DISCLAIMERS:
- the reviewer has not finished the game with 100% completion
- the game was played on the Nintendo Switch using the version of the game intended for United States audiences
13 years after the original’s release on Wii, the remastered version of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD released on every relevant platform for console games in late 2019. The HD version’s biggest change is removing the original’s motion controls and replacing them with standard controls. This review will judge the Nintendo Switch version of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD on its own merits.
Coming from the Monkey Ball series it is no surprise that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD is gameplay-focused. Unfortunately in this game they decided to abandon much of what made the originals good. Players now play through a series of 9 levels (the last one typically being a boss) and a bonus level that the player doesn’t have to beat with a limited number of lives for each world. If the player runs out of lives they can continue as many times as they want but they won’t get the special reward for beating the world without losing any lives. As in the previous Monkey Ball games the levels are floating platforms with puzzle-platforming level design that the monkeys roll in a ball through. This game introduces jumping, which aside from not really making any sense with how the rest of the mechanics also works terribly with the camera which the player doesn’t control and hardly ever shows what the player is jumping on. Around half of the levels are insanely easy, some others give an average challenge, and a few are seemingly designed just to frustrate the player like one stage where you jump on consecutive rows of small pyramids in this game where your character is a sphere. This game also introduced boss battles to the series and frankly, it shouldn’t have. None of the bosses are interesting to fight. Some are extremely easy, and others have very jank mechanics that make them annoying to fight. Overall none of the boss battles make interesting use of the fact that you play as a rolling sphere and feel like they are in the wrong game. As a whole the game is basically an average 3D platformer which isn’t saying much considering the genre’s history.
In terms of sound Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD is easily above average. Most of the soundtrack is original and it is pretty much all good. The sound effects can be grating at times but they are generally fine and about what one would expect.
Technically Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD is just an upscaled Wii game. Still, it looks good and runs well for a Switch game.
There is a little bit of story in this game at the start and end of the main worlds but it is so limited it has no effect on the game’s overall quality.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD‘s value is about average for a half of full price game. Everything in the game can easily be seen in under ten hours, so for anybody planning to play it once should probably look into a sale before buying it for a single playthrough. For those willing to invest more time they can grind for better scores in the minigames, beat every world without continues, and try to beat every level as fast as possible. Getting enough value to justify MSRP will take a lot of effort and playing the same content you have already experienced so for most people Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD will be a bit over priced, but not by an egregious amount.
Overall the reviewer would give the game a 6.5 out of 10.
If you decide to purchase this game through one of the links below this blog will receive a commission.
