Grab your closest magic bubble, throw on a monkey suit and roll down a hill because Sega have brought yet another totally bananas physics racer to the Nintendo Switch System™!
The Monkey Ball friends are out on yet another all new esc-ape-ade and this time we have yet more pals! The 8th main entry in the series has an all new story with a scavenger hunt with AiAi, GonGon, MeeMee and the rest of the monkey crew making a new friend in a red monkey called Palette, who weaves a grand story about OOPArts (Out Of Place Artefacts) saying that there’s a legendary banana, well… that’s all it takes to Spring AiAi and company into action, turning their holiday into an island-spanning adventure!
This instalment of the classic party game is as timeless as its classic forebears, but that doesn’t mean it lacks fresh a-peel. Possibly taking a page out of Sonic The Hedgehog’s book, as Palette teaches the crew the “Spin Dash” ability. Holding B lets us charge movement for a burst of speed, this can cut down your time, and in some cases even help you skip chunks of the various hazardous stages if you have the skill – A speed runner’s dream.
There’s a fair swathe of content to the game too, with 200 levels to tackle in not only standard but EX versions too! Every 10 levels is separated into its own world with a unique theme, these are bookended by an animated story segment that is fully voice acted… to an extent, afterall, Monkeys may be able to write Shakespeare, but they certainly can’t speak it! And that’s not even touching the 5 Multiplayer game modes, ranging from Mario Kart style races including items and more map hazards than you can shake a stick at, to the demolition derby mode Robot Smash! It adds up to hours of content and not just for you, but also for your friends too!
The game isn’t the only bananas thing about this rumble game, but the visuals are super strong here. Granted you won’t spend hours looking at the backgrounds, which are static for each of the themed worlds, and the obstacle courses we traipse over aren’t exactly captivating, but these would be too distracting for us especially with the nature of the game. The character work and environmental design really shine through during the cutscenes and menus which are all so gorgeous and idyllic it made me want an island holiday too. I particularly enjoyed the character customisation, which handled outfits, colour schemes, the Monkey Ball itself and some other extra bits for flavour.
The visuals aren’t the only captivating thing here however, The upbeat, arcade-y soundtrack is welcoming and while not overly intrusive, it does stick out just enough against the arcade chimes of the Banana collection sound or the always completely humbling “Fall Out” yell of the announcer. The character dialogue in the cutscenes is harmless enough, and honestly pretty endearing, with each character not only having a unique voice, but also unique almost pokemon like, monkey sounds. The rest of the cast’s dialogue follows the trend of making animal noises for each of their lines, even if they’re not monkeys!
Verdict
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble has delivered a fantastic instalment to the ever great Sega franchise, and it’s a really promising return to home console for AiAi and co. To be able to take them on the go is almost nostalgic as a fan of SMB on DS. For 4.5GB too it’s a digital bargain, and physical players even more so!
Selling at less than full AAA price makes it all that more attractive for physics puzzlers and balance beam enthusiasts. With a wealth of gameplay at your fingertips and plenty of speed run strategies to try, you’ll be rolling with the Monkey Ball crew for quite a while!
Where to Buy
Physical Edition
- Amazon UK
- Price: £30.99
- Link: https://amzn.to/3Chr1L7
- Currys
- Price: £30.99
- Link: https://tidd.ly/4ffG2vr
Standard Digital Edition
- Nintendo eShop
Deluxe Digital Edition
- Nintendo eShop
#AffiliateLinks – Prices correct at time of publishing.
Credits
Written by Luke Young
Edited by Mark McAllister and Jen Griffiths
Graphic Template by Paul L. Russell
A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for this review.