Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania: How to Unlock Additional Challenge Modes

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is a huge HD remaster consisting of the first three console titles of the SMB franchise. Because of that, there are over 300 stages to beat, get all the bananas for, and get record times for. However, if you only played through the Story Mode, you’ll realize you’ve only hit about 100 stages. Where are the other 200?

Beyond the story mode, there are other modes that you can play that will have additional stages like the Special modes.

How to unlock all challenge modes for Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

A huge chunk of additional levels can be found in the Challenge Modes. However, not all of them will be unlocked from the start. In order to get additional challenge modes, head over to the Main Game. There are two selections for this mode. It’s split into Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 in terms of challenge series.

You’ll notice that you will only have the Casual, Normal, and Expert tiers of challenges unlocked. There are two unlockable difficulties for each game’s section. To unlock the Master difficulty, you’ll have to clear the Expert mode. Finally, to unlock the fifth difficulty, Marathon, you will have to unlock Master first, then beat it.

It seems easy enough to do so. However, in order to clear one tier of difficulty, you have to play it from the beginning to end in one fell swoop. You can’t pick up where you left off at any point in your run. Luckily, there aren’t lives to worry about, but it can be time consuming.

There is also the practice section for the challenge modes to hone your skills on a particular level that has been giving you trouble. Beating a level in the practice mode won’t count in the real deal, though. Super Monkey Ball courses can be extremely challenging the further you progress, so don’t sweat it.

Luckily, if you are playing on a Switch, you can just put your console to sleep without having to suspend the application. The same applies to other consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One. However, if you’re on an Xbox Series S/X, you can make use of its quick resume feature if you want to take a break but don’t want to ruin your run.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania is set to release on October 5, 2021. For people who bought the Digital Deluxe Edition, it will be out on October 1. The game will be on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Series S/X, PlayStation 4 and 5, and PC via Steam. Click here to check out additional content like guides, news, and even a review for this game.