A continue in the Super Monkey Ball series is when you run out of lives and continue the game with another set of lives. However, this resets the score and bananas.
In Super Monkey Ball, you get six continues at the start of the game, but you can get more continues by getting 2500 play points after unlocking all mini games. You can get up to ten continues then after that you unlock infinite continues.
In Super Monkey Ball 2, you still get six continues but you can't get any more. Instead, you can get lives with 500 play points for each life after six new party games unlocked. You can get up to 99 lives by getting 48,000 points.
In Super Monkey Ball Adventure you have six continues, but you don't get anymore continues or lives if you play the game more.
In most of the Super Monkey Ball games starting with Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, you have infinite continues.
In Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz, you get three continues at the start of the game, but like Super Monkey Ball, you can get more continues by completing the individual difficulties. You can get up to six or nine continues before getting an unlimited amount.