{"id":24802,"date":"2024-08-16T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T00:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=24802"},"modified":"2024-07-24T12:40:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T12:40:01","slug":"the-mini-games-of-super-monkey-ball-banana-rumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/16\/the-mini-games-of-super-monkey-ball-banana-rumble\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mini-Games of Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been a big fan of the Super Monkey Ball games ever since the GameCube ones and the original arcade game (which was called just Monkey Ball and the joystick was a banana you had to hold\u2026kind of embarrassing).\u00a0 The series is still going strong today and SEGA recently released Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble on Switch.\u00a0 So I though I\u2019d do a little review of it and go over the mini-games and even talk about what\u2019s in the \u201cLegendary Banana Edition\u201d you can get at launch.\u00a0 So let\u2019s roll!<\/p>\n

The main mode is Adventure and it plays pretty much like all the other Monkey Ball games.\u00a0 Just roll your monkey in a ball around the mazes and reach the goal without falling off.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot like Marble Madness which is why I probably like it so much since Marble Madness is one of my favorite arcade games from Atari.\u00a0 The whole game has a vacation motif, which I think is pretty neat.\u00a0 I\u2019m also impressed with the controls, which feel pretty precise, and they need to be for this kind of game. \u00a0Normally Switch JoyCon controls suck so I\u2019m glad that\u2019s not the case here.\u00a0 You can play this mode with multiple players as well, and so far the game doesn\u2019t seem to get ridiculously hard like in past titles and you can use a help feature if you fall off too many times.\u00a0 This game also adds a dash feature where you can hold down a button and release it for a burst of speed.\u00a0 Handy for rolling over ramps and such.<\/p>\n

But the Super Monkey Ball titles are also known for their mini-games.\u00a0 The ones on the GameCube were so good I never felt like I needed to get another soccer, bowling, or baseball game for that system!\u00a0 Unfortunately I don\u2019t think the subsequent games in the series have surpassed the quality of the original two GameCube titles.\u00a0 Many are still good, but not as good as those.\u00a0 Case in point: here in the newest game, there are only five mini-games and they are more online multiplayer focused.\u00a0 You can still play them in single player, but they feel more tailor made for an online experience.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll go over them here anyway!<\/p>\n

Race<\/strong><\/p>\n

Past Monkey Ball games have had a Race mode that was similar to how Mario Kart plays.\u00a0 But here it\u2019s just a race to the goal of a extra long course.\u00a0 You can still get power-ups and the level will change to be easier for straggling players.\u00a0 It kind of reminds me of Kirby\u2019s Dream Buffet.\u00a0 Except the levels here are way harder!<\/p>\n

Goal Rush<\/strong><\/p>\n

For some reason, this one reminds me of Pachinko.\u00a0 You roll down a slope and try to go through goals scattered about.\u00a0 Some are worth more points, but are usually harder to get.\u00a0 You can also claim goals for your team to get more points at the end.\u00a0 Pretty clever and original for the series in my opinion.<\/p>\n

Ba-Boom!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one\u2019s pretty much a game of timed tag.\u00a0 A player starts out with a bomb on them, and you must tag another player to get rid of it.\u00a0 If it explodes, you lose.\u00a0 Players left over get a point and whoever has the most points at the end, wins.<\/p>\n

Banana Hunt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Collect bananas in maze arenas and whoever has the most at the end of the time, wins.\u00a0 Be on the lookout for banana clouds that can give you bunches of them!<\/p>\n

Robot Smash<\/strong><\/p>\n

And finally, in this one you are in arenas with giant robots that don\u2019t move.\u00a0 If you smash into them and destroy them, you\u2019ll get lots of points.\u00a0 The bigger robots are harder to destroy, but they give you more points.\u00a0 Whoever has the most points at the end of the time limit, wins.<\/p>\n

And those are all the mini-games.\u00a0 There are different arenas you can pick for each one, but some games have more than others.\u00a0 They\u2019re fun, but not near as much as the mini-games on the GameCube titles.<\/p>\n

So I got the game near launch at Wal-Mart, and it was a \u201cLegendary Banana Edition.\u201d\u00a0 I wondered if that was exclusive to Wal-Mart, but on Amazon they were selling a launch edition that looked to be the same thing.\u00a0 It includes a code to unlock a banana suit costume, plus an ad where you can buy a pass to get characters from Sonic, Jet Set Radio, and Yakuza games in here to roll around with.\u00a0 But I think the pass cost like 25 bucks, which is ridiculous.\u00a0 I think that should\u2019ve been in the game for free.\u00a0 But anyway, here\u2019s a bigger picture of the box.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My favorite part of this edition was it also came with a little booklet.\u00a0 I always like when games come with print instructions or an artbook or something.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Inside on the first few pages are bios of the characters in the game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next are descriptions of the areas you\u2019ll visit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And last are some pages of concept art.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Overall it\u2019s pretty cool so I\u2019m glad I got the launch edition.\u00a0 In the comments section, let me know what your favorite Super Monkey Ball games are!\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been a big fan of the Super Monkey Ball games ever since the GameCube ones and the original arcade game (which was called just Monkey Ball and the joystick was a banana you had to hold\u2026kind of embarrassing).\u00a0 The series is still going strong today and SEGA recently released Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24804,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802\/revisions\/24804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}