- World Map is huge
- tons of branching paths
- can skip entire worlds
- After World 2, you reach a fork in the road that leads to either Sparking Waters or Frozen Glacier
- Forest of Illusion returns (in spirit) as Soda Jungle
- you'll have to find secret exits in this portion of the game to proceed
- Baby Yoshis also periodically appear in set places on the World Map
- find one and he’ll follow you into any level where you can then use him
- keep taking him with you from level to level as long as you don’t die or lose him somehow
- power-ups can also be found periodically on the roaming map
- touch one to have it added to your inventory instantly
- hold 10 items total
- any used item is still applied to everyone in co-op mode
- P-Acorn and allows you to fly indefinitely
- Little P’s emit like sparkles from Mario when using the P-Acorn
- P-Acorns can be earned by grabbing Nabbit
- he is a new character that steals items from Toad Houses and runs off to hide in a level
- find him to get involved in a chase which can earn you a P-Acorn
- world map will sometimes show cutscenes featuring the Princess’s Castle growing into a great state of disarray
- it is eventually surrounded by a giant Tornado
- Challenge Mode offers dozens of challenges broken into different genres
- examples: flying stages” or collecting 1-Ups
- difficulty ranges from 1-5 stars, with 5 being the hardest
- earn Bronze, Silver, or Gold medals for high-scores in Challenge Mode
- Penguin Suit appears as part of the challenges stages
- one level where you slide down a hill trying to take down as many enemies as possible to earn 1-Ups
- Mini Mario also appears in Challenge Mode
- challenge where you’re holding a Blue Yoshi and have to carefully bounce off the bubbles he spits out to reach a goal high above
- Coin Battle is a competitive multiplayer mode to see who can collect the most coins
- now with levels exclusive to it

Stage names

Acorn Plains-1 “Acorn Plains Way”

Acorn Plains-2 “Tilted Tunnel”

Acorn Plains-Tower “Crushing Cogs Tower”

Acorn Plains-3 “Yoshi Hill”

Acorn Plains-4 “Mushroom Heights”

Acorn Plains-5 “Rise of the Piranha Plants”

Acorn Plains-”Castle Lemmy’s Swingback Castle”



Layer Cake Desert-1 ”Stone-Eye Zone”

Layer Cake Desert-2 ”Perilous Pokey Cave”

Layer Cake Desert-3 ”Fire Snake Cavern”

Layer Cake Desert-Fortress “Layer Cake Fortress” (I could be mistaken on this one)

Layer Cake Desert-4 ”Spike’s Spouting Sand”

Layer Cake Desert-5 *Missed it*

Layer Cake Desert-6 ”Blooming Lakitu’s”

Layer Cake Desert Castle - ”Morton’s Compactor Castle”



Sparkling Waters-1 “Waterspout Beach”

Sparkling Waters-2 Tropicial Refresher

Sparkling Waters-3 Above the Cheep Cheep Sea

Sparkling Waters-Tower “Giant Skewer Tower”

Sparkling Waters-4 Urchin Shoals

Sparkling Waters-5 Dragoneel’s Undersea Grotto



Frosted Glacier-1 ”Spinning Star Sky”

Frosted Glacier-2 ”Cooligan Fields”

Frosted Glacier-Tower Fortress “Freezing Rain Tower”

Frosted Glacier-3 ”Prickly Goombas”

Frosted Glacier-4 ”Scaling the Mountainside”

Frosted Glacier-5 ”Icicle Caverns”

Frosted Glacier-Ghost House ”Swinging Ghost House”

Frosted Glacier-Castle “Wendy’s Shifting Castle”



Soda Jungle-1 “Jungle of the Giants”

Soda Jungle- ”Bridge Over Poisoned Water”

Soda Jungle-Tower “Snake Block Tower”

Soda Jungle-3 “Bramble Jungle

Soda Jungle-4 “Painted Swamp Land”

Soda Jungle-5 ”Deepsea Ruins”

Soda Jungle-Castle ”Iggy’s Volcanic Castle”