Sega has been going all out with Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, this year’s upcoming HD retooling of the original three Super Monkey Ball games. Part of that has been several bonus playable character reveals, pulling from Sega’s long history. The game is also getting a little more contemporary. Dropping in from Sega’s flagship Yakuza series, an adorable Monkey Ballified Kazuma Kiryu is joining the cast.
As you can see in the trailer above, not only does this new iteration of the Dragon of Dojima hilarious, using him also changes the bananas to bottles of Staminan X. The description text on the YouTube listing notes that Kiryu will be “free and unlockable” when Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania launches, which seems to imply he’s just part of the game rather than a download (we’ll update this when more concrete information is available).
Previously, Sega announced a few other guest characters for this celebratory Monkey Ball outing. The obligatory Sonic and Tails will be appearing of course, along with Beat from the Jet Set Radio series. Considering we’re still a few months away from launch, we find ourselves wondering if more guest characters are to come.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is set to launch on October 5, 2021 for PlayStation, Xbox One, Switch and PC. What do you think of this growing roster of non-primate Monkey Ball cameos? Let us know at Prima Games’ Facebook and Twitter feeds.
