It’s been several years since the innovative platformer franchise Super Monkey Ball had a new entry.
The series, which features monkeys encased in spheres completing obstacle courses and collecting bananas, struggled following the less-than-successful release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz for the PlayStation Vita in 2012, and 2014’s mobile entry Super Monkey Ball Bounce was criticized as a derivative copy of Peggle and other pachinko-inspired games. While 2006’s Banana Blitz was remade in 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, fans were not hopeful that a new entry in the series would be coming anytime soon.
However, it seems that exciting news for everyone’s favorite rolling monkeys might be on the horizon. Voice actor Brian Matthew Uhl, who voiced the Announcer in the Super Monkey Ball series until 2006, recently posted a picture on Instagram featuring himself playing a Super Monkey Ball title on a borrowed Nintendo Switch console. The caption attached to the image read:
“September will be amazing for what’s to come.”
Uhl, who remains a major fan of the series even after retiring as the Announcer, also tagged both Nintendo and Super Monkey Ball developer Sega in the post. Recently, Sega expressed an interest in “aggressively” developing more ports of existing titles following the success of Persona 4 Golden’s Steam release. It is possible that this announcement could be either a new game in the series or a re-release of a previous Super Monkey Ball title.
Fans of the franchise are hopeful that the news Uhl teased might come at Tokyo Game Show, where Sega is scheduled to present. The Japan-based conference, which will be held digitally due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, will take place from Thursday, September 24 to Sunday, September 27. Panels and presentations, including Sega’s, will be available to watch online.
