Point

Point is a term used in the Mario games. It is acquired by defeating enemies or bosses, collecting coins, etc. and in Super Mario Advance, picking up Vegetables and collecting Small Hearts. The first Mario game to have points in it was the original Donkey Kong arcade game. The total of all received points is usually called the Score. In Super Paper Mario, points were used to level up the characters instead of Star Points in the first two Paper Mario games. A typical characteristic of points in the Mario series is that they are increased when many enemies are defeated in succession. When a certain score is reached, the following defeated enemies will bring extra lives.

While in many games, points serve some purpose (in Super Mario Land, for example, they let Mario continue after a Game Over if he has enough of them), they are rather useless in other games, such as Super Mario World. In Super Mario 3D Land, methods of obtaining points instead create different amounts of coins, so one could say that coins replaced them in this game.

The concept of points was adopted in the Mario Kart series. In the Grand Prix mode, they are awarded to drivers depending on their finishing positions ranging from zero to fifteen (see Driver Points for more info on how the scoring system works). At the end of the four or five races in the cup, points are summed up, and the winners of the gold, silver, and bronze cups for the first, second and third places, respectively, are determined at the award ceremony.

Various Mario sport titles used the concept in various ways like shooting a basketball into the net in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Mario Sports Mix, and scoring goals in the Mario Football series.

In mostly all Mario platformers, the points will go in this pattern: 200, 400, 800, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 8,000, then afterwards, extra lives are earned. Some enemies, such as the Hammer Bros. and their relatives, are worth 1000 points if they're defeated.

However, in Super Mario Bros., the point pattern goes like this: 100, 200, 400, 500, 800, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 5,000, 8,000 and so on to the extra lives part.