Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania Reviews
Without the nostalgia goggles, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania quickly rolls downhill.
There are missteps and a new look that doesn't quite pop, but Banana Mania ends up an enjoyable celebration of the series in its prime.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is a roll down retro memory lane with its charming classic arcade format. However, the game soon loses its shine with the sudden difficulty spike that makes it incredibly hard to enjoy in the later levels, despite the inclusion of accessibility options. This is a great choice for a party game when you want a local co-op title, but the lack of online multiplayer means the game begins to feel a little stale when playing alone, despite the wealth of levels, modes, and unlockables.
Another sub-par remaster of Super Monkey Ball that ruins the precision and elegance of the originals and replaces it with janky, unpredictable controls and shoddy presentation.
There isn't much new in this best-of compilation, but when the core package is this well-made and feature-packed, that's easy to overlook.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania was a pleasant surprise, in that it doesn’t mess too much with a formula that works and it makes strides to welcome newcomers into the fold. Not all of its stages are created equal, but this is a great entry point into a series that’s been lacking one on modern platforms for a long while.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a solid, unglamorous return to the series greatest moments. We’ve been steering monkeys in balls across increasingly difficult landscapes for 20 years now, and while Banana Mania doesn’t return the series to its hallowed position of old, I don’t want it to stop quite yet.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania delivers a mostly delicious and nearly never-ending buffet of bananas and challenges to keep pretty much any player rolling for a good, long time.
All the best of Super Monkey Ball in a great smoothie of content taken from twenty years of history. Fans will go crazy and newbies will have so much to discover.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is way too much fun.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a solid celebration for the 20th anniversary of the series' inception. It caters to fans who have stuck around to see the next big thing and does so in a complete package with new surprises and things to come.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is an excellent time with bags of replay value, potential in its online leaderboards and competitive play, and works a treat in local co-op thanks to the fun, if sometimes superficial minigames.
It may not be saying much but Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is the best the series has been in almost two decades and newcomers are bound to find a lot to love. It wears its heart on its sleeve and clearly the team has true passion for the franchise. It's packed full of content, new ways to play and there are so many extras and improvements that never existed in the original. Unfortunately, the engine beneath it all isn't quite up to the job. What they've achieved with Unity simply isn't on par with the originals and while the main game is still enjoyable, many of the party games are severely hindered. Until Monkey Target returns to its former glory, we cannot truly say Super Monkey Ball is back.
Yes, Banana Mania is essentially just the kind of Super Monkey Ball game that you’d expect. I just didn’t realize how much I’ve missed this series. The single player levels present a challenging and creative experience, while the minigame offerings make this collection essential to anyone who likes to play local multiplayer. This is the best Super Monkey Ball has ever been.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is a welcome, but imprecise remake that's lacking detail.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is just as fun and infuriating as I remember. It's a content-complete package that celebrates the series. It can feel a bit too limited, with no online play or unlockable characters in minigames, but it's still a unique experience you can't get anywhere else.
Banana Blitz is a joyous celebration of what are still arguably the three best games in the series. There are a few slight performance issues and we have no doubt die-hards will argue about the overall feel, but there's a wealth of entertaining banana-hunting here regardless.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is a solid collection that is worth dipping into for new and old fans alike. There is simple a staggering amount of content to be found and the nuanced new physics will only apply to hardcore fans of the original. While the interesting content might be locked behind a paywall there is still more than plenty in the vanilla version to keep players happy. Now let’s not go another 20 years without constant Monkey Ball. The gaming world is always better when AiAi and his crew are present.
Banana Mania stands as a feature-packed reminder that 'simple' and 'easy' are not nearly as interchangeable as a lot of people might think.
Still, it all looks gorgeous, moves smoothly, and sounds exuberant as ever. We'd say that for Monkey Ball fanatics this is a bit of a must, but then said fanatics are the ones who will notice the cracks more than anyone else. So we're not sure, ultimately, who this is for. Newcomers may find themselves wondering what all the fuss is about.