Beat from Jet Set Radio is coming to Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Sega has announced that Beat from Jet Set Radio will be a playable character in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania.

A tweet from the official Sega Twitter account revealed that Beat will be added as a guest character on all platforms.

Beat will not be paid DLC – instead, Sega says he will be free and unlockable through normal gameplay at launch. In-game, instead of collecting bananas he’ll be collecting cans of spray paint.

Beat was one of the main protagonists in the 2000 Dreamcast action game Jet Set Radio (known in North America as Jet Grind Radio), and also starred in the 2002 Xbox sequel Jet Set Radio Future.

Sega has teased that Beat will be one of “several iconic guest characters” coming to the game. A previous cast trailer ended with a tease for Sonic, and leaked character art showed that Tails will likely be in the game too.

Character ‘skins’ based on classic Sega consoles like the Dreamcast, Saturn and Game Gear will also be available as DLC.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania was announced during a Nintendo Direct in June, and will contain remasters of Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2 and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe running on the same engine as 2019’s Wii remake Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD.

Sega had been tipped to release a new Super Monkey Ball game for much of the past year. Matt Brian, who is the voice of the Monkey Ball series’ announcer, posted a number of hints towards an upcoming reveal on his Instagram page last summer.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania will be released on October 5 for Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4 and PS5.