MORE THAN MONKEYS
WHICH CHARACTERS ARE GUEST STARRING IN THE NEW GAME?
» [PC] Some characters are free to play (Sonic and Tails are unlockable, for instance), while others will be available as paid DLC.
■ You may remember that Sonic The Hedgehog joined the monkeys in Banana Blitz HD (which memorably changed the bananas to gold rings when you played as him). Well the spiky blue one returns in Banana Mania, only this time he’s joined by sidekick Tails and a bunch of new characters. “There are a lot of appealing characters at Sega, so I wanted as many to appear as possible,” says Shirosaki. “We had Sonic join the previous title and he was extremely popular, so we decided to have Tails join in this time. We also have Beat from Jet Set Radio, which still has a large fanbase. And as the creator of this series, Toshihiro Nagoshi, is the same as the Yakuza series, we decided to have Kazuma Kiryu join in as well. This time we were also able to collaborate with characters from other companies in the form of DLC, so you’ll be able to play as Morgana from Persona 5, Suezo from Monster Rancher, and everyone’s idol Hello Kitty. Seeing all these characters moving around in the Monkey Ball world shows how much potential it has and how welcoming it is.”