Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl review: Extreme sports at your fingertips

"Super Monkey Ball" is a bit of a "bitch" IP. Because it always appears on various "must play" game lists, and is regarded by various players who call themselves game lovers as the quintessential 3D platform game.

But why just "kind of"? Because this IP, except for generation 1 and 2, is almost all terrible derivative works. If you get into the wrong pit, you may not have much affection for the IP.

In a way, "Super Monkey Ball" is a rather late IP, and Sega also happened to have a lot of personnel changes. Therefore, I am very worried that this new series, which has been missing for ten years, will not be the last production of Sega to squeeze out the value of IP.

Interestingly, the process quality of Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl is surprisingly good, which is something I never expected.

Well, if you've ever played the original Super Monkey Ball on the GameCube, this generation of games is bound to surprise you - Sega enlightenment? It took out the damn fence.

Maybe it was the tough black guy who really didn't understand the fun of Super Monkey Ball. As he said, "I don't know why this stupid game is so popular."

As much as I hate hardcore value as a player, I have to admit that lightweight and easy is not for every game, and Super Monkey Ball is a good example.

As a game with balance ball rules as the underlying logic, players can only indirectly move the ball by fiddling with the tilt Angle of the platform, which is its biggest feature. One of the fun things about this game is that a slight mistake leads to a rush out of the field. Only through constant failure can the player slowly master the control of force.

However, after the second generation of the work, it actually added a protective fence for the game, so that the balance ball became a bumper car, the player does not need to grasp the Angle of the tilt platform, and it is done.

Of course, I'm not against games reducing difficulty, but rather against games changing the underlying logic on which life depends. For example, going off a track isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it could be a shortcut to a certain path.

If you like to watch some speed pass videos, I highly recommend the Super Monkey Ball Speed Pass game. Because competitors can always find a variety of routes through the finish line, from unexpected angles to the instant leap to the finish line. Even now in 2024, the "Super Monkey Ball" community is always innovating the flow guide for generation 1 and 2 games, constantly optimizing the shortest route to the level.

It can be said that the error-caused rush out of the track is the essence of the "super monkey ball". At the same time, this also allows the map of the game to be designed more boldly, rather than a flat baby.

Just as DOTA 2 can't remove BKB, the cheap controls in League of Legends can't be too hard, and the "Yugio-King" OCG can't ban "proliferating G", when the underlying logic of the game environment is already formed, arbitrary interference will only turn it into another game.

And "Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl" to do is only to return to the original intention, so that they become back to that difficult, but every time they fly out of the field may have a newly discovered "super monkey ball".

Thanks to this, you can now get completely different paths through the same map. You can either follow the established route to the finish line, or you can tilt the Angle of the platform, looking for an evil launch point to fly out. Anyway, as long as you can get through the finish line, even if it is a reverse rush, the reverse rush through the finish line is a smooth clearance.

To this end, Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawls has even added a new power sprint function, which allows you to get quite high acceleration in short distances, even if it is difficult to tilt a large map Angle, to leap over those disjointed terrain modules.

This is much more reliable than the inexplicable jump feature in the previous game. The jump feature gives the player only unnecessary steps. Sprint, on the other hand, may change the way some levels are completed.

The power sprint feature means that the level map is more variable and unknown than the perfunctory step up.

And these unknown possibilities are what makes the "Super Monkey Ball" series so fascinating - other game evil, may be evil in a particular breaking line. But what about Super monkey balls? It is the evil way itself.

When Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl removed the crappy guard rails, the maps that were no longer flat could be turned into multi-layered aerial fortresses, and could be turned into winding mazes. This makes you completely unable to imagine the map construction of the next level, and every adventure will be accompanied by surprises.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl brings players more than 100 single-player levels, which are divided into five themed worlds each with their own characteristics. I really enjoy these imaginative creative worlds, even if the game is difficult, I can try to skip classes from strange places.

If the once rotten "Super Monkey Ball" is optional garbage, then "Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl" is back to the irreplaceable self - Nintendo has "Mario", Sega itself has "Sonic", but whether it is the former or the latter, they can not replace the "Super Monkey ball". Because, their clearance route is orchestrated by the developer, the level of the process depends on the developer's content filling.

The "Super monkey ball" clearance route is dug by the player himself, is through trial and error from the error to find the right solution. This kind of puzzle-solving pleasure is the subjective initiative that only the "super monkey ball" has. That's why "Super Monkey Ball" is a landmark 3D platformer.

It's fair to say that the single-player portion of Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl was quite satisfying to me. And on top of that, it even adds new multiplayer gameplay.

Just... This part is a little bit dispensable. At least for fans of the Super Monkey Ball IP, they probably don't care about anything beyond the story level.

For example, in the "robot destruction" mode, all the player has to do is keep hitting the robots in the field, and finally judge the winner by the score. In "Bomb Crisis" mode, players need to pass bombs to each other before time runs out. Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl currently offers five special battle rules that support up to 16 players.

But Who Care? There are so many awesome mini-games out there that players have little reason to choose the crappy Super Monkey Ball.

Also, I don't think it's funny -- the essence of Super Monkey Ball is irreplaceability in 3D platformer games, and when it comes to this particular type of gameplay, there are plenty of alternatives.

Perhaps the "Super Monkey Ball" just wants to add some new blood to his no longer brilliant self? But can think of is that this is not the same as the previous generations of messing with the product - the baby works with the guard rail, the inexplicable works with the jump, and the mobile side derivative work that has completely changed the gameplay.

The result is obvious, the dozen works are all treated as garbage by the market, not only old players do not buy, new players do not buy, "super monkey ball" has already had countless negative cases.

This IP only 1, 2 generation enough diaosi, coincidentally, this is also the series of the most difficult, the most wild, the most specialized in the platform gameplay of the two. This is the main reason why I don't like its party gameplay -- a lesson from the past.

Perhaps the smartest move Super Monkey Ball Banana Brawl made was to mess around while preserving and continuing the pedigree of the single-player level.

Before it opens up new business, at least it doesn't lose old customers like the previous ones, which is a considerable progress - you can play multiplayer mode or not, but the "Super Monkey Ball" orthodox sequel experience is only this one.

What can you say? I didn't have NGC in my hand, and now I have to make up for it on the Switch? The original "Super Monkey Ball" single player level is still quite worthy of platform enthusiasts.