Let’s get some important stuff out of the way up front. While Super Monkey Ball Mania is effectively a remake of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe – itself a compilation of the brilliant first two entries in Sega’s simple and often supremely satisfying series – this is not the Monkey Ball of old. With new assets, a new soundtrack and oh-so-slightly reworked physics, this remake in Unity is not the Monkey Ball that once kept me up for endless sleepless nights chasing a perfect score in Monkey Target with friends. There’s something flatter, duller, not quite so magical to its visuals, never mind the fact the all-important momentum you used to manage at the bottom of the slope in Monkey Ball’s most cherished mini-game, and most frequently mishandled in the entries ever since, is now replaced with a rude and not-so-subtle shove into the heavens.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania reviewPublisher: SegaDeveloper: RGG StudioPlatform: Played on SwitchAvailability: Out October 5th on PS4, PS5 Xbox, Switch and PC
There’s always a risk with remakes, of course, especially remakes of games as cherished as the original Super Monkey Ball – it’s remarkable how strong an emotional attachment you can have to a 20-year-old game about pushing simians in hamster balls around checkerboard courses. Maybe it’s nostalgia getting the better of me, but to these tired old eyes this is a remake that looks demonstrably inferior to the originals; I miss that distinctive chunk of the Sega Naomi era, or details like how the polished sheen of shimmering bonus level floors doesn’t quite have that sparkle.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania – Announcement Trailer | E3 2021 Watch on YouTube
Then there’s the problem that, while it’s closer than we’ve ever got before, this simply isn’t the Monkey Target you know and love and have been pining for all these years since. That Monkey Target hasn’t gone anywhere, mind – I’ve still got a GameCube hooked up in the corner of my office where I can go and revisit it any time I want (along with Amusement Vision’s other GameCube masterpiece F-Zero GX – now when can we get a Switch port of ?). This isn’t a replacement for those games – they’re not going anywhere – and once I was at peace with the fact this isn’t just a straight port that I began to soften a little.
In fact, after that initial disappointment, and after a couple of late nights butting against the trickier levels amongst the very generous lot on offer here, I softened a lot. Some of the stylistic choices might grate a little (as does the grotty decision to make the original’s soundtrack a paid extra) but the original Super Monkey Balls are still absolutely banging games, and despite a few small missteps Banana Mania doesn’t really detract from that. Indeed, it’s a thrill to go back to what remains an absolute masterpiece.