History ThatOneLevel / SuperMonkeyBall

* Remember ''Strata'' under the Super Monkey Ball 2 Folder? Well, this stage is in Golden Banana Mode, and there are bananas located on the thinnest path at the bottom of the level.
** Golden Banana Mode in general is extremely tedious, since half of the stages are mazes: ''Dungeon'', ''Dodge Maze'', ''Chaos'', ''Flat Maze'', and ''Crazy Maze''. And there's bananas all over them. It's telling that some level time limits go up to '''three minutes.''' [[/folder]]

* ''Reversible Gear'' will most likely be your first instance of this in [=SMB2=] if you're doing the difficulties in order/Story Mode first. The level itself is very simple, but getting in the center of the gear through it's one hole (where the goal is) can be incredibly tricky. You may lose a a life or 5 on this one, even when you know what to do, since it requires some strict timing. Granted with enough practice you may never lose a life on it again.

* ''Narrow Peaks'' is a stage dedicated to the angular hills that appear in Expert 7 from [=SMB1=] (and even Master 3). The left path ends with an almost identical replica of Expert 7's narrow hill, and the right path has even skinnier ones than that. After that is a long, narrow path to the goal. If you have good camera control, this level won't pose much of a threat. Otherwise, you're gonna be here for a while. And while it can be skipped in Challenge Mode, the only way to do that is to get to the aforementioned red goal in Tiers.

* ''Fractal''. Picture Expert 27 in Super Monkey Ball 1, but instead of squares, it's a Sierpiński triangle. Some of the holes on the right side are filled in but they don't really help that much.

** Advanced 5-8, or ''Dot Bit'', looks like a slightly harder version of ''Twin Cross''/''Checker'' from the original Super Monkey Ball, which was moderately challenging. However, the controls on the Vita aren't nearly as tight as the UsefulNotes/GameCube controller, making this level MUCH harder than it was originally supposed to be. And the less we say about [[ScrappyMechanic the gyroscope controls,]] the better.

* Some of the ported stages in World 9 (Big Bang Boom) have become more devious due to [[ForWantOfANail some minor changes added to those stages]]. This includes: ''Armada'' (Flock but faster), ''Pendulum'' (Momentum but slightly faster), ''Wheel of Fortune'' (Polar, unchanged but still hard on its own), and ''Starlight Express'' (Spiral Hard but the goal is ''sideways'').

* ''Toggle'', which places the player behind 80 or so rotating tiles. Half of them flip upside down, then the other half flip upside down, then rinse and repeat. You can't take them one at a time as you don't have enough time. Your only hope is to blast through the level as fast as you can and hope your timing is right, that you don't get a bad bounce, or you don't get shoved off the side by the many obstacles. It's like [[VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld Beat Block Skyyway]] ''on crack.''

* This game [[FromBadToWorse amplifies the difficulty of some levels involving curve bridges]] due to the GameCube having a more percise control stick. Most notable among those is ''Exam-C'' (Expert 7 in the original), which was just moderately challenging in the original. Dear god, it's harder than '''''Arthropod'''''.

* [[spoiler:''Whiplash'']] is the ''first'' stage of [[spoiler:World 12]], and what a first stage it is. Imagine ''Launchers'' if it were instead on a pyramid, with several layers that you need to launch up. The last launcher is over such a small height that it's trial and error to actually get into the goal. Touch And Roll's [[CameraScrew complete lack of a minimap]] doesn't help matters either.

* This game [[FromBadToWorse amplifies the difficulty of some levels involving curve bridges]] due to [[PortingDisaster the GameCube having a more percise control stick]]. Most notable among those is ''Exam-C'' (Expert 7 in the original), which was just moderately challenging in the original. Dear god, it's harder than '''''Arthropod'''''.

* 6-7 wants you to reach the end of a long, winding slide... in 30 seconds. Thankfully, there are dash panels spread all across the slide. Unfortunately, going to fast will slingshot you off-course, and it's practically ''impossible'' to finish the stage with more than 10 seconds due to its sheer length.

* ''Tiers''. See Expert 9 in the [=SMB1=] folder? Now picture that if the paths were also ''tilted'' and without the alternate route. It also bears the distinction of having one of the hardest red goals to reach in the entire game, with the path to it being both ''skinny and tilted''.

* ''Warp''. Remember Advanced 15 from [=SMB1=]? You have bent floors, the higher (and less slanted) parts of which have bumpers on them to make it much, much harder. There is a green goal by the normal one, but that requires going down a path LOADED with bumpers. You need to be lined up [[strike:just about]] perfectly for it. This is another level that is skippable with a green goal in main game mode.

** It should be telling that, in ''Deluxe'', [[spoiler:the object used in the level (now called ''Destiny'') was changed into a much-less complex (and copyright-friendly) 6-sided die, including the ease of only having to stand in the corner as the goal lifts up from the facet of the 'one' side.]]

* Advanced Extra 5 (''Polar Large''). It's just like Advanced 30, except harder. The luxury of clearing the stage quickly has been removed through the addition of a segment so big that it might as well be its own level. The very last platform goes all the way around, but it's constantly flipping, so if you don't cross in exactly the right spot, you will fall to your death.

* The master stages may be pure hell, but ''reaching them'' in the first place is already very hard! To clarify, if you want to reach the master stages, you must first clear both the Expert stages ''and'' the expert extra stages [[ContinuingIsPainful without a single continue]], with the former containing some of the worst stages in Monkey Ball history! And even if you find them easy, you still have to survive 60 stages[[note]]55 if you take all of the hardest warp goals[[/note]] back to back with only 3 lives. At least the sequel had the decency to give you up to 99 lives.

* Hell, even the credits minigame deserves a mention. A bunch of bananas keep appearing in front of you, and a bunch of letters from the credits fall down to obstruct your attempts to get the bananas. Bumping into a letter costs 10 bananas, and it's all too easy to get into a spot where you'll be involuntarily smacked around repeatedly and thus lose an insane amount of bananas.

** ''Banana Mania'' seemingly makes things easier by adding convenient notches in the aforementioned launchers, but it's still a tricky stage. However, that version also comes with an awkward quirk: the game will occasionally record a Fall Out if the monkey gains too much altitude, even if you could save your run.

* 10-5, the most ANNOYING stage, consists of mostly bumpy surfaces that makes the result of jumps quite unpredictable: it is a huge obstacle in a game that requires expert precision. To add insult to injury, all versions aside from the PAL and all HD remasters have a GameBreakingBug that makes you fall through the solid platform just before the goal.

* Advanced 3-7, aka ''Quick River'', is comprised of moving conveyors and barriers that move when you move the stage. Doesn't sound too bad, but one nick from the side of the barriers will send you flying, and there are some unfairly small conveyors at the end just to rub it in your face. There's a shortcut that lets you pass the moving barriers, but it requires a total ViolationOfCommonSense, as in rushing forward off the starting conveyor, which slides you off at great speed, and sticking the landing near the edge of another conveyor.
* ''Bubble Ball Float'', which comes '''directly after''' the aforementioned ''Quick River''. It's ''Bubble Ball'', a level consisting of a floor of bubbles from Normal, but now there's more gaps and moving bubbles. It's harder than it sounds. [[spoiler: Oh, and there's a hidden warp goal there too.]]
* [[RuleOfThree And after THAT]] we have ''Bumper Street''. Curved platforms and bumpers usually don't make for fun for monkeys in balls.

** The final Advanced stage, ''Mothership'', combines the absolute worst ''Banana Splitz'' has to offer. Seesaws? Check. Unfairly shaped slopes? Check. Moving platforms and barriers? Check. Giant obstacles that move when you move the stage? Check. Small obstacles that move when you move the stage, on a thin conveyor belt? Check. Good luck with THIS one.
* Advanced in of itself could qualify as this. [[MarathonLevel It's 50 stages long]] with [[BreatherLevel breather levels]] becoming increasingly absent, [[NintendoHard has stages on par with]] [[ThatOneLevel Super Monkey Ball 2's late Expert Stages,]] and reaching the warp goals aren't worth the trouble since they only warp you one stage, [[GuideDangIt and are unnecessarily hard to reach.]] Although the Expert Stages in the first 2 games take roughly 15-20 minutes to clear, these stages will leave you here for just over half an hour, and that's assuming you're having a GOOD run. To make matters worse, you need to clear this behemoth at least once to unlock [[InfinityPlusOneSword infinite continues,]] so assuming you've beaten the other difficulties first, you'll start off with 30 lives (3 to start with and 3 for each of the 9 continues), [[TrialAndErrorGameplay which will most likely be drained]] [[GuideDangIt while figuring out the right techniques to beat each level,]] and if you run out, at worst over 30 minutes of effort will be deemed WORTHLESS. It's no wonder that a whopping ''0.2% of players'' have managed to make it all the way through at least ONCE.

* ''Reversible Gear'' will most likely be your first instance of this in [=SMB2=] if your doing the difficulties in order/Story Mode first. The level itself is very simple, but getting in the center of the gear through it's one hole (where the goal is) can be incredibly tricky. You may lose a a life or 5 on this one, even when you know what to do, since it requires some strict timing. Granted with enough practice you may never lose a life on it again.
* ''Giant Comb'': the strategy is really simple: Stop when the teeth of the comb are about to pass you, and advance one space when it's safe. But if you mistime it by too much, or you accidentally drift onto the lines, you might get suddenly smacked off the playing area. Talk about startling.

* Expert 19 is based on Expert 29 from''1'' except that instead of conveyors you have to cross sloped platforms that move. You actually have to speed up to land on the platforms and even then it may not always work. Fortunately, at least this level is skippable by taking the warp in Expert 15.

* World 9-10, (''Technique''), consists of a platform slowly "climbing" a tower by flipping on its side in 90 degree increments. The problem is the player also needs to remain on this platform in each rotation, so the player is expected to be flung in the air, land and balance on the ''side'' of the platform, then transfer to the underside much like Nintnedo, and do it '''three more times'''.

* ''8 Bracelets'' is a stage composed of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin eight oversized bracelets]] interlocked together, with three tiers of goals on the end. You need to build enough momentum on the relatively-thin platforms if want to swing from one bracelet to the other. Good luck trying to even ''make'' it to the goals. While reaching the first goal may be a bit anticlimatically simple after all that frustrating swinging, the second one that lets you skip a stage requires you to be at about the same height needed to traverse the other platforms, and the one that lets you skip two stages is placed up [[UpToEleven even higher than that]]. It's a little more manageable in ''Banana Mania'' thanks to the platforms being widened, but it's still something of a challenge.

* ''8 Bracelets'' is a stage composed of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin eight oversized bracelets]] interlocked together, with three tiers of goals on the end. You need to build enough momentum on the relatively-thin platforms if want to swing from one bracelet to the other. Good luck trying to even ''make'' it to the goals. While reaching the first goal may be a bit anticlimatically simple after all that frustrating swinging, the second one that lets you skip a stage requires you to be at about the same height needed to traverse the other platforms, and the one that lets you skip two stages is placed up [[UpToEleven even higher than that]].

** The version of the level in ''Banana Mania'' bumped the time limit up from 60 seconds to 90 seconds, but the stage itself is still left unchanged.

** ''Banana Mania'' seemingly makes things easier by adding convenient notches in the aforementioned launchers, but it's still a tricky stage.

** Advanced 5-8, or ''Dot Bit'', looks like a slightly harder version of Expert 27/42 from the original Super Monkey Ball, which was moderately challenging. However, the controls on the Vita aren't nearly as tight as the UsefulNotes/GameCube controller, making this level MUCH harder than it was originally supposed to be. And the less we say about [[ScrappyMechanic the gyroscope controls,]] the better.

[[/folder]]