Classic Monkey Ball announcer isn’t in Banana Mania, accuses Sega of discrimination

The voice actor behind the classic Super Monkey Ball announcer is not in the upcoming Banana Mania, although the performer has previously said he will be.

In another twist, a Sega spokesperson claimed in a statement to VGC on Wednesday that the voice actor had never been involved in the development of Banana Mania, despite the actor’s claims.

“Brian Matt Uhl hasn’t worked on Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and hasn’t been involved with the Super Monkey Ball series for quite some time,” a spokesperson said.

Matt was the announcer for Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2 and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, all three remastered in HD for Banana Mania.

However, despite Matt’s claims that he would return as the announcer for the new HD compilation, he is not in the game. Instead, the credits mention Angela Chubak and Mirai Patrick Sayama as the two advertisers.

In the game, Chubak announces the standard stages of Monkey Ball, while Sayama announces the 12 mini-games included in the compilation.

Sega’s decision not to use Brian Matt Uhl appears to be the result of an ongoing dispute between Matt and Sega, which he says discriminates against foreign players by not crediting them or paying them royalties.

Matt posted an image to Instagram on June 20 showing him adding Banana Mania to his credit list. “Will edit when Sega finishes editing,” he wrote.

However, last week another user posted a response saying they still didn’t know if Matt was going to be in the game, to which he replied, “Still legal issues. The fact that advertisers are not credited or paid royalties is always a major issue with SegaSammy. Let’s see what is developing.

He went on to say that in his opinion the question was specifically about non-Japanese voice actors. “I am a defender of the legal and moral rights of foreigners in Japan,” he explained. “I cannot compromise my beliefs or condone my fellow narrators.”

Matt was never credited in the original games, although the Japanese voice actors of the monkeys themselves received in-game credits. His identity was not revealed until 2019 when a reporter was able to track him down.

Matt was the first to confirm that a Super Monkey Ball game was in development in June 2020, when he revealed in a video interview that he had made a “paid recording” with Sega in Japan. He also showed the first page of his script and mentioned some of the lines he recorded, although he also claims to be under NDA.

In September 2020, he then posted a photo of himself playing Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD on Switch, saying, “I have to stop screaming” Ready, Go! “, you all understand.”

Banana Mania wasn’t officially announced until June 2021, when Nintendo revealed it during a Nintendo Direct presentation.

Weeks after his announcement, Matt aired a 100-minute question-and-answer session on YouTube, in which he said he would return for the new game.

“Am I going to provide the narration for this game?” Yes, ”he said.

“You have to understand that Banana Mania is a remake of 1 and 2, and a lot of the original lines are still there. You know, there are just a few classic lines that they don’t want to get rid of, and I can’t blame them. .

“They’re epic, and you all said it was part of their childhood, that’s a point that I’m very clear about. It’s not something new, and we don’t want Monkey Ball to fail.

“We want to revive the best of Monkey Ball, and what was the best of Monkey Ball was 1 and 2. After that things got a little … less desired, shall we say.”

The claim contrasted sharply with a video Matt previously posted in November 2020 titled “Dark Side of Sega,” in which he expressed his displeasure at what he implied as a discriminatory practice at Sega in which foreign actors like himself were not credited.

“Sega Sammy legal says they have the right to credit narrators or not,” Matt said, before verifying the name of a member of Sega’s legal team and asserting that he “was very arrogant and very bad on this subject both morally and legally ”.

Matt also claimed he received no royalties for his past work on the game, alleging that Sega didn’t believe in paying foreign actors when they used their work in sequels and ports.

“When you change the title of a game – for example, Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, Super Monkey Ball Sakura – or when it goes, for example, from Sega to Xbox, [or] when it goes to an app for iOS […] this is also seen as something from a legal and moral standpoint that Sega Sammy needs to grapple with.

“No foreign narrator has ever received royalties for this, and we’re going to make a change. It must stop.

VGC has reached out to Brian Matt to comment on this story.