5/5 ★ – TheHBJK's review of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.

Arguably the best Monkey Ball game and an absolute masterpiece in game design, every single level here is expertly crafted, the different worlds look gorgeous, the music is fantastic and the story is simple, but fun too. I was a little worried for this game considering the focus the trailers had on the multiplayer and the new spin dash ability, but the moment after I beat the first few levels I was convinced that we were back to greatness. The spin dash ability was a risky addition, but after beating the game twice now, I’m honestly not sure if I’d want the next entry to forgo it, it’s an essential part to any speedruns and makes the games already breakneck pace even faster, in the best way possible. The new character stats work better than Blitz and I feel like most characters are viable, I was able to beat the story + 8/10 of the expert worlds with AiAi and my fiancée was able to use Palette for that entire time with no troubles too, the baby is absolutely overpowered but outside of that the balance is pretty solid. I think the thing I love most about this game though, outside of the spin dash and amazing level design, is the fact that once you beat the already amazing story which is 10 worlds long, you unlock 10 extra expert worlds, which is where the game goes from being already fantastic to becoming one of my favourite games of all time. Some of them were a breeze because of my experience with the past games, but some of them were some of the hardest levels in the series, but all of them felt very balanced and fair and made me feel accomplished for beating all of them. I just can’t get over this game, it’s amazing and even after beating the main story twice, I’m still sinking in time to the time attack trials and wanting to beat all my past times. Easily my game of the year for 2024 and I don’t think anything will top it.