Bonus Stage: Difference between revisions

'Bout collecting real cool stuff..."''|"The Li'l Bonus Room," '''[[The Neverhood|Skullmonkeys]]'''}}

 

* Does not need to be accessed/completed to complete the game (though it may be needed for [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]).

* Is entered after the end of a regular level, or at points within a regular level.

* In the original ''[[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|Super Mario Bros]]'', going down certain pipes or climbing up hidden vines would take you to hidden areas filled with coins. Later games in the series kept these in-level bonus areas but added entirely separate levels, sometimes hidden, sometimes not, in which you could get loads of points, lives, or items.

** ''[[Super Mario Bros 3]]'' was probably the one with the largest number of different kinds of bonus area/level. Underground coin rooms, beanstalk coin rooms, the slot-machine [[Mini Game]], the Memory Mini Game, the ''treasure ship''...

** In ''[[Super Mario Land]]'' on the [[Game Boy]], in addition to coin rooms, taking the harder-to-reach exit to a stage would lead to a bonus game where, depending on your timing, you could get lives or a power-up.

*** A few of the coin rooms have [[Spikes of Doom]], allowing you to ''die in a coin room''.

* In the first 16-bit ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' game, collecting enough rings during a level would unlock a bonus stage (Special Stages) at the end of the level where you could try to win a Chaos Emerald. In later 16-bit era games, these areas would become accessible during the levels rather than after them, and would later be accompanied by additional types of bonus stage (called oddly enough, Bonus Stages) that didn't contain Chaos Emeralds but did contain power-ups and the like, but these were still treated as separate stages rather than as parts of the stage you came from; your score would be tallied at the end of them just like at the end of any other stage.

** In the 8-bit ([[Master System]] and [[Game Gear]]) game, the Chaos Emeralds were hidden in the levels but collecting enough rings gave you access to the bonus stage full of rings, extra lives and one continue per stage.

** The bonus stages were brought back for ''Sonic Heroes'', which was notable because the other 3D games (both before and after Heroes) just automatically gave you the Chaos Emeralds over the course of the main plot. Of course, those Emeralds were ''still'' necessary to reach the final story...

** ''[[Sonic Rush Series|SonicRush]]'' did the same thing, but only for Sonic's story - Blaze got a Sol Emerald automatically after every boss fight. The Chaos Emeralds AND the Sol Emeralds were both necessary to access the final stage in this case.

* In ''[[Cool Spot]]'', collecting 75 Cool Points in a level unlocked a bonus stage after the level was finished in which you could get 1-ups and continues.

* In ''[[Dynamite Headdy]]'', putting on the Liberty Head transports you to a bonus game where you try to shoot a certain number of basketballs through moving hoops within a time limit. Each time you successfully complete it, you get one of the characters in the four-character password needed to unlock the Bonus Boss after the end credits. You are transported back to the same point in the main level when the bonus game ends.

* The first ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' had bonus stages that could be gotten to by collecting three of certain items. The later games had one on each level, which you just had to step on a pad to get to. Some levels had a second pad that only appeared if you get that far without dying, which leads to a more-dangerous-than-normal-play Death Stage.

* ''[[Space Invaders]] Extreme'' has bonus rounds that are activated by shooting red or flashing UFOs. Inside, you have to shoot a certain number of armoured or evasive invaders within a time limit. Your reward? When you exit, your cannon becomes a [[Wave Motion Gun]] for at least 15 seconds.