Toad House

The Toad House first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3. By getting to the Toad House, sometimes you'd get to choose one of three chests and get an item based on your choice. Other times, you'd get to play a game where you tried to stop pieces of a picture so that they matched up. Winning would earn you extra lives.

In Paper Mario, the Toad House became a place where Mario and his partners could restore their Hit Points and Flower Points.

New Super Mario Bros.
Toad Houses reappear in New Super Mario Bros. on the world map, often requiring Star Coins to open up (or completing a bonus, lettered level). Manned by Toadsworth, they supply all the helpful items in the game in four different varieties:


 * Item House: Capped by a red mushroom on the world map. A big block alternates between a Mushroom, Fire Flower, Blue Koopa Shell and a Mini Mushroom. Whatever is displayed when Mario or Luigi bumps it from below is what will be stored as the backup item. If a brother has a backup item already and the item chosen has less or equal value to the original backup item, 1000 points will be awarded instead.
 * 1-Up House: Capped by a green mushroom. Six ? Blocks are spread out. Three contain a 1-Up Mushroom card. One contains a 1-Up Mushroom X3 card. One contains a X2 card. One contains a Bowser card. The X2 card doubles all cards already revealed, and the Bowser card ends the minigame (though Mario keeps any 1-Ups revealed). Up to twelve 1-Ups can be won.
 * Mega House: Capped by a Mega Mushroom. As the name implies, a big ? Block contains a Mega Mushroom, which will override any backup item.
 * Blue House: Capped by a blue mushroom. See the uses of Star Coins for more details.

Toad Houses (except the Blue House) disappear after one use. However, if the brothers can complete all eighty levels in the game, all Toad Houses will reappear and become permanent (marked by a blue circle on the world map), providing up to 99 lives and infinite items to help find all the Star Coins.

Bonus Houses via Flag Fireworks
By ending the level with the last two numbers being the same (except 00), three things are triggered: a) a Super Mario Bros. theme is played instead of the normal end-of-level music, b) fireworks go off (1 for ending in 11, 2 for ending in 22, and so on, awarding 4000 points per boom), and c) a bonus Toad House appears on the --> point where Mario first enters the world. Times ending in 11, 22, or 33 yield an Item House, 44, 55, and 66 a 1-Up House, and 77, 88, and 99 a Mega House. None of these houses are ever permanent, even after completing all eighty levels.