The Super Monkey Ball the franchise has seen its fair share of highs and lows over the years. The first two GameCube titles knocked it out of the park, providing a wealth of content from addictive maze-style main scenes to incredible mini-games. Since then, however, the series has seemingly been unable to reach the same heights, either content to take one step forward and two steps back, or otherwise completely fumble around in the (monkey) ball.
After instilling some confidence in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania with its commendable reimagining of Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2, Sega is back with a brand new entry in the form of Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. However, in the franchise’s tradition, this is another game that just can’t quite hit a home run, combining a solid single-player experience with plenty of multiplayer modes that, frankly, aren’t worth the price of admission or the investment of time.
Starting with the positives though, the single player campaign is great fun from start to finish. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Super Monkey Ball at this point, featuring 100 levels spread across 10 unique worlds. Once you complete them, you can double this number with lots of bonus levels of immense complexity that will challenge even the most experienced Monkey Ball fans. Admittedly, there wasn’t anything that blew us away in terms of creativity or uniqueness, but we have a healthy selection of well-designed and fun levels. We suspect that’s all most people are hoping for.
Aside from the large selection of levels, the actual gameplay is also pretty cool. Physics does not quite up there with the GameCube originals, but it’s about as close as the series has gotten in years. There are plenty of opportunities to “break” levels with crazy jumps or absurd feats of speed, and we can’t wait to see how quickly players manage to get through the game in the coming weeks and months.
To make the gameplay even better, Banana Rumble takes its cue from Sonic the Hedgehog and introduces a new “Spin Dash” ability. By holding ‘B’ at any point, you can charge the dash and enjoy a short burst of speed. This is not only useful for completing levels faster, but also allows you to jump over certain platforms, jump over ramps, and much more. We are surprised how important the dash ability is during some of the later levels. Those who fear that this may have turned out to be a useless gimmick can rest easy; its implementation leads to a simple but effective development of the basic game of Super Monkey Ball.
So what is our problem? Well, the multiplayer is a bit of a bummer. Going by the game’s title, one could argue that the five modes included here are the biggest draw of the entire experience, but frankly, we’d rather have minigames like Monkey Target and Monkey Bowling. This isn’t nostalgia either – they’re actually way better than what Banana Rumble has to offer.
The five modes are Race, Banana Hunt, Ba-BOOM, Goal Rush, and Robot Smash, and the problem with all of them is that they’re either too chaotic with the maximum number of players (16) or too boring. there are only a handful of you. There’s no middle ground, no sweet spot where mods are actually fun to play, and it’s so frustrating.
Take the Race mode for example. The course here includes a combination of long straights where you can build up some nice momentum and tricky puzzle areas that require more precise movement. When you get to the latter segments, don’t be surprised if you’re rushed by a bunch of other players who also end up in the same area. The result is a visual mess where you’ll be trying to make out your own character amongst a sea of ​​monkeys, and it’s just not particularly fun. It’s clear that Sega was going for a Fall Guys vibe with this, but it just doesn’t work.
This just magnifies the frame rate. During single-player missions, the game runs at a beautiful, silky-smooth 60fps, and it feels great. Head into multiplayer modes or add another player to the campaign and the framerate is cut in half to 30. It’s a jarring change that, while certainly not unplayable, is hard to swallow after spending so much time. play your way through the single player stages.
A few modes have the potential to be fun later on, maybe if Sega adds more stages or characters. Currently, the only one we’d recommend is Ba-BOOM, in which you basically deliver bombs to your opponents by rolling into them before time runs out. On the other hand, Goal Rush is completely pants and simply requires you to steer into a bunch of goal posts to score points. Yawn.
In addition to the main modes, Banana Rumble boasts a healthy amount of bonus collectibles and fun little extras. You have a total of seven playable characters to start with, along with some unlockable characters available from the in-game store as you progress. All of this can then be enhanced with cosmetic items, including clothing, new ball colors and unique effects. When it comes to customization, there is a lot to dive into and it will take you a while to unlock everything.
You also have a “Memories” section where you can view unlocked movies, listen to music tracks, and rewatch saves. The ‘Mission’ features lots of unique ‘Achievements’ that you can track and earn bonus points, while an interesting global leaderboard feature requires you to spend your accumulated points to grow a palm tree. Pretty random, sure, but it’s a good way to see how you stack up against the competition. Finally, the game features a fun, if rather barebones photography mode. You can unlock new positions through the in-game store, so it’s a nice little feature to play around with for a while.
Conclusion
If all you’re looking for in the new Super Monkey Ball game is a selection of new single player levels to master, then you’re in luck, as Banana Rumble boasts some of the best stages we’ve seen in recent memory. The added ‘Spin Dash’ ability makes traversing a lot more fun and the physics feel as close to ‘classic’ Monkey Ball as the franchise has in quite some time. Unfortunately, if you’re looking forward to multiplayer modes, temper your expectations. For the most part, they’re just not very good, and are severely hampered by frame rate drops. We almost put it down a notch, but the quality of the single player pulls it up. Currently, Banana Rumble is a mixed bag, but it’s worth diving into if you’re after more single player cheats.