Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania

Ultimately Banana Mania is a lot of fun, and a solid starting point to those new to the series. Long term fans might find the changes to accommodate a wider audience just too bitter a pill to swallow though.

The best of Monkey Ball, for nostalgics and newcomers. Banana mania doesn't betray its old school gameplay, and makes it more accessible to everyone.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a good game on which you can have fun and spend good moments. Whether you are a new player or an old player of the license, you will find what you need. However, you will have to be patient to get through some stages. With this opus, Sega invites players to rediscover their first love of the series by offering levels from the first Super Monkey Ball. As a bonus, the addition of mini-games is a plus to have fun with your friends during parties even if some mini-games are not necessarily the most exciting. As for the small drawbacks, we regret the fact that you can't play all the characters in all the modes or the difficulty which is not always progressive.

It may not be saying much but Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is the best the series has been in almost two decades and newcomers are bound to find a lot to love. It wears its heart on its sleeve and clearly the team has true passion for the franchise. It's packed full of content, new ways to play and there are so many extras and improvements that never existed in the original. Unfortunately, the engine beneath it all isn't quite up to the job. What they've achieved with Unity simply isn't on par with the originals and while the main game is still enjoyable, many of the party games are severely hindered. Until Monkey Target returns to its former glory, we cannot truly say Super Monkey Ball is back.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a competent and well-done remaster of the first three Monkey Ball console games. There are issues with how engaging those games can be, mostly due to the nature of the franchise's arcade style, so there are caveats about replayability. That said, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania makes up for that repetitiveness by including as many modes and as much variety as possible outside of its core gameplay loop, which gives both new and returning fans something to look forward to, especially thanks to the multiplayer party games from Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania should include everything fans love about the series: Skill-based difficulty, great music, fun minigames, and excellent replayability with a good group of buddies by your side. Unfortunately, this collection feels like a rushed remake that throws out the precise controls and stellar music of the original titles. The charm and fun gameplay of the original games are still there, but this remake doesn’t feel like much of an improvement over the classics.

I'm all for retro compilations giving players the option of making games more accessible, so players can set their own experience. Rewind features in old arcade shooters and platformers are great. But imagine if a retro re-release of Castlevania (or whatever) made it impossible to fall down a gap or get killed by a boss by automatically rewinding the mistake. Now imagine they gave players no way of turning that off? To deny people an inherent, defining quality of a game in favour of something that fundamentally changes the experience, without completely redesigning the game so that the new experience makes sense... Nah, it hurts this to say because I love Monkey Ball, but this is all terribe decision-making by everyone involved.