Sega unleashed a big surprise today during Nintendo’s Direct presentation in the form of a new Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania. This new addition to the franchise is a remake of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, which is a mix of the first two titles in the series with some added content.
The Super Monkey Ball series is a platform party series developed by Amusement Vision and published by Sega. It debuted in arcades but gained popularity from its very successful time on the Nintendo GameCube.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is going after that classic Monkey Ball love by bringing back everything from those first two games that made it special. It sees the return of the classic standard mode along with Monkey Target, Soccer, and more.
While the actual gameplay harkens back to the original two titles of the franchise, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania uses the art style of the new Monkey Ball era. This same style is seen in the most recent game, 2019’s Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, which is an HD remake of a Wii game of the same name.
This new Monkey Ball may not be a surprise to some, as it leaked ahead of its official Nintendo Direct announcement earlier. That doesn’t stop it from being another great play by Sega amid other announcements like its newly revealed Sonic the Hedgehog game and the remaster of Virtua Fighter 5.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is rolling its way to the Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 5.