Another day, another butchered remaster. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is vastly inferior to the originals in every conceivable way. SEGA has done nothing of value with this franchise after the GameCube entrees and is actively spitting on the faces of fans with this release.

The new cutscenes are awful. The new physics system is terrible. The sound design and the soundtrack itself have been butchered. The story mode doesn't include the levels from Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. Similar to Klonoa Phantasy Reverie, the character models and environments all look "plasticy" and overly bright. The good/original version of the soundtrack and models are paid DLC. It's disgusting.

These games deserve so much better. So do Klonoa, Shadow of The Colossus, Demon Souls, Metal Gear Solid, Sonic 2-3, and so many others. Leave classic games alone if you're not going to make an effort.

Fucking atrocious as a remake, completely destroys the gameplay loop by attempting to cater to casuals who will play the game once and never again (Not that casuals shouldn't be allowed to play the game! But there was a FAR better way to handle this than what they did.) Super Monkey Ball is an arcade style consistency game, not a course clear game! Why does Sega not understand this? The courses are far too simple to be one and dones, they don't hold as much merit on their own terms as opposed to part of a whole. here is literally no reason to play this over the originals unless you only have access to this game.

If you do only have access to this game, and you never played the originals, then I guess it's fine on its own terms? It's hard to see it as anything other than a spoiled version of two of the greatest games of all time though. It controls worse, it's lacking maingame multiplayer, it's far less replayable and the original content is pretty negligible. If you have interest in this as a game and not just a monkey meme please consider playing the originals first/instead!

A remake of the original 2 Super Monkey ball games was a great idea, but the execution and tweaks made mean you're better off with the originals.
The main issue I have is that there were changes made to mini-games that make them far worse than their original versions. Monkey Target, by far the best mini-game from the originals, is basically unplayable due to the physics changes. Others such as baseball have inexplicable changes that you can get used to but are frustrating...why is the friction on the ground so high? And your swing is much slower?
The physics in general for the main game are also different and feel less precise, but to me that is less of an issue than what was done to the mini-games. Some like racing and fight are still fun but the package as a whole is disappointing compared to the originals. If you don't have the originals, this game is still worth picking up used as it's fairly inexpensive (you can probably get it for under $20 if you look)

SMB: Banana Mania is Sega's attempt to recapture the magic that SMB1/2 had in the early 2000s, featuring remastered versions of SMB2's Story Mode stages, as well as all of the Challenge Mode stages from both SMB1 & 2.

While the look of Banana Mania is fresh and new, the feel of the game is what falls short. The physics engine and controls are much clunkier compared to the early Monkey Ball titles, and there are also some small QoL issues that make going through the game a bit of a slog if you aren't fully invested. The party games this time around have very little heart & soul put into them, as they are simply graphical remasters of old party games combined with the new, worse control scheme. Completing the game is also proving to be a tedious task, as every single story mode level has its own list of missions to complete in order to earn every achievement.

Banana Mania is probably one of the best modern SMB titles, but it really only achieves that status by remastering the content that Amusement Vision created 20 years ago. Even with its flaws, I have still enjoyed my time with the game as a huge fan of the original SMB titles.

on one hand: monki funny :)
on the other: this one's really fuckin weird. i never played the originals but i could tell from stuff like the weirdo comic book "adaptation" of the story mode that this one wasn't as good. i know a lot of people here say the physics are weird compared to the originals, and even though i don't have a reference point i kinda agree. sometimes clipping a random object will just shoot you a million miles off course, some slopes are so steep that you have to just slowly walk up them if you run out of momentum, etc. nothing game breaking but sometimes it's like. what the fuck aiai just walk up the damn stairs.

but ignoring the fact that it's inferior to a game ive never touched, it's a pretty fun. out of all the levels in the story mode and the ones from SMB1/2 that i played, there were only like three that i actually got frustrated with. otherwise, they're pretty diverse, challenging, and fun. i haven't touched too many of the other modes but there's definitely a lot to do if i ever feel like getting back into this one.

This is a huge dissapointment for fans of the original games.

Not only that they failed to recreate the physics of the original games, but this game is literally just monkey ball deluxe but with a weird fresh coat of paint, a female voice actress (that doesn't sound as enthusiastic as the male one), and they butchered Monkey Target to the point that it literally can't be beaten.

I would rather stick to the dolphin port of Monkey Ball Deluxe as that's the best way to play the game. The PS2/Xbox versions are alright, but this is a Disc Hack of SMB2 which is already perfect. Never playing this game again.