We all wish to reject humanity and return to monkey (ball).
Super Monkey Ball is a series published by Sega where you, a monkey, roll around in a little ball. It’s colourful, it’s fast-paced, and it’s fun as hell. From humble arcade beginnings to a remake on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, the series has appeared on pretty much every console since the Gamecube.
The monkeys then sat dormant for 5 years after the release of Super Monkey Ball Bounce for iOS and Android until being awoken for the SMB: Banana Blitz HD remake for the Switch in 2019. The most recent entry to the series Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania arrived this year in the form of an ultimate collection, with all 300 stages from 2005’s SMB Deluxe, including all stages from SMB and SMB2.
The recent years have been kind to the series, with many happy that Sega decided to give it a chance in the new gaming age. Masao Shirosaki, the director of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania, recently did an interview with Retro Gamer and expressed interest in making an entirely new SMB game.
“As this game and the previous one are remakes, I do feel that I want to create a new Super Monkey Ball game. I have ideas on what it could be like. I’m looking forward to seeing how Super Monkey Ball will grow. This is not something I can do on my own, so I would like everyone to first enjoy Banana Mania and if there are enough voices looking forward to the next title, it may come true. I have been looking at everyone’s reactions on social media and no matter what language it’s in, I always translate it and read through them. I would be overjoyed if we could create the future of a new Super Monkey Ball together.”
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania has been getting pretty positive reviews, with the faults generally being that the levels start to feel taxing after a while (which makes sense considering there’s 300 stages), and the graphics aren’t that much of a step up to the originals. In saying this, a new addition to the series that takes into consideration the capabilities of next-gen consoles as well as a reasonable amount of new and possibly old stages could be what fans of the series are looking for.
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