Midway Gate

Midway Gates are checkpoints near the middle of any level in Super Mario World. They appear as two blue-white-striped posts, linked by a white bar, thus looking like smaller versions of the Giant Gates in the same game. When Mario or Luigi pass through, the bar will disappear. This has basically two effects: First, the Gate serves as a save point. If the player dies in a level of which he had cut the Midway Gate bar before, he will restart just at the Midway point. Additionally, if Mario or Luigi cut the bar when being in their small form, it will have the same effect on them like eating a Super Mushroom.