Review

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is a welcome revival, but far from the series’ best

The first all-new entry in a decade is let down slightly by performance issues and no Party mode

Key Credits
Michio Abe (Lead artist), Youichi Ishikawa (Lead programmer)
3 / 5
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is a welcome revival, but far from the series’ best

As the first entirely new Monkey Ball game in 12 years, fans of the series will at least be happy to have a selection of new stages to play through. Performance issues and a relatively sparse multiplayer offering prevent it from being considered among the best the series has to offer, however.

  • It's more Monkey Ball, which is always good
  • 200 stages, the latter half of which can get devilishly hard
  • Speed boost will be divisive, but can be useful
  • Adventure mode has odd stuttery 50fps movement
  • Battle mode drops down to 30fps, which is bad for Monkey Ball
  • Only five 16-player events, no mini-games like Monkey Target
3 / 5
Version tested
Nintendo Switch
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