Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania
Also known as: Tabegoro! Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 Remake (JP), Peopegteu! Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 Remake (KR) Developer: Ryu ga Gotoku Studio Publisher: Sega Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Windows, Amazon Luna Released internationally: October 5, 2021 Released in JP: October 7, 2021 (Switch/PS4/PS5/Windows) Released in US: May 2, 2022 (Luna) This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is an enhanced remake of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe made to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary with newly-recorded music, more guest characters (including Beat, Kiryu, Morgana and the ability to play as a Game Gear, a Sega Saturn or a Dreamcast respectively) and the Banana Fritters (yes, the voice acting trio that recorded the theme song for the previous game) voicing the monkeys.

Notably, this was the last game in the Super Monkey Ball series to have series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi involved before he left Sega shortly after the game's release.

Unused Levels

SMB2 Original Challenge Mode Variants

Hidden among the game's stage files are unused variants of the stages Launchers, Arthropod, Soft Cream, and Air Hockey. These are the original, unedited versions of these stages using their Challenge Mode background themes. Since the Story Mode variants of these stages are used in Original Stage Mode, these variants cannot be seen through normal gameplay, but still exist in the game files. Based on the way the Stage IDs are formatted, it's implied that these stages would have been the Challenge Mode variants that would have been in the final game before the decision was made to adjust their difficulty.

Accessing these stages via hacking reveals that these stages are all entirely functional, save for Air Hockey, which has erroneous collision for the "puck" cage around the Goal.

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  Launchers. Named interally as stage_smb2_pot_2246.

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  Arthropod. Named interally as stage_smb2_pot_2250.

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  Soft Cream. Named interally as stage_smb2_lava_2292.

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  Air Hockey. Named interally as stage_smb2_whale_2310.

(Source: Dead Line)

Unused Sounds

Jam & Jet Voicelines

Jam & Jet, from Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll and Super Monkey Ball 3D respectively, make their playable debut in Banana Mania's Main Game. Despite the fact that they only appear in the Main Game, their voice banks contain a hefty amount of voice acting that is never heard anywhere in the game, possibly implying that they may have been planned as playable in Party Games at some point in development. Included in this bank are alternate takes for their Goal voicelines, as well as Start voicelines that should've triggered whenever they spawn into a stage. These do not play in-game for some reason.

Jam

continue_select
continue_unselect
gakkari
goal
hanauta
happy
happy_long
start
timeover
yabai_long

Jet

continue_select
continue_unselect
goal
hanauta
happy
happy_long
start
yabai_long

Main Game Announcer

There are a number of voice lines from the in-game announcer that did not end up getting used in the final game, including a line for a Continue screen that goes unused since the Main Game does not use a life system.

Continue?
Goaaal!
New Best Record!
Super Monkey Ball: 1 & 2 Remake!
Stage Clear!
World Clear!

Leftover Announcer Clips

Among the clips of the new announcer for Banana Mania, there appear to be clips of other announcers from previous entries in the Monkey Ball series, taken directly from their respective titles. Presumably used as placeholders.

Super Monkey Ball 1/2 Announcer

First match!
Second match!
Third match!
Break Ace!
Cannon Shot!
Combination Shot!
Final Match!
Foul!
Free Ball!
Free Drop!

Multiple clips of the Super Monkey Ball announcer found in the Monkey Billiards sound bank. There appear to be no other instances of SMB1/2 announcer leftovers outside of this party game.

Banana Blitz Announcer

First! Second! Third! Fourth! Fifth! Sixth! Seventh! Eighth!
Eleven! Twelve! Thirteen! Fourteen! Fifteen! Sixteen! Seventeen! Eighteen! Nineteen! Twenty!

Multiple clips of the Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz announcer saying placement rankings and counting from 11 to 20. Found among the common announcer lines.

Step & Roll Announcer

World Complete!

A sole clip of the announcer from Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll. Found among the common announcer lines.

Banana Blitz HD Leftovers

Found among common sound effects for the game are a handful of clips from Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD. The absence of boss battles means that the boss damage sound effect is not used, while the latter two were triggered when colliding with bumpers and other terrain as Baby Robo in the Main Game. These sound effects no longer trigger when playing Baby Robo.

monky_attack_hit
babyrobo_bound
babyrobo_bumper

(Source: Dead Line)

Unused Graphics

Most of the unused content in this game consists of leftovers from past entries in the series, namely from Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (the game whose engine was used as a base for this game), and Super Monkey Ball 1/2/Deluxe.

Menu Preview Placeholder Graphic

Present among the menu preview icons is a placeholder icon named t_tmb_kari.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

DX Challenge/Practice Mode Placeholders

Interestingly, 2 placeholder thumbnails exist for what appear to be DX-centric modes. These files named t_tmb_mode_dx and t_tmb_mode_dx_practice imply that the stages from Super Monkey Ball Deluxe were to instead have their own Challenge Mode and Practice Mode categories, before it was decided to include them as a single category within Special Mode. These files use the same placeholder thumbnail seen above.

Banana Blitz HD Goal Graphic

A Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD leftover present among assets used for the View Stage feature in the main game.

AiAi's Backpack Texture

A texture for AiAi's backpack from Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD can be found among AiAi's textures. This goes unused as AiAi's design in Banana Mania was updated, omitting the backpack.

Volcanic Magma Bumper Texture

A Super Monkey Ball 2 leftover present among stage textures for the Volcanic Magma theme. Since environment-themed Goals and bumpers are no longer present in Banana Mania, this texture is left unused.

SMB1 Normal 14 - Stoppers Jamabar Texture

A texture from Super Monkey Ball previously used on the jamabars in the SMB1 Normal stage, Stoppers. This texture is not present on the jamabars in the Banana Mania.

SMB1 Night Stage Wood Floor Textures

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Various wood floor textures sporting decorative text that reads "MONKEYBALL". Previously used in Super Monkey Ball, these textures are not used in any SMB1 Night stages in Banana Mania.

SMB1 Space Stage Title Texture

The same goes for the SMB1 Space Stage theme.

environment_test

A blurry texture depicting a cityscape at night. Found among stage textures for the SMB1 Space Stage theme. Used in Super Monkey Ball 2 for switches and as a generic reflection map.

SMB1 Water Stage Floor Tile Texture

A checkered shell floor tile previously featured in the Water Stage theme from Super Monkey Ball. All of the SMB1 Water stages in Banana Mania use new floor textures, so this tile pattern is never seen in-game.

(Source: Dead Line)

Unused Text

Challenge Mode Messages

Congratulations on clearing Challenge Mode <challenge_mode_name>!\nBut Super Monkey Ball has just begun!\nTry to clear every course!

Congratulations on clearing Challenge Mode <challenge_mode_name_difficult>!\nIt's no small feat to clear <challenge_mode_name_difficult>!\nKeep going and try to clear all the courses!

Congratulations on clearing Challenge Mode <challenge_mode_final>!\nYou've beaten all the Challenge Mode courses!\nThat's just incredible! Thank you so much for playing this much!\nWe hope you continue to enjoy Super Monkey Ball!

Unused text that cheers the player on as they progress through the game's Challenge Mode difficulties. These likely would have shown up as in-game pop-up messages at the end of a difficulty.

Warp Goal Messages

Cleared with a green goal! You did it!\nYou can skip <arg={0}> stages!

Cleared with a red goal! Amazing!\nYou can skip <arg={0}> stages!

Unused text pertaining to the successful use of Warp Goals in Challenge Mode.

(Source: Dead Line)

Regional Differences

Title Screen

International	Japan

Hello BANANA!!

The game's vocal main theme language changes depending on whether or not you're playing the JP/Asian version of the game. This also applies to the full version of the track hidden as an easter egg on the main menu.

English Version	Japanese Version

(Source: Dead Line)