Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (2019) [Switch]

Life is full of banana skins. You slip, you carry on.
-Daphne Guiness

Originally released in 2006 for the Nintendo Wii, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz has received a shiny new upgrade from Sega for modern consoles and it’s Banana Blitz HD that we’re going to tackle in this review. You are tasked with guiding Aiai, Meemee, Gongon and the rest of the monkey crew through narrowing paths filled with obstacles, enemies, platforming challenges in order to recover your stolen bananas. Navigate the levels by tilting the entire stage in the direction you want your monkey to roll while avoiding the ever-increasing threat of falling to your doom.

Besides the improved graphics, the biggest change comes from the removal of motion controls and the implementation of a traditional control method. Surprisingly, there isn’t even an option for motion controls which I found a bit odd. There are also 10 party mini-games playable with up to four players. Some of the mini-games which relied heavily on motion controls also didn’t make it into this port. What remains, however, is still a fully-fledged experience.

Monkeying Around

In the main story mode, you pick from a selection of monkeys, all with different stats, and progress through eight worlds each containing eight levels and a boss battle. Just don’t expect the game to explain why the monkeys are trapped inside of balls or why they only move by tilting the entire stage. If you’re familiar with Super Monkey Ball then you already know the drill. Roll your monkey, maneuver down twisting pathways while collecting bananas, and reach the goal within the time limit.

One thing that is different from previous entries in the series is you now have the ability to jump. This means that the focus and challenge of many levels now involves platforming. It’s a fun challenge at first, but the later levels grow increasingly frustrating. Because the tilting mechanics don’t really allow for precise movements, the advanced levels of the game call for some very difficult maneuvering.

The Super Monkey Ball series has been dormant for quite a few years so it’s great to see another entry, even if it’s just an HD port. But is this version worth diving into?

The 8-Bit Review

Gameplay: 7/10

This game requires the most precise joystick movements, which makes me wonder why they completely left out motion controls. Being that this game originally had only motion controls, I assumed I would at least have the option of having tilt controls, which could have helped with some movements. For better or worse, motion controls have been removed. In my opinion, this is a bad choice, especially because of the mini-games.

Luckily, the controls are finely tuned and once you get a feel for the game’s physics, you’ll become familiar with how the monkeys interact with the stages. You’ll fall often but you’ll know how to avoid falling the next time around. There’s a stage intro animation that plays after every fall, but holding down the A button will speed it up (thank you, Sega). Being able to quickly jump back in and retry definitely helps with the frustrating stages.

Another element that raises the difficulty is the fact that camera controls are nonexistent. The camera automatically turns in the direction that you’re rolling. This means that if you come to a dead end and need to turn back, you’ll have to start moving blindly towards the camera until it turns around and to show where you’re headed. This becomes especially problematic on the later levels that contain trickier platform jumping.

Then there are the bosses at the end of each world… oh, man. If you’ve played a Sonic game you’ll be familiar with these types of boss battles. Avoid their attacks, jump to hit their weak points, and repeat. The tilting combined with the clunky jumping makes most of these battles more of a hassle and not as fun.

Visuals: 7/10

I’m happy to report that the updated High Definition visuals look sharp here! There are plenty of HD ports where you can clearly tell they came from an older console, which isn’t the case here. That is unless you stop to look at the details in some of the objects and the static backgrounds, in which case you’ll start to notice plenty of low-resolution textures. Otherwise, the visuals are serviceable for a modern console and the vibrant colors and decorations really fit well with the varied environments.

The game runs smoothly throughout all the modes and never experienced any lag or dropped frame rates no matter how crazy the action got. I played briefly in portable and it ran just as effortlessly, although I found controlling the monkeys much harder with the Joy-cons than with the Pro Controller. Unfortunately, the mini-games aren’t as sharp graphically and are where the game truly shows its age. It doesn’t detract from the fun so it’s forgivable as you’ll be mostly playing these in split-screen anyways.

Audio: 4/10

The soundtrack here is the typical Sega fare: upbeat tracks that try to be fun but are not particularly memorable. The character’s voices are high pitched and repetitive which I found to be irritating. I firmly believe that a game’s sounds and music are an important part of the experience so I’m not the type to listen to something else while playing games. There are very few exceptions, and Banana Blitz is one of them. I eventually decided that I’d had enough of the game’s sounds, a very rare occurrence for me.

Multiplayer: 6/10

The up to 4-player party mode here offers a variety of mini-games that could provide hours of fun… IF you avoid the bad ones. Mini-games such as Seesaw Ball and Monkey Target are hectic and fun to play in a group setting. Others such as Dangerous Route and Hovercraft Race are rough around the edges but could still be fun if your friends don’t mind the control limitations. I found Monkey Snowboard also to be entertaining but my couch companions weren’t as fond of it as I was. The rest are throw-away mini-games to be played once and forgotten about.

Challenge: 6/10

Super Monkey Ball purists will say that there should be no jumping at all, and with good reason. The earlier levels contain simple jumps that are easily pulled off, but the difficulty escalates to near impossible in the last few worlds. The imprecise tilting mechanic coupled with the impractical jumps almost sent me into monkey madness. One stage asks you jump to a narrow path that’s at a 90-degree angle and it’s one of the more frustrating places I got stuck in for a very long time (wouldn’t be as frustrating if you could rotate the camera). If you plan to complete this game, you’ll need a lot of patience and perseverance.

Hard as balls.

Replayability: 7/10

The main game contains eight worlds with eight stages each and a boss battle, as mentioned. After completing a world, you could go back to try to gain a banana stamp on each stage, where you collect the majority of bananas spread out, or you could try to obtain a champion medal where you go through all eight stages and the boss battle without using any continues. There are costumes and other unlockables to find that extend the length of the game, including a surprise appearance by none other than Sonic the Hedgehog himself!

Besides the main story and party games there is also the Time Attack mode where you go through a set of stages as quickly as possible and earn a spot among online rankings. Similarly, the Decathlon mode has you go through all ten mini-games as you attempt to gain the highest score possible to be compared against other players online. While some modes may have longer legs than others, this does feel like a complete package that’s worth revisiting.

Uniqueness: 8/10

There are other similar marble games out there but none can match the charm of monkeys rolling inside of transparent balls. I’ve been a fan of rolling marble games since the NES’s Marble Madness and then Sega came along too and added so much personality with Monkey Balls’ unique setting, characters, and whimsy. I’m glad Sega hasn’t forgotten about this series, I just hope that there is enough interest in this title to prompt Sega to actually make a new entry.

My Personal Grade: 8/10

It might be mainly the nostalgia speaking, but I actually enjoyed my time with Banana Blitz HD, despite its many flaws. I originally played it on the Wii where it had many more technical issues, so I never made it past world two. In that regard, I’m glad Sega ported this version to the Switch. That being said, I hope they decide to port Super Monkey Ball 2 next, which I believe is a superior game and would greatly benefit from the HD polish that this one received.

We’d like to thank Sega for offering us a copy of their game for this honest Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD review!

Aggregated Score: 6.6

Kalas, aspiring content creator (but failing horribly at it) has found a wonderful community of friends to share his love of games through Twitch, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube.