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.