Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania adds Beat from Jet Set Radio as an unlockable character

News
By published

The closest thing to a JSR revival yet

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania
(Image credit: Sega)

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania will pay its respects to a cult-favorite Sega game by bringing in Beat from Jet Set Radio.

Sega revealed on Twitter that the wall-tagging rudie will be featured as an unlockable character in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania - you won't need to buy any DLC to play as Beat, though it sounds like you'll need to complete some manner of in-game challenge to don his trademark headphones and green sunglasses.

As an extra-special nod to Jet Set Radio, it looks like all of the collectible banana items become cans of spray paint when you're playing as Beat. He's already used to collecting floating spray cans as he rolls through the streets of Tokyo-to, so that part of his new gig should be easy enough at least.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is headed to PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S on October 5. It remasters and bundles together more than 300 stages from the first three Super Monkey ball games in celebration of the series' 20th anniversary, complete with support for up to four-player local co-op.

Here's hoping that busting out Beat for a Monkey Ball cameo means Sega is keeping Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future in mind for similar franchise-reviving consideration. We've only missed its 20th anniversary by a few years, it's still good!

Whether or not Sega brings back Jet Set Radio, fans ought to keep Bomb Rush Cyberfunk dialed in on their funky fresh beat detectors.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.