Sega Reveals Development Of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD Is 70% Complete

It's mostly just an HD port right? Not a remake? I imagine that's a lot less work.

And we're all 100% wishing it was 1 or 2.

I never owned Banana Blitz I suppose now is as good as time as ever to pick it up, plus I assume motion controls are not required.

70% is cutting it close, given the October release date. There's still beta testing and cart/cd production times to consider. Then again, this is a port, so it easier than making a brand new game altogether...

So, if it has to go gold by mid September to make production in time, that’s 2 months left of development for final 30%. Which means roughly 1/3 of the game in 2 months, or 6 months for the entire game.

6 months seems right for a simple HD remastered port.

I mean they did release the percentage and exact date at the same time so its obviously for a reason right? If not, the math department needs to be fired.

Well, I assume most of the development was already complete in 2006...

Wait, why would they say that?
Shouldn't it be almost totally ready or something by now if they're gonna go for that date?

@BitLounger While I wouldn't sneeze at a 1+2 remake, I'm actually looking forward to Banana Blitz HD.

The original version was pretty good, but mainly held back by the forced tilt controls. Which should hopefully be fixed this time around.

I'm looking forward to this game. Hope we see 1 and 2 further down the trail, although I wouldn't say no to M2 working their magic on a Sega Ages Monkey Ball conversion either.

Im so looking foward to this one!!
Its insane finally a new monky ball

If it was SMB1 it would e an instant purchase. Blitz is probably gonna be way down my list with the other games available at that time. Such a pity

Well stop at 70% and do Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 100%

@BitLounger I really loved SMB on GameCube and almost opened the Master difficulty.
I wanted to play SMB2 a lot, but never saw it in the stores at that time.
Then I played the series on 3DS and it was so boring and so easy that I did not enjoy it at all...
So I am not sure that Blitz is better than 1 or 2

and while i'm waiting for Grandia HD remaster...... Monkey Ball HD will be even earlier at this rate...sigh. but good for fans

Ahhh, Sega, once the powerful great game maker of the 80's and 90's...now relegated to Monkey Ball and Sonic....as a Sega fan boy. It's tough. I have a glimmer of hope though....through Sega Ages.

@Joe-b They should focus on Skies of Arcadia HD. Just saying... or Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 and 2. Give offline option as Gamecube version. Less load times and higher resolution than Gamecube... online part for people who have Nitnendo subscription. I hope it would also made it to steam... it will do very well

Is Banana Blitz as challenging as 1&2? I avoided BananaBlitz back in the day but the challenge in 1&2 (particularly 1) is deliciously hard and spot on.

@DenDen
Same! I liked the first one but I'm excited to try the rest of the series!

@Alucard83 I'd love to see that game. It was tough on Sega. Remember Nintendo played dirty in the 80s with the third-party license lockups, the monopoly. So Sega had to rely on thier team of programmers to to make games that weren't all necessarily arcade games. I'd say they did a great job, however, if there was no Monopoly the Master System was much more powerful than the NES and it would have fared a lot better.

I see so many whining about Blitz and wishing for 1-2 instead. Yet none of you have taken a few seconds to actually explain why that is.

Is it because of the content in 1-2 having more quality?
Or is it only because of gyro controls ruining the experience in Blitz? If that is the case it could still be a great game on Switch.

For the record I have 1-2 on Gamecube myself and thought they were both great games. I have no idea about Blitz as I wasn't fond of the Wii. I thought the whole gyro controls gimmick sucked banana so hard.

If they just import the party games from SMB 1 & 2 then everything will be great.

Can't wait to play with those monkey's balls. Their bananas too?

If Banana Blitz is delayed for any reason, I'm totally cool with that. Luigi's Mansion 3 is coming two days after, and my wallet is going to struggle.

@BitLounger
A compilation of the first two games would have been something I'd buy on day one. Banana Blitz was still fun, but I found that the difficulty curve was quite unbalanced, sometimes going from a dead easy level (to me anyways) to one that's hard as nails.

I don't know if it was the same on other platforms (played it on the Vita), but like I said, I felt it was not as well balanced in terms of difficulty, than the first two ones, which featured progressively difficult levels that felt harder as you go, not just one really difficult level after a dead easy one.

No Gamecube-style octagonal joystick gate, no buy.

It's that little difference that makes the Gamecube versions of 1 and 2 such a joy, and all the other SMB titles so underwhelming.

@BitLounger Im not, this was a good decision imo.

Monkey Billiards, or not buying!!

@Realnoize The Vita one is actually a different game. It's easy to mix them up though since they have very similar titles: Banana Blitz vs Banana Splitz.

@Orpheus79V
Oh thanks for the info... somehow, I never noticed this....
Silly me.

Must be that "getting old" thing people are talking about....

Can we all agree not to call Monkey Ball games SMB and SMB2? Even in the context of this article I can't disassociate "SMB" with Super Mario Bros.

@Aneira Motion controls did ruin it and many of the minigames sucked, and 1 and 2 were in my opinion higher quality games and just better in all regards. I'll still give this a second chance since compared to other entries in the series Banana Blitz isn't that bad. At least it's not Adventure.