Expert 40 - The Hardest Challenge in Super Monkey Ball

[@Goober13md]

UPDATES / CORRECTIONS: The E40 contest has now concluded. Congratulations to Silverboxer for being the lucky winner with a score of 4700! An extra special shoutout goes to Nyarumi Yukimitsu, who was the only player to achieve a 5000 during the contest. Huge congrats to her! In the video I used a USA flag for smilingjack13, but I've since learnt he is actually Canadian. My mistake / apologies for the mix up. I managed to find an old forum post from GameCube04 first announcing his 5000 score. The post is from the 21st of January 2003, and judging from what was said it seems as though packattack achieved his 5000 before him: web.archive.org/web/20041107133818/www.klow.net:80/smbmb/viewtopic.php?p=16373&amp "E40: 5000 (WR) Finally. After 156 4700's, 66 4800's, 14 heartbreaking 4900's, and 22 hours of playing, I finally was able to get a perfect 5000. It feels great and I'm very relieved to have gotten that over with. I'm gonna have to go with Packattack on this one in that it was worth it just to hear that announcer say "perfect" just one time. Actually, I was screaming too loud to actually hear him say it, but seeing the word "perfect" come up on the screen made all of those miserable failures worth it. It feels great. Edit: Forgot to put this in. Gongon looks like such a total pimp in the replay. After I pick up all the bananas, he lays on his side while he starts to spin around. It looks so cool. I also finally got a capture card so you all will be able to see my replays soon!" I have since managed to get in touch with the Japanese player うねバブ (UneBabU) mentioned in this video, who told me their 5000 score was achieved over the course of 3 months! It seems as though they are somewhat involved with the Japanese SMB speedrun community. They also told me that one other Japanese player had achieved a 5000, but their Twitter account is gone so they weren't able to find the post anymore, which is a shame. Apparently their username was レム (Rem). 𝗘𝟰𝟬 𝟱𝟬𝟬𝟬𝘀: sdkess (2003) smilingjack13 (2003) packattack (2003) GameCube04 (2003) うねバブ (2014) scrap651 (2016) Gonquai (2017) eddy0777 (2021) Jezs (2021) TonySMB (2022) Jezs (2022) Nyarumi Yukimitsu (2022) monkeysmb (2024) NeedABurger (2024) scrap651 (2024)

[@JoSephGD]

What is the legality of using the widescreen patch in SMB1 at the moment? I'd imagine it's banned, but I just want that confirmed by you, the host.

[@Goober13md]

@@JoSephGD I'm not familiar with a widescreen patch for SMB1, but I'm going to say it's not allowed.

[@Reluxthelegend]

Shouldn't this comment be pinned?

[@Goober13md]

@@Reluxthelegend Yes, I didn't realise it wasn't! Thanks for letting me know.

[@Reluxthelegend]

@@Goober13md Glad to help. I was just surprised at first I wanted to check if someone else had gotten the 5000 but couldn't find the comment.

[@AImpatientMan]

The fact that one of the challenge completers has a profile picture of Jesus saves and another player is a succubus anime chick has me in stitches

[@ravenID429]

LOL

[@localneo-graphic4647]

There are two kinds of SMB players, weird Christians that were bad at sports and weren't allowed to play video games with any amount of violence growing, and total autist atheist weebs.

[@webpombo7765]

Jesus ain't gonna keep me from the succubussy

[@JasonBaum]

This is an awesome video! I'm GameCube04, though I haven't gone by that name in a long time... :). It's so cool to see the early days of this game being archived and preserved so thoroughly... and I agree, this was definitely the hardest thing I've done in this game!

[@Goober13md]

Wow, it's always neat to hear from this game's OG players. I have sdkess to thank for most of the information about the early days; he's a great storyteller and his memory is almost infallible! Thank you for the kind words, it's great to see you're still somewhat interested in this game. :)

[@JasonBaum]

@@Goober13md I hadn’t thought about SMB for a long time, but one of my old gaming friends recently sent me your video about the cheating being exposed, so I’ve been catching up on everything that’s been happening. Interestingly, I was pretty close friends with sj13 back in the day, and we were both convinced that packattack was pausing for some his replays, but we didn’t dare bring it up with the community as it would have caused a massive uproar, and we were both moving on to other games anyway. It’s really cool to see the limits of these games still being pushed all these years later… keep up the great content!

[@Goober13md]

@@JasonBaum That's interesting. I've definitely heard before that SJ13 at least suspected both packattack and FerretDruid of rapid pausing. I know there was a time SJ13 had an E09 score that he openly admitted was rapid paused, and felt it was unfair he couldn't submit it due to his suspicions of both packattack and FerretDruid. I wonder if this is the reason those two didn't get on, or whether it was moreso that SJ13 posed the most serious threat to packattack's dominance of the overall rankings. It's a shame that we will never be able to 100% outright prove packattack rapid paused like we did with Jcool, since that's just not possible with the replay system, but there is an awful lot of circumstantial evidence that led the community to the conclusion that he must have cheated. Jcool being exposed as a cheater was a big part of that, since his scores (especially the spliced live E09) inadvertently gave packattack's a lot more legitimacy, so when all that info came to light it led a lot of people to the logical conclusion that packattack must have rapid paused as well. I had even defended packattack multiple times in the past on the basis that his E09 score had been beaten with a liveplay. Ideally packattack will one day come forward and be honest about his scores, but I doubt that will ever happen.

[@Videogamereview64]

@@Goober13md Do you know if anyone has tried to get in contact with Packattack over this suspicion of him cheating. I can't imagine it'd be easy to come into direct contact with him given his ginormous sub-count nowadays.

[@Goober13md]

@@Videogamereview64 I've tried reaching out a couple of times but got no reply. Same happened when his friend of the past 20 years asked about it. :/

[@Meganarb]

I doubt the dev team imagined someone getting all of them, but they definitely thought of someone aiming for it. The .1 path is a really good example of that.

[@That_One_Xatu]

"The reason this particular type of path is necessary is due to the rate at which the monkey and the bananas lose speed as they travel down the straightway." Out of context, this sounds absolutely insane.

[@LivingUnlabeled]

brand new sentence

[@hfriedjnk]

i went to the comments since i got bored. i encountered this sentence and I will be staing for the rest of the video now

[@diirectorr_]

yknow, i appreciate how open you are with admitting that you’ve cheated. it’s something most tend to shy away from, so hearing someone so willingly admit “i’ve submitted cheated runs” feels respectable, at the very least. so thank you for your honesty :)

[@swiftfated]

Idk why but the phrase "BLAST off into the IONOSPHERE" had me on the floor

[@GippyHappy]

Something about a gamer realizing it actually WAS the controller's fault is really funny to me. It's like when a kid actually did get his homework eaten by the dog.

[@icedo1013]

It is because this challenge can be completed with mere frames to spare that I believe perfection here was an intentional feature. In every single other bonus level, you can collect every banana, and it makes no sense that the developers would have intended only E40 to be strictly different.

[@TakumiJoyconBoyz]

I really appreciate the way you consistently own up to your past mistakes in several videos. Not trying to sweep it under the rug or make excuses. I feel like if more people were as honest about things like this, they'd be much more likely to be welcomed back into their communities to at least some degree. Also, your videos are very well scripted, narrated and well edited. Great stuff all around.

[@konkeydonged]

OG Deku Sprout here o/ I saw you were trying to contact me. 5k on E40 is a huge accomplishment! Your breakdown of the strategies would have helped me back in the day. My strat as I recall was just to do the left column and front row of bananas before exiting the ramp, then quite aimlessly move side to side collecting whatever I could. I had seen sdkess' video at the time, but I don't think I was aware of how deliberate and precise the strategy was. Anyway, I have your Twitch notifications on so if I see you live I will make sure to distract you from getting good scores :p

[@Goober13md]

Hello Deku Sprout! Thanks for the kind words. :) I saw your reply to my comment and I posted a reply to you but for some reason my replies either aren't going through or you're not getting notifications for them. Not sure what the problem is there. I've been trying to point you toward this comment: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoSmlKODf8x6qck&lc=UgzoJfHTIwWYZb3RSAF4AaABAg.9YiSSKUu-sm9dZ_G5KX8vh&ab_channel=JezsCyberscore

[@IkeSMB]

Excellent video, there's so much I didn't know about the history of E40. I've been wanting to go for a perfect E40 for awhile now, and with this contest going on I'll definitely be trying it out! Also it should be noted that packattack was a pause cheater so his E40 score doesn't officially count, but I think it's pretty unlikely that he cheated his perfect score here due to how little rapid pausing would've helped (although it still would have helped a bit).

[@Goober13md]

Thank you! Best of luck going for 5000. I also find it unlikely packattack's E40 run was rapid paused, since I doubt it would really help that much on E40, which is why I decided to include it in the video. That being said, another player did rapid pause a 5000 in the past, so who knows how helpful it is.

[@montgomeryfitzpatrick473]

I appreciate the honesty about your own past mistakes. Nice to see SMB has its own RWGoose. Got my sub

[@dolorous.1118]

personally i don't think the dev team imagined someone trying to get all of them, i think they just said "here's a cool way to give free nans to the player" and left it at that, I mean i'd even go as far as saying there's bonus stages in smb2 that would be even harder to get all nans in if not impossible.

[@Goober13md]

Yeah, there are some SMB2 bonus levels where it is impossible to collect all bananas, but in that game all the bonus floors have goals and have a clear score, so the optimal score strategy isn't to just collect as many bananas as possible. I'm not sure that the floor even completes if you do collect them all on the floors where you can. You're definitely not expected to get perfect clears in SMB2.

[@dolorous.1118]

@@Goober13md super interesting stuff. Love your channel btw keep it up

[@Firelordthe64th]

The hell is up with that random summoning salt cameo at 4:25

[@gairisiuil]

Not summoning salt, what do you mean

[@Marchingvenusaur]

I love watching in depth videos about a video game I haven't played since 2007. Hope to see more from your channel in the future

[@Tony_SMB]

Absolutely fantastic video. I love seeing this game's rich history covered so well, especially a topic as legendary as E40. :)

[@speedymatt1236]

Never have I ever seen such an empathy for mere bananas. You’ve had quite a journey trying this challenge out! I get how painful those 4900s were to you. But nonetheless, I’m proud of you for finally getting that 5k! Definitely one of the rarest and hardest feats in gaming history for sure! When the number of people who completed a certain accomplishment is down just to triple, double, or even single digits, that’s truly saying a lot! Congrats once again!

[@matt13classic]

Truly superb video, you and everyone else who has completed this challenge are among the truly ELITE gamers 👍

[@BrilliantBouncingBall]

really good video. nice job on getting the 5000 score

[@utatanepiko7087]

This channel brings me back to my childhood. Monkey Ball, even though I played it on the wii and not any of the originals, was one of my favorite games back then, even though I was never good at it

[@AlexanderWilithinIII]

So first off, awesome breakdown of the challenge, really interesting to see the progression and explanation of this beast. Second, I couldn't help but notice your fine taste in DOOM music 😎

[@vangoghsseveredear]

Re: whether or not the devs knew the challenge was possible or not, it could go either way. I once read a comment from a playtester who worked at Sega, who said his whole job leading up to release was to beat the Master mode to see if its even humanly possible to complete. He said he beat it in a month, but the fact that his entire job for a month was seeing if it was even possible tells me they probably arent entirely sure, or have an idea its "theoretically," possible to do, and leave it at that. It really is wild to think about, though. These early games were so difficult they werent sure if people could even beat them, lmao

[@raiccoon13]

I'd recognize Maximums voice in an instant, would love to see a full fledged collab vidoe from both of you! Keep it up goober Edit: Huh, you're Jezs?mind blown

[@koval3899]

This is so cool to prove difficulty of task by achieving it

[@andrebrooks4891]

Yeah that is quite an interesting bonus stage. Never could collect all of the bananas.

[@milolink6993]

I love Super Monkey Ball but never knew this game had such competitive scene😮

[@rrrrmrmr]

Hearing schmittd suddenly start talking was insane

[@SomeGuy712x]

(28:47) PERFETTO! Congratulations!

[@deathblowringo4168]

Ah yes, Bonus Hunting, that hard stage to get all the 50 Bananas. In the Super Monkey Ball Deluxe version of this stage, it is impossible to obtain all fifty bananas due to the bananas fleeing away sooner than in the original version.

[@gyppygirl2021]

This, to me, proves that the developers did not intend for this to be possible. LOL

[@chuggington4791]

im on a normal sleep schedule mate why've you done this then. see you in 40 minutes

[@chuggington4791]

ok its 3 oclock now but that was worth it even though i knew you'd done it beforehand. class video as always

[@localneo-graphic4647]

As a super casual not really aware with this scene at all, I must say 15:51 def took me by surprise lol.

[@Heathenshalt]

When i saw you made a 30 minute video on just this one floor i was in complete disbelief

[@damiencouturee6240]

I dont even really like smb myself, but this is a super interesting video. Great work man, thank you

[@Videogamereview64]

At the start of your "Watching My Awful Old Super Monkey Ball Stunt Montages" you say that you've been working on a video for 33 hours and have no footage. I have a theory that the video you were referring to was this video. That video also came out around the time you said you first started grinding for 5,000 on E40. You even mentioned later in that other video that you'd been playing E40 lately. If this theory is correct give me a cookie.

[@Goober13md]

Wow, I'm impressed! Yeah, this is the video I was referring to back then. Here is your cookie 🍪

[@Videogamereview64]

@@Goober13md Fuck yeah!!! Also great video, maybe if I can ever get a Monkey Ball disc that works again I'll try out this stage.

[@PotooBurd]

This is so informative! Great job, fantastic reporting!🌻🌼🐝 Keep it up 🙌

[@CycleMantis]

The length of the stage being so close to getting a perfect points to the developers trying to make it possible. If not through simulation, then maybe a quick mathematical estimate of lateral speed. It's unusual, but possible that they thought it through

[@mileso.2657]

Congrats on the perfect E40! Might give it a try myself. (Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who did NOT like how Banana Mania felt to play lol)

[@notanybody6651]

It's really interesting to think about the devs intent here. Too hard but quite obvious.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

Great video dude! If you made more like this I'd def watch :) subscribed!

[@Goober13md]

Thanks for the kind words! I do plan to make more, but the past year or so I've been focusing a lot more on my degree and frankly haven't had much motivation to make videos. I do feel bad for not uploading and want to make more though, so hopefully this Summer I'll be able to get something new out. :)

[@redspear007]

I was very surprised to hear an old freedoom track playing at around 5:00 in. Not even one of the tracks from the newer versions either. Very interesting

[@machineofadream]

I would guess that the devs had a tool they could use to create a sort of TAS to ensure that something they were building was possible, and test the ways in which it was possible. The game has too many extremely precise designs to expect that they sat there becoming gaming gods before they would be able to ship their game, but they clearly had a way to test given how well designed even the most difficult challenges are.

[@license2Bort]

Banger video man!

[@andrebrooks4891]

Great job buddy!!

[@yean4573]

This seems like fun. I'll try it out.

[@DE23]

Fun Fact: I once encountered packattack while playing Minecraft Wii U Edition online

[@Xvladin]

I cannot believe that more than 2 people played Minecraft on the Wii U

[@WhyHandlesIMeanFroggchamp]

*Name drops a game called Marble Maid *Leaves

[@iactus_]

Didn't expect to hear maximum in this video lol

[@0DRONZER]

3:39 you mean THE packattack? the one who makes a shit ton of longplays and used to have a dk jungle beat screenshot as his pfp?

[@bluedragon2048]

I can see Nathaniel Bandy trying this.

[@JetSetDman]

i've literally never played a monkeyball game in my life what the fuck am i doing watching this and *_why can't i stop_*

[@Ender1667]

Kris, Get *ALL* The Bananas

[@Mizuikal]

Absolutely crazy that you tracked down dudes who posted their scores 20 years later.

[@osobaum]

BANANAS!

[@zorian]

4:25 maximum jumpscare

[@shadowthephoenix1]

Im not sure if this has been disproven or not, but years ago on a livestream i heard the random speed bumps were caused by a discrepancy between what fps the game runs at, and what fps it checks collision at; iirc they said it was the game runs at 60, but checks collision at 40 or so. Basically meaning you clip into the level for a single frame and are pushed out the next, making tiny seemingly random bumps happen. Again, not sure if this is the ACTUAL reason, could have been a purposed theory or something just pulled out of someones ass, but it was something that stuck with me and i found interesting none the less.

[@poiewhfopiewhf]

Fun Fact! This stage is the namesake of rapper E-40

[@josiahsimmons9866]

Yoooo, Its maximum doing the additional voiceover here, lolll 4:32

[@youngbab6895]

Sadly they made it important in DX cuz the bananas stat moving as soon as the level starts. So they are already way ahead by time the player can even move

[@Goober13md]

@@youngbab6895 They also botched the score calculation in DX so it includes clear score like all the SMB2 bonus floors.

[@raiccoon13]

Isn't that the Scott Kessler from Mario speedruns? The world is so small sometimes Edit: well if I only watched 5 s further haha

[@Goober13md]

Yes it is! sdkess is an incredibly accomplished competitor and has set many prestigious high score / speedrun records in a bunch of games over the years. His achievements have always impressed me, and he certainly had a knack for being the first to accomplish milestone achievements like this. It's really cool we have such an esteemed competitor as an integral part of this game's history.

[@TheEclipsedLock]

I almost feel inspired to give this a go as well... if I can reach the higher floors at least lol

[@SmashCentralOfficial]

31:07 completely normal save process in any game LOL

[@swagcreated9147]

never watched anything of this game series or touched the game itself but cool vid

[@DankyMankey]

I think the hard bonus stage was added late into development coming to think of it.

[@chris.twentyeightt]

12:16 GonGon looks pissed

[@madmuffintops3577]

This was a very good video

[@ShiningSilvally]

21:42 : ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! IT HAPPENED TO BLENDRA?? Damn....physics in this series are relentlessly unforgiving, sometimes, clipping through the Goal, like that.

[@andreworders7305]

0:50 2 of which have very similar profile pictures for some reason

[@Gamecubegamer-b9y]

This Game Was My Childhood

[@justlookaroundpeople]

Nice!

[@Gamecubegamer-b9y]

11:43 Collecting Bananas On The Bonus Stage Expert 40

[@julyjuly4815]

Great video

[@mikeythearchangel]

24:08 that’s one of the most messed up things I ever saw 😮

[@madskills6387]

Quality content here

[@Snyptart]

Come back to KZbin GOOBER! I watched your video on the SMB エイエイプ cd, it was awesome! I am looking forward to more SMB content or just game content in general. Best of luck!

[@ardsam6922]

Looks like a ton of people just got this

[@andreworders7305]

11:35 why does the working strategy seem so roundabout EDIT: nm, you explain a minute later

[@feIon]

god tier video

[@ferociousfeind8538]

4:24 THE RED BALL GUY!!!!!!

[@andreworders7305]

6:28 the stage doesn’t clear when you get the last banana

[@bitbeak]

You’re playing a character here and i refuse to hear otherwise

[@james_wasson]

Can you make a maximilian (Red Ball) or SommoningSalt style video on these speed runs? I know they'd do well and would be interested in watching them. I know it's a lot of work but both of them have shot off like rockets and I'd like you to do the same. Thx

[@james_wasson]

I feel like music, other effects and your own runs are really all you're missing. With all the quotes and depth it's perfect for this format.

[@matt13classic]

sup i'll comment again when I've watched the vid

[@Goober13md]

Sup 13.

[@natezuniga-qd7pe]

Scored a 4700. Can I still enter

[@snowcloudshinobi]

6:12 mmm... lost media

[@khalilthehistorian7454]

4:45 what’s the deal with Brandished?

[@pnc1011]

Earl 40 oz really putting in the work for this video

[@Dr8Zh8r]

did maximum voice in this video?

[@blakebrooks4314]

Very cool

[@eddz8049]

Long shot, but do you know how to complete the custome level, it’s the one which has a half pipe with 4 little long pyramids to give you a speed boost ?

[@BakedBanana]

26:46 oh? Tomoyo from Clannad?

[@loz5185]

Clannad best girl jumpscare

[@BakedBanana]

(@@loz5185) TRUEEEEE.

[@andreworders7305]

You got 2nd place after less than 5 hours?

[@j3138minin]

Playing Ape Escape music in a Super Monkey Ball video is f$%^ing ridiculous :D! Time Station is a certfied hood classic tbf. (7:11) 15:50 ; L

[@andreworders7305]

Who’s silver boxer?

[@8BLOO8]

15:53 ayo WHAT 😭

[@BartEnder2006]

I love monkey ball

[@Wiziliz]

27:58 Hype!

[@bingusbamianek6361]

song at 1:20 ???

[@Goober13md]

It's a song my friend Sam Butler made for me to use in my videos. I went ahead and uploaded the file for you: shx.s-ul.eu/lSv1DAIa If you like his stuff you should check out his Spotify linked in the description! :)

[@andreworders7305]

Why do Pakattack delete his video?

[@Gamecubegamer-b9y]

I Collected Bananas As Much Possible On Beginner Super Monkey Ball

[@BartEnder2006]

Based monkey ball fan!