With the Super Monkey Ball franchise celebrating 20 years since its launch, SEGA is returning to its classic roots. Finally remastering the first Super Monkey Ball titles, SEGA is pulling out all the stops. Setting up Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania with iconic stages from all three original Monkey Ball titles is perfect for its 20th anniversary. SEGA is certainly making the titles feel true to the original, with all classic characters, 300 stages, and four-player co-op returning. The time is certainly right to pull on nostalgic heartstrings for certain SEGA properties. The series being no stranger to crossovers with Sonic the Hedgehog has just appeared in the previous Monkey Ball game. Today, SEGA showcased the newest cameo character for Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania as Beat from Jet Set Radio joining the roster.
Who is Jet Set Radios’ Beat?
Beat originally appeared in Jet Set Radio on the Dreamcast. Releasing just a year before Super Monkey Ball on GameCube, the title received high praise. Its portrayal of extreme street sports amongst young inline skaters was captivating. The title eventually received a 2002 sequel, Jet Set Radio Future, on the original Xbox. Yet, while the series has excellent graffiti tagging and a unique inline skating movement and trick system. The original also saw a re-release as Jet Set Radio HD on Xbox 360 and PS3.
The HD version also made it to Smartphones but has largely been unavailable since 2015. Unfortunately, that’s the last time the series has been available to purchase outside of Steam on PC. SEGA has only featured the series and its characters as cameos since. While it is another cameo appearance, Jet Set Radio is at least acknowledged by SEGA in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania launching October 5.
