When Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble arrives on Nintendo Switch later this month, players will be able to select fan favorite characters like AiAi MeeMee, and GonGon. The game’s playable lineup will expand sometime in 2024, with the addition of four favorites from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise: Knuckles, Tails, Amy, and the blue blur himself. The four characters will be available in multiple ways: as individual DLC, as part of the Sega Pass (priced at $24.99), or included in the game’s digital deluxe edition (priced at $69.99).
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A trailer featuring Sonic and friends in Banana Rumble can be found below.
Banana Rumble Guest Characters
The Sonic characters will be playable in Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble‘s Adventure and Battle modes. When a player selects one of them, all of the bananas will switch to Gold Rings. We saw pretty much the exact same thing with Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania a few years ago, but that game only offered Sonic and Tails as playable characters, and not Knuckles or Amy. However, this time around, Sega has teased that the characters will each have “unique stats to help them on the courses.”
At this time, the Sonic characters are the only guests that have been confirmed for Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, but it’s possible that could change. 2021’s Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania featured a plethora of guests from various Sega franchises, including Yakuza‘s Kazuma Kiryu, Beat from Jet Set Radio, and more. Players could even get DLC based on Sega’s various systems, including the Game Gear, Saturn, and Dreamcast. It would be great to see some of that content come back in this new game, especially since Banana Rumble‘s multiplayer Battle modes will feature up to 16 players online. Offering more options would help the characters stand out more.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Release Date
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is set to release June 25th, exclusively on Nintendo Switch. From everything Sega has said so far, the game seems to be wholly exclusive, as opposed to a timed exclusive. The Super Monkey Ball series has a long history on Nintendo systems, with many games initially releasing on GameCube or Wii, and arriving on other platforms much further down the line. Basically, there is precedent for the series eventually being ported elsewhere, but until we hear something from Sega, users of other platforms will have to stick with Banana Mania.
Are you excited for Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble? Do you plan on snagging the Sonic DLC? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
