The Bonus Game is a special minigame in Super Mario World. It can only be entered 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 Pipe. There are nine Item Box-like blocks, eight of which are circling around the ninth. The ninth block is the only one which has a stable item in it (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 tic-tac-toe: 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.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ボーナスゲーム[?] Bōnasu Gēmu |
Bonus Game | |
| Portuguese | Jogo Bônus[?] | Bonus Game |
Trivia
- 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.
- It is the inspiration behind Mario Roulette, an arcade gambling game exclusive to Japan.
- 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 stage. The ending tune also plays after clearing the 10 Mario Challenge, or the 100 Mario Challenge on Easy mode. The "Bonus Area" sound effect reappears in Super Mario Maker 2.
- A remix of the music plays during some of the challenge areas in Super Mario Odyssey.
- 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 the Bonus Game theme can be heard in a medley of songs from Super Mario World.
- In the game's code, the Bonus Game is either level 0x000 or 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 stars and mushrooms have a 3/8 chance of appearing while Fire Flowers have a 2/8 chance.[1]
- The 1-up mushrooms that appear behave differently than normal 1-up mushrooms and cannot be eaten by Yoshi.