Earlier this year Sega announced the return of Super Monkey Ball with Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania, a remake of the first three entries in the beloved classic franchise developed by none other than Ryu ga Gotoku Studio, the team behind the company's recently successful Yakuza and Judgment titles. The developer recently revealed that classic characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Jet Set Radio's Beat would be appearing in the game, and has now finally announced that RGG Studios' own Kazuma Kiryu will be a playable character in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania was first hinted towards in mid-2020, when Brian Matt Ulh, the voice of the announcer for the original games, revealed that he had done work on a new Monkey Ball title. The game later leaked earlier this year on various retail boards and was officially announced on June 15 as part of E3 2021. Banana Mania follows Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD as the second remake in the series, recreating all of the mechanics and courses from Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe.
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Recently, Sega started to reveal that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania will also be introducing new characters to the series for the very first time, namely guest characters from some of Sega's other popular franchise such as Sonic and Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Beat from the Jet Set Radio series, and now Kazuma Kiryu from the Yakuza series. It has also been revealed that there will be three exclusive characters featured with the game's deluxe edition that will be based on three classic Sega consoles, the Game Gear, the Sega Saturn, and the Sega Dreamcast. The designs for these characters have not yet been revealed.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is seen as the first major return to form for the series since Super Monkey Ball 2, as many have criticized later installments for relying on gimmicks and deviating from what made the original titles so special. It's not yet known if other characters from Sega's past will make an appearance, although it seems likely that characters such as Shenmue's Ryu Hazuki and Space Channel 5's Ulala would be considered considering the characters that have been showcased so far. The new characters will join the game's roster of four returning playable characters, along with characters featured in later entries in the series. The game will also feature over 300 remade levels from the first three entries.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania will release on October 5 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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