- Toads: The little mushroom guys with polka-dotted caps. They run around with a variety of expressions along preset paths, and Mario can converse with them in the same way that he would read a sign... though Toads can have a lot more dialogue. Also, the dialogue appears as, well, dialogue (see below) instead of sign text. Toads are all over the place in Peach's Castle, and also show up in several of the levels (including Snowman's Land and Lethal Lava Land.)
Dialogue: Conversations with other characters. All cutscenes (including those that occur as a Bowser Battle starts or ends, as well as to initiate Kamek encounters and when Kamek summons the bosses of his areas) count as this. This sort of dialogue would be triggered whenever you entered an event-flag area (as opposed to when you talk to an NPC.)
Auto-Sign: Dialogue in the format of reading a sign that automatically comes up whenever a certain event-flag area is entered (and thus activated.) Examples include the game instructions at the start of the first tutorial area, the "Evil Elevator" in Bowser's Trap, and the text that pops up when you approach a minor boss (like the King Bob-Omb, Chief Chilly, or the Big Bully in Lethal Lava Land's Bully Tower.)
Spinning Hearts: the hearts that Mario/Luigi can run through to regain health. The faster he runs through, the more health he gets. These never run out, so they can be returned to time and time again when more healing is needed. They are found in several places, like Bob-Omb Battlefield, The Ancient Fortress (Bowser's Second Trap), and Tick Tock Clock.
Flame Jets: Spouts of flame... yeah... They can be perpetually active, or they can activate and deactivate at regular intervals. If Mario/Luigi touches them, it has the same result as touching the surface of lava - Mario/Luigi loses three HP, flies high up into the air, and then bounces around (Mario) or runs around clutching his butt (Luigi) for a little while. They can be found in several places, including Bowser's Trap, The Ancient Fortress (Bowser's Second Trap), Lethal Lava Land, the secret area of Tall Tall Mountain, and Bowser's Castle.
Rolling Spheres: Black balls that come out of a spawn point at regular intervals and then roll down all slopes in their path until reaching a despawn point (or falling down a pit, or falling really far and subsequently shattering.) If they collide with Mario or Luigi, they flatten him and proceed onwards without skipping a beat; they do the same to any enemies (like Goombas and Shy Guys) that happen to be in their path. They can be found in Bob-Omb Battlefield and Tall Tall Mountain, among other places.
Bob-Omb Cannons: Objects that spit out Bob-Ombs at regular intervals; the Bob-Ombs are launched according to the cannon's power and angle (which the cannon can self-adjust through some script I don't care to decipher - that's a challenge to the hackers out there!) and then immediately explode upon colliding with the ground, a wall, or an object, damaging all entities (read: Mario/Luigi and enemies) in the explosion area (which is the same as a normal Bob-Omb explosion.) They're mainly located in Lethal Lava Land.
Conveyor Belts: Platforms that "push" all objects resting on them (most notably the player) in a certain direction at a certain speed, ultimately causing said objects to fall right off (or at least be pushed all the way to the end, if there is another platform at the conveyor belt's edge) unless it acts to counteract the "push". They can be found in Tick Tock Clock.
Magic Carpets: Well, really, this is just another skin to the standard moving platform... They can be found in Rainbow Ride.
Water Spouts & Waterfalls: Water coming out of some point and then coming down somewhere else... actually, it's hard to describe this, but the water spouts can be found in Lethal Lava Land (at the exterior of the Toad Fortress) and the waterfalls can be found in Tall Tall Mountain.
Sinking Platforms: Tiles/platforms that sink down as soon as Mario/Luigi steps on them, usually into lava or some other hazard. Think of them as touch-and-go moving/rotating blocks (except that these never rotate, and are frequently rectangular.) They can be found in The Ancient Fortress (Bowser's Second Trap), Lethal Lava Land, and Bowser's Castle (the actual "Bowser's Castle" segment), among other places.
Proximity-Activated Platforms: They're like the moving/rotating blocks, except that they don't start moving until Mario/Luigi gets close enough to them; after traveling their distance, they reset back to their starting point and linger there until activated again. In other words, they're Thwomps. They can be found in Bowser's Trap and Thwomp Castle.
Toxic Haze: The gaseous stuff in the "Toxic Maze" area of Hazy Maze Cave (natch.) Mario/Luigi steadily loses HP as long as he's in there, unless he happens to be Metal Mario/Luigi. It seems to act a little bit like water, but Mario/Luigi moves around in typical fashion (instead of as if he's underwater) while immersed in this stuff.
Darkness: It's insufficient lighting... yeah... Typically, there's a small portion of the screen (centered on Mario/Luigi) that's lit up while in darkened areas. Darkness can be found in Boo's Mansion, Hazy Maze Cave and Bowser's Castle, among other places.
Checkpoints: A hidden event-flag-type object that, once Mario and Luigi enters its area, is activated; upon losing a life, the hero gets to respawn at the checkpoint. They're scattered all over the Story Mode - a list of places that have them would end up reading as "almost everywhere in the game". They can be simulated in the Level Designer with warp pipes that are hidden by sticking them directly inside of tiles (kudos to srb2nick for that idea,) but that can easily end up "breaking" a level, with clever players just finding them without coming across the sign marking the "checkpoint" and then skipping huge level chunks that way. Also, both Vertical and Horizontal Level Transitions seem to count as checkpoints by default, though the checkpoint property of Horizontal Level Transitions seems to be inactive in the Level Designer.
Vertical Level Transitions: Just like a Horizontal Level Transition, except that it cordons off different segments of the level vertically. Examples can be found in several levels, including Bob-Omb Battlefield, The Ancient Fortress (Bowser's Second Trap), Tick Tock Clock, and Bowser's Castle (particularly the "Outer Space" segment).
Vertical Level Segregators: Lines that act kind of like Vertical Level Transitions, except that they outright act as a dividing line between regions of the level, forcing you to take the long way around them. If you try to cross them from below, they act like the level ceiling, preventing you from passing (and causing you to wind up in limbo above the screen if you're somehow forced across, such as by a moving block.) If you try to cross them from above, they act like a bottomless pit, and Mario or Luigi loses a life and has to restart from the last checkpoint, regardless of whether or not there's anything other than empty space below the segregator. There's also a variant which acts as a Vertical Level Transition when crossed from below and like a Vertical Level Segregator (e.g. a bottomless pit) when cross from above. Examples of the Vertical Level Segregator can be found in Hazy Maze Cave can be found in Hazy Maze Cave (Bottomless Pit chamber) and the Lethal Lava Land bonus level (the one that launches hordes of Bullet Bills at you.) Examples of the hybrid Vertical Level Transition/Segregator can be found in Rainbow Ride and Edge of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Autoscrolling: The level scrolls automatically, preventing the player from moving forward faster than the rate of screen scroll or returning to areas that the screen has already passed. Examples can be found in Kamek's Castle and the last stretches of Bowser's Castle (e.g. "The Meteor" segment.)
Subtitles/Shine Sprite Titles: The name of the mission, positioned below the level name in the level intro box that appears as you enter. For example, "The Ancient Fortress (Bowser's Second Trap)" or "Tall Tall Mountain (Silver Stars In The Sky)". Note that the level name's unmarked and the subtitle/mission name is in brackets.
Mission Description: The ability to view a description of the level on the pause screen, along with the level name and subtitle. The Pause Screen in a Level Designer level always says: "Castle Grounds [/br] You are now in the Castle Grounds." (The [/br] is a line break, as the "You are now in the Castle Grounds" line is below the "Castle Grounds" line.) The description would be the same level description you type up when you submit a level to Runouw.com for single-mission levels; for multiple-mission levels (like the main courses and sub-courses of the Story Mode), each mission would have its own description.
Multiple Missions: This refers to having multiple Shine Sprites in the level, each representing a different mission (and requiring different conditions to "activate" it and make it collectible, like beating a certain enemy (or enemies), collecting a certain number of Red Coins, collecting a certain number of Silver Stars, etc.) Of course, some Shine Sprites would be active right from the get-go. Each Shine Sprite would be keyed to a certain mission (and thus each one would have different activation requirements.)
Rotating Terrain: It's like a Rotating Block, except with bulges, indentations, and all sorts of unevenness. An example can be found in the secret area of Tall Tall Mountain, and another is in A Galaxy Of Stars. (I wouldn't put it past Venexis to be able to simulate this sort of thing with the tricks he manages to pull off with moving/rotating blocks, but it still wouldn't quite be the same.) The Lava Wheel in Lethal Lava Land is very similar to this, so I'm lumping it into the same category. (And while I'm on that, it would be nice to see items be able to move around with the terrain, like the Silver Stars, Coins, and Star Coin in the Lava Wheel do.)
Bosses: Well, duh. I'm talking about large, powerful enemies like the King Bob-Omb, Chief Chilly, King Boo, and the Bully Tower's Big Bully whose defeat triggers the appearance of a Shine Sprite. I'm also referring to Kamek, who summons lots of enemies and eventually turns one of them into a boss (like the Goomba King). Bowser counts too, of course.
Anti-Bowser Bombs: The explosive spike-studded spheres that you toss Bowser into in order to hurt him. (They'll also blow up in Mario/Luigi's face if he touches them, injuring him appropriately.)
Star Doors: Well, really, this is just another frame for the existing "Door" object.
Big Star Doors: This, on the other hand, isn't quite the same thing - it's a double door that is, well, one big door that occupies the space of two normal doors, but is one door, not two. The front doors of Boo's Mansion are kind of the same thing, but with a different frame (the Boo's Mansion door frame rather than the Star Door frame.)
