The newYakuzalooks wild
Super Monkey Ball Banana Maniais shaping up to be quite the Sega crossover. Not only is there theMonkey Ballcrew and some familiar Sega mascots, but today,Sega confirmedthat the Dragon of Dojima himself will be rolling into the lineup.
Kazuma Kiryu of theYakuzaseries will be a playable character in the upcomingSuper Monkey Ball Banana Mania. This tiny version of the legendary yakuza doesn’t just have his regular attire, but it also converts all of the bananas in the level into Staminan X pickups.
Honestly, this rules. TheYakuzaseries has always struck a nice balance between seriousness and silliness, and letting Kiryu roll into the tilting, physics-laden world ofSuper Monkey Ballsuits him well. I could absolutely see him getting involved in some kind ofzorbingminigame in aYakuzagame. It would only get better if Majima could pop up at random times to knock Kiryu off the stage.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Maniais a “definitive” remaster of the first threeSuper Monkey Ballgames. But it’s not just a repackaging of games; it’s also bringing in some other cameos alongside Kiryu, likeSonic and TailsfromSonic the Hedgehog. Both characters will be free and part of the game, unlockable through normal gameplay, as will Kazuma Kiryu according to the YouTube trailer description.
I’ve still got my copy ofSuper Monkey Ball 2for the GameCube that I find time to bounce back into now and again, but having the collection on a single platform will be nice. I’ve got many fond memories of bouncing and rolling my way through these escalating, challenging levels, and it’ll be nice to do so again on a modern platform.
There’s no want for platforms to pick from either, asSuper Monkey Ball Banana Maniawill arrive on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on Jul 05, 2025.
