Return to Castle Monkey Ball - A fanmade mashup of two great games

A fan developer named Nickireda (@Nickireda on Twitter) has recently released Return to Castle Monkey Ball, a fan mashup of two excellent games, Monkey Ball and Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

This strange mashup of two unique landmark games incorporates Monkey Ball’s unique form of movement with Return to Castle Wolfenstein’s levels and enemies. Players roll around, collect bananas, and kill nazis in this surreal experience.

How Return to Castle Monkey Ball mixes fun with fun

It’s fair to say that this kind of game is meant to be more of a fun and humorous arcade-style game rather than the fully built experience crafted by both of its inspirations. Return to Castle Monkey Ball was as much fun to build as it is to play, as the silly slapstick scenarios play out for the player in just a few minutes.

These kinds of fan games are part of what makes the community of gamers so great, though; they’re a way for fans to engage with the types of games that they found enjoyable. Fans have made some incredible products, usually entirely out of their love for a game or genre, such as the fan remake of Half-Life titled Black Mesa.

What makes these kinds of projects enjoyable, both to play and build, is the fact that they are often driven entirely by the developers’ love for the games it’s based on. This appears to be the case with Return to Castle Monkey Ball.

Return to Castle Monkey Ball is free on itch.io

Anyone curious enough to give it a try should check it out here on itch.io, and follow the creator on Twitter.

While there are occasionally ways to support fans who work on these kinds of projects, Nickireda has specified that they will not be accepting donations or compensation for this project to comply with the fair use doctrine.

Nevertheless, there’s no risk in trying it out and having a good time.