilter guest characters for Banana Mania like Persona's Morgana, Jet Set Radio's Beat, and Monster Rancher's mildly unnerving one-eyed mascot-tier creature, Suezo. But over the weekend, the publisher let fans know that this new game "no longer u??ses lives" like ??previous (at times pretty tricky) titles.

On Twitter, Sega positioned the change as being "less frustrating to newcomers (though still challenging)," and added th??at instead of a life, collecting "100 bananas now ?gives you�a sense of accomplishment, and your recommended digital allowance of potassium."

//twitter.com/Super??MonkeyBall/status/1434622896585035776

"Don't rule out there being no use for bananas just yet �they will help with unlocking content �more details soon," Sega said in a follow-up tweet.

Super Monkey Ball fans who have been with this series since the early days, up through the more recent low points, are divided about this news, not that you'd expect otherwise. "Difficulty in games" is one of those unrelenting topics, and while it tends to come up for certain genres and specific games more than others, there are definitely folks out there who think Super Monkey Ball should have lives ??implemen?ted in one form or another.

Considering the arcade legacy �and the fact that Banana Mania is directly drawing from Super Monkey Ball, SMB 2, and SMB Deluxe �I can see why some people would rather keep lives as is. But I also see this updated/enhanced/reworked "best of" compilat??ion as a chance to appeal to an even-wider audience, which Sega is clearly is going for too.

Multiple difficulty settings, options, toggles, you name it? That's how I'd roll. Barring that, though �between the two extremes �I prefer this approach for Banana Mania. There's always that one pain-in-the-ass level that chews through all of my lives. (Yeah, just one...)

We'll see how it all shakes out when Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania launches on October 5. Sega also tweeted about an Original Stage Mode with 23 unaltered levels "with the original difficulty from the 2001 and 200?2 originals," so there's plent?y more to see.

To be honest, I'm mostly here for Monkey Target, Bowling, and ??Baseball.

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And yes, he picks up compact discs instead of bananas

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania has picked up a slew of killer cameos. Today, Sega announced a rather strange but welcome addition: Suezo, of Monster Rancher fame, will roll out into Super Monkey Ball.

The memorable cyclops-monster will be post-launch DLC for Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, arriving on Oct. 19 for $4.99. That's just two weeks after the launch of Banana Mania on Oct. 5, and a few months ahead of the Monster Rancher games coming to Nintendo Switch on Dec. 9.

//twitter.com/SEGA/status/1433418179775131648

Of course, Suezo isn't just rolling in as a character, but it's bringing some Monster Rancher flavor to the ball-rolling action along with it. Suezo's special pick-ups will be compact discs, referencing the tradition of Monster Rancher games utilizing discs for unlocking monsters.

Super Monkey Ball has already locked in some pretty wild cameos for its lineup. Kazuma Kiryu, Morgana from Persona 5, Sonic and Tails, and even Hello Kitty are all lined up to appear in the game. It's a bummer that some of these are post-launch, paid DLC—but for the Monster Rancher faithful out there, how can you no??t ??want to support Suezo?

The Monster Rancher stalwarts will get their due when Suezo rolls into Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania on Oct. 19. Banana Mania itself will go live for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbo?x Series X|S, and PC on Oct. 5, 2021.

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Uh, I believe it!

This week Geoff Keighley, as he does, got us hyped up for the Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania reveal. It's his job! But using the phrase "you won't believe who's next to join" had me thinking it was a crossover of sorts, perhaps reaching across the aisle to Sony, Microsoft, or some IP like Crash Bandicoot. Nope, it's Morgana from Persona 5.

Look, I do believe it! Sega owns Atlus, it's their IP, and Morgana fits the cute bill: it's super easy to slot over a few aspects from that series like Jack Frost and the like without having to convey the heavy/dark themes of Persona.

Sega says that Morgana is a "post-launch DLC character" set for November 2, and it's $4.99. This is in contrast to the other roster reveals so far that are free/included in the game. For reference those characters are Beat from Jet Set Radio, Kiryu from Yakuza, and Sonic/Tails from Sonic.

As the second reveal for Gamescom, Sega gave us a look at the various party games (12 in all) that you'll be able to play with in Banana Mania: you can catch that trailer below. The publisher also teases that there's "more iconic additions to the character ros?ter" to come beyond Morgana, and there will be "future r??eveals in the coming weeks."

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The new Yakuza looks wild

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is shaping up to be quite the Sega crossover. Not only is there the Monkey Ball crew and some familiar Sega mascots, but today, Sega confirmed that the Dragon of Dojima him??self will be rolling into the lineup.

Kazuma Kiryu of the Yakuza series will be a playable character in the upcoming Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania. This tiny version of the legendary yakuza doesn't just have his regular attire, b?ut it also converts all of the bananas in the level into Staminan X pickups.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clkrwy4iwLk

Honestly, this rules. The Yakuza series has always struck a nice balance between seriousness and silliness, and letting Kiryu roll into the tilting, physics-laden world of Super Monkey Ball suits him well. I could absolutely see him getting involved in some kind of zorbing minigame in a Yakuza game. It would o??nly get better if Majima could pop up at random times to knock Kiryu off the stage.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a "definitive" remaster of the first three Super Monkey Ball games. But it's not just a repackaging of games; it's also bringing in some other cameos alongside Kiryu, like Sonic and Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog. Both characters will be free and part of the game, unlockable through nor??mal game?play, as will Kazuma Kiryu according to the YouTube trailer description.

I've still got my copy of Super Monkey Ball 2 for the GameCube that I find time to bounce back into now and again, but having the collection on a single platform will be nice. I've got many fond memo??ries of bouncing and rolling my way through these escalating, challenging levels, and it'll be nice to do so ??again on a modern platform.

There's no want for platforms to pick from either, as Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania will arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, X?box One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on Oct. 5, 2021.

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