Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz

For the Nintendo Wii game of similar name, see Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz.

Super Monkey Ball:Banana Splitz
Release Date	June 14th, 2012 (JP) October 23rd, 2012 (NA) October 26th, 2012 (EU & AU)
Platform(s)	PlayStation Vita
Publisher(s)	Sega
Genre	Platform, Party

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz (also known as Super Monkey Ball: Tokumori Asobita in Japan) is the tenth mainline installment in the Super Monkey Ball series released for the PlayStation Vita, both physically and digitally on June 14th, 2012 in Japan, and in October of the same year for the rest of the world.

A free demo for the game released two months prior to the Japanese release of the full game, on April 19th, 2012.

Plot

Taking a minimalist approach to its story, the plot of the main game is mentioned solely in the included manual.

_“Doctor has been putting his engineering skills to the test in creating a working time machine. Eager to try out his new invention, his friends joined him as he set out on its maiden voyage all the way back to the age of dinosaurs. Something wasn't right however. Trees and rocks were paper-maché, and dinosaurs moved by clockwork. They seemed to be inside some sort of tin toy. Doctor realised that as it was a toy time machine he'd built, it was a toy world that it had sent them to. Join Doctor and friends in their exciting "once in an eternity" adventure through space and time!_”

The toy theme of the game is apparent with its unlockable characters, and several of the world themes.

Gameplay

This game features two game modes: Monkey Ball and Party Mode. The game also features High Score leaderboards.

Monkey Ball

The central mode of Banana Splitz, Monkey Ball, has the player navigate their monkey through 100 precarious levels using either the Vita's analog stick or motion sensor to control the tilt of the stage. There are four initial player characters to choose from, with four additional 'toy' versions of the characters being unlocked after playing for long enough. This mode is exclusive to solo play.

For the first time in the series, the player is able to control the camera separately from the direction the monkey is travelling in. You can do so with the Vita's right analog stick, but only when the ball is stationary or moving very slowly. This feature would not return until Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania.

Players can also practice individual levels upon reaching them in Challenge Mode, watch up to 16 saved replays of levels, or use the PlayStation Vita camera to automatically generate and save playable custom stages in Edit Mode.

In this game, there is no story mode. Instead, its core game mirrors Super Monkey Ball 2's Challenge Mode, with three central difficulty settings, and a fourth unlockable one. The original difficulties 'Advanced' and 'Expert' have been renamed to 'Normal' and 'Advanced' respectively, but the intended challenge remains the same. Master is unlocked by merely completing Advanced. However, unlike in the older games, there are no Extra stages in the game, even if each individual difficulty is completed without using any continues or losing any lives.

Players are given three continues and three lives for the start. By completing the individual difficulties, the number of continues can be raised up to nine, and finally an unlimited amount, in a similar manner to the original Super Monkey Ball with Play Points. The player earns an extra life for collecting 30 bananas, just like in Super Monkey Ball 3D.

All stages have a 60-second timer, unlike other games in the series where the timer varies between stages. The player's momentum is preserved if the time runs out, allowing them to finish a level after the timer reaches zero, a feature introduced in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz.

Like most of the earlier Super Monkey Ball games, at least one level in every world (except World 6 - Time Paradox) has a warp goal, allowing the player to skip the following level if taken.

Every world has a bonus stage on the 5th level (including World 6 - Master). The scoring system has also changed to adopt a 'chain' system - an ever-increasing bonus is applied for finishing regular stages in a row on the same life without losing on the bonus stages in that streak, a feature introduced in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Many levels also make extensive use of sliding barriers, first seen on Stoppers from Super Monkey Ball.

Stages

For a complete list of stages in this game, see Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz/Stages.

Worlds

• Monkey Island
• Night Island
• Clay Temple
• Block Town
• Lava Island
• Foggy Temple
• Snow Town
• Cardboard West
• Space Wars
• Time Paradox

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Party Mode

This mode, playable with up to four players, features eight mini-games. Players can choose from eight playable characters - comprised of the four original Monkey Ball characters, and the four new characters introduced in Banana Blitz, Step & Roll and 3D respectively - and play either using an ad-hoc or online connection, or by sharing an individual Vita system.

Party Games

• Monkey Target
• Monkey Bingo
• Monkey Bowling
• Monkey Rodeo
• Number Ball
• Battle Billiards
• Pixie Hunt
• Love Maze

Characters

AiAi - "A popular monkey who loves bananas more than anything else, and thinks about them constantly as he enjoys his carefree life. There's no adventure he won't embark on, and no obstacle he can't overcome, if bananas are involved."

MeeMee - "Has a very down to earth personality compared to AiAi. She loves AiAi with all her heart, but feels somewhat frustrated that he spends so much time thinking about bananas. Always wanting to look her best, she decorates her hair with a fragrant flower."

Baby - "AiAi and MeeMee's baby, from the future. He's a little spoilt and temperamental, crying at the slightest provocation. Once he gets going, only MeeMee can stop the tears."

GonGon - "A long time ago he was a very rough and tumble ape and considered himself and AiAi to be rivals, but now the two of them are very close friends. He trains hard every day to be the strongest of the monkeys."

The following characters are exclusive to Monkey Ball:

Tin AiAi - "An AiAi made out of tin."

Block MeeMee - "A MeeMee built out of blocks."

Cardboard Baby - "Baby, in cardboard form."

Clay GonGon - "A GonGon that’s sculpted out of clay."

The following characters are exclusive to Party Mode:

YanYan - "A naughty young girl who moved into AiAi's neighborhood. She's completely fearless, having learned Eight Monkey Fist - the strongest martial art in the monkey world - from her father. She was taken with AiAi the first time she laid eyes on him, and this causes her to occasionally embarasses^[sic] herself."

Doctor - "A mysterious old monkey that lives on the coast of Monkey Island. Though his real name remains unknown (possibly even to himself), he's very clever and has produced many inventions for the benefit of monkey-kind, hence the affectionate nickname "Doctor"."

Jam - "A cheerful and energetic guy who is mad about sports. He is a little scatterbrained, but is always willing to get behind AiAi in anything he does."

Jet - "A kung-fu master on a trip around the world. In a moment of enlightenment, he declared AiAi his rival the moment they first met. His stubborn refusal to lose means he can be quite mean at times, but at heart he's a romanticist with a keen taste for bananas. This side of his character must never be spoken of."

Animations

• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Main Game Victory Animations
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Podium Animations

Reception

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz received mixed reception upon release. Its current Metacritic average is 66/100, based on 31 reviews. Critics praised the game's level design, challenging difficulty, Love Maze game, and similarity to the earlier titles of the series, but criticized the underdeveloped level-editor, mediocre control scheme, low degree of polish, and some lack-lustre party games.

Gallery

Main article: Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz/Gallery

Videos

Super Monkey Ball PS VITA - Announcement Trailer

Trivia

• This game's title is a pun on the Wii game Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz.
• The game was originally planned for release in summer 2012, but it was delayed outside of Japan.
• The manual includes a typo with YanYan's description: "[...] and this causes her to occasionally embarasses herself."
• The non-Japanese versions of this game received an E-rating from ESRB, a 3+ rating from PEGI and a G-classification from OLFC. The game's Japanese release however, contained a code to download a level based around Japanese super model Yukie Kawamura, referred to as an "adult level" by Sega. This is why the Japanese version received a C(15+)-rating from CERO.