Sega and Sanrio have teamed up and announced that Hello Kitty herself will feature as a playable character in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania. Hello Kitty will be available as premium DLC across all platforms when Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania launches on October 5, 2021.
Hello Kitty isn’t the first non-simian to join the cast of characters in this latest Super Monkey Ball title. Also joining the cast are Morgana for Persona 5, Beat from Jet Set Radio, Kiryu from Yakuza and, of course, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mile “Tails” Prower.
Sega has announced that Hello Kitty is one of the final members to join the monkey gang, hinting that there are more playable characters to announce. Who else could you see being stuffed into a plastic hamster ball and forced to collect gigantic bananas for some all-seeing, invisible overlord?
Pikachu? He’s probably used to it.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is the latest game in the “monkeys-in-balls-collecting-bananas-on-a-tilting-level” series. As a celebration of the series’ 20th anniversary, it features recreations of all 300 stages from Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. There’s also a story mode and 12 multiplayer party games.
In addition, some new modes have been added to Banana Mania including Golden Banana, Reverse Mode and Dark Banana. Couch co-op play is available as well as a photo mode for when you just have to get that perfect shot of a monkey colliding with an enormous piece of fruit.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania will be available for PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X. Xbox Smart Delivery allows for players to purchase it on either generation of Xbox and play it across both. Players who purchase on PS4 are able to play the PS5 version for free.