Star Road (Super Mario World)
Star Roads debuted during Super Mario World. These are stars on the map that connect various points in Dinosaur Land to Star World. They are placed to provide shortcuts across the world, though beating all of Star World's levels is necessary to get the full effect of their shortcut-oriented purpose. All the Star Roads can be found by beating a level with a second exit. If the player goes to a Star Road in Star World without beating the level in Dinosaur Land that leads to it, the road will be showing on the map but Mario or Luigi will not be able to move forward towards the unbeaten Dinosaur Land level (in Bowser Valley however, Mario or Luigi are able to reach Bowser's Castle this way). Red and green blocks must be activated to fully use them.
Though never named, Star Roads made two appearances in the Super Mario World cartoon. In the cartoon, they had the exact same purpose as they did in the game; therefore, Star Roads could warp people to Star World (or "Star Path", as it was called on the show) and only appeared alongside Star Path itself. The cartoon depicted Star Roads as large, star-shaped slabs of yellow stone found on high cliffs; the only major difference between the Star Roads of the game and those of the show were that the ones seen on the show lacked eyes and did not stand upright. The fact that both Star Roads featured in the show were seemingly found on the same cliff may indicate that they were the same Star Road, or perhaps even suggest that only one Star Road existed in the show. However, the former is more likely, as both Star Roads were shown to be near (or perhaps within) the limits of Dome City. Most of the Star Roads on the Star Path itself (save for one seen in the episode "King Scoopa Koopa") were replaced with Warp Pipes; "King Scoopa Koopa" shows that these Warp Pipes act as the ending areas of Star Roads while the separate episode "Send in the Clown" showed the landing point of the Star Roads as a possibly varying area on the Star Path, and both episodes show that the Warp Pipes have the same purpose of connecting areas in Dinosaur Land that their Star Road predecessors possessed in-game. The debut of Star Roads in the cartoon came in "Send in the Clowns", where Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Yoshi used a Star Road to access Neon Castle through Star Path, and they had their second and final appearance in "King Scoopa Koopa", where Mario and Toadstool (as well as a group of cavepeople-turned-Chickadactyls, including Luigi and Yoshi) used a Star Road to slow down a wild pursuit.
In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Star Road plays an integral role in the plot as the place where all wishes are turned into Wish Stars before being granted upon collision with the world. During Smithy's journey to Bowser's Keep, his ship Exor crashed into Star Road, shattering it into seven Star Pieces. As wishes could not be granted until the road was repaired, a person identified only as "a higher authority" sent the star warrior Geno to collect the Star Pieces, thus repairing the road. In the end, Geno was able to fulfill his duty and Star Road was presumably left in order, although it did appear to be covered in stitches after the accident. When it is seen in Super Mario RPG's ending, the Star Road looks immensely similar to Super Mario World's Star World, being a giant, floating star found high above clouds in a screen featuring the Moon to the upper-left. Also there were seven pairs of star roads in Super Mario World, whose links are: Donut Plains - Star World; Vanilla Dome - Star World; Soda Lake - Star World; Forest of Illusion - Star World; Bowser Valley - Star World; Star World - Special World; Special World - Yoshi's Island (the last one isn't exactly a pair since it is not possible to travel from Yoshi's Island back to Special World), similar to the seven star pieces. On the other hand, Mario could not recognize the name "Star Road" when Geno first spoke it, indicating that the Star Road featured in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars may have been a different Star Road. This is backed up by the Japanese version, in which the Star Road of Super Mario World had no name and was added in to International versions.
In Paper Mario, the aspect of wish-granting in Mario's universe would be seen in further detail. Star Haven is a Star-inhabited place out in space where Star Kids are raised to grant a person's wishes. The Star Spirits also form a council and use the Star Rod to determine which wishes get granted. Star Hill also makes its first reappearance (renamed "Shooting Star Summit" in the English version, possibly due to renewed copyrights), given a slightly different role but still a place where the stars fall. It's unknown if there is a connection between Star Haven and Star Road, but it's possible that the two are one in the same. Both Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars were re-released on Virtual Console.
In Mario Sports Mix, the Star Road also appeared as the Star Cup's alternate route. If players complete missions during the road, then it will become a big star for players to jump through, sending them back to the normal tournament for the final match.
