Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania vs. Original - SMB1 Master Comparison

Thanks to SEGA for providing me with a code to play Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania ahead of release. I wasn't planning on making a video about this game, but I thought people might be interested in a 2001 vs. 2021 comparison of Super Monkey Ball's most iconic floors.

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I played with the old Aiai model, but kept the new music enabled. A lot of the SMB1 Master floors seemed to have been made easier in this game. For example, M03 has bigger platforms, M05 and M08 are much slower, M09 has much thicker wires and M10 has the goal in a much easier position. The original versions of these floors are available to play, but need to be unlocked first.

Just to be clear, the original game does run at 60fps like Banana Mania. My capture card can only capture at 30fps, which is why it is at 30 in the video. Normally it looks fine, but it's quite noticeable when directly contrasted with 60fps gameplay.

I personally have mixed feelings about this game from what I've played so far. I really like the graphical upgrades and the aesthetic of the game, as well as some of the new game modes such as Dark Banana Mode. Unfortunately, I don't like the feel of the control at all. Diagonal movements do nothing speed-wise, unlike the first game and the camera is absolutely abhorrent. The combination of these two make certain floors way harder than they should be. E18 for example felt impossible to beat without abusing some weird camera movement. Fingers crossed this gets fixed in future patches, otherwise I fear for the future of this game.

Timestamps:
00:00 - M01 Wave Master
01:14 - M02 Fan Master
02:22 - M03 Stamina Master
04:02 - M04 Spring Master
06:02 - M05 Dance Master
06:40 - M06 Roll Master
07:54 - M07 Edge Master
09:01 - M08 Dodge Master
09:41 - M09 Bridge Master
11:38 - M10 Monkey Master