Story Mode's "Unlimited Lives Per Level" formula is how most challenging games work today, including Dark Souls, Super Meat Boy, Celeste, etc, because "tightrope" difficulty design isn't fun. Lives are an antiquated mechanic that just make retries take longer because you have to click through a "game over" screen, since games aren't coin-operated anymore.
@@Sparkz1607 Lives encourage learning ways to beat a level consistently. They test your knowledge of the game as a whole rather than just a specific section. There are many levels in monkey ball that you can bang your head against until you luck your way through it once which is why having lives can make for a better challenge. Calling lives antiquated is naive and also limiting mindset for developers.
@@Sparkz1607 "Lives are an antiquated mechanic that just make retries take longer because you have to click through a "game over" screen, since games aren't coin-operated anymore." This only true if you're spamming continues. The challenge of seeing how far you can get on a limited number of lives is exciting and tense, and makes collecting bananas actually worth doing, while introducing another set of decisions to make (Do you risk your valuable lives to go for the banana bunches and get more? Do you have the time to?) It also makes winning feel much more satisfying. After all, winning without continuing is hard! This concept of the elusive 1 credit clear is basically the driving force behind arcade gaming, the scene from which Monkey Ball originated, and is an aspect of gaming that's effectively been lost. Sure, you can try a no death run in Celeste or whatever game if you'd like, but the game isn't designed around that. Very few games are any more. The only thing that comes close is roguelikes, which also understand the value in permanently ending your run to make victory that much sweeter. But it isn't the same. I like that story mode exists, it's good practice and fun in it's own right. Picking and choosing which levels you'd like to play out of a set was a great way to let players have some freedom in their playthrough, and lets you skip those levels you don't like. It's just kind of sad to me that an aspect of gaming that greatly expands the replayability of many of our favorite games has been thrown in the trash because gamers largely don't care about this style of gaming any more, and would rather take it away from those who do rather than wait a few seconds to get through a continue screen.
@@Sparkz1607 a limited view. It's better for some applications, worse for others. You get why it's bad, but you're not considering why it can be good. There's a thrill behind that sort of games design, and thrill creates drive, which informs skill. Then the consequence causing the skill halts it when you lose - so it's a tradeoff. I'm gonna guess you weren't around for the tightrope-dominant days? Where forget about infinite lives, you were lucky to even get save states. I was there and I know the difference. It's a very different feel. I think the world of gaming is best off with both approaches, applied where best fits.
Yet it makes some players rage in spite of not even knowing when to time your roll to make it past the lines, they just say "FUCK IT" and just roll fast into the goal. What a risky maneuver.
Opera is ok once you learn it. You just have to go reaallly slow and steady. Or just yeet yourself off of the second to last platform and do a trickshot goal lmaooo
This game very well have been what made me understand my rushdown nature of how I play games. Not recklessly throwing myself at it, but steady, confident movements. Man, do I have a lot of great memories with this. It's telling that well over 10 years later I still remember Opera lol
Trial and error, that's how I did it. But yeah that's not good stage design. It's infuriating that some nonsense like this made it in among such otherwise awesome and memorable stage design elsewhere.
Yep! The funniest game to me was Monkey Fight 2. That game is hilarious. Also, for Cylinders, that running trick does take some practice to nail actually, but the wow factor will never go away! My friend thought the same until I showed him how intense it could be, then he got as into it as I was. Haha.
I know all the different worlds had unique visuals but something that always stood out to me was how the giant comb was completely different in design for this world when compared to the version in the whale. It still acted in the same way but was a completely different model which I always found kinda neat.
Mine was the target practice one where you would fly and try to land on the bullseye. Countless hours we played that one my sister, cousin, and I haha. I remember some stages you could just run through them. Good times...
Hardest Stages: Tiers Switch Inferno (only when you don't figure it out the first time) Challenge Mode: Arthropod Giant Comb (If you don't know what you're supposed to do)
How I beat switch inferno: I hit a switch and saw that certain switches lit up on the map on the bottom right corner. I believe the switches that don’t light up are ones you can hit. That map they give you helps a lot, especially on Free Fall and Launchers.
Nice! My cousin was like that game appears very "homosexual" ,but it's probably one of the funniest games out their. And his words still stand to this day, that game was too much fun. Thanks for the advice, if I remember next time I play it, I'll try it out
When I found them out I didn't turn of the system until I beat all of them. There was one stage that I kid you not took me 4+ hours to beat. I forgot the name or level of it, but it was the one made entirely of spinning cylinders. Woo, R.I.P. Good Super Monkey Ball games.
I got my boyfriend to play this recently. I did Switch Inferno in one go and he said it looked like a hellfire of nope. If only he knew how long it took to figure it out as a kid...THERE IS A REASON WHY I NEVER FORGOT!
I remember how I accidentally beat Switch Inferno... This was back, before I could look up things on the Internet. I was knocked around by those walls. The next thing I knew, I hit a couple of switches, and flew into the goal. I played this game a few weeks ago, and I looked up how to do this. It seems quite simple, now that I've looked it up...
the interesting thing for me is i couldn't beat world 3 for like half a year, then i come back later and get to world 4, stuck on THAT for nearly 4 years (no joke) and then i breezed up untill 9 which i never see my self beating XD
Oh...I know what you're talking about. The stage was called Cylinders...Here's a hint: Blast through! Do it right and you can bounce over the gap in the middle and hopefully bounce straight into the goal. When me and my friend first encountered that stage, he told me to go straight and I did and beat on my first try.
this world hit me like a brick wall in the sense that i could not pass it no matter how hard i tried. this level is the reason i cringe at the mention of okra.
...... Is it bad that i was afraid of this game from this stage onwards because of the monkeys being shrunk down to a size small enough to have a level in a cooking pot and a Laundromat? 😩
Most fitting Smash stage: Pilotwings (Sm4sh) Reason: Though catchy, it, like other songs in this game, would need a more similar stage to truly fit. Pilotwings has some unique music (like Wonderful 101) and that is enough for me.
![[TAS] Super Monkey Ball 2 "Expert through Master Extra" in 13:38.13](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SWpGZk7DQCw/mqdefault.jpg)
This soundtrack is amazingly early 2000's
I can feel it
Some of these stages made me *cook* with rage.
+Yanna Arthropod in particular *boils* my blood.
Thrown straight into the Switch *Inferno*, were ya?
:'D
only 1 ... which i figured out in like five minutes when I was 8 years old or 7 .. CAN YOU GUESS?
+Dank Pit you guessed it baby
This soundtrack is bananas.
This soundtrack is Dole bananas
Ready ? Go!
possibly the most fun and upbeat sound offered on this soundtrack
Once you figure out Switch Inferno it's like the easiest stage ever but trying to figure out which switches to hit is the frustrating part
It's really easy once you figure it out. The hard part is figuring it out. Truly genius.
@@Morbutt lmao
@@Morbutt ready?
And the most stressful because if you hit the wrong switch you get hit with that stupid bar lol
Clearly never played stage 1 - 1 lol
Arthropod? Toggle? What are you doing here? This is home to Switch Inferno! Get outta here!
I'm more of a Challenge Mode person so... Switch Inferno can go to Clock Tower... it's more fitting anyway!
Ryan Lau But this is where Switch Inferno is where it is. That would be on World 8.
Diego Acevedo Sorry for the confusion, Switch Inferno appears in World 8 on Challenge Mode :)
Ryan Lau Yes, I know.
Giant Comb ain't welcome here either.
As a kid, I had to play on Story Mode. I can't even imagine trying to get through all levels with limited lives.
Story Mode's "Unlimited Lives Per Level" formula is how most challenging games work today, including Dark Souls, Super Meat Boy, Celeste, etc, because "tightrope" difficulty design isn't fun. Lives are an antiquated mechanic that just make retries take longer because you have to click through a "game over" screen, since games aren't coin-operated anymore.
@@Sparkz1607 Lives encourage learning ways to beat a level consistently. They test your knowledge of the game as a whole rather than just a specific section. There are many levels in monkey ball that you can bang your head against until you luck your way through it once which is why having lives can make for a better challenge. Calling lives antiquated is naive and also limiting mindset for developers.
@@Sparkz1607 "Lives are an antiquated mechanic that just make retries take longer because you have to click through a "game over" screen, since games aren't coin-operated anymore." This only true if you're spamming continues. The challenge of seeing how far you can get on a limited number of lives is exciting and tense, and makes collecting bananas actually worth doing, while introducing another set of decisions to make (Do you risk your valuable lives to go for the banana bunches and get more? Do you have the time to?) It also makes winning feel much more satisfying. After all, winning without continuing is hard! This concept of the elusive 1 credit clear is basically the driving force behind arcade gaming, the scene from which Monkey Ball originated, and is an aspect of gaming that's effectively been lost. Sure, you can try a no death run in Celeste or whatever game if you'd like, but the game isn't designed around that. Very few games are any more. The only thing that comes close is roguelikes, which also understand the value in permanently ending your run to make victory that much sweeter. But it isn't the same.
I like that story mode exists, it's good practice and fun in it's own right. Picking and choosing which levels you'd like to play out of a set was a great way to let players have some freedom in their playthrough, and lets you skip those levels you don't like. It's just kind of sad to me that an aspect of gaming that greatly expands the replayability of many of our favorite games has been thrown in the trash because gamers largely don't care about this style of gaming any more, and would rather take it away from those who do rather than wait a few seconds to get through a continue screen.
@@Sparkz1607 please never work in game development
@@Sparkz1607 a limited view. It's better for some applications, worse for others. You get why it's bad, but you're not considering why it can be good. There's a thrill behind that sort of games design, and thrill creates drive, which informs skill. Then the consequence causing the skill halts it when you lose - so it's a tradeoff.
I'm gonna guess you weren't around for the tightrope-dominant days? Where forget about infinite lives, you were lucky to even get save states. I was there and I know the difference. It's a very different feel. I think the world of gaming is best off with both approaches, applied where best fits.
Whenever I hear this song, I instantly think of Giant Comb. I loved that stage so much.
Yet it makes some players rage in spite of not even knowing when to time your roll to make it past the lines, they just say "FUCK IT" and just roll fast into the goal. What a risky maneuver.
That damn comb! Definitely one of the most memorable stages!
funny since tat stage appears in the inside the wale world during story mode
@@someoneunknown6553 right up the with the Reversible Gear
Just thinking about Opera makes my hands sweat.
Ugh opera was ridiculous
Opera is ok once you learn it. You just have to go reaallly slow and steady. Or just yeet yourself off of the second to last platform and do a trickshot goal lmaooo
@@ryancake42 I remember the issue I had was I’d either go fast and fall off or go slow and run out of time. Had to do a mix in between
This game very well have been what made me understand my rushdown nature of how I play games. Not recklessly throwing myself at it, but steady, confident movements.
Man, do I have a lot of great memories with this. It's telling that well over 10 years later I still remember Opera lol
don’t even get me started on arthropod...
People are talking about the levels where this plays but honestly, this is enough of a bop that I don't care how hard the levels are.
Three different types of Water themed worlds in this game...
This one was the most unusual.
Can we talk about the washing machine?
Soup world..
Switch inferno made me bring the game back to blockbuster before I could beat it... fuck that stage
switch inferno took me 1.000.000 tries
***** lol at that time I was ignorant to looking things up on the internet and had figure things out myself
Back in the good ol' days when we rented games from blockbuster...
Okay but really how were you supposed to figure out Switch Inferno without looking it up
Trial and error, that's how I did it. But yeah that's not good stage design. It's infuriating that some nonsense like this made it in among such otherwise awesome and memorable stage design elsewhere.
Use the minimap - all the on/off switches will light up together when you press one.
What I did when I was a kid was write down the layout on a piece of paper and then x off the ones that didnt work
I always had random luck
1 by 1... I swear, kid me was smarter than me now.
I wouldn’t mind being cooked alive if this was playing while I was being cooked
Yep! The funniest game to me was Monkey Fight 2. That game is hilarious. Also, for Cylinders, that running trick does take some practice to nail actually, but the wow factor will never go away! My friend thought the same until I showed him how intense it could be, then he got as into it as I was. Haha.
I know all the different worlds had unique visuals but something that always stood out to me was how the giant comb was completely different in design for this world when compared to the version in the whale. It still acted in the same way but was a completely different model which I always found kinda neat.
plus the in the whale version had glowing on the rings to let you visually see when the comb was coming around
Sounds of me childhood ^_^
Advance floor 30 was a piss take.
I am conditioned so this song plays in my head in stressful situations.
Mine was the target practice one where you would fly and try to land on the bullseye. Countless hours we played that one my sister, cousin, and I haha.
I remember some stages you could just run through them. Good times...
Polar was absolute hell. Deluxe as a whole was fun.
I love how they changed the shape of the comb in Giant Comb to fit the asthetic.
all this talk about switch inferno when the true horror was GIANT COMB
Giant Comb was Inside the Whale in Story Mode. You're thinking of Giant Comb in Challenge Mode.
Lololol you can just hover over it with moon jump (I use moon jump)
nah nah nah, *those damn jumpy ovals*
@@tbg8365 Dribbles?
*use moon jump at the start to avoid activating them*
@@officiallygonefromyoutube6309 use *what*
the monkeyball 1 and 2 soundtrack are the GOAT
That moment when this was one of the few tracks that got remixed in Banana Mania, at least so far
I'm glad tbh, they would've struggled to top it
Tbh. Whenever i hears this song. I an reminded of space.
The music that boils along with your blood on some of these levels XD ALL WORTH IT FOR THIS MUSIC THOUGH!!!
00:14: The jammiest jam in the whole game.
this song and dr badboon's base are my favorite Monkey Ball 2 tracks
I kinda overestimated Switch Inferno's difficulty. Its difficulty lies in finding the right switch. As for Opera...
HEY, I'M *_GETTING OLD HERE!!_*
Hardest Stages:
Tiers
Switch Inferno (only when you don't figure it out the first time)
Challenge Mode:
Arthropod
Giant Comb (If you don't know what you're supposed to do)
Those who disliked this must have fallen into a boiling pot.
I'd say this is probably one of their best songs
This song compels a small element of rage out of me.
Makes me want to play it again.
How I beat switch inferno: I hit a switch and saw that certain switches lit up on the map on the bottom right corner. I believe the switches that don’t light up are ones you can hit. That map they give you helps a lot, especially on Free Fall and Launchers.
Wow , i never finished this world
Nice!
My cousin was like that game appears very "homosexual" ,but it's probably one of the funniest games out their.
And his words still stand to this day, that game was too much fun.
Thanks for the advice, if I remember next time I play it, I'll try it out
I love this Game 🎮🕹️
When I found them out I didn't turn of the system until I beat all of them. There was one stage that I kid you not took me 4+ hours to beat. I forgot the name or level of it, but it was the one made entirely of spinning cylinders.
Woo, R.I.P. Good Super Monkey Ball games.
Brilliant track.
De mis juegos favoritos con un Soundtrack impecable
Este es nivel favorito sólo por el soundtrack 🚬🧐
switch inferno takes a quick look at the minimap, but seriously giant comb
anyone?
Giant Comb was pretty easy IMO
This world will leave you boiling with rage
one person heard this song a little too much from failing in switch inferno
I got my boyfriend to play this recently. I did Switch Inferno in one go and he said it looked like a hellfire of nope.
If only he knew how long it took to figure it out as a kid...THERE IS A REASON WHY I NEVER FORGOT!
I remember how I accidentally beat Switch Inferno... This was back, before I could look up things on the Internet. I was knocked around by those walls. The next thing I knew, I hit a couple of switches, and flew into the goal. I played this game a few weeks ago, and I looked up how to do this. It seems quite simple, now that I've looked it up...
This song makes me want to cook something. . . C:
Best song in the game
Everyone here is a chill ass mf, super monkey ball 2 is forever the best 🔥
Ready for Switch Inferno in HD everybody?
They will most likely make it easier. Anyway, I'm not really ready tbh. Still annoys me.
I'M AT SOUP!
the interesting thing for me is i couldn't beat world 3 for like half a year, then i come back later and get to world 4, stuck on THAT for nearly 4 years (no joke) and then i breezed up untill 9 which i never see my self beating XD
Oh...I know what you're talking about. The stage was called Cylinders...Here's a hint: Blast through! Do it right and you can bounce over the gap in the middle and hopefully bounce straight into the goal. When me and my friend first encountered that stage, he told me to go straight and I did and beat on my first try.
The melody part sounds exactly like the synth used in that one usher song
The Yeah song?
@@streetwearjimmy the game does the same story mode
This one reminds me of switch inferno. That one used to be HELL for me
Pretty much after world 2 things get hard as hell.
God damn it, why did they change the song on Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, the original soundtrack is so much better!
Yeah switch inferno and giant comb but jump machine gave me anxiety trying to land without fucking up.
hey...one year later...i've beaten Master EX 10...
Nintendo....MY GOD does that stage easier than it actually is
0:23 - 0:30 Can’t get it out of my head.
Too bad I'm stuck on one stage. I've really have loss my patience.
Hated. All. Of. This. Stages. Specially Switch Inferno.
I still remember which switch was, becuase of all the times I've played that level.
Advanced: 21 Pro Skaters, 22 Giant Comb, 23 Beehive, 24 Dynamic Maze, 25 Triangle Holes, 26 Launchers, 27 Randomizer, 28 Coin Slots, 29 Seesaw Bridges, 30 Arthropod (hate that level)
Expert: 6 Jump Machine, 7 Zigzag Slope, 8 Tower, 9 Toggle
Sounds like Huge Crisis from Sonic Rush!
WHAT A FUCKING TUNE
this game had a plot? oh yeah...it did...
Why did they make games so fricking hard back then?!
I know everyone's talking about Switch Inferno, but Tiers is much more painful in my opinion.
Do you know of the Master Levels? Those are where the true challenges of this game lie.
Opera: Go to fast you’ll fall off. But go to slow and you’ll run out of time
@575Revolve Sounds mostly like synthesisers and keyboards to me.
Feels like Lil Jon produced this one.
Fellow Deluxe players would know the pure suffering of Polar.
this world hit me like a brick wall in the sense that i could not pass it no matter how hard i tried. this level is the reason i cringe at the mention of okra.
This one reminds me of the dreaded
Oh no, it's Advanced level nine all over again!
Alex Summers what does this world have to do with totalitarianism?
Whoever was the level designer of this portion of the game must've really been a pissy person
Ok so I never played the og monkey ball 2, why the fuck does the banana mania version sound so different???
......
Is it bad that i was afraid of this game from this stage onwards because of the monkeys being shrunk down to a size small enough to have a level in a cooking pot and a Laundromat? 😩
I don’t want to think bad guys I try not to dramatize the thoughts but I ant help it
*click*
*bonk*
*uuuuaaaaah*
FALLOUT
Soup
The most difficult to pass was switch inferno without a video guide
Wait, isn't that how they made Gongon's voice?
the related videos are a huge WTF to me
i think knife party should remix this lol
Krile like that
i cant not associate this synth with clannad
I think that was intentional... It's much better to put more into the graphics, music, and game play.
What are the instruments? They don't sound natural.
Don't mind me, just perusing through the OST relating to every single comment XD
Most fitting Smash stage: Pilotwings (Sm4sh) Reason: Though catchy, it, like other songs in this game, would need a more similar stage to truly fit. Pilotwings has some unique music (like Wonderful 101) and that is enough for me.
Switch Inferno
Error 404- Sanity.exe does not fucking exist
I hated levels 33 and 36 of expert. Also please watch my video strawberry Fred walkthrough
Fuck Swtich Inferno, I HATE that level with all my mind, body, and soul.
I HATE switch inferno with a passion
Very unfitting but very catchy.