I love how this game finally understands the abstract nature of monkey ball 1 and 2's levels. they're just floating objects in the sky, that's the whole point. it doesn't have to make any sense at all, so do whatever you want.
I think its about simplistic gimmicks, rather than designing them as video game "levels." They make sense almost more as toys rather than stages, that kind of design makes so much sense for the type of game monkey ball is, and I think its honestly beautiful lol. There's such an intrinsic satisfaction to it.
If only they followed this with the mini games and making the game look acceptable with split screen. First 2 games still look great on full screen and have better fps than this version
Banana Rumble feels like the first monkey ball game in years to really 'get' the level design sensibilities that made the originals so good. The first time I tricked to the end of the stage off physics nonsense, and saw I *barely* got the time trial? It solidified that feeling of "the devs actually get it".
Crazy that this is the first game I've properly tried grinding for speedrunning. Like, I've speedran other games once or twice without properly grinding for a good time, but for some reason this game made me want to grind the time trials. It's a great game, I also love it.
This may just be the best Monkey Ball game. A lot of critics don't understand what the joy of the series is but I've seen many youtubers echoing your sentiment and I agree. Amazing MB game. My only gripe is that Monkey Target is not here.
It can't be the best without monkey target, monkey fight, monkey golf, monkey bowling. All those are staple and classics to mini games and they completely dropped the ball... No pun intended 😂
Long time Monkey Ball fan here who grew up with the Gamecube games. I immediately condemned Banana Rumble on its first trailer because it looked like they were turning Monkey Ball into Fall Guys. But now that I've heard that the core gameplay is just as good if not better than the GCN games, maybe I'll pick it up after all. Won't bother with the online multiplayer though because I'm a poor boi
Genuinely,, no clue what they were doing on the marketing for this game. Like SO much of a focus on the multiplayer when its probably the weakest point. And no focus on how the single player is solid, the new mechanic, how you can use it, art style, story.. so frustrating that this is selling poorly
I genuinely love pairing my adventure mode time with battles mode games after. Im a newcomers to the series and while the adventures super fun and addictive for missions, they can also feel super precise and stressful its fun to chill with the battle modes after and even get rewards for doing so, makes me hope they add more stages since they clearly wanna incentivise playing it. Even if the mode is so bizarrely dead already? Makes me wonder if they prioritize starting matches faster than waiting for rooms to fill up
Since your new you would've loved the original games mini games. They had the best games to play outside of adventure mode and really made it feel like a complete game. This game is like 70% of a game. In my household it was important to have games of monkey fight and monkey target in.... But they got rid of them..
I know hardcore "Monkey Ball fans" are NEVER happy, but I'm surprised at how decent this game seems. The control feels FAR better than Banana Mania (which I still enjoyed.)
The Party Games being poorly received (for the third time in a row this gen) definitely turned critics off but for the first time, I think the single player is good enough to make up for it. Seriously Ant is right about the single player content it’s top tier and deserves more love.
I do hope they update the battle mode with better framerate. Literally Sega compromises their Switch games when they don't need to! The Switch can run this game no problem. The graphics are not that intense. Its Sega and their Teams i swear. But i do love love this game! This is one of the best games this year!
It's odd cus the older games look better during split screen with graphics and frame rate and yet this one tones down graphics significantly to the point that it's ugly pixelated blurry mess and it still runs at low fps
I beat it two weeks ago and I seriously enjoyed it. It was a bit on the easier side but had a blast with it nonetheless. The one level that truly had me almost throwing the Switch across the room was the tornado one at the very last stage.
It was in the one before last. I guess they didn't wanna have it be in 2 in a row, but they released a few trailers on both Sega and Nintendo's channels around the time anyway
There was so many points in this game where i was like, NO they did not just do that! But i had a smile on my face the entire time because it felt like i was playing Monkey Ball 1 & 2 again! They really nailed the level design here and thats really all i could ask for!
One thing of note about this game if weird frame pacing bothers you is that the physics update at 50hz which means that when playing, the camera moves inconsistently from the framerate. Basically every 6th frame the camera will not move which can make it seem like the framerate is unstable. Most people won’t notice it, personally I have to really pay attention to notice. Just something worth knowing if you are sensitive to that sort of thing
I think the mini games being derivative of the main gameplay probably helped cut down development time so they wouldn't spend a ton of resources trying to make new games that end up not feeling good at all (Banana Mania Monkey Target). I think they're fine for what they are and I like the bomb tag one the most. The lower fps sucks but at least the waiting room sorta helps you adjust to it. My biggest complaint with this game is the SFX. The lack of any major impacts kinda throws me off when you bump into a wall or fall onto the stage. They just make the ball feel weightless. If they used the original SFX from 1&2 or tried to do create similar, this would've made the game way better.
So I recently tried out this channel and I think you really mis-advertised it. I was under impression this channel is gonna be like, Let's Plays/stream VODs. If I knew this is more of scripted/talking AntDude content (in fact it being pretty much reviews, like it used to be on the main channel) I would've checked it out way sooner.
Really hope the game hits other consoles and Steam. They can easily prolong this game's MP by making it crossplay when that happens cuz it just seems like a missed opportunity
I've played this game since it came out and you know what I did. I wanted to 100% it. After clearing all of the levels of World 18 or 8X. Once I entered world 19. I started to realize that I couldn't complete that world and beat all of it's missions. I finished 8 of them but could never beat 2 of them. So I gave up and cleared the world. Then with the final world 10X... I only cleared one of the levels. All I can say is my goodness the levels get extremely hard. But it was fun never the less.
My only major critique is them daring to put pants on AiAi. But in all seriousness, yeah its big time fun. Spindash is very fun, feels like monkey neuron activation whenever i snipe the goal with it. The story mode is like... Awesome. For monkey ball. Even 2, yeah it had a proper one but it didn't take long to get stupid pretty quick and not in the good way. But this one is to the point, but cute and fun new characters. Of course Palette is a highlight but YanYan is still best thing in Monkey Ball existence. I love more Sega characters but the way dlc is being handled is funky. They didnt need to do that. Also online is pretty enjoyable. Havent put a ton of time but what ive played, i liked going a few rounds.
I genuinely really really love the soundtrack of this game, but I don't think it fits monkey ball very well which is my only complaint. The super high energy of it kind of gets tiring on the ears after however many fall-outs, where as in the older games, the music never got annoying. I hope they keep the kind of catchiness of new monkey ball but the laid back jungle style of the old ones in the next game. Or maybe even something new entirely.
Couldn't decide on whether I wanted this game or not and after seeing it in action I like what I see. I'll be buying it next week. I don't think any Monkey Ball game will beat the original 2 games on Gamecube though which I've been playing since launch.
This is COMPLETELY unrelated to Super Monkey Ball, but Antdude, you may or may not be getting a Invite to a Pikmin 2 Versus Mode Tournament hosted by Press A! (you still may not, but i think it is possible) it could be a very fun video depending on how you do…if you’re invited. If you don’t see this…oh well i tried
I got some crazy skips in this game, it was a blast. If it was possible to skip everything, I skipped everything. Even if it took hundreds of attempts.
Damn, sounds like I need to get back on the single player content. I brought it to my friend's house and the presence of a battle pass, and the lack of the classic mini games left kind of a bad taste in the mouth. (Seriously, how have they not had a version of Monkey Target with controls that WORK since the Gamecube??) But yeah, some of those single player levels look fantastic!
I don't like the help prompt, the story is too kiddy. I wish we could have the originals soundtrack. Some level designs screw with the camera I can't see where I'm going. I finished the main adventure the ex stages are more fun although it's getting difficult. Some of the levels are a bit big I prefer to be able to see the goal. It's an 8 for me.
are you gonna get the sega pass dlc? I already got it and trying to see if I should wait for the characters and stuff to come before I play the game or still play the game
I heard the people who absolutely love these games, so I tried playing deluxe on ps2, but it's not for me, on the second level I'm already done with it hahahah (also, maybe playing with a cheap controller has something to do with it, bc of the imprecise analogs lol)
I'm so glad someone feels the same way as me, this game is wonderful. I'm one of those people who prefers 1 and 2 on GameCube to Banana Mania, as the levels didn't feel as fun for me with the new physics. These new levels though, holy shit. It's an evolution on Monkey Ball 1 and 2 built to fit the modern physics. The cutscenes are amazing as well for the story mode, but yeah overall easily one of the best Monkey Ball games, definitely my GOTY right now to lmao, it's so much fun... EDIT: Love the level aesthetics as well, this series never fails to deliver unique themes you wouldn't find anywhere else. They look really nice too. And the missions add great replay value. If you own a Switch and haven't played this game yet, pick it up it's worth it...
So sad to see one of my favorite franchises putting in $25 DLC passes. Maybe dead franchises should stay dead. We’ll always have the originals that we love.
You can’t be serious. This game is Banana Blitz all over again. It’s a mess, the sound mixing is awful, the cutscenes are unbearable, and the courses are far too easy.
5:23 Do the monkeys at least talk in monkey language? It would be awkward if they are just silent. Also the monkey language they talked in in Super Monkey Ball 2 was really cute and I want to hear more of it.
I love how this game finally understands the abstract nature of monkey ball 1 and 2's levels. they're just floating objects in the sky, that's the whole point. it doesn't have to make any sense at all, so do whatever you want.
I think its about simplistic gimmicks, rather than designing them as video game "levels." They make sense almost more as toys rather than stages, that kind of design makes so much sense for the type of game monkey ball is, and I think its honestly beautiful lol. There's such an intrinsic satisfaction to it.
@@Gamesforus1 yeah, describing the levels as "toys" is a really good way to put it, actually. 100% agree.
Oh, but when Sonic does it, it’s a problem!
If only they followed this with the mini games and making the game look acceptable with split screen.
First 2 games still look great on full screen and have better fps than this version
I love the genre of “people talking about a product while the product is on the floor”
Scott reference?
@@eljoagamesthe carpet ant is using is definitely a scott reference
Banana Rumble feels like the first monkey ball game in years to really 'get' the level design sensibilities that made the originals so good. The first time I tricked to the end of the stage off physics nonsense, and saw I *barely* got the time trial? It solidified that feeling of "the devs actually get it".
Agreed with pretty much everything in this video.
The missions, character stats and spindash are just great additions. Its my GOTY so far too.
An insightful analysis from between two pipes.
Crazy that this is the first game I've properly tried grinding for speedrunning. Like, I've speedran other games once or twice without properly grinding for a good time, but for some reason this game made me want to grind the time trials. It's a great game, I also love it.
Highly recommend Neon White if you haven't tried it yet! It's got that same speedrun hook in me atm
This may just be the best Monkey Ball game.
A lot of critics don't understand what the joy of the series is but I've seen many youtubers echoing your sentiment and I agree. Amazing MB game.
My only gripe is that Monkey Target is not here.
It can't be the best without monkey target, monkey fight, monkey golf, monkey bowling. All those are staple and classics to mini games and they completely dropped the ball... No pun intended 😂
@@WeirdEdzthe game itself don’t need minigames lul?? So you are saying that yakuza it’s not the best if it don’t have minigames ?? Get out
Long time Monkey Ball fan here who grew up with the Gamecube games. I immediately condemned Banana Rumble on its first trailer because it looked like they were turning Monkey Ball into Fall Guys. But now that I've heard that the core gameplay is just as good if not better than the GCN games, maybe I'll pick it up after all.
Won't bother with the online multiplayer though because I'm a poor boi
Genuinely,, no clue what they were doing on the marketing for this game. Like SO much of a focus on the multiplayer when its probably the weakest point. And no focus on how the single player is solid, the new mechanic, how you can use it, art style, story.. so frustrating that this is selling poorly
The voice acting in this game is stellar! Actually felt emotion from the cute monkey sounds. Nintendo should follow suit!
Rose Garden's music is my favorite track in the game!
The candy world is good as well!
I genuinely love pairing my adventure mode time with battles mode games after. Im a newcomers to the series and while the adventures super fun and addictive for missions, they can also feel super precise and stressful
its fun to chill with the battle modes after and even get rewards for doing so, makes me hope they add more stages since they clearly wanna incentivise playing it. Even if the mode is so bizarrely dead already? Makes me wonder if they prioritize starting matches faster than waiting for rooms to fill up
Since your new you would've loved the original games mini games. They had the best games to play outside of adventure mode and really made it feel like a complete game. This game is like 70% of a game. In my household it was important to have games of monkey fight and monkey target in.... But they got rid of them..
I 100% the game after only a week and it was a super fun experience! Speedrunning this game will be super fun!
I know hardcore "Monkey Ball fans" are NEVER happy, but I'm surprised at how decent this game seems.
The control feels FAR better than Banana Mania (which I still enjoyed.)
It’s “Touch & Roll.” You’re thinking of the Yoshi game with the similar name.
No, it IS "Step & Roll", that's the game that you can use the Wii balance board for.
@@bigthecat100 Touch & Roll is the name of the DS game.
Scott’s stash ahh video
The Party Games being poorly received (for the third time in a row this gen) definitely turned critics off but for the first time, I think the single player is good enough to make up for it. Seriously Ant is right about the single player content it’s top tier and deserves more love.
I do hope they update the battle mode with better framerate. Literally Sega compromises their Switch games when they don't need to! The Switch can run this game no problem. The graphics are not that intense. Its Sega and their Teams i swear. But i do love love this game! This is one of the best games this year!
It's odd cus the older games look better during split screen with graphics and frame rate and yet this one tones down graphics significantly to the point that it's ugly pixelated blurry mess and it still runs at low fps
I beat it two weeks ago and I seriously enjoyed it. It was a bit on the easier side but had a blast with it nonetheless. The one level that truly had me almost throwing the Switch across the room was the tornado one at the very last stage.
@brandonizaguirre2963
You can’t really say it’s on the easier side when you didn’t do the EX levels, which is the whole second half of the game
It was concerning this wasn’t in the direct at first. But I’m so glad this is getting great reception! Definitely gonna pick it up
It was in the one before last. I guess they didn't wanna have it be in 2 in a row, but they released a few trailers on both Sega and Nintendo's channels around the time anyway
There was so many points in this game where i was like, NO they did not just do that!
But i had a smile on my face the entire time because it felt like i was playing Monkey Ball 1 & 2 again! They really nailed the level design here and thats really all i could ask for!
you're so real for that
monkey game good...
Im playing it and love it as well, cant see a new monkey ball instalment without the spin dash, it really is that good
I wish they would fix these unity stock camera settings though. It would look so much better if they interpolate the framerate...
One thing of note about this game if weird frame pacing bothers you is that the physics update at 50hz which means that when playing, the camera moves inconsistently from the framerate.
Basically every 6th frame the camera will not move which can make it seem like the framerate is unstable.
Most people won’t notice it, personally I have to really pay attention to notice. Just something worth knowing if you are sensitive to that sort of thing
Has there been any feedback from Sega on a fix?
I, too, watch Digital Foundry.
The devs should fix it but I'm skeptical most people will notice during play.
I think the mini games being derivative of the main gameplay probably helped cut down development time so they wouldn't spend a ton of resources trying to make new games that end up not feeling good at all (Banana Mania Monkey Target). I think they're fine for what they are and I like the bomb tag one the most. The lower fps sucks but at least the waiting room sorta helps you adjust to it.
My biggest complaint with this game is the SFX. The lack of any major impacts kinda throws me off when you bump into a wall or fall onto the stage. They just make the ball feel weightless. If they used the original SFX from 1&2 or tried to do create similar, this would've made the game way better.
Was not expecting a good monkey ball game in 2024! Haven't touched it since Blitz
I still wish we'd just get 1&2 remastered
So I recently tried out this channel and I think you really mis-advertised it. I was under impression this channel is gonna be like, Let's Plays/stream VODs. If I knew this is more of scripted/talking AntDude content (in fact it being pretty much reviews, like it used to be on the main channel) I would've checked it out way sooner.
Really hope the game hits other consoles and Steam. They can easily prolong this game's MP by making it crossplay when that happens cuz it just seems like a missed opportunity
I haven't played the game, but through watching streams of it Rose Garden's ost is such a banger.
I've played this game since it came out and you know what I did. I wanted to 100% it. After clearing all of the levels of World 18 or 8X. Once I entered world 19. I started to realize that I couldn't complete that world and beat all of it's missions. I finished 8 of them but could never beat 2 of them. So I gave up and cleared the world. Then with the final world 10X... I only cleared one of the levels.
All I can say is my goodness the levels get extremely hard. But it was fun never the less.
it's also my goty
what 😭😭
why did this get reuploaded?
Fixed a minor issue that snuck in!
I definitely want to pick this one up as a physical copy. I'll probably wait a little until it goes on sale though.
Do you like cats? Try Little Kitty Big City and see if that’s your game of the year. Lol good shit.
Damn, you and Scott with banana splitz
This video prompted me to buy this game, loving it!
You need to add super monkey ball logo to your main channel banner now
This is my Super Monkey Ball 3
My only major critique is them daring to put pants on AiAi.
But in all seriousness, yeah its big time fun. Spindash is very fun, feels like monkey neuron activation whenever i snipe the goal with it. The story mode is like... Awesome. For monkey ball. Even 2, yeah it had a proper one but it didn't take long to get stupid pretty quick and not in the good way. But this one is to the point, but cute and fun new characters. Of course Palette is a highlight but YanYan is still best thing in Monkey Ball existence. I love more Sega characters but the way dlc is being handled is funky. They didnt need to do that. Also online is pretty enjoyable. Havent put a ton of time but what ive played, i liked going a few rounds.
#freethetush.
That's a funny way to spell Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door.
This game was great
Digital Foundry said it had a game breaking frame rate issue.
Why wouldn't they put this on steam
I was on edge on getting this game at first but after seeing this I think im going to give it a try
I genuinely really really love the soundtrack of this game, but I don't think it fits monkey ball very well which is my only complaint. The super high energy of it kind of gets tiring on the ears after however many fall-outs, where as in the older games, the music never got annoying. I hope they keep the kind of catchiness of new monkey ball but the laid back jungle style of the old ones in the next game. Or maybe even something new entirely.
Good video, this is also my goty so far. I dont think the title did it any favors for visibility, many think this is Mania...
Couldn't decide on whether I wanted this game or not and after seeing it in action I like what I see. I'll be buying it next week. I don't think any Monkey Ball game will beat the original 2 games on Gamecube though which I've been playing since launch.
We never got a official Super Monkey Ball 3 😭
We literally just did and it's this game
No lol It’s seriously lacking compared to them . This ain’t a fun party game like the first 2. Where’s Challenge mode?
This is COMPLETELY unrelated to Super Monkey Ball, but Antdude, you may or may not be getting a Invite to a Pikmin 2 Versus Mode Tournament hosted by Press A! (you still may not, but i think it is possible) it could be a very fun video depending on how you do…if you’re invited. If you don’t see this…oh well i tried
I got some crazy skips in this game, it was a blast. If it was possible to skip everything, I skipped everything. Even if it took hundreds of attempts.
Damn, sounds like I need to get back on the single player content. I brought it to my friend's house and the presence of a battle pass, and the lack of the classic mini games left kind of a bad taste in the mouth.
(Seriously, how have they not had a version of Monkey Target with controls that WORK since the Gamecube??)
But yeah, some of those single player levels look fantastic!
1:55 "All the content from 1 and 2 and Deluxe"
So Deluxe?
My favorite game of the year is like a dragon infinite wealth which funny enough was made by the same studio
Why was the original video deleted?
Game of the year? Man clearly hasn’t played Animal Well 😏
I hope they fix the unity stutter camera issue
I don't like the help prompt, the story is too kiddy. I wish we could have the originals soundtrack. Some level designs screw with the camera I can't see where I'm going. I finished the main adventure the ex stages are more fun although it's getting difficult. Some of the levels are a bit big I prefer to be able to see the goal. It's an 8 for me.
are you able to play all of the mini games in single player??
are you gonna get the sega pass dlc? I already got it and trying to see if I should wait for the characters and stuff to come before I play the game or still play the game
Never seen this video before
Whats this scot the woz ahh framing
If I haven’t played any game in the series, is it recommended more to play this one or mania?
Mania all the way. It contains far superior levels
What in sam hell
Hope he play the starfy games nso
I heard the people who absolutely love these games, so I tried playing deluxe on ps2, but it's not for me, on the second level I'm already done with it hahahah (also, maybe playing with a cheap controller has something to do with it, bc of the imprecise analogs lol)
I'm so glad someone feels the same way as me, this game is wonderful. I'm one of those people who prefers 1 and 2 on GameCube to Banana Mania, as the levels didn't feel as fun for me with the new physics. These new levels though, holy shit. It's an evolution on Monkey Ball 1 and 2 built to fit the modern physics. The cutscenes are amazing as well for the story mode, but yeah overall easily one of the best Monkey Ball games, definitely my GOTY right now to lmao, it's so much fun...
EDIT: Love the level aesthetics as well, this series never fails to deliver unique themes you wouldn't find anywhere else. They look really nice too. And the missions add great replay value. If you own a Switch and haven't played this game yet, pick it up it's worth it...
A game advertising ridiculous dlc before launch is not goty
So sad to see one of my favorite franchises putting in $25 DLC passes.
Maybe dead franchises should stay dead. We’ll always have the originals that we love.
You can’t be serious. This game is Banana Blitz all over again. It’s a mess, the sound mixing is awful, the cutscenes are unbearable, and the courses are far too easy.
The physics are still not good
And this game is infinitely worse than monkey ball 1 and 2
To bad the physics are still awful compared to the original 2
5:23 Do the monkeys at least talk in monkey language? It would be awkward if they are just silent. Also the monkey language they talked in in Super Monkey Ball 2 was really cute and I want to hear more of it.
aint no way this is your game of the year bro, AINT NO WAY
Games this year are so bad a Mobkey Ball game can be someones GOTY.....