History Main / MagicalMysteryDoors

* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', in Amy's version of Final Egg, there's a room with five doors. A random one of these doors leads to the last part of the stage; the others lead to dead ends with blue hovering robots. In ''Sonic Adventure DX'', one mission in Mission Mode requires you to hit a button, then find a flag within a few seconds. The flag is hidden in a random one of the dead ends, and if you go down the path that takes you to the next part of the stage, you have to start the stage over in order to complete the mission, or just the section if you didn't hit the checkpoint.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' offers a slightly watered-down, but no less annoying, variation of Magical Mystery Doors on the way to the old Soleanna palace using portals.

* ''VideoGame/{{Toejam and Earl}}: Panic on Funkotron'' included an area with mystery doors as part of level 15 (The Bottomless Pit). Most doors take you to a variant of the same area, distinguishable by different plants and different characters that appear. Only one door in one of these variants leads out of the maze.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', you must go through Magical Mystery Corridors in the Wind Fish's Egg to get to the final boss. Fortunately, you can find a book in the library that tells you the exact order in which you must take each path to reach it (it's randomized each playthrough, but consistent for that playthrough).
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons]]'', there is a very Lost Woods-esque region of the Temple Ruins containing Magical Mystery Paths. In this case you have to talk to a NPC elsewhere in the area who will tell you the correct order of paths to take. To make things trickier, you also need to change to a specific season each time you head down a path.

%%* ''Super VideoGame/{{Shinobi}}'' (aka ''Revenge Of Shinobi'').

* ''Renegade'' has Magical Mystery Doors in the very last stage. Pick the wrong door and you're taken back to the beginning of the stage. Pick the right door and a thug with a machine gun jumps out of nowhere and kills you with a single hit, taking you back to the beginning of the '''game'''.

* ''VideoGame/ThePerilsOfAkumos'' offers the agonizing sandstone caverns. The official guide urges players to draw their own map, which eases matters from "impossible" to merely "difficult."

* The online pet/game site ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' once included a MagicalMysteryDoors puzzle as part of a plot (a periodic site event). The building containing the doors was known as the Temple of 1,000 Tombs. A detailed explanation of the puzzle and the entire plot is still available [[http://www.neopets.com/desert/ldp/solution.phtml here.]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' offers a slightly watered-down, but no less annoying, variation of MagicalMysteryDoors on the way to the old Soleanna palace using portals.

* Film example: ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' has some MagicalMysteryDoors. This is determined when hunting for George and Paul. It takes multiple tries and a close call with a train to find the door Paul is behind...

* In the NES game ''8 Eyes'', half the stages are designed like this, turning the game into a sadistic Möbius Strip where you [[WraparoundBackground run past the same scenery over and over]] until you [[GuideDangIt resort to a handy issue]] of Nintendo Power.

* The online pet/game site ''Franchise/{{Neopets}}'' once included a MagicalMysteryDoors puzzle as part of a plot (a periodic site event). The building containing the doors was known as the Temple of 1,000 Tombs. A detailed explanation of the puzzle and the entire plot is still available [[http://www.neopets.com/desert/ldp/solution.phtml here.]]

* ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'' features a rather surreal section near the finale, in which the Prince must cross two rooms each with a set of eight doors. Only one door allows him to move up into the next area; taking any other door will send the Prince back to the entrance, with him commenting on [[LampshadeHanging what the hell is going on]].

* The classical game of "Hunt the Wumpus" is set in a random maze that isn't even guaranteed to have bidirectional doors.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterParty'' has a set of Magical Mystery Doors about two-thirds of the way through the game. While you're struggling to determine which door will end [[ThatOneLevel the pain]], you'll be fighting [[DancingPants animated pairs of pants]] with a [[BatterUp baseball bat]]. Yes, it's ''that'' kind of game.
* Very definitely ''Rambo'' for the NES. Each area in the game is connected by small pads marked "S" and "N", but it's anyone's guess as to where they will actually take you.
* ''Super VideoGame/{{Shinobi}}'' (aka ''Revenge Of Shinobi'').
* ''VideoGame/{{Astyanax}}''. The second-to-last level, Thelenea Castle. The trick to getting out of this one is looking for the doors with the skeletons in front of them.

* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' has one with a unique twist. At one point, Dr. Doom (now with AGodAmI powers) creates a system like this, where entering one door would spit you out of another one instantly ala ScoobyDoobyDoors, with Doom's laughter mocking the player every time this happens. So how do you beat it: [[spoiler: Go back the way you came. It will spit you out in the next room.]]

* In the interactive fiction game ''VideoGame/{{Adventure}}'', there are two mazes, one where all you see is "twisty passages all alike" and one where all you see is "twisty passages all different". Or, if you're paying attention, you might notice [[spoiler: different all twisty, passages little. That is, in the "different" maze, each room actually has a different description - but they read like the same sentence at a casual glance.]]
* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' has one of these near the end. You have a hint, though, in the form of a cryptic song you've got written down.
* ''VideoGame/ThePerilsOfAkumos'' offers the agonizing sandstone caverns. The official guide urges players to draw their own map, which eases matters from "impossible" to merely "difficult."

* In the Videogame/NancyDrew computer game ''Curse of Blackmoor Manor'' you have to navigate a centuries-old maze where ''the rooms move''. The quickest way to solve it involves opening and closing doors without stepping through. Also, one of the rooms can kill you.

* Nearly every ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' game, including some of the spinoffs, have a Magical Mystery Teleport Tiles section somewhere, usually in the bad guy's hideout.
** Most {{egregious}}ly in the Psychic Gym in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue''/''Yellow'' (and later repeated in ''[=FireRed= / =LeafGreen=]''), where there are nine rooms, the entrance and the leader have one teleporter each, and the rest have four, each going to a separate room. Oh, and all those other rooms? each has a Jr. Trainer. Strangely, you can brute-force the tiles by just going to the one on the same side as you, avoiding the line-of-sight of each trainer, getting to Sabrina easily.

*** ''[=FireRed= / =LeafGreen=]'' also have a cave like that,down in the Sevii Islands.

* A small section in one of the two added dungeons in the DS remake of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' has another teleport section where you need to guess which one leads further.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' has the Great Crystal. It is one of the few areas in the game without a map and contains some of the most useful items in the game. It's also compulsory. There is one way out, and one save point. And attempting to make a map on one's own will likely end in tears, for the area names are a code in goddamn Sanskrit. And it has gates that block the way unless the player turns off corresponding mechanisms, usually in a far off room. And then the gates will close back up anyways if the player doesn't get to the gate in time. Is anyone surprised that this is possibly the most reviled level in the game?
* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'''s desert monkey maze, with monkeys blocking hallways demanding various foods and trinkets before they will move out of the way, just so you can get to another room with [[ChainOfDeals more monkeys demanding more trinkets that are located in a hallway guarded by some other monkey.]]
** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 1}}'' had Rosemary Manor, each room had two doors, both doors leading to a long hallway with stairs, leading to ANOTHER room with two doors. If the player takes the right path, it will lead them to a haunted piano.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' 4 and 5 each have one of these. In each case, you jack into an object that isn't connected to the Net and doesn't have its own unique network, just a seemingly endless series of featureless maps with warps leading to other featureless maps with warps leading to you get the idea.

* ''VideoGame/ChildOfLight'' has one in the quest to aid Oengus' clan from an inescapable labyrinth. The trick is to [[spoiler: take the door with a symbol that matches the one on the shield carried by the background statue]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Faria}}'', the last area before the final tower is a set of no less than thirty Magical Mystery Caves whose seventy-odd interconnected portals span several islands.

* ''VideoGame/HotelMario'' had a lot of these.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Glider}} 4.0'' and ''Glider PRO'', this puzzle typically appeared in the form of Magical Mystery Ducts. The original example was "Monty Hall," the 40th room of ''Glider 4.0''[='s=] "The House," where out of the four ceiling ducts, three led to previous rooms and one led to the second part of the house.
* The entire point of Lucky Tower.

* In ''8 Eyes'', for the NES, half the stages are designed like this, turning the game into a sadistic Möbius Strip where you [[WraparoundBackground run past the same scenery over and over]] until you [[GuideDangIt resort to a handy issue]] of Nintendo Power.
* ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'': the planet Skyhigh in "Milky Way Wishes"

** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' (Nintendo DS). Hey, it's a game with Magical Mystery Doors that ''wasn't'' released for the NES! There's a section of the game where you're perplexed by a series of doors. The only way to discover where they lead is to test each and every one of them. Fortunately, it's much shorter than most Magical Mystery Doors segments tend to be in NES games.

** A minigame in one of the ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' games (I think it was ''4'') had this with the pipes, too.
** ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' has this in the second world. Oh, and there's the added bonus of a '''''literal''''' DemonicSpider with NighInvulnerability that comes to kill you if you stay in one room too long. Often the rooms are hard to navigate.
*** The first two games in the series also had this in the final dungeon. Both times there were two floors, and on both sides of each room, there was one door on each floor, making three doors to choose from when you ignore the door you just came out of. The solution was the same in both games: [[spoiler: It's always the door with a lit torch next to it, and it's always on the right side.]]
** Big Boo Battle in VideoGame/SuperMario64 DS was this trope. You had to basically follow King Boo's EvilLaugh to find the right path to his boss arena.
* The penultimate stage "Simba's Return" of ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'' game.
* Any teleporter in ''VideoGame/KidChameleon'' can send you...somewhere. More frequently "Elsewhere" (the name of a great deal of mini-levels), sometimes backwards, sometimes necessary to advance.
* The first of the new ''VideoGame/{{Prince of Persia 2008}}'' games has two rooms pretty much made of doors, which if you didn't go through the right two just sent you around in circles. The only clue to the correct doors was the sound of water splashing as you walked by them.
* ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesGreatestAdventures'' plays this trope with statues rather than doors...But then, nearly every level in that game is an extremely annoying gimmick level.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' offers a slightly watered-down, but no less annoying, variation of MagicalMysteryDoors on the way to the old Soleanna palace using portals.
* In ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', in Amy's version of Final Egg, there's a room with five doors. A random one of these doors leads to the last part of the stage; the others lead to dead ends with blue hovering robots. In ''Sonic Adventure DX'', one mission in Mission Mode requires you to hit a button, then find a flag within a few seconds. The flag is hidden in a random one of the dead ends, and if you go down the path that takes you to the next part of the stage, you have to start the stage over in order to complete the mission, or just the section if you didn't hit the checkpoint.
* The final level of ''VideoGame/CommanderKeen: Aliens Ate My Babysitter'' contains one of these. You appear to enter the same room with four doors twice, then back out where you started. [[spoiler: Then you notice that the Blooglings in each room are colored differently. VGA graphics make the difference between green and yellow subtle. ]]
* The final planet in ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfRadGravity'' has a magical mystery teleporter maze, which can by [[DungeonBypass mostly bypassed]] via [[GoodBadBugs teleport glitching]].
* Level 15 of the SNES adaptation of ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia1'' has these.

* The coffin maze in the penultimate level of ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsBartVsTheWorld''.
* The final level in ''VideoGame/{{Tempo}}'' for the 32X used this. Oddly, the player had to skip the first two areas through easily noticeable elevators and then go explore a maze of doors. At the end, the player is presented with 4 doors. The game tries to trick the player into entering the second, but the right door is the fourth.

* ''VideoGame/AtlantisNoNazo'' is one long and frustrating exercise in this trope, including hidden doors that can only be revealed by throwing bombs or falling into them during the [[DeathThrows death animation]].
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendaryAxe'', the 5th Zone is made up of an annoying series of corridors and rooms with one-way doors at each end. Alternate doors are obtained by falling down the pits near the end of some of the corridors.
* A very simple version of this appears early on in ''VideoGame/CrystalsPonyTale''.

* ''VideoGame/HauntingGround'' has one of these during the finale. Fiona must traverse a series of identical rooms by going through one of two exit doors. Each are colored differently every time, but the disclaimer near the beginning of the section is vague enough to allow for some trial and error.

[[folder:Non-video Game Examples]]

A recurring {{Stock Video Game Puzzle}} of the eight-bit NES era, it is the PlatformGame equivalent of TheMaze. The player will be placed in a small room littered with doors. Entering a door will lead him to another room packed with doors, or a dead end, or the start of the stage, or a small moon orbiting Jupiter. Generally, only one door in a far-away, hard to reach room will be the "correct" door that leads the player out of the maze. Be sure to keep your eyes open for little pickups to find for HundredPercentCompletion in case several of those are lying somewhere in a dead end.

Music/TheBeatles song, album and film ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour'' is the TropeNamer. Don't confuse with the ScoobyDoobyDoors, although those are also mysterious.

** Most {{egregious}}ly in the Psychic Gym in ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue''/''Yellow'' (and later repeated in ''[=FireRed/LeafGreen=]''), where there are nine rooms, the entrance and the leader have one teleporter each, and the rest have four, each going to a separate room. Oh, and all those other rooms? each has a Jr. Trainer. Strangely, you can brute-force the tiles by just going to the one on the same side as you, avoiding the line-of-sight of each trainer, getting to Sabrina easily.

*** ''[=FireRed/LeafGreen=]'' also have a cave like that,down in the Sevii Islands.

* The final stage of the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' has pipes that operate this way: Each area has several pipes, one of which will take you onward, and the rest of which will take you back to the beginning of the level. There's actually a subtle clue there, though...[[spoiler:it's always the pipe after the pool of lava.]]

*** The first two games in the series also had this in the final dungeon. Both times there were two floors, and on both sides of each room, there was one door on each floor, making three doors to choose from when you ignore the door you just came out of. The solution was the same in both games: [[spoiler:It's always the door with a lit torch next to it, and it's always on the right side.]]
** Big Boo Battle in SuperMario64 DS was this trope. You had to basically follow King Boo's EvilLaugh to find the right path to his boss arena.

* In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Seasons]]'', there is a very Lost Woods-esque region of the Temple Ruins containing Magical Mystery Paths. In this case you have to talk to a NPC elsewhere in the area who will tell you the correct order of paths to take. To make things trickier, you also need to change to a specific season each time you head down a path.

Music/TheBeatles song, album and film ''Film/MagicalMysteryTour'' is the TropeNamer.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Faria}}'', the last area before the final tower is a series of Magical Mystery Caves whose interconnected portals span several islands.

* ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' has the doors in the {{Bizarrchitechture}} TheMaze level, it's really hard.

* Stage 12 of ''Vampire Killer'' has a maze of doors connecting a bunch of corridors, most of which wrap around. (The corresponding stage in ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania|1986}}'' for the NES is straightforward and practically a BossOnlyLevel.)

** NewSuperMarioBrosU uses this for most of the BigBoosHaunt stages. Either the doors are illusory, or you need to hit a switch so you can pass through a now fake wall to reach a hidden door.

* This appears in ''VideoGame/{{Glider}} 4.0'' and ''Glider PRO'' as Magical Mystery Ducts. The original example was "Monty Hall," the 40th room of ''Glider 4.0''[='s=] "The House," where out of the four ceiling ducts, three led to previous rooms and one led to the second part of the house.

* This appears in ''VideoGame/{{Glider}} 4.0'' and ''Glider PRO'' as Magical Mystery Ducts. In the former, Room 40 had four ducts, three leading to previous rooms and only one leading to the second part of the house.

** ''VideoGame/{{Mother 1}}'' had Rosemary Manor, each room had 2 doors, both doors leading to a long hallway with stairs, leading to ANOTHER room with 2 doors. If the player takes the right path, it will lead them to a haunted piano.

** ''VideoGame/Mother1'' had Rosemary Manor, each room had 2 doors, both doors leading to a long hallway with stairs, leading to ANOTHER room with 2 doors. If the player takes the right path, it will lead them to a haunted piano.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', you must go through Magical Mystery Corridors in the Wind Fish's Egg to get to the final boss. Fortunately, you can find a book in the library that tells you the exact order in which you must take each path to reach it.

* The coffin maze in the penultimate level of ''Bart vs. the World'' for the NES.