Bonus game (Super Mario World)

The bonus game is a special minigame in Super Mario World. It can be entered only by collecting 100 Goal Stars at the Giant Gates. When this is done, the bonus game automatically starts just after the "iris in" effect at the end of the level.

The bonus game takes place in a Switch Palace-styled room that Mario or Luigi enters via Warp Pipe. There are nine Item Box-like blocks, eight of which are circling around the ninth. The ninth block is the only one that has a stable item in it (a Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, or Super Star); the others are constantly changing their items. The player's task is to hit the circling blocks from below to stop their reels on a matching item. The actual game works just like : Three of the same item in a row (vertically, horizontally, or diagonally), no matter which item it is, earns the player a 1-Up Mushroom. The player can win up to eight extra lives.

It is impossible to get exactly seven 1-Up Mushrooms in this bonus game. All attempts to do so either miss the seventh or add an eighth.

References in later games

 * A composition of the bonus game music is one of the songs in Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, under the title "Step by Step." The rendition combines elements of the Switch Palace song as well.
 * Certain notes in Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Super Mario 3D Land play a cover of the bonus game theme.
 * The original theme also makes an appearance in Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS, if the "Bonus Area" sound effect is applied to a Super Mario World-themed stage. The ending tune also plays after the player clears the 10 Mario Challenge, or the 100 Mario Challenge on the Easy mode. The "Bonus Area" sound effect reappears in Super Mario Maker 2.
 * An arrangement of the music plays during some of the challenge areas in Super Mario Odyssey.
 * Fortune Street uses an arrangement of the bonus game theme for the Mario-series version of Round the Blocks and Dart of Gold.
 * In Super Mario Run, a minigame that can be played in the Blue Bonus Game House is played the same way as this minigame; however, the player can win either coins or Rally Tickets.
 * In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the bonus game theme can be heard in a medley of songs from Super Mario World.

Trivia

 * This minigame is the inspiration behind Mario Roulette, an arcade gambling game exclusive to Japan.
 * In the game's code, the bonus game is either level 0x000 or level 0x100 (depending on the level from which the player arrived). If for any reason a Warp Pipe, door, or other "screen exit" warps to one of these levels, a player using that exit will get stuck in an endless bonus game, at least until the timer expires or they exit by pressing and.
 * Reverse engineering has shown that Super Stars and Mushrooms have a 3/8 chance of appearing, while Fire Flowers have a 2/8 chance.
 * The 1-Up Mushrooms that appear behave differently from normal ones; specifically, they cannot be eaten by Yoshi (except in the GBA version of the game).