SMB2: Bonus Chance Slots (NES)

Super Mario Bros. 2
"Bonus Chance" Slot Machine Mini Game

See also: SMB2: Bonus Chance Slots (All-Stars / SNES)

One of the tricks to Super Mario Bros. 2 is to collect the rather elusive coins to play the "Bonus Chance" slot machine at the end of each stage.

This page focuses on the original version for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

With Extra Lives to be won, it pays to be lucky.





Instead of collecting a hundred coins in typical Mario fashion, loose change is scrounged for in the darkness of "Sub-Space".
Tossing a bottle of Magic Potion will make a door appear.
Plucking a tufts of grass in the darkness will yield a coin.
By strategically placing the door in places with the most grass, one can earn more coins.
It may take a few attempts to learn the optimum spots in each level.
In the first levels, the bottle of Magic Potion is best broken near where you find it.
In later worlds, the player is rewarded for carrying the bottle further.


The Bonus Chance screen is displayed after finishing a level.
By collecting just a single coin, the game will be played.
If no coins were collected, it simply says "No Bonus".
Player earns one pull at the machine for every coin collected.

Scrolling symbols include Starman, Sniffit (aka. ShyGuy) and Vegetable (aka. Turnip).

Get three of a kind and earn an extra life.


The other symbol is Cherries - The most mystical of all...

Scan from the Instruction Booklet explains how Cherries are converted into extra lives while playing the bonus game.

Gotta stop the spinning icons with cherries in the left-most slot(s).
Three Cherries are said to be worth THREE extra lives.

 

Pop That Cherry...

Lucky enough to get Cherries in the first slot, can quickly mash the "A" button exactly when the game starts to spin again, and there's an excellent chance of a repeat. Worth a single life, but they add up quickly if you can catch on to the rhythm of the machine and bank a bunch in a row.

Wish Upon a Star...

Ever a powerful symbol within the Mario realm, had long assumed that getting three Starmen in the SMB2 Bonus Chance would somehow be worth more lives...

Finally hit the jackpot with three Starmen in SMB2 - Worth a single 1UP.
Had guessed wrong! - Must have been thinking SMB3...

Super Mario Bros. 3

Screenshot from the scrolling icons match game in Super Mario Bros 3.

See also:

SMB2: Bonus Chance Slots (All-Stars / SNES)