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The crewmate from Among Us is now available as a DLC character in Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. Sega made the surprise announcement alongside the crewmate’s release.

A reveal trailer showed the Among Us crewmate sealed inside a monkey ball, dashing their way through courses throughout Banana Rumble. They will mostly be featured in their armless standard look, occasionally revealing their hands for certain victory poses. Instead of the game’s usual bananas, the crewmate will collect pizza slices.

The trailer for the Among Us crewmate DLC can be seen here:

The Among Us crewmate will be part of the Version 2.10 update for Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. They will be ed by a selection of new free content, including a new stage for the “BA-BOOM!” battle mode. Scattered Stones will be added for free along with repeated seasonal rewards and additional customization options for certain characters.

While the crewmate from Among Us is a surprise addition, it’s not the first time guest characters have made an appearance in Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. The previous update featured Hatsune Miku and Godzilla in chibi forms, with music notes and trains replacing the bananas respectively.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is out now for the Nintendo Switch. The Among Us crewmate is also out now as part of the Version 2.10 update.

The post Among Us Crewmate Now in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania appeared first on Siliconera.

Hatsune Miku will appear in Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble as a playable DLC character. She’ll appear as part of the Version 2.00 update.

You can watch the trailer here:

In order to fit inside the Super Monkey Ball, the Hatsune Miku has a chibi design in Banana Rumble. Instead of collecting monkeys, she collect music notes as well. Aside from Miku, Godzilla will also be a DLC character in the update. In Godzilla’s case, he will collect trains instead of bananas. Though the Version 2.00 update will be free, Godzilla and Miku will be paid DLC.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is a party game in which you have to traverse a stage full of hazards and obstacles to reach the goal. A total of 16 players can play at the same time, and there are over 200 new stages in the game. It is the latest game in the Super Monkey Ball franchise, which debuted in 2001 as an arcade game.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is readily available on the Nintendo Switch and the Version 2.00 update, which will include the Miku and Godzilla DLC characters, will go live on November 26. 2024. The update is free, but Miku and Godzilla will not be.

The post Hatsune Miku Will Appear in Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble appeared first on Siliconera.

As part of the latest Sonic Central 2024 broadcast, Sega revealed that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble will get Sonic and Shadow themed costumes and skins. The Sonic and Shadow capsule ball skins will be available for free while a new Shadow costume for protagonist AiAi will appear as paid DLC on the Nintendo e-Shop.

The new free cosmetics will appear to celebrate the release of the Sonic x Shadow Generations and the Year of Shadow. The AiAi Shadow costume can be acquired included with the Customization Pack for $4.99, or as part of the Sega Character for $24.99.

You can check out the costumes and skins here:

Alongside the new Shadow costume in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble, other characters inspired by classic Sega characters like Majima from the Like a Dragon/Yakuza series or Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter will be available with both the Customization Pack or the Sega . Additionally, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are also available as playable characters for owners of the Digital Deluxe Edition or as separate character DLCs.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is readily available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, and Sonic and Shadow playable characters, capsule ball skins, and costumes are now available for purchase as DLC content.

The post Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble Gets Sonic and Shadow Skins appeared first on Siliconera.

It’s been so long since an original Super Monkey Ball game! It’s true, Banana Blitz HD and Banana Mania did feel like they were leading to a truly new release, but still: we’re happy to see it. This time, it’s clear that the development team saw Fall Guys and said, “hey, we can make one of those.” Still, there’s a lot Monkey Ball can bring to the idea, and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble combines it with a fresh new Adventure mode for AiAi traditionalists.

First: the single-player! Or, rather, Adventure mode generally, since the game adds the ability to play through these levels with friends. It’s more of a social thing that doesn’t affect the gameplay very much, but nevertheless, it’s a nice bonus! And hey, maybe split-screen with friends and family will lessen the frustration of the harder levels just a bit. The Adventure mode comprises the traditional Super Monkey Ball experience: tilting a board to move your ball to the goal in 200 stages broken up into themed worlds. You can do this with tilt controls, if you want! Which is great. But the game defaults to analog stick control, and you’ll need to dig into the settings to use motion. 

The new mechanic — you knew they had to add one, whether you wanted one or not — is the Spin Dash, allowing a burst of speed and momentum that doesn’t necessarily align with your active roll. It’s a bit tricky to pull off a change of direction (with the default control mapping), but we’re sure the trick shots with this new mechanic are going to be ludicrous. 

The boards are designed to be generally clearable by most, with special collectibles and time-chasing serving to provide higher difficulty. That’s a good game balance to target, and though perpetual franchise scrubs like us will still hit a snag occasionally just clearing a level, it mostly does its job on that front. To help newcomers, there are a suite of welcome helper functions. You can rewind stages! There are mid-level checkpoints sometimes! There are tutorial-like ghosts you can enable, too. If your goal is simply to get through the level, these should help.

There’s also a story to this mode? We aren’t going to talk about it. It’s bad, which is fine, because it also doesn’t matter. Skip the cinematics and get back to tilting.

It’s multiplayer that brings the most new ideas to the ever-tilting table. Up to 16 players match up in varied modes: Race, Banana Hunt, Ba-Boom!, Goal Rush, and Robot Smash. In Race, you unsurprisingly roll through a checkpoint-laden course and try to reach the end as close to first as you can manage. This mode’s courses are designed to get easier as time goes on, keeping players in the hunt. It does mean that you don’t necessarily want to be first for most of the race, and also even the “easy” form of the tracks can be profoundly annoying when hit with multiple items or when the segment that troubles you the most just happens to not be a segment that gets easier with time.

Somewhat ironically, given both the inspiration and the franchise’s history, but a lot of the multiplayer segments would benefit from less falling. There are a ton of checkpoints in the races, and these mitigate the effects, but Monkey Ball’s more momentum-based approach makes falling that much more punishing and discouraging.

Banana Hunt and Ba-Boom! Are Mario Kart-like battle modes, with the former focused on banana collection and the latter on either bumping into or avoiding other players to make sure you aren’t holding a bomb when time expires. All the games are relatively fast, though we wish it were more playlist-based instead of kicking you out to the lobby between events. Perhaps this pacing will change with a full player server?

Goal Rush is trying something, for sure, as it’s a slalom-like event that has you claiming gates for your team and trying to target ones worth more points. Each time you enter a goal, you’re placed back at the top, and size, movement and distance all result in goals of varied value. Robot Smash feels like the “let’s make sure slow characters have an advantage in at least one challenge” mode. You slam into robots to deal damage and destroy them, and doing so earns team points.

There’s a robust customization suite here! And that is nice for a multiplayer game, especially with its lack of microtransactions and adherence to earned in-game currency. However, we here believe that GonGon should have his G shirt and it’s not an option, so that’s a real strike against the aesthetic offerings. In all seriousness, it’s nice to be able to have different looks for online play. That said, if you’re opting out of the free-to-play microtransaction hellscape in which the industry largely now finds itself, maybe you don’t have to still use the same unlock schemes and menus? Maybe this game doesn’t need gacha mechanics and bonuses? Something to consider, perhaps?

We were hoping that the Switch exclusivity of the game’s initial release would mean that the Switch version is, technically speaking, nice and smooth. Instead, the hitching and other hiccups suggest to us that an eventual port might be the ideal experience. It’s already a given that the Switch’s online play heavily benefits from a wired connection, but in of surviving the inevitable wi-fi players in the group, Banana Rumble honestly does okay.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is a welcome return to new ideas for the franchise, and does manage to avoid inferior minigame replication disappointment by… not replicating the old minigames at all! The choice to ape (pun intended, pun always intended, you know us) Fall Guys’ multiplayer formula isn’t the best, but there’s some fun here. And the main mode is enjoyable too!

Developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble launches on Nintendo Switch on June 25, 2024. It is, at least for the moment, exclusive to the console.

The post Review: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble Means Monkey Business appeared first on Siliconera.

The Monkey Ball series is a staple for Sega, with new entries regularly appearing on various consoles. Sometimes, they mean new courses to roll through. Other times, the priority ends up being on party games that implement the mechanics. With Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble on the horizon, especially with it including multiplayer in the Adventure Mode as one of its signature features, Siliconera spoke with Director Daisuke Takahata, Producer Nobuhiro Suzuki, and Designer Yukio Oda about the game.

When did development begin on Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble?

Nobuhiro Suzuki: Development started about 2 years ago, so around the spring of 2022.

How did the development of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania affect Banana Rumble?

Suzuki and Yukio Oda: In response to from Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania, we have made a number of improvements and quality of life updates to Banana Rumble, including the ability to enjoy Adventure Mode with up to four players in multiplayer, and improvements to physics in an effort to make it simpler and more intuitive. I believe that the development of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania has helped to enhance the quality of Banana Rumble in many ways.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is the first entry in over five years to be limited to a single platform. Did that affect the development process in any way?

Sukuki and Oda: The reason for limiting the game to Nintendo Switch was primarily to provide a stable quality of online competition with 16 players, which is the biggest selling point of this game. As a result of focusing on a single platform, we were able to focus on the implementation and stabilization of online matches over time, and as a result, we were able to reach a level that our s can enjoy. 

If we receive from our s, we believe we can consider expanding platforms in the future, so please Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble s 16-player multiplayer. What led to the development shooting for that number? 

Sukuki: For the number of players, we tried a lot of things during the development stage. When it came to stability on the network itself — the processing speed, the fun of the competition -- in order to firmly establish these elements, we found that the optimal number of players is 16. That's the reason why we went with the number that we did.

How did developing for a larger group affect game modes? Are there any concepts you wanted to include, but couldn’t, because of the larger player count? 

Daisuke Takahata: Developing for a larger group had various influences, and was also a big challenge for us. As the number of players increased, it inevitably means there will be more players that can't get to be "first place," so we aimed for gameplay that allows as many more players to have a chance to win. Also, since you will be colliding with a lot of people, we made many detailed adjustments to how the ball would rebound.

Likewise, how did the larger number of players in multiplayer affect Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble options? 

Takahata: So a new option that came about due to the increase in the number of players is that we now have a "Chat Wheel.” This shortcut allows you to send messages and stickers to other players at different moments during gameplay, and you can and customize it as you see fit. This option exists because Banana Rumble is different than other entries in the Super Monkey Ball series up until now, so we hope players have a lot of fun interacting with others all around the world in this unique way.

Super Monkey Ball games are, as of late, known for their guest stars and optional characters that sometimes appear as DLC. Will Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble feature the same sorts of cameos and how will that affect the multiplayer experience?

Suzuki: When the guest characters were announced for our last title, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania, there was a very positive response from the fans. As a result, we are very excited to share what additional content players can expect in Banana Rumble through the SEGA and other updates, so we hope everyone is looking forward to that.

As for how the additional characters will impact the gameplay, the scope of how you can enjoy the game will expand, but they won't give you an advantage in a match. technique and luck will always play a key role in the experience. It will not be a pay-to-win situation, so please don't be concerned about that.

The Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Adventure Mode also features four-player co-op multiplayer. How difficult was this to implement, and how does it affect progression?

Suzuki: The traditional gameplay of Super Monkey Ball can be found in Adventure Mode, so while it wasn't as difficult to implement as Battle Mode, especially with it ing up to 16 players, there were still a lot of issues to solve, including the of split-screen and . Specifically, it is difficult to meet the needs of both “cooperation ” and“ competition, ” and for this reason, we have introduced a range of options such as allowing players the choice to turn off collision so you don't bounce off each other, along with other  settings. Also, to make sure the game can be enjoyed by family and friends, we have made adjustments that are unique to multiplayer, like how everyone can work together to complete missions.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble will come to the Nintendo Switch on June 25, 2025. 

The post Interview: Preparing Super Monkey Ball for the Switch appeared first on Siliconera.

Sega offered an update on the Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Adventure noted and mentioned it offers 200 stages that can be played in multiplayer. These levels can be gone through alone or up to four people can work together to clear them. 

For those unfamiliar, these Super Monkey Ball courses will involve getting your monkey in their ball to the goal at the end of the course. As you get through different worlds, the difficulty ramps up and stages become more challenging. This version’s new additions include the ability to turn on options to help someone through a run. For example, someone could restart from a checkpoint if they fall off of the course. There can also be a Ghost or Route Guide to show you which paths to take through some stages or the moves to make to get past hazards. There will also be the ability to rewind. 

A first Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Adventure trailer explains the point of the story. All of the monkeys and other animals are in search of a legendary banana that grants its bearer powers.  The video also shows gameplay through some of the stages and worlds. Among them are the Banana Farm, Rose Garden, Floating City, Golden Temple, and Stone Valley. 

We've seen quite a few Monkey Ball games in the last few years. One of the most recent ones is Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania. That one is something of a compilation game, going through "greatest hits"  from Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2 and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble will launch on the Nintendo Switch on June 25, 2024. 

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