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The 6 Best Old School Bonus Rounds Ever

Remember when games actually had proper bonus rounds? Sure, such stages may still pop up now and again, but in our era of fully immersive, character-driven, world-building videogames, we’re less likely to take time out from some complex story arc to rush down a random obstacle course or beat up a completely innocent car for no good reason. It’s certainly a far cry from the heyday of bonus rounds, back in the 80s and 90s.

In fact, bonus rounds in the classic sense – ie, levels that suddenly give you a chance to rack up points and prizes, often utilising a radically different style of gameplay – are now most likely to be seen in casino slots (even though the cash wins can be very hard to claim, and it’s recommended to learn how to calculate wagering requirements before you play).

Still, while the more mature approach of contemporary games is to be applauded, many of us still do have a soft spot for the sheer, silly fun of old school videogame bonus rounds. So let’s settle into some serious nostalgia and look back at the ones that defined the genre and still make us smile today.

1 Sonic’s Half-Pipe

Exploding onto the world in the early 90s, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 added some key elements to the Sonic universe. For one thing, it saw the debut of the hasty hedgehog’s sidekick, Miles “Tails” Prower. It also gave us an instantly iconic “Special Stage”. By collecting 50 rings and passing a Star Post, you would enter a fast and furious 3D half-pipe scattered with a whole treasure trove of rings to collect.

But, just when you started to get cocky about how easy it was, a whole bunch of bombs would suddenly appear and hit you right in the face, which was brilliant. Of course, to modern day gamers it may look like the half-pipe is made of Duplo bricks, but for the bright-eyed Sonic fans of 1992, it was basically the next best thing to experiencing actual virtual reality in your bedroom, and we have to salute it.

2 Paperboy’s obstacle course

Who’d have thought a game about delivering newspapers would be one of the landmark releases in the history of videogames? Perhaps Paperboy’s popularity had something to do with how it casually glamorised wanton vandalism, with players getting points for smashing people’s windows with newspapers (and even knocking down the odd gravestone, which does make you wonder what the newspapers were actually made of).

Arguably the best part of the game, though, was the obstacle course section that came at the end of each street. All of a sudden, you’d find yourself having to negotiate winding paths, bollards and ramps, which was frankly a lot more fun than chucking papers at letterboxes and dodging lawnmowers. Our takeaway? Every suburban street would be much improved by having a giant random obstacle course at the end of it.

3 Earthworm Jim’s asteroid race

Never mind dimension-hopping Italian-American plumbers or improbably accelerating hedgehogs. The most unlikely videogame icon of all time may well be Earthworm Jim, who was indeed an earthworm named Jim who went around in a space suit and took on such mortal enemies as Queen Slug-for-a-Butt and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head.

Today, gamers of a certain vintage think most fondly of the original game’s bonus round, which involves racing Psy-Crow (a pot-bellied crow in a space suit) through a kind of warp tunnel (or should that be wormhole?). Asteroids were strewn in the player’s path, but what really ratcheted up the crazed, frenetic atmosphere was the banjo soundtrack. Something about the combination of space animals, flying asteroids and twanging banjos made you feel like you were going slightly deranged as you played. But, you know, in a good way.

4 Shinobi’s shuriken-chucking sequence

Shinobi is undoubtedly one of the greatest side-scrollers of all time. After all, what prepubescent boy in the late 1980s wouldn’t have been pant-wettingly excited by the promise in the SEGA Master System rulebook that “Your hands and feet are lethal”? However, while your various limbs were indeed awesomely deadly, one of the most memorable bits of Shinobi didn’t involve any punching or kicking whatsoever.

We speak, of course, of the bonus round, where the game suddenly switched to first-person and you had to throw shuriken at enemy ninjas while they tried to rush you. There was something unintentionally amusing about the way the baddies scurried around like busy ants, while the casual way your hands threw the ninja stars made it seem more like you were dealing playing cards. Albeit, playing cards that could cut your face in half.

5 Resident Evil 4’s shooting range

Our fifth choice is a little less retro, although to be fair Resident Evil 4 did come out 16 years ago, which is a vaguely terrifying thought. This seminal, game-changing chapter in the franchise is notable for many things, including the oddly enjoyable shooting range mini-games. Who knew that in a game filled to bursting with villager-slaughtering action, the simple act of taking pot shots at some wooden targets would be so addictive?

It helped that the setting was suitably atmospheric – it looked like what you always hope a real-life fairground shooting gallery will look like, rather than what it actually always looks like (rubbish). Plus, you got to win bottle caps, and if there’s one thing everyone wants when they’re dealing with hordes of parasite-crazed killers, it’s bottle caps.

6 Street Fighter II’s vehicle smash up

And so we come to what may be the single most famous bonus round in any game, ever. Is that over-stating things a bit? We think not. Street Fighter II’s car smashing sequence is so iconic that some brilliant/bonkers people have actually filmed themselves beating the living daylights out of cars in homage to the game. (The aptly-named Paul “The Kicking Machine” Wordsworth has racked up close to eight million YouTube views, if you’re interested.)

Just what is it that made the bonus round so compelling? On a primal level, it was just fun to punch, kick and dismember a stationary vehicle. The absence of any threat meant you could just have at it, letting out all your stress and tension onto the poor, unassuming car. Perhaps another part of the appeal was just how peculiar it was. Why smash up a car? Was there some hidden significance, some profound and mysterious plot point, some unseen and god-like guiding force compelling you to commit such seemingly unnecessary violence upon a perfectly serviceable set of wheels? It’s truly an enigma for the ages. Ultimately, it’s just really, really fun to smash stuff up, and this bonus round is all the proof we need.