Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania releases in just less than a month. Leading up to its launch developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and publisher SEGA have been sharing tons of tidbits on the party platformer, including the seemingly countless crossover characters that will be added to this newest Super Monkey Ball title. The new characters are not the only shakeup, however, as new game modes and feature changes are coming to Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania as well. Most recently the team behind the game informed fans that the way lives will be handled in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania will be very different compared to how it was in the past.

In previous Super Monkey Ball games, players had a limited amount of lives, which added to the pressure for each level. The games always had an arcade design and feel, and the live system helped with that general vibe. However, according to a tweet from the official Super Monkey Ball Twitter page, the live system is no more, which some fans appear to be a bit up in arms about.

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The @SuperMonkeyBall Twitter account recently shared that it will be getting rid of the lives system in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania in an attempt to make things less frustrating overall. The hope is that the game will be more inviting to newcomers. Even though the Super Monkey Ball games have always been great party titles, they have also been very challenging, as well.

Players will still be able to collect bananas, which in the past were important in giving players more lives, but now they will provide "a sense of accomplishment" and even "digital potassium" according to the tweet. The follow-up information did say that the bananas will likely be used for unlocking things in the future, but specificity on what that means will come in time. Last week Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and SEGA shared information about a new Dark Banana mode in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania that will be unlocked through unknown means, that could be by collecting said standard bananas, for example.

There are fans in the Twitter comments that are not happy about the changes to the way lives are handed in this upcoming Super Monkey Ball game. The tense pressure of possibly running out of lives during tricky levels was part of the enjoyment for many enthusiasts of the franchise. On one end, it is exciting to see Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania becoming the Smash Ultimate of the series, but from another perspective, it is a bit disappointing to fans to see some of the game stray too far from its actual DNA. The hope is that the final product still feels like Super Monkey Ball for fans of the series while also bringing in new players as well.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania releases October 5, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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