relatable

hey

you should try P-ranking all of act 1 and then going back into 3-1

I already beat Sisyphus

ok now do it on violent

Hell no

play the campaign on violent first

I don’t want to kill myself yet
If I did that I would

at least do prelude

Yup

How’s Monk Knee Balls

Pretty mid ngl
I’ve only played seven levels of the story mode though, so it’s probably gonna sway my opinion

Yeah they RUINED Story Mode in Banana Mania.

To give a bit of background, the first game didn’t have a story mode, it was only challenge mode.

SMB2 had the story mode that you’re playing right now except it had actual rendered cutscenes and text dialogue, so you actually understood what was going on. It also had one of the coolest level selection screens of all time (the picture)

Yes, the story mode is basically just a collection of all the challenge stages (except world 10) but it added so much flare that it felt cool. As a kid, it blew my mind that the same stage was placed in a different environment, but I can see why people would think that’s cheap.

All of that is gone in Banana Mania.

This is all besides the point that the ball rolling physics and controls are worse than in the original.

Like I said… good game, bad remake.

Also, they added tennis? I’m confused about that

Monkey Ball 2 had tennis, and it’s serviceable in Banana Mania

Do yourself a favor and never play Baseball

Deal

Is there anything that Banana Mania does better than the OG games? There are a few things.

- Monkey Boat has understandable controls now (I still can't figure out the original)
- You don't have lives in challenge mode which would lock you out from extra stages if you lost them, so you can experience the full game while dying as many times as you want.
- You can unlock modes like banana collect or reverse mode which have you exploring and solving stages in ways I'd never thought of before.
- Some of the stages were altered to make them more casual, but you can unlock the original versions in the shop.
- They added an unlockable jump ability as an afterthought, but it's legitimately the only way you'll get some red and green goals for completion, so it is helpful sometimes.

That's all the improvements I can think of.

I realize I kind of sound like Nat right now rambling about an obscure SEGA game from the early 2000's. Just know that I'm doing it because it's one of my favorite games ever. If you're able to, I highly recommend playing the originals, especially 2, but you already bought Banana Mania, and it's still fine on its own.

Wait how do you unlock the jump ability that seems like it would make the game way more fun

It doesn't.

At least, it didn't when it was introduced in Banana Blitz (which is often considered the worst game in the series). The OG games didn't have jumping, you just rolled and that was that. The beauty was using the game's finely tuned physics to bounce against the stage and build up speed to get to the goal. I've witnessed some insane speed runs.

Again, the jump in Banana Mania is there as an afterthought. You can unlock it in the point shop if you have enough points.

I find that having a points shop in a game takes away from the natural progression. Unlocking skins and abilities by completing worlds in the story mode would be so much cooler in my opinion

But knowing that the game is more than just a story mode, it makes a bit of sense?

Yes, the core of Monkey Ball is Challenge Mode. Completing sets of 10, 30, or 50 stages depending on the difficulty. Monkey Ball was originally an arcade game, and its GameCube counterparts hold true to that. They even have scores and leaderboards.

The newest game, Banana Rumble, doesn't have a challenge mode, and my mind is boggled at the thought.

To be fair, points have been a thing since even the original. You could buy extra continues if you ran out of lives (permanently) and in SMB2, you could actually buy lives permanently capping at 99. They never had a cosmetic storefront though.