
Sega Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Sega's attempt to resurrect the degenerating Super Monkey Ball franchise with more poor monkeys in a ball ends up falling flat on its face.
Pros
- Monkeys, mini-games
Cons
- Hollow storyline, tedious puzzle levels, control system
Bottom Line
Sega should seriously consider monkeying around with the formula because it's starting to feel incredibly stale.
-
Price
$ 99.95 (AUD)
Monkeys running around in clear plastic balls: sounds like the recipe for a good time, doesn't it? And it was — five years ago. But even the most wonderful ideas can be beaten like a dead horse, and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is starting to look like a pony that's gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson in his prime.
Although the Wii title offers promising improvements, Sega's brave stab at a new spin-off falls flat in the end with a hollow storyline, repetitive bouncy music, and tedious puzzle levels that cause banana-splitting headaches.
Banana Blitz has eight known worlds that consist of eight stages each. Two new characters, Yanyan and Doctor, join the returning characters Aiai, Meemee, Gongon, and Baby. Each character has unique stat abilities that are categorised by Acceleration, Speed, Jump, Weight, and Size of Ball. Aiai is the all around average character and the one I find easiest to control. Doctor has the best acceleration but bad jump ability while Yanyan can jump well but has average stats for everything else. Gongon is the fastest and heaviest but has the worst jump while Baby is lightest and slowest but has good jump and acceleration. Finally, Meemee has good jump but below average speed.
The simple goal of the game is to collect bananas that are taken by the bosses. Every stage is an obstacle course loaded with jumps, twists, and turns. Your monkey rolls through the stages in response to the tilt of your controller. For example, the degree of forward tilt influences forward acceleration, while backward tilt decelerates the ball.
However, because of the sensitivity of the Wii controller, the levels are very frustrating to complete. One wrong flick or tilt and your unlucky monkey will fall off the course and die. Perhaps this is why the game allows you to redo each stage an unlimited number of times. I had to watch my unlucky monkey plummet to its death again and again, which was strangely unsettling, and having to endlessly endure the gratingly bouncy soundtrack only escalated my annoyance. After a while, I began to wonder whether subjecting myself to such frustration for the sake of winning a few bananas was worth it. As for graphics, the colourful, cutesy artwork is classic Super Monkey Ball style, but not much improvement can be seen between this Wii version and its GameCube relatives.
Honestly, the only thing worthwhile about Banana Blitz is its 50 mini-games. Up to four players can compete in a variety of activities such as Whac-a-Mole, where you use your controller like a hammer to bop moles, Ring Toss, which requires you to throw rings at targets, Alien Attack, where you use your nunchuck and controller to fly a hovercraft, and Paper Sumo Fighter, in which you use your controller to push your paper fighter in the direction you want. Unlike the single-player experience, the sensitivity of the Wii controller is precise, making the speed, strength, and accuracy of your movements essential for succeeding in the games.
It's a good thing Banana Blitz was a Wii launch title because the novelty of the Wii controls should help convince gamers to pick it up. And the mini-games alone warrant a look, provided you have the controllers and the friends to take full advantage of it.
Brand Post

Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Miofive 4K Dash Cam review: This friendly road watcher is ‘here for you!’
- 2 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 3 Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A review: This 4K monitor plays nice with consoles
- 4 Firewalla Gold review: Powerful home network security in a tiny box
- 5 Acer Aspire 5 review: An affordable laptop that’s enjoyable to use
Latest News Articles
- This real-life “aimbot” uses a physical mouse to cheat at shooting games
- Bethesda’s classic Elder Scrolls games arrive on Steam—for free
- We tested 22 different RPGs on the Steam Deck
- Steam Deck’s first major update adds a lock screen, Windows 11 support
- Sony is getting serious about bringing more PlayStation games to the PC
Resources
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers

Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world

Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles

PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D

The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G

Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65

This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76

It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- 25 Essential Party Games On PC And Console To Play With Family And Friends
- Mesh Wi-Fi vs Traditional Routers: Which is better?
- Which flagship TV is best? Sony 4K HDR Bravia 2016 versus LG 4K HDR OLED 2016
- 10 Blu-ray movies / Best looking Blu-ray movies