Google has unveiled a series of updates to its AI offerings, including the introduction of Gemini 1.5 Flash, enhancements to Gemini 1.5 Pro, and progress on Project Astra, its vision for the future of AI assistants. Gemini 1.5 Flash is a new addition to Google’s family…
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Preview – Bringing Monkey Ball Back In 2024 – Game Informer
Last month, I had a chance to play Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, the first all-new entry in the Super Monkey Ball (SMB) franchise in more than a decade. While I went into the demo skeptical that the series, which experienced its best years in the early-to-mid 2000s, could feel like a modern experience in 2024, I emerged from the demo impressed by the gameplay improvements, single-player level design, and the game’s approach to multiplayer (you can read my full preview here).
Shortly after the preview, I had a chance to dig deeper into Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble with several of the developers behind Ryu Ga Gotoku’s franchise that isn’t about the seedy underbelly of the Japanese organized crime to learn how the team worked to modernize the franchise while still remaining true to its roots.
Back to Top
[embedded content]
Recently, we’ve received some remakes and remasters, but no new entry for many years. Why did the franchise take such a long break?
Nobuhiro Suzuki, Producer: We believe this is the result of a combination of factors. Whether it was due to development resources being refocused towards other large titles, the creators leaving the company, sales numbers, and more, the SMB development line disappeared and there was a period of time when production came to a halt. However, after releasing two remakes, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD in 2019 and Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania in 2021, and after receiving positive feedback from our fans, we decided to release a completely new title, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. We hope fans are excited to play this first brand new entry in over a decade!
With that unique position in mind, what were the primary goals of Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble?
NS: Following the release of those two remakes, Banana Blitz HD and Banana Mania, our goal is to firmly establish the revival of the SMB franchise with this completely new title. To that end, we set out to make a new entry that firmly inherits or captures the best qualities of past SMB titles while also feeling like an all-new game with 16-player online battles, refined game and character designs, and the addition of new characters and storylines.
With such a big gap between the last all-new, non-remake/remaster release, were there any updates to the design and gameplay best practices that needed to be applied to this latest entry to ensure it feels modern in 2024?
Daisuke Takahata, Director: Based on the data we pulled, such as the number of people who cleared each world of Banana Mania and comments from various playtests, we updated the game with a level of challenge that new players (as well as longtime fans) will enjoy. Compared to the past titles, the difficulty level of the early worlds is now milder (in previous games, things were too difficult right from the beginning). We also made it so that the first time you boot the game, you will be taken to a tutorial that will help you learn how to play the game and use the controls. The same goes for the camera, where we made some small adjustments to the default settings to help make things feel smoother. Players will also be able to fine-tune these settings in the Options menu, which we think longtime fans will appreciate.
The physics in Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble feel good. How did the team go about overhauling the physics, and how did you know you got them just right?
Jack Ko, Programmer: Banana Rumble’s physics actually builds upon those in Banana Mania, which in turn was based heavily on the original GameCube version’s physics. We made special adjustments to the movement in the previous game to make it viable as a remake, but thanks in part to comments from fans, we were made aware of a few elements that might contribute to some of that unintuitive behavior caused by the physics in Banana Mania. With Banana Rumble being a new entry to the series and having its own new stages, it means that this time around, we were able to focus on making the movement feel simpler and more intuitive.
Additionally, the physics system is extensively parameterized, meaning that designers can make adjustments to different parts of it on the fly. With internal testing happening at least once a week during development, tweaks were made incrementally and whenever needed. We knew we had it right when anyone could just pick it up and be able to immediately roll out like a pro.
Why was the Spin Dash such an important inclusion in this entry? What do you think it most adds to the experience?
NS: In creating this all-new game, we wanted to add the right technique that would give users a wider range of play and challenge. Also, in order to implement the 16-player battles, we needed something that would really emphasize the user’s technique so they can overcome the competition. As a result, the Spin Dash was implemented. While the Spin Dash is simple to perform, we believe it adds a lot to the game; for beginners, it’s an exhilarating element that allows them to sprint and bounce off obstacles, and for advanced players, it can serve as a way to find shortcuts and quickly reach the goal. We are very pleased how players have been responding to it.
This question may be better asked to the localization team, but with the Super Monkey Ball franchise so reliant on puns and wordplay related to bananas, did the team ever consider calling it “Peel Out” instead of “Spin Dash?”
NS: To be honest, we didn’t think about it at all. [Laughs] We wanted to make it easier for users to understand just by looking at the name, so we made it straight out “Spin Dash.”
When creating a level in Adventure mode, what factors must be considered to create an effective stage?
Yukio Oda, Designer: As for “what elements,” our basic idea is to combine “various elements” in a complex and effective manner. For example, if we break down a stage into smaller pieces, you can see that the “path” includes various elements such as “thickness,” “curve,” “slope,” “moving path,” and so on. Depending on how these parts are combined, the stage can be easy or difficult, interesting or boring. The Monkey Ball team has a lot of expertise in these combinations, all accumulated over many years with the series, and we always aim to create an interesting stage based on that know-how. But the first step in creating a single stage starts with the inspiration of the stage designer.
How does the team balance fun with challenge when designing stages?
YO: The stages created by our stage designers are regularly playtested by dozens of people inside and outside the team. Not only do we pick up a variety of opinions, but we also analyze data such as the percentage of clear rates and times, and we are constantly making adjustments to make the stages even better. We are also strongly aware that the Monkey Ball series has been characterized by its contrast between having very easy stages and very challenging stages. Sometimes, even if a playtester finds that a stage is deemed “too difficult,” there are cases where we end up leaving it the way it is. However, we are always pleasantly surprised when, after launch, we see users uploading videos showing how they were able to complete extremely difficult stages with ease.
The stages I played were very enjoyable and sometimes over-the-top, but they were just in the first two worlds. How wild should players expect the challenges in Adventure mode to become?
DT: We are glad you enjoyed the early stages of the game! As we announced, there are 200 all-new stages to be found in Banana Rumble’s Adventure Mode, all spread across different worlds. The final world, in particular, has a variety of exciting gimmicks waiting for players, which will prove challenging even for fans who started with the previous titles. Stay tuned for a “very wild” challenge!
Can you talk to me about the process of designing the Battle modes? They bring such enjoyable twists on the Super Monkey Ball formula, and I’ve always found the minigames/side modes to be as enjoyable as the main Adventure mode.
YO: Thank you very much! When it comes to the game design of Battle Mode, we paid close attention to how “control” and “sense of speed” were expressed during gameplay, as they are key characteristics of this series. We also took care to ensure that the skills players learned and improved upon by playing through Adventure Mode can be utilized in Battle Mode as well. One of the main features of this game is its emphasis on “ease of understanding” – basically, we made sure not to make the rules overly complicated when adding any twists and turns, so players are able to enjoy themselves.
Where would you like to see the Super Monkey Ball franchise evolve from here? Do you think there is a place for multiple releases in a shorter time window than we’ve seen in recent eras?
NS: First of all, as a basic premise, we will continue to carry on the fun and originality the SMB series is known for, and make sure SMB fans can fully enjoy their time with it. On top of that, we would like to evolve the series to a level that offers something that incorporates a variety of exciting new ways to play that is altogether unique to Sega. With the support of our players, we believe we will be able to continue to release new games on a regular basis. We would really appreciate everyone’s support for Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble and the Super Monkey Ball series!
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble arrives on Switch on June 25. For more on the upcoming series revival, head here to read our full, hands-on impressions.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Reveal Trailer Confirms Dual Samurai And Shinobi Protagonists, Out This November
After teasing its reveal earlier this week, Ubisoft has officially unveiled Assassin’s Creed Shadows with its first cinematic trailer, revealing dual protagonists in the process. As many speculated, Shadows puts players in control of Japan’s first African samurai, Yasuke (a real historical figure), and a female shinobi character, Naoe. It will be released on November 15.
This dual protagonist approach isn’t too surprising given it’s Ubisoft Quebec developing the game – it did the same with Kassandra and Alexios in 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – but it’s exciting nonetheless. According to the game’s PlayStation preorder page, players can, “Switch seamlessly between two unlikely allies as you discover their common destiny,” confirming you can control both in the story. The trailer also showcases the beauty and scale of the feudal Japan we’ll be exploring in Shadows.
Check it out for yourself in the Assassin’s Creed Shadows reveal trailer below:
[embedded content]
Elsewhere in the game’s PlayStation preorder listing, Ubisoft says players can explore the “captivating open world of feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and war-ravaged landscapes,” while adventuring through unpredictable weather, changing seasons, and reactive environments. The changing seasons line seems to indicate the narrative of Shadows could take place over a long period of time, or at least a year.
As a shinobi Assassin, Naoe uses stealth to avoid detection and agility to confuse enemies whereas Yasuke, a legendary samurai, uses lethal precision and power. You unlock new skills, gear, and progression independently for each character. Plus, as you explore the world, you can create your own network of spies to be your eyes and ears across Japan, and different allies will have unique skills to help you accomplish missions.
“Create a fully customizable hideout for your growing shinobi league as you train your crew, craft new gear, interact with key characters, and choose your base’s layouts, decorations, and accessories,” the preorder listing reads.
Here’s another look at Yasuke and Naoe:
Shadows is an exciting entry in the sprawling Assassin’s Creed series. It’s finally bringing players to feudal Japan, something the fanbase has wanted for years and years, and it’s the next open-world mainline RPG installment since 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. While last year’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage was quite enjoyable – read Game Informer’s review here to find out why we gave it an 8 out of 10 – it was a throwback to the more linear worlds of the Assassin’s Creeds of yesteryear; Shadows is the series returning to its newer open world format that began in 2017 with Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows launched November 15, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Amazon Luna, PC (via the Ubisoft Store and Epic Games Store), and Mac (with Apple silicon via the Mac App Store)
For more about the series, head to Game Informer’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage hub for exclusive behind-the-scenes details, videos, and more. After that, check out Game Informer’s ranking of the entire Assassin’s Creed series.
Are you excited for Assassin’s Creed Shadows? Let us know which protagonist you’re most excited about in the comments below!
The Division Heartland Has Been Canceled
Ubisoft has canceled The Division Heartland. First announced in 2021, the game was a free-to-play spin-off of The Division franchise developed by Red Storm Studio.
Ubisoft revealed the cancelation in an earnings report, stating,
“As part of Ubisoft’s efforts to streamline its operations and adapt to evolving market trends, there have been further reorganizations within the Global Publishing teams, both at the APAC region, that is not organized into three engagement hubs, and at the central level. Additionally, in line with the increased selectivity of its investments, Ubisoft has decided to stop development on The Division Heartland and has redeployed resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six.”
[embedded content]
The Division Heartland had been quiet for some time after its reveal, including being delayed. It eventually resurfaced with closed beta tests, but scarce updates on its existence caused doubt and confusion among fans. The game was billed as a PvEvP survival action experience with players controlling a Division agent tasked with protecting a small town from enemy factions and chemical contamination.
Despite the cancellation, we know it doesn’t mean the end of the franchise. Ubisoft announced The Division 3 last September, with series creator Massive Entertainment back at the helm. That game currently has no release window.
Heartland joins an expanding graveyard of canceled Ubisoft projects over the past few years. In January 2023, the publisher canceled its upcoming team-based arena battler Project Q and three other games in development. In 2022, the battle royale Ghost Recon Frontline, Splinter Cell VR, and two unannounced games were also axed. An unannounced sequel to Immortals Fenix Rising was also reportedly scrapped last July.
5 Best Vulnerability Assessment Scanning Tools (May 2024)
Proactively identifying and addressing vulnerabilities is crucial to protecting an organization’s digital assets. Vulnerability assessment scanning tools play a vital role in this process by automating the discovery and prioritization of security weaknesses across networks, systems, and applications. These tools help organizations stay one step ahead…
A2Hosting Review – The Most Feature-packed Webhost Yet?
A2Hosting promises unbeatable speed but if there was only one thing I noticed about the host – it’s the sheer number of hosting plans and addon features that come with their packages. It’s simply mental! From individuals to business owners, enterprises to nonprofits, blogs to agencies,…
Here’s Your First Look At Joel And Ellie In Season 2 Of HBO’s The Last Of Us
HBO/Max has released the first look at Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie in Season 2 of The Last of Us, and the scenery looks familiar. As Season 2 shoots are underway, images from filming have begun to leak, but today’s images are the first official shots from the upcoming season, which is due out next year.
Pascal’s Joel appears to be in the barn where a very important and intense scene between he and Ellie takes place, while Ellie appears to be inside a wintery location, likely somewhere in the game’s beginning where snow is abundant.
Check out the first official look at Season 2 of The Last of Us for yourself below:
Pascal and Ramsey are obviously returning cast members for the series, and they’ll be joined by various newcomers in the show next year. Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever will play Abby, while Young Mazino joins as Jesse. Manny, Mel, Nora, and Owen will be played by Danny Ramirez (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Top Gun: Maverick), Ariela Barer (Runaways), Tati Gabrielle (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Spencer Lord (Riverdale), respectively.
We won’t spoil these characters’ roles in The Last of Us Part II, which is likely to match their roles in HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2, but if you know, you know.
Fans of Naughty Dog’s Last of Us games eagerly await the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us. The first season debuted in January of last year, covering the events of the first game and its Left Behind DLC. HBO quickly confirmed the show would be getting a second season, which is set to premiere next year.
We loved the first season and can’t wait to see how it adapts The Last of Us Part II, which got the remaster treatment in January. It seems we aren’t alone either – The Last of Us’ premiere was HBO’s second-largest debut since 2010, and viewers stuck around for the entire season.
The first season of The Last of Us has already won eight Emmy awards. For more, read Game Informer’s review of The Last of Us and then read Game Informer’s review of The Last of Us Part II.
What do you think of Ramsey and Pascal’s looks as Ellie and Joel in Season 2? Let us know in the comments below!
The MIT Bike Lab: A place for community, hands-on learning
Bianca Champenois SM ’22 learned to ride a bike when she was 5 years old. She can still hear her sister yelling “equal elbows!” as she pushed her off into the street. Although she started young, her love of bikes really materialized when she was in college.
Champenois studied mechanical engineering (MechE) at the University of California at Berkeley, but with a first-year schedule comprising mostly prerequisites, she found herself wanting more hands-on opportunities. She stumbled upon BicyCal, the university’s bike cooperative.
“I loved the club because it was a space where learning was encouraged, mistakes were forgiven, and vibes were excellent,” explains Champenois. “I loved how every single bike that came into the shop was slightly different, which meant that no two problems were the same.”
Through the co-op’s hands-on learning experience, the few long rides she took across some of California’s bridges like the Golden Gate, and the lively evening “Bike Parties” drafting behind friends, Champenois’s love for biking continued to grow. When she arrived at MIT for her master’s studies, she joined the cycling team.
Champenois, who is also passionate about climate action, enjoyed the sense of community the cycling team offered, but was looking for something that also allowed her to solve problems and work on bikes again.
Peddling Community
Video: Department of Mechanical Engineering
After discovering there wasn’t a comparable cooperative bike program at the Institute, Champenois was determined to start one herself. It wasn’t long before she secured club funding from The Coop’s Public Service Grant with the support of her peer, Haley Higginbotham ’21, who was also passionate about the cause. By the end of the year, the team had gained two more volunteers, civil and environmental engineering graduate student Matthew Goss and materials science and engineering grad student Gavin Winter, and the MIT Bike Lab was born.
“The idea is to empower people to learn how to fix their own bike so that they are motivated to use biking as a reliable transportation method,” says Champenois. The volunteer mechanic has a vested interest in promoting sustainability and improving urban infrastructure.
Champenois is a graduate student in the joint Mechanical Engineering and Computational Science/Engineering program, and her research involves applying data science and machine learning to fluid dynamics, with a specific focus on ocean and climate modeling. The NSF Graduate Research Fellow is now building upon prior research focused on ocean acidification as part of her PhD thesis, while she is also involved in other projects within Professor Themis Sapsis’s Stochastic Analysis and Nonlinear Dynamics (SAND) Lab.
“I appreciate that my research strikes a balance between more applied environmental projects and more theoretical statistics and computational science,” she explains while referencing a recent research contribution to a project focused on improving global climate simulations.
Champenois’s academic research focus may be specific, but she stresses that the Bike Lab isn’t targeted to any particular interest and welcomes all who are eager to learn.
“If you’re interested in solid mechanics, you can think about bike frames. If you’re interested in material science, you can think about brake pads. If you’re interested in fluids, you can think about hydraulic brakes,” she says. “I think there’s something for everyone, and there’s always something to learn.”
In the last year-and-a-half, the Bike Lab is estimated to have serviced over 150 bikes, and they’re only getting started. Champenois is ambitious about the Bike Lab’s future.
“I hope to teach classes, maybe throughout the semester or as a standalone IAP [Independent Activities Period] course. I am also really interested in the idea of managing a vending machine for parts,” states Champenois.
In the winter, the Bike Lab stores its tools in N52-318, but the club lacks the space needed to expand. “Without our own space, it is difficult for us to store parts, which means that people are required to bring their own parts if their repair requires a replacement,” explains Champenois.
While physical space isn’t required to build a sense of community, Champenois envisions the Bike Lab exuding the same sort of camaraderie as the Banana Lounge, another of one MIT’s student-run spaces, one day.
“I like to think of the Bike Lab as more than just a bike shop. It’s also a place for community,” she says.
Champenois hopes to complete her degree in the next year or two and would like to become a professor someday. She is excited by a career in academia, but she says she could also see herself working on a climate or weather research team or joining an ocean technology startup.
Many have heard the expression that being a student at MIT is like “drinking from a firehose,” but that is one of the things Champenois will miss most when she leaves.
“I have had the opportunity to discover so many new hobbies and been able to learn so much through sponsored activities,” she recalls. “Most importantly, I’ll miss the great people I have met. Everyone at MIT is so curious and hardworking in a way that is truly energizing.”
Repurposed beer yeast may offer a cost-effective way to remove lead from water
Every year, beer breweries generate and discard thousands of tons of surplus yeast. Researchers from MIT and Georgia Tech have now come up with a way to repurpose that yeast to absorb lead from contaminated water.
Through a process called biosorption, yeast can quickly absorb even trace amounts of lead and other heavy metals from water. The researchers showed that they could package the yeast inside hydrogel capsules to create a filter that removes lead from water. Because the yeast cells are encapsulated, they can be easily removed from the water once it’s ready to drink.
“We have the hydrogel surrounding the free yeast that exists in the center, and this is porous enough to let water come in, interact with yeast as if they were freely moving in water, and then come out clean,” says Patricia Stathatou, a former postdoc at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, who is now a research scientist at Georgia Tech and an incoming assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “The fact that the yeast themselves are bio-based, benign, and biodegradable is a significant advantage over traditional technologies.”
The researchers envision that this process could be used to filter drinking water coming out of a faucet in homes, or scaled up to treat large quantities of water at treatment plants.
MIT graduate student Devashish Gokhale and Stathatou are the lead authors of the study, which appears today in the journal RSC Sustainability. Patrick Doyle, the Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, is the senior author of the paper, and Christos Athanasiou, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech and a former visiting scholar at MIT, is also an author.
Absorbing lead
The new study builds on work that Stathatou and Athanasiou began in 2021, when Athanasiou was a visiting scholar at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. That year, they calculated that waste yeast discarded from a single brewery in Boston would be enough to treat the city’s entire water supply.
Through biosorption, a process that is not fully understood, yeast cells can bind to and absorb heavy metal ions, even at challenging initial concentrations below 1 part per million. The MIT team found that this process could effectively decontaminate water with low concentrations of lead. However, one key obstacle remained, which was how to remove yeast from the water after they absorb the lead.
In a serendipitous coincidence, Stathatou and Athanasiou happened to present their research at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Boston in 2021, where Gokhale, a student in Doyle’s lab, was presenting his own research on using hydrogels to capture micropollutants in water. The two sets of researchers decided to join forces and explore whether the yeast-based strategy could be easier to scale up if the yeast were encapsulated in hydrogels developed by Gokhale and Doyle.
“What we decided to do was make these hollow capsules — something like a multivitamin pill, but instead of filling them up with vitamins, we fill them up with yeast cells,” Gokhale says. “These capsules are porous, so the water can go into the capsules and the yeast are able to bind all of that lead, but the yeast themselves can’t escape into the water.”
The capsules are made from a polymer called polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is widely used in medical applications. To form the capsules, the researchers suspend freeze-dried yeast in water, then mix them with the polymer subunits. When UV light is shone on the mixture, the polymers link together to form capsules with yeast trapped inside.
Each capsule is about half a millimeter in diameter. Because the hydrogels are very thin and porous, water can easily pass through and encounter the yeast inside, while the yeast remain trapped.
In this study, the researchers showed that the encapsulated yeast could remove trace lead from water just as rapidly as the unencapsulated yeast from Stathatou and Athanasiou’s original 2021 study.
Scaling up
Led by Athanasiou, the researchers tested the mechanical stability of the hydrogel capsules and found that the capsules and the yeast inside can withstand forces similar to those generated by water running from a faucet. They also calculated that the yeast-laden capsules should be able to withstand forces generated by flows in water treatment plants serving several hundred residences.
“Lack of mechanical robustness is a common cause of failure of previous attempts to scale-up biosorption using immobilized cells; in our work we wanted to make sure that this aspect is thoroughly addressed from the very beginning to ensure scalability,” Athanasiou says.
After assessing the mechanical robustness of the yeast-laden capsules, the researchers constructed a proof-of-concept packed-bed biofilter, capable of treating trace lead-contaminated water and meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water guidelines while operating continuously for 12 days.
This process would likely consume less energy than existing physicochemical processes for removing trace inorganic compounds from water, such as precipitation and membrane filtration, the researchers say.
This approach, rooted in circular economy principles, could minimize waste and environmental impact while also fostering economic opportunities within local communities. Although numerous lead contamination incidents have been reported in various locations in the United States, this approach could have an especially significant impact in low-income areas that have historically faced environmental pollution and limited access to clean water, and may not be able to afford other ways to remediate it, the researchers say.
“We think that there’s an interesting environmental justice aspect to this, especially when you start with something as low-cost and sustainable as yeast, which is essentially available anywhere,” Gokhale says.
The researchers are now exploring strategies for recycling and replacing the yeast once they’re used up, and trying to calculate how often that will need to occur. They also hope to investigate whether they could use feedstocks derived from biomass to make the hydrogels, instead of fossil-fuel-based polymers, and whether the yeast can be used to capture other types of contaminants.
“Moving forward, this is a technology that can be evolved to target other trace contaminants of emerging concern, such as PFAS or even microplastics,” Stathatou says. “We really view this as an example with a lot of potential applications in the future.”
The research was funded by the Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellowship for Water Solutions, the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS), and the Renewable Bioproducts Institute at Georgia Tech.
UAE unveils new AI model to rival big tech giants
The UAE is making big waves by launching a new open-source generative AI model. This step, taken by a government-backed research institute, is turning heads and marking the UAE as a formidable player in the global AI race. In Abu Dhabi, the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) unveiled the Falcon 2…