Domino (2in1)

## Domino

Stage Overview

**Domino** is a reconstruction of the level of the same name in vanilla Super Monkey Ball 2. It is the third and final Beginner Extra stage, as well as the fourth Advanced Extra stage and eighth Expert Extra stage.

## Description

The stage is a square platform with a smaller square attached to it as the starting area. A long squiggly path is removed from the square platform, and there are alternating black and white dominoes floating over it. The goal is located around the top right corner of the stage, inside a specially-shaped domino. Upon landing, the dominoes will all land on the platform and the domino in the bottom left will tip over, beginning the chain reaction. The domino chain is set up so the goal will fall off the stage at the 7 second mark. There are also a string of bananas in the top right corner of the stage.

## Goal Tutorial

There are three ways to do this. The first is to go around the dominoes from the left side, as it will take a while for the dominoes on the left edge to fall over. Head towards the string of bananas and enter the goal from the right. Remember, if you don't get the goal by the 7 second mark, the goal will fall into the abyss and the stage will no longer be beatable. The second way is to go around the dominoes from the right side. This is faster, but also harder, because if you aren't quick enough, the dominoes in the bottom right section of the stage will block your route to the goal, and if this happens, you probably won't have enough time to go through the left side of the stage before that side is blocked off. The third and final way is to charge forward, steering around the domino in front of you, and jump over all of the gaps. You must not slow down at any point, or else you will fall through one of them.

## Differences from vanilla

The vanilla Domino only ever appears in Bubbly Washing Machine. In this pack, it's in Space. To match this particular aesthetic closely, the dominoes are chrome plated (alternating between black and white), while the domino the goal is in resembles the cards that contain the goals in Hitter and Hard Hitter. The entirety of the floor is also reflective and there are screws in the bottom of the stage. The starting bridge and play button have been removed from the stage, making the stage more self-contained. Also, in the original Domino, the entire floor swing down like a trap door right after the goal falls off, sending you and all of the remaining dominoes off of the stage. This does not happen here for three reasons. Firstly, it's a Beginner Extra stage. Secondly, if the floor tilted, it would make it impossible to time over. Finally, reflections are currently not capable of tilting like what's showcased in AV Logo, so all reflective surfaces have to remain upright.

## Trivia

* Domino was moved all the way from Expert into Beginner Extra due to the creator determining it to be a cool final extra stage (since Clock Face and Created By were set in stone as the final Advanced Extra and Expert Extra stages respectively). This decision was carefully determined by watching a bunch of casual playthroughs of Story Mode's World 7 both Super Monkey Ball 2 and Deluxe, and this stage was passed by every player within only a few minutes, while many players weren't able to beat any of the other World 7 stages aside from Wavy Option and Quick Turn. Also, some aspects of what makes this stage difficult to sightread have been eliminated because, since the switch has been removed, the player has the ability to actually watch the animation in "View Stage" and catch onto what the stage wants you to do, a luxury that is denied in vanilla 2 (as well as Teapot, Fighters, and many World 10 stages).