Long wait
After many years of making blunders with the way it promoted and sold its hardware, abusing the number of options in a complicated and increasingly saturated market, sega It had no other solution than to abandon the console race and accept that if it wanted to survive as a company, it had to accept its defeat. The above, despite being an extremely complicated and clear, historic moment for the medium, in no way erased the great legacy of the creators of Sonic, much less their desire to continue betting on different and innovative proposals. At the time of distributing its franchises among its former competitors, the decision was made to launch a completely new series for the Nintendo Gamecube, which would be in charge of Toshihiro Nagoshialso famous for his work with the series Yakuza either Like a Dragon. After a long wait of more than a decade, Super Monkey Ball is finally ready to return with a brand new game, one that will attempt to return it to the very special place it earned with a specific niche of fans so long ago.
A few days ago we had the great opportunity to be at the previous event of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble in New York City, together with several members of the international press, to try out the new Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. The game has different ambitions in terms of presentation and form, however, we could tell you that in general, it follows a line already known for the series at the gameplay level, this of course, without failing to propose one or two ideas that try to refresh to the formula itself to the delight of all its old fans, but so well with the clear objective of pleasing the youngest, because in effect, these super charismatic characters will always be designed for the youngest players even more than those of us who are 20 or 25 years consuming video games, we have a special affection for them. Anyway, below I'll tell you how it went with this first meeting with the return of AiAi, MeeMee, GonGon and some completely new faces.
To the Monkey Ball
One of the most important foundations of the entire series of Monkey Ball It's about keeping things simple, without ever forgetting the challenge and of course, letting the player himself find a way to even break the experience, all for the sake of fun. The problem with this philosophy is that it is difficult to evolve and find different ideas, which makes developing sequels much more complicated than in other cases. After all these years, Sega and its studios have understood everything I'm telling you well, so to Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble They decided not to stretch the league so much or go down paths that would lose meaning.
History and narrative is one of the sections in which there is less room to work within Monkey Ball and actually, one of the least important; However, the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio believes that although there is not much material to tell a huge story about AiAi and company, there are certain opportunities to make these characters even more charming. For this reason, in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble We are presented with elaborate cinematics that will appear throughout the entire adventure mode, which show the famous monkeys in quite funny situations. Does this contribute much? The truth is no, but I could tell you that they help give strength to the brand itself and what can be done with it in the future and above all, they are fun.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble It's a game that gets to the point and doesn't beat around the bush. We could say that there are two main ways. The adventure one, which features more than 200 completely new levels and which is the most traditional way in which the series has always been played, and the Battle Mode, which replaces the mini games with five different, quite interesting ways. By the way, the campaign can be played with up to three more friends in cooperative mode, while the battles are for up to 16 players via the internet.
We could say that the main proposal at the gameplay level that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble brings to the table is the ability to charge a dash. You see, now instead of being able to jump like in Banana Blitz, we can do a loaded spin that, of course, shoots the monkey's ball in question at a high speed. The idea, despite being simple, I think adds a lot of dynamism to the core gameplay. At least in the two worlds we were able to try, I felt like I always had a trick up my sleeve to get to the finish line. By the way, the composition of the levels remains the same as always, in which we have to reach a goal without falling in the shortest time possible, while trying to grab as many bananas as possible. Another welcome addition is that finally, we can rotate the camera at will using the right stick on the control.
Something that caught my attention was the addition of an aid system. In addition to being able to place a ghost as a guide, it is possible to enable dates that show you the way to follow to solve this or that level. Surely in the more advanced stages of the game when things get very complicated, these types of elements will be very welcome. In addition, you can set checkpoints and even rewind the action. All of this is optional and can be activated or deactivated whenever you want. Another extremely curious element is that in its control customization options, there is one that allows you to adjust the controller to compensate in case of drift in your Joy-Con. Stay ahead of the problem.
Mini games have always been an important part of any Monkey BallHowever, it is worth remembering that in some deliveries, the idea of betting on a large number of them led to a strong drop in quality. Knowing this perfectly, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble It was decided to reduce the offer to only five through the so-called Battle Mode. In these challenges we have things like races, having to pass bombs in what is basically a “you bring them”, or another in which as teams, you must kill as many robots as possible by crashing your ball against them. Even though I only tried these modes with bots, I could see how fun they are and all the chaos that is generated with so many characters on the screen, an issue that unfortunately has an impact on the performance of the game that I will tell you more about forward.
How were these first hours with Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble? The truth is, extremely fun. The path of not taking such important risks or trying to revolutionize the formula of the series will surely be criticized by some, but I believe that we are being given the new Monkey Ball that we had been waiting for so long. One that doesn't go crazy with weird experiments like those in the past that obviously didn't work. It is the game I expected with certain changes and elements that we veterans of the franchise were crying out for and that I am sure those who pick it up for the first time will love. It seems that we will have both a vast and extensive adventure mode, as well as a solid Battle Mode that will give us good hours of fun.
Only for Switch
We are in a very advanced stage of the life of the Nintendo Switch. In March of this year, seven years passed since its premiere and despite its gigantic success, it is natural that rumors about its successor have filled the main headlines in the industry over the last few months. The company's plans remain uncertain, which will not prevent more games from being published on its console, even if they are exclusive. It is just the case of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumblewhich only arrives at Mario's house, knowing perfectly well that its true market is precisely there.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble It looks extremely good and at least in its single-player adventure mode, it presents great performance at a fairly stable 60 frames per second, this through a very good quality image that is surely close to 1080p in the dock. For this preview we were not able to see it in portable mode, but we are almost sure that like the last two installments, it will look very good in 720p. What worries me is what happens when more players are added to the action.
You see, when we were able to try the battle mode, we felt a very marked drop in performance that changed to 30 frames per second, which is not always reached. When the screen fills up with things happening with 16 participants at the same time, the Switch does begin to suffer, making the experience less than optimal. As in other games in the series, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble It is a fairly frenetic title that depends greatly on good performance. The truth is that I have been somewhat worried about how this issue is going to negatively impact the experience. I repeat, this only happened to me in battle mode, we will have to see how everything behaves in split screen in the campaign or with four players at the same time.
The art direction and care in the cinematics is one of the high notes of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble, this without mentioning its new and spectacular soundtrack, which, at least from what we could hear in this time with the game, relies on extremely well-known tunes for the series, but also with proposals that completely modernize it. Let's hope that for the final version of the game, the performance problems I'm talking about are not a major problem, since they would be ruining very good ideas.
Delighted fans
Ambitions in all video game development are important, but even more so is having a clear and achievable objective. It is easy to notice that since Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega began planning Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble, they were very aware that they had to create a game to make the oldest fans of the series happy and at the same time, that anyone who has never given it the opportunity, this could be their gateway. After this time with the game I am completely sure that the objective will be achieved, since a new Super Monkey Ball that is sincere and gets straight to the point. Of course he has his own proposal and ideas, but he knows when to stop so as not to go off the path precisely in pursuit of things that are irrelevant.
We are very excited about what it represents Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble and what it will be giving us once it launches this June 25 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. The only bad news here is that we still have to wait a little, but we think it will be worth it. The issue that we see out there with certain red lights is the performance of the battle mode and how well or how badly it will work online, well remember, the console on which it is coming out has never been characterized by its good multiplayer experiences over the internet , this with its few exceptions.
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