Goal Pole

A Flagpole appears at the end of every normal level in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, New Super Mario Bros., and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The flags on a flagpole come in many colors, though Red Flagpoles usually indicate an alternate exit in the New Super Mario Bros. games. If the player manages to grab the top of the flagpole, they will earn an extra life. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, there are Bowser symbols shown on the flags instead of skulls. In Super Mario Bros. 3 there were Card Roulettes instead of flagpoles, and in Super Mario World, flagpoles were replaced by Giant Gates. These Flagpoles symbalize Mario taking over or claiming that area- taking down Bowser's flag or replacing it with his own.

Mario or Luigi have to jump and grab the flagpole to end the level. In Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Luigi can easily jump over the flagpole due to his better jumping abilities. In order to still finish the level, he has to jump at it from the other side. It is unknown whether or not this is a glitch, as it does not cause any errors. It was not fixed in Super Mario All-Stars. Interestingly, in New Super Mario Bros., while being Mega Mario or Mega Luigi, they can knock over the flagpole, and then shrink into their regular form and head into the castle. By doing this, they end up earning five extra lives.

Mario could also jump on flagpoles in Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, in the Flagpole Leap mini-game. This game answers the question, "Why jump on the flagpoles?". The answer is, "Why not?".

Flagpoles also appear in the Bowser inter-missions in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door; Bowser can knock the poll completely off screen if he is large enough. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, there is a flagpole in front of the Little Fungitown that can be slid down on in the Beanbean Kingdom. A flagpole is also seen in the Super Mario Bros. picture behind the Border Bros..

In the Mario Party 8 mini-game Crank to Rank, flagpoles with the Star Carnival emblem shown on them appear.

In the opening cinematic of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool can be seen sliding down multi-colored flagpoles.

Flagpoles also appear in the Nintendo 3DS game Super Mario 3D Land, where they are now called Goal Poles. Unlike previous Mario games, flagpoles appear in every level, even in castles and airships. After defeating the boss of an airship or castle, Mario has to keep walking to the flagpole instead of ending the level immediately after defeating the boss, as in previous games. When Mario grabs any part of a flagpole, a red flag with Mario's emblem replaces the one with Bowser's emblem. However, if Mario grabs the top of a flagpole, he will earn an extra life, and the flag will turn golden instead. These golden flags are required for completing the entire game. The normal flagpoles are replaced by flagpoles with giant Bowser flags after each boss battle, which turns into giant Mario flags once grabbed.

Trivia

 * In both Animal Crossing and Animal Crossing: City Folk, the Flagpole appears as a furniture item.
 * In some levels, it is possible to jump beyond the flagpole and castle. However, upon doing so, the player has to wait for the timer to run out; this only happens on the NES version of Super Mario Bros..
 * In Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, the game won't scroll past the castle unless there is a warp zone hidden past it.
 * In the New Super Mario Bros. games, the player is stopped when they attempt to jump higher than and past the flagpole, which results in the player dropping down to grab the flagpole and earn an extra life.
 * Unless the player somehow manages to get high enough to break out of the level boundaries and fall down into the space between the Flagpole and the Fortress. However it can only be done via hacking.
 * Flagpoles appear in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story when the Mario brothers or Bowser gain experience points.
 * In Nintendo Monopoly, there is a Coin Block/Brick Block card that rewards the player with $20 for hitting the top of a flagpole.
 * In Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels the player can receive an extra life from a flagpole if two conditions are met: The coin counter must be double zero and the last digit of the time counter must be zero when the player character touches the flagpole.
 * In Super Paper Mario, there is a Sammer Guy called "Over the Flagpole", a reference to Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.