Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble - Review

As I reviewed Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, it reminded me of some fond memories I had during the Nintendo GameCube’s launch. At that time, I had made the decision to import my GameCube and all my games from Canada. This decision led to me needing to make informed choices in the games that I bought. I opted for the essential launch titles, Luigi’s Mansion and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II. It was Super Monkey Ball that particularly captured my attention. The silliness of cramming monkeys into balls and sending them through a 3D Marble Madness style game was really up my alley.

The simplicity of Super Monkey Ball gave the game serious longevity. The overall series tasks players with guiding a monkey ball through intricate platforms, ramps, and traps to reach the goal. Instead of guiding the monkey itself, players tilt the entire level, and the monkey then responds to the physics as you would expect a ball to roll around.

Somehow, despite my love for the original GameCube game, I never played a subsequent Monkey Ball title. I’m not sure what it was, but the announcement of Banana Rumble gave me an unexpected desire to get back into the series. The overall silliness of the game posed something different and attractive, particularly in a time where the industry is dominated by games that are either open-world, first-person shooter, or an interactive Hollywood film.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble does well to preserves the overall appeal of the Monkey Ball series, while introducing new gameplay elements that lends itself to opportunities for new level designs. The game has an extensive number of levels to play through, each somehow completely different from each other. It really is a testament to the developers in how many different ways they surprised me in their level design.

The controls are responsive and intuitive, offering both analogue input and motion-based options. The motion controls aren’t too bad, but the analogue control allows for a more responsive experience. For the most part, the game runs very smoothly, only lagging in times where there is a lot of moving parts on the screen.

A new element to the series is the spin dash. Not to be confused with Sonic the Hedgehog’s move of the same name, the spin dash in Monkey Ball allows you to power up while moving around the level, then dashing in your chosen direction. Sometimes this can be used to slow momentum instantly or gather enough speed to try and take shortcuts through a level. Occasionally, they must be used in a level where making it up a ramp would be impossible to do without the spin dash. I find it fascinating that it hasn’t been used in the series before, as it feels like a completely natural fit.

Visually, Banana Rumble delights with vibrant colours and imaginative worlds. Including (and not limited to) jungle scapes, candy country sides, and neon skylines, each environment is crafted to be visually pleasing and all fits within the aesthetics of Monkey Ball.

The narrative of the game is there simply to give the monkeys an excuse to be traversing through these worlds. The monkeys must collect seven mysterious artefacts known as the OOPArts. The artefacts are the key to finding the legendary golden banana. Palette is a new character to the franchise who serves as the reason why the monkeys go off to find the OOPArts. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it would be remiss to think that the Monkey Ball franchise would be serving up a narrative worthy of an Oscar.

The difficulty curve never seems to spike, instead offering a gradual curve in difficulty. The last two worlds are a test of determination and resilience. The game never feels unfair though, instead encouraging mastery without becoming too frustrating. Each level requires multiple playthroughs, as there are additional missions to each level, including beating a certain time, finding a golden banana, and collecting enough regular bananas in a level.

Some of the time-based missions are definitely a hairpulling experience, as often I beat a level thinking I did well, only to realise the time to beat was a solid 15 seconds better than my efforts. They are all certainly achievable but requires a lot of experimentation with the physics in order to reach the goal within the allotted time.

Beyond its compelling single-player puzzle mode, Banana Rumble offers a variety of multiplayer and party modes, catering to both competitive and cooperative play. Standout features include Race, Banana Hunt and Ba-BOOM! The latter of which plays like a game of tag, where you need to give your bomb to someone, while avoiding others holding bombs, ensuring that you aren’t holding a bomb when the time runs out. Cooperative modes include Goal Rush, where your team needs to try and take as many goals as you can, and Robot Smash, where your team tries to earn the most points by smashing as many robots as possible. They are all exceptionally genuine fun, and I can see this one becoming a great party game at social gatherings.

Despite the strengths of Banana Rumble, it does come with some flaws as well. Camera controls, while functional, just never seem to be fast enough to keep up with the gameplay. There are options to increase the speed of the camera, but for some reason I still found myself wanting the camera to move faster to keep up with me, especially around corners and hairpins.

The game does slow down a lot during multiplayer modes. When I chose to have 15 AI opponents in multiplayer, the framerate tanked. It didn’t become unplayable, but there was a very noticeable difference. In a game that requires responsive controls, I can’t justify why they would make 16-player contests an option. I wasn’t able to test split screen or online multiplayer before release, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were similar issues with the framerate here as well.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble stands as a testament to the enduring charm and appeal of the Monkey Ball franchise. For fans of action-puzzle games, it offers a nice balance of fun and challenge. Despite the camera issues and multiplayer framerates, the joy of rolling monkeys around brilliant level design makes it a worthwhile game to try sheer joy of rolling monkeys through cleverly crafted mazes makes it a worthwhile addition to the Nintendo Switch library.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by Sega

The Pros

Tonnes of unique levels

Wonderful visuals

The right amount of difficulty

The Cons

Camera doesn’t keep up well with the action

Severe frame issues in multiplayer