Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania rated in Australia

[King Conne]

Jam and Jet will be in the game to celebrate the series' 20th birthday :

 

In addition to Classic Sonic and Classic Tails, I would love to have Alex Kidd playable in the game to celebrate his recent gorgeous comeback!!...

[King Conne]

We had Classic Sonic and Classic Tails as special guests in the forthcoming BANANA MANIA, then today someone else has been invited :

 

 

 

[Graystripe2000]

Sonic & Tails trailer. 

 

[King Conne]

Toshihiro Nagoshi knows how to please himself :

 

[KHCast]

At this point, it’s only a matter of time before Joker or some Persona character gets in lol

[JezMM]

On 8/19/2021 at 12:25 AM, KHCast said:

At this point, it’s only a matter of time before Joker or some Persona character gets in lol

A matter of time later:

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Great to have Morgana in, but kind of blows that he's DLC.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Now where's NiGHTS?

[KHCast]

I still can’t believe this is more or less becoming the next Sega superstars title lol. Now Ryo, Nights and Ulala next plz

[KHCast]

Wonder if Bayonetta will be in this as well. If they’re going for big/iconic Sega properties, she definitely needs to be added 

 

Also, I hadn’t looked at the price of the game, and realized this was just $40 like colors. That’s wild considering how full of content this looks to be. Wonder if this is a new price model Sega intends to try and standardize for their games more. I’d certainly welcome that if that’s the case since price variety in AAA games I feel needs to become a more common thing 

[Graystripe2000]

It just keeps getting more and more bonkers. Now Hello kitty is in this. 

 

[Blue Blood]

On 9/1/2021 at 3:11 PM, Graystripe2000 said:

It just keeps getting more and more bonkers. Now Hello kitty is in this. 

 

Doesn't SEGA Sammy have a large stake in Sanrio? It's a bonkers collaboration all the same.

[KHCast]

So we have, giant eyeball, demon cat, kawaii cat, Yakuza member, and anthromorphic hedgehog and fox all in a game about monkeys in balls…sign me the fuck up.

[Milo]

Game's now out with early access, and reviews are being posted. (Kudos to Wraith for mentioning it in the status in comparison to Colors Ultimate, hehe.)

As of this writing:

Opencritic: 77 "Strong" (23 reviews), 74% of reviewers would recommend

Metacritic:

NSW - 81 "Generally favorable" (20 reviews)

PS5 - 77 "Generally favorable" (17 reviews)

XSX - 76 "Generally favorable" (5 reviews)

PS4 - N/A (2 reviews)

XBO - N/A (No reviews)

PC - N/A (No reviews)

 

For comparison: The original first two Super Monkey Ball games on GameCube (2001, 2002) both scored 87 each; the 2005 Deluxe re-release for both games on the PS2 and XBOX scored 78 and 81 respectively.

Needless to say, it's reviewing around the same ballpark as the original SMB Deluxe from back in the day. For the franchise as a whole, Banana Mania also stands as the best reviewed SMB game since the Deluxe compilation, for that matter.

e: Some other things, based on early impressions/reports:

Physics/gameplay are near watertight to the original for the main game, though there are a few quirks. I've read one impression that the tilting controls/physics for the stages is noticeably more gradual, whereas in the original, tilting was instantaneous.

Apparently the gameplay for minigames has had more drastic changes, the most notorious being Monkey Target. That one is substantially different and has been singled out by reviewers in their complaints.

For the Switch version, conflicting reports about whether the game supports GameCube controllers/adapters. A fair amount of people (and at least one reviewer for Nintendolife) say they cannot get their GC controllers and adapters to work with the game, while a few people say they can use it fine.

UPDATE: Apparently you have to ensure the GameCube controller is listed as Player 1/the primary controller on the Switch menu (pairing controllers), then it will work.

[JezMM]

Super Sonic Ball: Ring Mania is pretty decent so far for me.

Just played through both Casual (Beginner) courses and SMB1 Normal course (Advanced), and dabbled in a few Party Mode bits just out of curiosity.

The physics definitely feel a LITTLE different to the original - I didn't feel like I was jumping back into the game just as I remembered it, but they work for the most part.  There were definitely a couple of stages that I had difficulty with that were nothing to me back in the day - might've been me, it's been many years since I last played, but I feel at least 70% confident that it isn't just being out of practice.

One thing that does bug me is that I feel like the threshold for characters going into their "whoooa I'm on the edge of something!" animation is much wider than it used to be, which can be a bit distracting on narrow paths.  For example, unless you are dead center, they even do it on the widest guitar string on the SMB1 guitar stage, or the final twisty path on Beginner 10 (which is pretty wide by SMB standards, it's Beginner after all).  I guess there is a solution here in that one can play as the SEGA consoles to be free of distractions, but that's a bit boring of course, lol.

A minor nitpick that I always feel is common in remakes like this - losing those little quirks you're fond of.  In this case, the physics seem to disable once you're through the goal, so the ball doesn't bash it's head on ceilings when ascending to the next stage or get knocked a bazillion miles by a swinging hazard hitting you after the goal.  That was always amusing, so it's a shame it's gone.

Finally, a personal disappointment, but one I kind of expected - again it's typical for these sorts of things.  All Party Games prioritise the SMB2 version whenever there isn't the option to switch between games.  So while Monkey Race/Golf feature both games' courses, Target only features SMB2's target layouts.  Additionally, if you have the original soundtrack enabled, all games (and the menu) seem to use the SMB2 soundtrack - even on SMB1 courses in Race/Golf.  I spent a lot more time with the SMB1 versions of these games back in the day, so it's not quite so nostalgic for me.

Also, while I only played it for a minute just to research the above, I can confirm that Monkey Target feels completely different to the original (didn't play enough to say for sure if it's objectively "bad" different or just "fine once you're used to the new physics" different).

This might be true for all versions, but I can confirm the Switch version has some ugly pixellated textures for Aiai's face on the loading screens.  Comes off as a typical "they reduced everything down in quality for Switch without paying attention to the stuff that needs to look crisp".  On that note, I thought the backgrounds seemed to be getting a visual overhaul, but they all look near-identical to the originals to me, all surprisingly polygonal.  Maybe that's just a Switch thing to maintain 60 FPS.  Reflective surfaces only reflect the background too, not your character - I'm sure that wasn't the case in the original but might be wrong.

Finally, and I guess this was also expected - unless they're tucked away at the end, no credits minigames after clearing regular modes.

 

But yeah, overall decent stuff.  The remixed music is hit and miss, love some of the tracks, others are downgrades.  The main game works fine so it's mostly nitpicks.  I can also confirm the Gamecube controller works for me (and I was using it from the switch menu to launch the game, if that is important), used it without a second thought because I figured reduced input lag would be beneficial to a game as precise as Monkey Ball.

 

EDIT: Oh, one more thing, what a missed opportunity to add the goddamn "center the camera behind you" button the original two games so desperately needed argh.

[King Conne]

And what about the Story Mode?!...

Is it just for SMB2 or has a Story Mode been added for SMB1?!...
And do YanYan and Doctor interfere in the Story Mode?!...

[JezMM]

Ugh, now that I'm onto the Expert stages I'm really struggling. The physics definitely feel different, I'm having SO much more trouble staying on thin paths than I used to back in the day, like the ball is just more attracted to the edges than it used to be.  I've at least discovered you can move the camera now with the second stick which helps, however even if you line it up for a straight perfectly, if your character isn't already facing that direction, the camera will follow them as you start moving again and you lose the angle you set.

 

To be honest I'd happily take the L and use the new assist features if they didn't bar me off playing the EX stages. Not keen on arbitrarily locking out that content when someone could get enjoyment from them with assist features just the same as regular stages.

[Wraith]

I've only played up to world 4 in the story mode and SMB1's Normal challenge mode, but I'm having a good time with it. The physics are different but I was able to adjust to them pretty quickly, at least for the first set of levels. SMB2's levels are kind of unwieldy sometimes but I attributed that to some of SMB2's levels just being wack, even in the original. Playing SMB1's challenge mode last night felt comfortable for the most part...though I never got to those EX levels before so I don't know if they were supposed to be THAT hard, lol. I was stuck on the last one for half an hour last night.

The main thing I was disappointed by is the lack of two player options in single player. Me and my brother bought this thinking we'd be able to co op challenge mode like the good old days. Hopefully they patch it in but I haven't seen much noise around the feature compared to the other stuff like the physics.

One other problem is the sound design. The sound of the ball rolling is much less satisfying than it used to be, the character's voices are a bit too screechy for my liking, and the new soundtrack is hit or miss(though it's better than I thought it would be prerelease to be fair.). Thankfully you can do something about the soundtrack at least but I would have liked classic voices too.

[JezMM]

You can at least adjust the sfx and voice volume in the options menu - I've found having the music on 10 and the other two on 4 to be much more comfortable (the ring sound in particular when playing as Sonic feels a bit piercing somehow, and repeated FALL OUT, GO on hard stages gets a bit grating at full volume).

 

I finally got over my Expert 7 hump, but I'm now stuck on the Desert stage with the choice of wide checkerboard path or thin checkerboard path.  It feels so much harder in this game to do those diagonal movements with gaps either side from one square to the next, as said, ball REALLY wants to go off the edge when it's skirting them.  I have found some sections easier when using the camera on sensitivity 2 and using that to steer while exclusively using up/down on the left stick to determine acceleration.  Has helped out with a handful of very precise sections.

I tried swapping to the Joycon Grip too just in case the physics were somehow more designed for that than the Gamecube and the result was immediately no longer being able to move in a perfect straight line due to the lack of notches around the control stick.  I switched back to GCN right away lol.

Here's a video that highlights one of the physics changes and the issues it causes, for anyone curious:

I definitely felt what this video demonstrates on a few stages, where gravity was just seemingly a lot less forgiving on sloped surfaces and there seemed to be nothing I could do to prevent a fall-out if I went too far on slopes that I'm sure weren't so punishing in the original.

 

I'm definitely slightly regretting buying on Switch now.  If I had got it on Steam and figured all this out sooner, I would've refunded in the 2 hour window and just stuck to the originals.  I just don't see myself coming back to this game over and over again beyond the initial clear like I did the original. The difficulty is making Expert mode such a project to beat, when I used to be able to just stick it on and kill an hour or so whenever with only a few stages ever giving me much trouble.

[Wraith]

I am playing with the pro controller, so you might want to try that one if you have it lying around. No need to go out and buy one just for this or anything but yeah.

[JezMM]

Sadly no Pro Controller for me, but I'm making steady progress again at least, SMB1 expert cleared now, working my way through SMB2 Expert (thank goodness for modern play suspension features lol).

Some of the Banana Mania music is clear remixes while some I can't hear anything of the original track in them... Anyway the absolute disrespect involved in what they did to the SMB2 Clock Tower theme is unbelievable.  On the flipside though, I'm very into what they did with SMB2's Washing Machine and Space Colony themes, and while my favourite, Inside a Whale, got equally massacred as Clock Tower, the end result is still a nice tune on that one.

[Wraith]

I decided to give the new soundtrack a shot first. The theme for world 1 was pretty irritating but i was convinced to keep it on through world 2 and 3. 3 Is my favorite track in the original game and the new song doesn't live up to that, but it's a nice chill tune that fits the level.

World 4.... was a huge let down doesn't suit the tone of the original level at all, so I gave up then. I'm probably going to play through the game multiple times anyway so I'll do a full playthrough with the new tracks at some point, but for now I'm just thankful the old ost is here.

[JezMM]

For the most part it seems they did cool stuff with tracks I didn't really care for before while butchering the ones that were favourites originally.  It's too bad you can't pick and choose tracks to make a custom soundtrack. I'm playing through Challenge first with the new soundtrack, but I'll definitely be putting the old one on when I play Story.

While I've only dabbled a little in Party Mode to check out how the music worked there, it seems on Monkey Race at least, there's only one new theme, even though the original music had 3 unique songs spread across the various track difficulties.  If that's the case for every party game with multiple songs, a bit of a disappointment and definitely cause to leave the classic music on.

[King Conne]

I'm so eager to play the Story Mode and fight Dr Mad HiHi and his assistant!!...

[VO.SUPER]

 

One last push from SEGA for launch day. What a cute trailer!