Youtuber Nick Robinson has supposedly confirmed the existence of a new Super Monkey Ball game.
Robinson is a huge fan of the series and has extensively documented and critiqued it on his channel. In an interview with Bryan Matt, the announcer of the original game, he stated that he did indeed do voice acting work for the original Super Monkey Ball. Matt was incredibly difficult to find, as he was not included in the game’s credits and since he was living in Japan.
In a follow-up video interview, Matt disclosed as much information as he could without violating his NDA contract. All of the info were voice lines such as,
“Rank one, rank two, rank three, goal”, etc. But there were also lines such as “Advanced level one” and”Enhanced level one”. The former indicates the return of a difficulty mode from the original, but the latter is most likely a new difficulty entirely. This could be above the hardest difficulty, Master Mode, or a deviation of previous difficulties. He also talks about point systems measured in “Coins” and “Gigabytes” where the player “risks” them-possibly for another chance at a level. Another voiced line he mentions was, “Oh, sad emoji”. Along with the gigabyte currency, the modern digital age has most likely shaped the design choices of the game.
Matt also states recorded lines for a “Retro” Mode. Nick Robinson theorized in his video that this could mean the return of stages from Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2. He also states that this could mean Sega is tapping into the feelings of fans who want a return to the classic era of the series. This lines up with a Twitter poll that asked what new entry people wanted to see. While a new game was the clear winner, remakes of the first two games were a very close second.
もし次にモンキーボールを作るなら・・・？
What if we make a monkey ball next……?#monkeyball #セガ #sega
— モンキーボール 公式／Super Monkey Ball Official JP (@SMB_JP) September 26, 2019
Lastly. Japanese characters on Matt’s script spell out the Japanese characters, “re”, “to, and “ro”. Along with the possibly leaked “Retro” mode, this could mean the next Super Monkey Ball game is Super Monkey Ball Retro rather than 3.
You can check out Robinson’s extensive video for more info down below.
