You have to use these launchers to hit yourself up a long cylinder where the goal is sitting. The one I remember most fondly was on world four, where you’re inside a whale. Those happened to be on stages that felt more like you needed luck than skill. There were only a handful of times I felt any intense frustration with the game. But as the game progresses, these stages can get rough in both the completion and collection aspects. You’ll run into some very simple early levels, being able to breeze right through them. It’s cliché, but Super Monkey Ball is quite literally the essence of easy to learn, hard to master.įor the most part, Banana Mania sticks to this premise.

Let’s not forget that leaderboards also play a part in getting you to try for better times. Have you got to the end fast enough? Good, now try to collect all the bananas AND get to the end the quickest. This three-tiered setup pushes you to do multiple retries of each level. Third, you’ll want to try to collect as many bananas along the way.

Second, you have to do it in the shortest amount of time. The challenge is three-fold, though: first, you have to navigate the stage without falling off. If you’re familiar with how those old wooden marble mazes operate, then you know what you need to do in Super Monkey Ball. To do this, you have to tilt the stage in the right direction, letting gravity and physics roll your monkey there. If you’re unfamiliar with Super Monkey Ball, your goal is to get a monkey encased in a ball, not unlike a hamster, to the end goal posts. Top that with additional game modes and unlocks Banana Mania will keep you entertained for quite a bit. Banana Mania is a remastered bundle of the first two games with roughly 300 levels in all. There’s something to the whole puzzle-challenge aspect that tingles the right nerves, keeping me playing for longer sessions than I anticipated. If you’re curious, the Super Monkey Ball formula still works in 2021.

Super monkey ball banana mania modes