Super Monkey Ball 2: Master Extra Mode FAQ v1.0
Jeff Dimapasoc aka GForce9x
[email protected]
September 24, 2002
This FAQ is to provide tips and strategies for the 10 floors in
Challenge Mode's master extra level.
-----------------------------
General Info and Symbol Guide
-----------------------------
Throughout this guide you might see an asterik(*) on some of the
floors' walkthroughs. These indicate a warp or extra hints/tips
for making it to the goal.
If you see an (s) symbol next to a floor, it means that you will
need to pay close attention to your speed on the said floor.
If you see a (t) symbol next to a floor, it means that timing will
be crucial on the said floor.
If you see a (c) symbol next to a floor, it means that fine control
will be a huge factor on the said floor.
-------------------------------------
How to Access the Master Extra Floors
-------------------------------------
To access the master level floors, you must complete all 50 expert
and all 10 expert extra floors (warps allowed), without using a single
continue. Once you access the master floors, you can select it from
the main menu instead of having to do expert all over again each time.
To access the master extra floors, you must reach and complete master
floor 10 without using any continues. I hope you've bought yourself
a nice hefty bunch of extra balls from the gift menu. You'll need them
to get this far. Let's get to it.
-----------
Walkthrough
-----------
1 - VARIABLE WIDTH - Thin long sections of the floor alternate moving
up and down like waves starting on the outside and going toward the
middle and back. Hold up immediately from the start and go forward at
full speed, staying straight heading toward the goal. The center part
of the floor that you will be traveling on is not long enough to reach
the goal, so once you get near the end, drop down to one of the side
sections, keeping your speed at full, and then fall off to the inside
and sail through the goal.
2 - STRIKER - (*Warps) The map will be a lot of help on this floor. The
round springboard in the center of the platform will launch you across the
gap to where the goals are. The best and safest way to do it is to try
to position yourself close to the center of the striker, but a little
over on the side of the goal platforms. This way, you'll launch higher
and with less forward velocity, giving you more control on aiming for your
landing as opposed to being launched at a low arc where it is harder to
land accurately and easier to fly past the landing platforms. The red
warp is on the small, highest platform. The green warp is on the middle,
mid-sized platform, and the normal goal is on the large bottom platform.
Just be careful to keep your control while you're bouncing around on your
landing. The next two floors can be quite a pain, so unless you are trying
to unlock all of the floors, I highly recommend aiming for the red warp.
It's also good for your score if you're going for points ;)
3 - OOPARTS - (t) This floor is a little mean. It's one of those trail-
and-error floors until you find out a method that works. Here's how I
did it: Stay still until the clock hits around 57:50. Head forward at
full speed to one of the outer edges. Angle yourself inward and hit the
apparatus. The floor will be banked outward, so you'll need to keep
yourself steered inward when you land. Now you can do one of two things.
It's mainly dependent on where you land at. If you land on the very inside
edge, you can immediately fall into the middle where a hole will be opening
up to reveal the goal platform. If you land more to the center of the
floor, keep your speed up and run to the other side, keeping yourself
aimed toward the middle for when you drop off of the apparatus. Watch
your speed as you're starting to fall off so that you don't overshoot the
goal.
4 - PLANETS - (s,c) This floor is all about controlled drops. The first few
drops are not as steep, but cover forward distance more quickly. The
latter drops are much more steep than the first few, but they give you more
time to adjust your forward movement for your landings. You can tackle
this floor in a variety of ways. One option is to come to a stop on each
platform. A quicker, more challenging (but in my opinion safer) method is
to give yourself one bounce on each platform and move forward to the next
one while you're in mid-air. The reason why I feel this one is safer is
because you keep your momentum and get a little height to adjust your aim
with. If you stop on each platform, you'll having to gain speed to reach
the next platform and will probably end up falling down at an angle instead
of a nearly vertical line. The angle of your drop is crucial because
landing area of the platforms gets smaller as you get lower. If you choose
to bounce from one platform to the next without stopping, you won't really
need to hold forward very much other than to get a little extra distance.
Use the mini-map at close or medium zoom (I recommend close zoom for the
second half of platforms) to gauge your landing. The goal platform doesn't
have much room to land on, not to mention the party ball there just waiting
to ruin your day, so you'll want to have as close of a vertical drop as
possible. Another way to try and enter the goal is to fall at an angle
and aim yourself so that you bounce into the goal ribbon upon landing.
This method is much less reliable though.
*Warp: There is a red warp on the small planet behind the main goal. This
one is very difficult to hit because you have almost no room to land on and
safely control your bounce. You can also try aiming yourself so that you
drop at an angle and land right at the goal ribbon and bounce through.
5 - SLICED CHEESE - (t) This relatively small floor consists of two circular
discs that have holes punched into them to resemble Swiss cheese. You'll
want to pass through the first one on the left side. Line yourself up with
the outer row of holes and wait for a large one to come around and then run
through it. This first disc moves slow enough where you can be pushing
against it while waiting for a hole to come around and still be able to
pass through safely, but it is still much easier to get a little running
start. The second disc moves a bit faster. You'll want to pass through
this one on the right side. You can use the outside holes or one of the
holes to the row just inside the outer row. The outer row's holes are
harder because they move faster, but easier since they are a tad larger.
The inner holes don't move as fast, but are smaller. Either way, you'll
still need to get a little running start to get though. Stand back as far
as you can without the other disc blocking your view. Watch the left side
of the disc for a large hole to come out of the floor and time yourself so
that the hole will be passing in front of you as you reach the disc. For
the either row, wait until the hole is just reaching the 11 o'clock
position and then hold forward on the control stick. Pass through the
hole and head to the goal.
6 - 8 SEESAWS - This floor isn't too bad compared to most of the others
in the master level. It is very similar to LINEAR SEESAWS (Beg. Extra 9)
in some respects. One thing you don't want to do on this one is go too
fast. Give yourself a nice, steady pace as you travel down the seesaws.
You'll want to give them a little time to raise the far end up so that you
can safely move from one seesaw to the next. Choose a path to take. It
doesn't really matter too much on which side of the seesaws you decide to
cross on just as long as you keep your forward momentum. Personally, I
like to go on the outer edge on the second one, inner on the third, and
outer on the fourth.
7 - SYNCHRONIZED - (t) This one is like a cross between ICE HOCKEY (Exp.
50) and TRAIN WORM (Exp. Extra 10). The quickest and easiest way to get
into the goal is to go for it right off the start. When the clock is
around 59:10, hit the gas and go straight forward and hope you break the
goal tape. I know it is very hard to get exact timing on floors like
this. 59:10 isn't an exact figure. What I do is just eyeball the clock
and the moment I see that 1 pop up, I press forward. If your reflexes
are a bit slower, start moving a tiny bit sooner. If you happen to miss
the gate, it'll probably be easier to just roll off and start again
instead of trying to chase the goal down and hope it pops up in your
path.
*Warp: Same strategy as the normal goal, but start moving a little
sooner, say around 59:40. Again, you may have to adjust your starting
time depending on your reflexes. The numbers I'm giving are just rough
estimates of when I start holding the stick forward.
8 - HELIX - (s,c) This floor is one long spiral to the bottom. Approach
the start slowly. Drop down to the platform and inch your way up until
you can see the track. You can use the mini-map too. Give yourself a
little push of speed and try to land on the high side of the track,
since it is the flattest. During the whole ride down, try to stay in
the top two 'lanes'. The faster you go, the harder it will be to keep
yourself from drifting or falling over. 35-40 mph is a good speed to
use to get yourself down there in good time and still maintain good
control while on the track. If you start to drift too far to the left,
pick up your speed to correct your position and then bring it back down
to whatever cruising speed you're comfortable with. If you want to try
and get down there faster, bump your speed up to around 50 mph and use
the third and fourth lanes as well. Just remember not to sway too much.
When you reach the end, the goal will be flat, so slow down to find your
dropping point and fall into the goal.
*Warp: Notice that the warp gate is facing perpendicular to the normal
gate. To do this one, keep your speed up as you're reaching the end of
the track. Your speed will decide when to fall over the side. When you
do fall over though, hug the left wall on your way down or else you may
end up bouncing off of the party ball and falling down instead.
9 - DIZZY SYSTEM - This floor reminds me of the teacups at Disneyland.
I haven't been able to come up with a consistent, reliable method for
getting through this floor. I do recommend though at the start to head
forward immediately at full speed and curve a bit to the right. When
you are nearing the center of the floor, curve left to follow the goal.
What makes this floor so tough is that the spinning circles tend to
knock you up into the air and cause you to bounce around a lot. Try to
stay back from the outside edges if you can and keep yourself facing
toward the center of the circle while you are searching for the goal.
Speed isn't something you need too much on this floor except for fine-
tuning your direction. For the most part though, try to stay on the
same platform that the goal is on and let the goal come to you.
10 - NINTENDO - (t,c) A nice little finish to the final floor of the
game. You begin the floor being dropped on the bottom side of the
Gamecube. If you want to get a view on how it rotates, pause the game
and view stage. When you start, work your way forward toward the edge.
When the Cube is about a third of the way through its turn, go over the
edge to the side that will now be facing up. Go forward to the far edge
and turn right, facing straight toward the corner. This next rotation
is in my opinion the toughest for this floor. Stay on the left edge as
the Cube starts turning and move forward as the next side is coming up.
Be careful because you may bump into the handle and fall off. You'll need
a lot of fine control to keep yourself hugged against the handle without
falling off. The camera can get nasty here for you, depending on which
side you're facing. Work your way alongside the handle on the outer edge
to the other corner. The Cube will now rotate in the same direction as
before and you'll find yourself on the other side of it. Move forward
toward the corner and wait for the next rotation. Go over the top and
you'll find yourself on the front side of the Gamecube. Position yourself
against the top part of the ports (the controller side, not the memory card
side) and turn left to face the top. The Gamecube will make one final
turn. Be very careful to watch your speed as it rotates (explained below)
so that you don't fall over the other side. You'll now be on top of the
Gamecube. Move yourself to either the 'Open' or 'Reset' buttons so that
the lid doesn't flip you off when it opens. Wait for the lid to open and
then go inside to the goal.
*Tips for making the rotations: The rotations can be tricky and are all
about timing. There are about 4-4.5 seconds between each rotation. You
don't want to go over the edge too soon or else you'll catch the next
side when it is still too steep and fall over the back. You don't want
to wait too long either or you won't make it over. Let the rotation of
the cube give you half of your momentum and use the control stick to give
yourself the rest. Start moving forward as the Gamecube is around 1/4 to
1/3 of its rotation. Your positioning doesn't matter except for the
second rotation. Unless you go on the left side where the handle is, you
will fall into the little pit and get stuck. The final rotation is the
most dangerous as far as speed and timing are concerned because the whole
surface is flat and smooth while the others have something you can use to
slow yourself down with.
-----------------------
Copyright/Contact Info.
-----------------------
I am only allowing this FAQ to be hosted by GameFAQS. If you have any
questions about this FAQ or its content, or if you notice any errors,
feel free to write me at
[email protected].
Please be sure that the subject line of your e-mail is easily noticeable
as being related to this FAQ. E-mail that is titled something like,
"Hey GForce9x" or "Hey Jeff" will get deleted as it will look like a lot
of the spam that I get. Also, please let me know if you see any other
site besides www.gamefaqs.com hosting this FAQ.
Happy Gaming
This document Copyright 2002 Jeff Dimapasoc
