A new installment of Super Monkey Ball is coming to the Switch, a very colorful game, and although it may have a presentation that may seem childish, it ensures fun for all ages.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is available on Nintendo Switch.
NAKED MONKEYS
Super Monkey Ball It's a franchise that's been around for quite a few years now, and I'm always surprised that they keep releasing games. It's not because I don't have faith in them, or because they're bad, on the contrary, but they're not something that follows current market trends. In fact, Banana Rumble It's much more like a game from twenty years ago than something from today. That's not a bad thing, it's what the series does and that's why it keeps its fans coming back.
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The story in this case is anecdotal, necessary only to give some context to the campaign levels and not very exciting or complicated.
Through pre-rendered cutscenes with text dialogue, our group of monkeys meets a new member, and they decide to go looking for a legendary banana. There are some antagonists to justify a little more conflict in the plot, but they do not represent a real threat.
In terms of presentation, it's a fairly simple and arcade-like game. It feels like something from the year of our Lord 2024, like something that was already a bit old back in the days of the Playstation 2. Graphically it's simple, but it doesn't need more than that. It's remarkable how old the Switch already feels, the game runs at times with noticeable framerate drops and some edges look pixelated, but it should have plenty of hardware given how it looks.
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I WANT TO BECOME A CHANGO
The core gameplay of this title (and the franchise) is to move our ball (which has a monkey inside) around a board or “stage” to reach the goal. Instead of moving our “character,” what we do is tilt or incline the level to move the ball through it, or at least that is the effect that is understood, since in multiplayer each player should tilt their screen for this to make sense.
It is not easy to learn, but when we achieve a certain level of mastery, we will be able to move the ball with almost surgical precision.
As we progress through the campaign, new and more ingenious obstacles will appear. All in all, it's really fun.
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After several hours of play, I fully understand the absence of motion controls, which they had previously experimented with, without much success. Some levels require a much more precise execution than the motion controls would allow, the same for the different challenges that each level proposes. I'm not saying that you'll need a competitive level of precision to play the monkeys, but some finesse is definitely required.
In addition to reaching the goal in the shortest time possible, there are three challenges that we can complete as an option. Each level is full of bananas, and collecting a high percentage will give us a special medal. There is a golden banana as well, which is special and often hidden. And a medal for completing the level very, very quickly. All of these objectives are varied, and to achieve them all, you must replay each level until you succeed. It is inefficient and almost impossible to complete all of these challenges in a single run. To complete the level in record time or find the golden banana, sometimes you need to think outside the box, make crazy moves and strange plays.
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These challenges stretch the content a bit and give it some replayability. While there are a lot of levels and the campaign could be considered “long,” it’s something we can finish in a couple of hours with a desire. Completing everything does take a lot longer, and requires mastering all the game’s mechanics. Luckily, the price isn’t full AAA, otherwise it would feel like even less content.
Something good at the gameplay level is that each character has very different stats and you can feel the difference between each one.
Even though we can play through the entire game with any of them, some are much better at specific levels, and it's hard to go from one to another without getting used to it. Characters can be customized with clothes and other items that we buy with points while playing.
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Although I didn't understand why it was sold on that side, the game has a strong multiplayer component. Both local and online, we can play various modes competing with friends and/or strangers, all of them very chaotic. The career mode would be the most classic, in which we compete with others on a circuit until the end, helping ourselves with items along the way. Mario Kartwhile dodging obstacles. Then we have one in which the objective is to move around a closed map collecting bananas, the one who collects the most wins. There is a bomb mode, in which a player has a bomb and has to pass it to another before it detonates, the one who finishes with the bomb when the time runs out loses. And finally, the most complicated mode and clearly designed to be played between many in teams, a mode based on arches as “goals” in which we claim them for our team and add points, stealing from the rival's markers as well.
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- Simple and fun, but difficult to master.
- Good, fast arcade fun.
- Various multiplayer modes.
- It doesn't have as much content as I would have expected.
- It's a fairly niche product that doesn't feel current.
- Despite looking graphically simple, it has somewhat poor performance at times.