Update — August 25, 2021 at 19:48 BST:
We were pretty close. It’s not Joker, but they are indeed from Persona 5. It’s the mysterious cat Morgana.
You can check out their announcement trailer here.
Super Monkey Ball is a popular series of arcade style games about monkeys that live inside balls, collect bananas and try to get to the goal before the timer runs out. It was created by Toshihiro Nagoshi, who went on to create the increasingly popular Yakuza franchise with Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.
Traditionally the Super Monkey Ball roster has been exclusively made up of cute monkey mascot characters, but the previous remaster of Banana Blitz added to the hype around itself by adding SEGA’s mascot Sonic the Hedgehog to the game, this was obviously popular with SEGA fans and helped to add to Monkey Ball’s appeal —and sales— as it is being used as one of the main ways to market Super Monkey Banana Mania in the lead up to Gamescom 2021.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania has already turned into one of the most ambitious crossovers of the year. Announced to be joining the monkeys in their plastic capsules this time around in Banana Mania are Sonic the Hedgehog (from Sonic the Hedgehog), Tails the Fox (from Sonic the Hedgehog 2), Beat (from Jet Set Radio) and Kazuma Kiryu (from Yakuza).
Geoff Keighley has been teasing a Super Monkey Ball character reveal at Opening Night Live on Twitter. He’s been claiming that no one will believe the Super Monkey Ball Gamescom reveal for most of the week.
Wednesday, you won't believe who's next to join SUPER MONKEY BALL BANANA MANIA.
Tune into @gamescom Opening Night Live to find out who it is….
Streaming Wed at 11a PT / 2p ET / 7p BST / 8p CEST. pic.twitter.com/2bvqzJcjJN
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) August 22, 2021
We think it’s probably Joker from Persona 5 as he’s popular and SEGA hasn’t shied away from using him for crossovers in the past. His outfit pieces were pre-order DLC for Sonic Forces and he has proven popular enough to not only be added to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros., but also make guest appearances in popular Japanese franchises like Dragon’s Dogma, Phantasy Star Online, Puzzle & Dragons and Catherine: Full Body. We look forward to seeing if we’re right, but maybe it’s a little too believable.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is an enhanced remaster of Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PC.
If you’re interested in SEGA games, why not check out the page on the Yakuza games over at our sister site Gaming Verdict?