Chris Buffa (Modojo): Super Monkey Ball was a welcome surprise during the GameCube launch, circa 2001. Since that time, Sega has released a new game in the series on just about every platform since, and something has been lost with each new entry, save for Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition for iOS, which was quite impressive. You can chalk up this inconsistency to the publisher dreaming up different ways to reinvent the franchise. Suffice to say, the new Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz for PlayStation Vita excels when it heads back to the basics of guiding a tiny primate encased within a sphere through numerous obstacle courses. The gimmicky nonsense, as expected, cheapens the product.
Phil writes, "With the recent official announcement of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC later this year, SuperPhillip Central is in the mood for some monkey business. Make that some Super Monkey Ball business with the best entries in the long-running arcade-style series. It's time to go bananas."
There aren't even 5 good Monkey Ball games.
Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, and Super Monkey Ball Jr. are the only ones worth playing. Everything else is disappointing or downright terrible.
SplitScreenGaming: "This is Super Monkey Ball, nothing more, nothing less, this version of the games comes out better for the simple fact that the hardware has an analog stick to control the game, if you prefer motion controls for some reason, those are here too. Mini-games lengthen the playtime, more so with friends and the main game will keep you coming back to conquer those harder tracks, but luck needs to be on your side for some of them."
It seems to have become a right of passage for modern gaming formats that somewhere in their infancy, typically the first year of launch, they will receive a Super Monkey Ball outing of some kind. Long past the dizzy heights achieved by Super Monkey Ball 2 on the GameCube, every successive iteration has added more content and yet delivered less rewarding gameplay. Here on PlayStation Vita the hope is that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz can buck the trend.
