It may be arduous to imagine, however we one way or the other managed to go 12 years with out a model new Tremendous Monkey Ball sport. Though Sega has saved the franchise alive with HD Remasters and remakes, Tremendous Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is the primary totally new entry within the sequence since Banana Splits on PS Vita.
This Swap unique boasts 200 new levels and a Battle mode for as much as 16 gamers, however whereas it’s undoubtedly a Tremendous Monkey Ball sport at its core, there are a variety of points that may depart sequence followers disillusioned. Reasonably than merely delivering a succession of levels, the sport’s fundamental Journey mode incorporates cutscenes for the primary time shortly, although the story doesn’t fairly problem the works of Harper Lee when it comes to affect.
It revolves round a brand new monkey referred to as Palette, who needs to seek out the Legendary Banana by amassing seven particular artifacts referred to as the OOPArts. When her father will get in the way in which, issues begin to get slightly messy, however the typical Monkey Ball crew is there to assist Palette discover Juicy Island and discover the Legendary Banana.
There are 10 themed worlds, every consisting of ten levels. Every world is bookended with a cutscene introducing the theme, and one displaying the group amassing a brand new trinket and persevering with on their journey. It’s all pretty throwaway stuff, however pals of Monkey Ball lore might get a kick out of it regardless.
As soon as these levels are crushed an extra 100 are unlocked, which is simply as effectively as a result of the preliminary 100 aren’t probably the most troublesome on the earth, and have fairly uninspired stage designs on prime of that (although Stage 10-5 can burn in a hearth).
The EX levels, that are basically levels 101-200, begin off barely difficult and find yourself changing into notably infuriating, as is the Monkey Ball manner. They’re additionally much more creative too, with extra fascinating stage designs.
A brand new addition to the sport is a pace increase which could be charged with the B button. By charging the increase and releasing it on the proper time you will get slightly jolt of pace, which is helpful for hurdling small lips on the bottom, getting that additional oomph to succeed in the highest of a slope, or performing a final minute change of path to keep away from falling off an edge.
Purists will baulk at this new addition, nevertheless it’s uncommon {that a} stage will outright require the pace boat, and it’s completely doable to play by means of the overwhelming majority of the sport with out urgent the B button in any respect. That stated, its addition can even likely enable for some enjoyable new tips among the many small group of Monkey Ball ninjas who dedicate their lives to ‘breaking’ the sport and discovering methods to finish levels as shortly as doable.
Banana Rumble seems to have related physics to Tremendous Monkey Ball Banana Mania – the 2021 remake of the primary three video games – which beforehand disillusioned some followers as a result of it wasn’t an actual replication of the unique Tremendous Monkey Ball physics.
Issues nonetheless really feel slightly lighter right here, and whereas it hardly makes the sport an entire catastrophe and no one aside from full Monkey Ball die-hards will really care a lot, those that do discover these items will acknowledge the change in comparison with the GameCube titles.
That stated, if you happen to’re one of many sequence devotees who hated the physics in Banana Mania and located the sport ruined past restore because of this, you may wish to sit this one out too.
One factor that affected our enjoyment extra was the sport’s efficiency. Tremendous Monkey Ball is legendary for having a strong 60 frames per second on virtually each format – even the DS sport Tremendous Monkey Ball: Contact & Roll managed to hit 60fps, a strong accomplishment for Nintendo‘s underpowered handheld.
And but, as we performed Banana Rumble, one thing felt barely off. It didn’t really feel fairly as clean as earlier video games had. So we captured some footage and ran some checks on it. The sport technically does run at 60 frames per second – the clock and numerous different results (equivalent to rotating bananas) replace 60 occasions each second, so this can be a 60fps sport by definition.
Nevertheless, on each sixth body the ball doesn’t transfer in any respect, regardless of how briskly it’s travelling, that means the sport is basically taking part in at an odd 50fps charge with delicate fixed stutters (to not point out the precise pauses at occasions throughout busier moments).
It’s one thing that occurs so shortly that you just may not discover it whereas taking part in, nevertheless it does make the sport feel and appear barely much less clean than earlier Monkey Ball titles, to the extent that long-time followers of the sequence will really feel one thing barely off.
“On each sixth body the ball doesn’t transfer in any respect, regardless of how briskly it’s travelling, that means the sport is basically taking part in at an odd 50fps charge with delicate fixed stutters.”
Faring worse is the sport’s Battle mode, which incorporates 5 multiplayer video games for as much as 16 gamers (you’ll be able to play on-line or add CPU bots to make up the numbers. There’s no Get together mode right here, so followers of Monkey Goal and the like might be disillusioned to seek out that the one multiplayer choices listed here are to play by means of the Journey mode in co-op or tackle these 5 Battle video games.
There’s Race (the place you attempt to attain the aim first), Banana Hunt (the place you attempt to accumulate probably the most bananas), Ba-Increase (the place you play tag with bombs), Purpose Rush (the place groups attempt to undergo as many objectives as doable) and Robotic Smash (the place groups acquire factors for working into robots at pace), and that’s it.
The issue is, every one among these Battle video games, even when solely performed full-screen with one participant and a bot, runs at 30 frames per second. This wouldn’t be a problem in most video games – we’re not treasured about body charges like some are.
For Tremendous Monkey Ball, nonetheless, the place pace and fast reactions are the order of the day, these multiplayer video games really feel terribly sluggish, notably if you happen to’ve simply completed taking part in by means of the Journey mode and are switching over to a near-halving of the body charge.
This can be a disappointing dip in efficiency for a sequence that specialises in it, particularly contemplating that this can be a Swap unique. Swap homeowners have seen loads of examples of multi-format video games not working fairly as effectively on Nintendo’s handheld, however with no different platforms to cater for right here it’s very disappointing that the Swap model doesn’t run at a strong 60fps in each modes.
The backgrounds are good and detailed, however Tremendous Monkey Ball doesn’t should be The Final of Us – we’re certain most gamers would have fortunately taken a visible hit in some areas in favour of smoother, sooner gameplay.
All this combines to make for a sport that’s nonetheless a enjoyable sufficient entry within the Tremendous Monkey Bowl sequence, however might be in no one’s checklist of one of the best it has to supply.
It’s certain to go the time, and followers of Monkey Ball will welcome the addition of 200 new levels to play by means of, however the decreased efficiency (particularly in Battle mode) and the overall lack of different Get together mini-games makes this a by-the-numbers addition to a much-loved sequence.
