History Main / BonusStage

* ''VideoGame/LadyBug'' for the UsefulNotes/ColecoVision had the Vegetable Harvest Screen as a reward for [[SpellingBonus spelling S-P-E-C-I-A-L]], while the arcade original simply gave the player a free game credit.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'' on the UsefulNotes/GameBoy, 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. One room, notably, exaggerates this trope by having all of the space in the room except for the floor and exit pipe filled completely with coins. It was impossible to collect all coins unless you used a thrown Super Ball (which, unlike other Mario games' fireballs, can collect coins, bounce at a 45-degree angle upon hitting a surface, and are unaffected by gravity). A few of the coin rooms have SpikesOfDoom, allowing you to ''die in a coin room''.

** In the 8-bit (UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem and UsefulNotes/GameGear) game, the Chaos Emeralds were hidden in the levels but collecting enough rings gave you access to a Bonus Stage full of rings, extra lives and one continue per stage.

* ''VideoGame/TheSmurfs1994'': Collecting enough stars in all but the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance version will take you into a bonus level.
* ''Manga/{{Gon}}'' for the UsefulNotes/SuperFamicom has three timed bonus minigames: "Gon Eats Apples," "Gon Makes a Sculpture," and "Gon Steps on a Crocodile."

* ''VideoGame/{{Bug}}'' has two kinds. The first plays like the regular game itself (except you had to collect gold objects for extra lives). You could die in those, if that happened you'd exit the bonus level without losing any lives. The other is a PassThroughTheRings bonus, with an extra continue should you make it to the end.

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicRushSeries Sonic Rush]]'' 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. Its sequel has Sonic racing against Johnny for the Chaos Emeralds, while Blaze gets Sol Emeralds on certain missions.

* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' has probably the saddest example of a bonus level in video game history, as it serves to highlight [[HurtingHero just how troubled]] Shovel Knight is by the loss of his beloved Shield Knight. Every three levels, you enter a DreamSequence where Shield Knight is falling from the sky and Shovel Knight fights through a horde of monsters while trying to catch her, and the dream always ends ''just'' before he does. While killing the monsters allows you to earn a lot of treasure, the game convinces you that catching Shield Knight is your biggest priority, even though there's no actual reward for it.

* The ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise has many of these, which are often required for obtaining ChaosEmeralds, and may also grant other rewards:

* If it's possible to die at all, it will only kick you out of the bonus stage without taking a life.

* ''Super VideoGame/PacMan'' had a bonus stage every few screens where Pac-Man in his super state must eat all the objects on the screen before time runs out.

* Contains opportunities to get large amounts of points, {{One Up}}s, continues, {{Power Up}}s(often rare/powerful ones), and even BonusStageCollectables.

* Contains opportunities to get large amounts of points, {{One Up}}s, continues, {{Power Up}}s, and even BonusStageCollectables.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'': Going down certain pipes or climbing up hidden vines will take you to hidden areas filled with coins. Later games in the series keep these in-level bonus areas but also add entirely separate levels, sometimes hidden and sometimes not, in which you can get loads of points, lives, or items.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' has an even larger number of different kinds of bonus area/level. Underground coin rooms, beanstalk coin rooms, the slot-machine MiniGame, the Memory Mini Game, the ''treasure ship'', etc.

[[folder: Platform Game ]]

** In the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', going down certain pipes or climbing up hidden vines will take you to hidden areas filled with coins. Later games in the series keep these in-level bonus areas but also add entirely separate levels, sometimes hidden and sometimes not, in which you can get loads of points, lives, or items.

** In the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'', 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.

** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' and its sequels have loads of secret areas filled with goodies, some of which behave more like part of a normal level and some of which behave more like levels in their own right.
** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' has hidden rooms that contain many bananas, banana coins, and balloons. Collecting everything reveals a Puzzle Piece necessary for OneHundredPercentCompletion. Falling off does not result in death.

* In ''Videogame/{{Oasis}}'', bonus stage where most of the map consists of large oasis. There is also a single town. Once the glyph and the city is discovered, victory is guaranteed.

** ''Sonic 3'' was unique for having Special Stages dedicated to the Chaos Emeralds, as well as three less elaborate Bonus Stages for the express purpose of farming rings, lives, and shields -- a gashapon, a hybrid of pachinko and pinball, and a slot machine located in a perpetually-rotating area based on the Sonic 1 special stages. The Special Stages, meanwhile, were 3D mazes where you must "Get Blue Spheres", which are replaced with either rings[[note]]if one goes around the edges of a rectangular formation of spheres, which causes the player to automatically obtain all of them and replace them with rings[[/note]] or red spheres after being obtained; red spheres eject the player from the stage if touched, whereas rings increase the player's score and can grant a continue if all possible rings are obtained.

** ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' has a new Special Stage inspired by ''CD'' and ''Chaotix'', in the form of a fully-3D chase after a UFO holding a Chaos Emerald, with players tasked with collecting blue spheres to increase their speed and Rings to increase their time limit. The "Blue Spheres" Special Stages from ''VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles'' also return as Bonus Stages for collecting Medals to unlock new content; getting all the spheres but not all the rings gives the player a silver medal, and getting all the spheres ''and'' rings grants a gold medal.

** In the first ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'', Bonus Stages are reached by collecting three tokens of a certain character: Tawna, Brio and Cortex. Tawna's Bonus Stages are mildly challenging but certainly do-able, while the Brio and Cortex Bonus Rounds are very tough, but always reward you with extra lives (Brio) or a Key to unlock a new level (Cortex). Belying the name a bit is that they are all challenging to a certain degree (and there are no invisible walls to prevent you from pushing Crash into/out of the screen and falling to your death), which is frustrating because Bonus Rounds are one of the only methods of getting to a Save Screen (getting a Gem is the other, which is even more difficult). Oh and if you died, you had to restart the level and get the tokens again.
*** In the ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy N-Sane Trilogy]]'', you could try the Bonus Rounds as many times as you liked, but to keep the original difficulty you now had to also break all the boxes in Tawna's Bonus Rounds to get the Box Gem similar to ''Crash 2'' and '3''. Unfortunately, several Bonus Rounds were never designed for the player to get them all, particularly The Lost City's.
** Starting with ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack'', Bonus Stages were changed to platforms that whisk Crash away to breather sections, with no challenging obstacles and plenty of Wumpa Fruit and extra lives to help the player after they've been dying so much in the regular level. Joining them are the Skull Routes, which are incredibly difficult but reward the player with either a Gem or [[LastLousyPoint the last boxes they need to get the Box Gem]] (and dying here ''will'' make you lose a life!).
** ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime'' takes a different approach by making the Bonus Rounds play like Skull Routes: rather than being a breather from the action, the puzzles and difficulty are intentionally much more difficult than the regular levels. This would be fine [[NintendoHard if the regular levels weren't already much harder than before]].

And here's a little [[LongSongShortScene bonus tune]]\\

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'' has bonus stages that are gotten to by collecting three tokens, which can lead to more traditional Bonus Rounds, or ''extra'' challenging sections to earn a rare reward. The normal Bonus Rounds weren't entirely focused on being a breather however and it was all too easy to die in them, belying the name a bit. The later ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games have one in each level (the page image is from the [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped third game]]), where you just have to step on a pad to get to. Here they are genuine breathers: the platforming is much less challenging than the main level and there are lives and Wumpa Fruit a-plenty. Some levels have a second pad that only appears if you get that far without dying, or have the corresponding colored Gem in your hands, which leads to a more-dangerous-than-normal-play Skull Route.
* ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'' had a variation where, after each world, you would get a bonus round, where Jazz would run around (in ThirdPersonShooter mode, minus the shooter part, rather than SideScroller mode) in a semi-3D maze collecting gems. If you met the target within the time limit, you got a 1-up.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'' has bonus stages that are gotten to by collecting three of certain items. The later ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games have one on each level (the page image is from the [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped third game]]), which you just have to step on a pad to get to. Some levels have a second pad that only appears if you get that far without dying, or have the corresponding colored Gem in your hands, which leads to a more-dangerous-than-normal-play Death Stage.

* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'' has probably the saddest example of a bonus level in video game history, as it serves to highlight [[HurtingHero just how troubled]] Shovel Knight is by the loss of his beloved Shield Knight. Every three levels, you enter a DreamSequence where Shield Knight is falling from the sky and Shovel Knight fights through a horde of monsters while trying to catch her, and the dream always ends ''just'' before he does. The monsters in the dream drop much more treasure than they do during normal gameplay.

* ''VideoGame/{{Aleste}}':