Draft:Star Road

The Star Road first appeared in the Super NES game Super Mario World. It was in an alternate place from the game area, which could be warped to from the World Map. It could be visited by the player, and featured its own playable levels, but played no part in the main storyline.

Star Road is a plateau shaped like a star, with a Star Warp at the tip of each point, and a round mountain in the middle. Players access the Star Road via the five Star Warps hidden about the map. The Star Warps can be unlocked by finding the secret exit in levels with a red marker (levels with only one exit have yellow markers).

The secret exits that connect to the five Star Warps are located in Donut Plains, inside Vanilla Dome, under the Twin Bridges, near the Forest of Illusions, and in the Valley of Bowser. The Star Road contains five levels, each with their own secret exit. Initially, the Star Warps each connect to only one level. Completing the level sends the player back to the Star Warp. However, the secret exits create paths between the levels, connecting it to the next Star Warp. By completing all five secret exits, players fully connect the Star Road and can warp quickly about the map via the Star Warps. If not yet unlocked, warping to the World Map from a Star Warp will reveal its location, though the corresponding level's secret exit must be found in order to access it. star world five also has a secret passage that leads to the "special world," a world of hidden levels

Star Road's background music is a low-tempo Dixieland version of the "invincibility theme".

The Star Road was also seen in the Super Mario World cartoon episodes "Send in the Clown" and "King Scoopa Koopa".

Early ending

Using the Star Road, players can quickly finish the game and reach Bowser without need to play most of the levels. Players need only find the Star Warp in Donut Plains and complete the Star Road to access the fifth Star Warp that leads right to Bowser's Castle, the final level. In this way, the game can be completed with only having played 11 levels.

Special Zone

The secret exits for the first four levels of the Star World connect the levels and subsequently create the Star Road. However, it is the last level's normal exit that completes the Star Road. This level's secret exit instead creates a path to the mountain in the middle, where a new Star Warp is created, leading to the 'Special' World.

The background is entirely black, except for a series of twinkling stars that spell out 'Special', as well as the image of the Super Famicom symbol. There are 8 levels in the Special World, each named after a slang word, namely Gnarly, Tubular, Way Cool, Awesome, Groovy, Mondo, Outrageous and Funky. The levels are notable for using several backgrounds from throughout the game, as well as new ones, and for their heightened difficulty. If left idle for several minutes, the world map music will play a remix of the original Super Mario Bros. theme song. Also, one of the special levels is the setting for the opening clip on the title screen.

Players who complete the 'Special' World are rewarded in the final level with coins spelling out, 'YOU ARE A SUPER PLAYER!!' on a long stretch of ground before the exit, and various changes in the rest of the game, such as enemies changing (Piranha Plants become Jack-o-Lanterns, Bullet Bills become Pidgit Bills, and the Koopas' shells become Mario masks), and an autumnal color palette replaces the spring color scheme of the World Map.

In Super Mario RPG, contrary to its Super Mario World counterpart, the Star Road plays a critical role in the storyline, and is a place that cannot be visited. In the Star Road, people's wishes are transformed into stars, and granted wishes become shooting stars that fall back down to Earth.

The Star Road played an integral part in granting wishes, but it was destroyed when Smithy's minion, the giant sword Exor, fell from the sky and onto Bowser's Castle. When Exor fell, the Star Road was shattered into seven Star Pieces, which Mario and his friends must retrieve so it can be rebuilt, and wishes can be granted once more. Most of the Star Pieces are retrieved by Smithy's minions, and Mario must fight them in order to win them back.

In Paper Mario, the home of Twink and the other Star Spirits is known as Star Heaven. This is presumably the Star Road as Super Mario RPG depicts it. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga there is an area known as Stardust Fields which is styled the same as Star Hill from Super Mario RPG, only this time serves as the boundary between the Mushroom Kingdom and the Beanbean Kingdom. Star Hill is revisited in the sequel to Mario & Luigi, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Also, the "Rainbow Road" courses in the Mario Kart series have a resemblance to Star Road.