You know those memories that hide in the dark corners of your brain until something recalls them? For me, Super Monkey Ball is one of those hidden gems. When I saw the trailer for Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, I vaguely remembered playing Super Monkey Ball on Nintendo GameCube and on the banana-controller version in arcades. I can’t speak to how this version stacks up against its predecessors, but I can tell you what I’ve learned from playing this edition.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is the latest release in a longstanding franchise. Published by SEGA, Banana Rumble made its return with over 200 new stages. Featuring both single-player and multiplayer modes, this game has a little bit of everything. In the adventure mode, players have one minute to move characters through courses of varied difficulty, and you do so by tilting the course instead of controlling your character. The first few stages help you get acquainted with the gameplay physics, and then you work your way through worlds broken up by cutscenes. The storyline was very uninspired, but I didn’t really need it in order to keep playing. I did become more invested around the halfway point, but by then, I was already addicted to beating each stage.
Banana Rumble levels are replayable with several goals in mind, and players can choose whether to fly through modes as fast as possible or use every available second to collect bananas en route to the finish. I opted to fly through most of the stages, using the new spin dash feature that is identical to the one in Sonic The Hedgehog. Monkeys can charge up and burst into any direction, but there were many instances wherein this wasn’t an option, and I had to slow down and play more strategically. The end of the game was much more challenging than in the earlier worlds, but for every stage that took me five attempts to beat, there was one I blasted through in under twenty seconds. Overall, adventure mode is a well-balanced mix of challenges and can provide hours upon hours of fun, especially when you go back to race friends for the best time in a given stage.
One of the Switch’s best features is its multiplayer capabilities, and Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble definitely utilizes this. With several multiplayer modes, Banana Rumble’s multiplayer modes can be played online or locally. In local multiplayer modes, players can choose from one of five modes to battle each other, with or without CPUs. Two of the modes felt like a lackluster version of Fall Guys, but they were still more enjoyable than the racing mode. There are only a handful of maps in rotation for each mode, but depending on how many CPUs you play with, some maps feel either too big or too small. The racing mode was eerily reminiscent of Mario Kart but with an overload of unnecessary obstacles. As I played split screen with my family, there were several races in which none of us finished before the timer ran out and gave the win to whoever was closest to the finish line. No matter the map, there always seemed to be portions so narrow we repeatedly fell off the track. If sweaty twelve-year-olds think it’s a problem, IT’S A PROBLEM. When those weren’t present, there were always pinball-like bumpers standing in our way. It made the racing mode frustrating enough for us to skip it for the other multiplayer modes, but even those seemed to have enough drawbacks that we eventually gave up and retreated to adventure mode to take turns competing for the fastest time on a level. Some of this seemed to resolve in the online multiplayer modes, but those matches are randomly chosen and also got old pretty quickly. I didn’t have any issues with the visuals in multiplayer mode, but the graphics were really only sharp for menu screens so if it was an issue, I probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway. With a battle pass and daily rewards, multiplayer has the potential to be great, but there just isn’t enough there to make me reach for Banana Rumble instead of any of the games it mimics.
All-in-all, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is fun for both solo play or with friends, but most of the magic happens in the adventure mode and its 200 stages. The fun of battling friends is rendered moot when the course makes it impossible to actually race, and the other multiplayer modes quickly felt like old news. By battling to be the best at any of the adventure mode’s stages, there are so many more ways to play with friends– that alone makes this game a fun addition to any Nintendo Switch library. If you’re looking for your new party game, this probably isn’t it, but whether you play solo or with others, Banana Rumble’s adventure mode more than makes up for shortcomings in the multiplayer modes.
Score: 7 out of 10
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch