Summary
Players love being rewarded with goodies. The positive feedback games give its audience is an inherent joy of the medium. This is where bonus stages come in. In each of the games below, gamers are treated to some extra gameplay that is largely inconsequential to the main levels.
Most of the time, successfully completing these stages awards something to the player. Sometimes, the level is the reward itself. Just because these are bonus stages, it does not mean the game is just going to let players have the bonus with no extra effort. Players still have to work for it.
This side-scrolling shooteris one of the more iconic arcade titles, and its ports were not too bad, either. The regular stages scroll from left to right as players blast all the outlaws in sight in search of the bounty. The levels end with a boss fight against said bounty target. After the second and fifth stages, players are treated to a bonus level that switches up the gameplay.
These stages are shooting galleries from the first-person perspective. They play like whack-a-mole; players must press the corresponding button with the location based on where enemies pop out from hiding.
Bonus rounds in the 1996Crash Bandicootworked differently than in future games. Some levels have hidden Tawna face icons hiding in boxes; after collecting three of them, Crash is transported to the bonus round. In the original game, the boxes collected in the bonus levels do not affect the chance of getting the gem, and Crash cannot retry them if he fails.
Some levels have N. Brio bonus faces which are notably harder. Two levels have Cortex faces instead, and completing these unlocks hidden levels. From its sequel onward, the bonus levels were a part of the box count and were mandatory for getting the gems.
In theCrash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogyfrom 2017, these bonus rounds do count towards the total boxes collected and are required to get the level’s gem; also, players can retry them if they die.
Resident Evil 4’smerchant cleverly knocks down the wall between gameplay and story. The game subtly points out how little sense the character makes with how he mysteriously shows up everywhere and always has what Leon needs. The shooting gallery integrated into the campaign as bonus levels take things even a step further.
As Leon progresses through the story, some of the merchant locations have this minigame players can do to earn bottle cap figurines. They start off simple and become progressively harder. The remake also features these bonus areas, and Capcom made them even more difficult to perfect.
Mortal Kombathas carried numerous series staples from the first entry all the way up throughMortal Kombat 1.Classic characterslike Sub-Zero and Scorpion are constantly reinvented to remain fresh and interesting after all these sequels and half-reboots.
Test Your Might is a bonus stage from the original game that was absent until the series made the decision to go console only with 2002’sDeadly Alliance. It is a simple button-mashing game but an easy way to earn in-game currency to earn unlockables.
This entry is not talking aboutSuper Mario Bros.,but instead, the arcade game where players are tasked with destroying koopas to reach a high score.
After certain levels, called phases here, players will told to “test your skill” and simply collect a slew of coins before the timer runs out. This first appears after the second phase. One can see a direct line from this stage to the hidden bonus areas in the future platforming series. In later games, players are treated to bonus coins after going down certain warp pipes.
It is rare when a bonus stage is a literal level from an older game, but this is the case withHomefront: The Revolution. The game was developed by Dambuster Studios, who were originally Free Radical, the creators of theTimeSplittersfranchise.
As an homage to their classic series, players can go through the entirety of two levels in the gamevia an arcade cabinet. Later on, it was discovered that the entire game is within the title’s code.
These days, it is much easier to get full access toTimeSplitters 2on Xbox consoles thanks to Xbox One and its successor’s backward compatibility.
The single-player component of this series changes from game to game. They usually retain one aspect, however: A segment where players have to jump around and break every target on the stage.
In the original game, players are not heavily penalized for failure. Playing these stages separately is an easy way to unlock Luigi, however. In older entries, each character had their unique level for Break the Targets, but it was simplified significantly inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Call of Dutygames are famous for the plethora of bonus content packed into each title. Most of these are different modes as opposed to true bonus levels. The Mile High Club mission from 2007’sModern Warfarestands out as a true bonus level players unlock for beating the game.
It is not connected to the story and is just a bonus bit of gameplay the developers threw in there to cap off what was already an exhilarating campaign. FutureCall of Dutygames would add tags like this to the end of their missions, like the Avenged Sevenfold cameo inBlack Ops 2.
