Warp Zone

"WAAARRRP ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!"

—Super Meat Boy

A secret area of a video game (possibly a Debug Room) that allows you to magically teleport to another level, possibly offering you a choice of levels.

This is slightly different in principle from Warp Whistle: the Warp Zone usually takes you on a one-way trip to a later area you otherwise wouldn't be able to visit for some time yet, whereas the Warp Whistle is mostly a faster way to travel between areas you've been through before.

Doesn't count if it's due to a Good Bad Bug.

Examples of Warp Zone include:

• The Trope Namer is Super Mario Bros, which had secret Warp Zones in two Underground Levels. In the iconic World 1-2, you could run over the level ceiling (bypassing the level exit pipe) and reach the Warp Zone with pipes to Worlds 2, 3 and 4 (or glitch through walls and enter the pipe to Minus World). Running over the ceiling in World 4-2 would only get you a pipe to World 5, but a hidden beanstalk took you to a Warp Zone with pipes to Worlds 6, 7 and 8.
  • Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels were infamous for the Warp Zones that would take you back to an earlier world. They were nice enough to include suicide pits in said reverse Warp Zones, so you didn't actually have to take them.
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 also had a Warp Zone that could only be activated after entering through magic potion doors.
  • The literal Warp Whistle in Super Mario Bros 3 actually works by transporting Mario to a Warp Zone (which is also called as "World 9" on the status bar).
  • New Super Mario Bros. has hidden cannons that launch Mario into farther worlds.
• Deadly Rooms of Death includes some hidden warp rooms in its larger level sets.
• Super Monkey Ball has some bonus goals that send you directly to later levels.
• Eye of the Beholder has magical portals that are activated by special stone items, including one room with no less than five of them. The items must be found first, of course. Also, most portals are two-way, but a pair of them are one-way, locking the party in a level they may not be ready to explore.
• Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 both have a few of these. They seems less "official" and more buggy in the first game, but apparently they're intentional.
• Kid Chameleon has the Elsewhere levels.
• Charlie II. Apart from having TWELVE fiendishly difficult to find secret levels, every sixth level starting from the first, a warp zone appears, which is pretty much impossible to find without a walkthrough. Fortunately, you don't need them for Hundred Percent Completion.
• Referred to by name in Sonic the Hedgehog The Movie, though the version displayed actually functions more like a Portal Network.
• Battletoads has several warp portals; eg, the first is accessed by headbutting the first two Psycho Pigs, and the Turbo Tunnel one is accessed by running into a certain wall.
• The Black Hole in Star Fox 1, and the two Warp Zones in Star Fox 64.
• In Adventure Island games, the player can find hidden flying reptile's chamber, who can take you to the next area if prompted.
• Super Meat Boy has portals in a few levels that will take you to hidden levels and even award secret characters on completion in some cases. Touching one results in Meat Boy being sucked into a black hole while the announcer screams "WARP ZONE!!!" Also, if you unlock one, you can access it from the world map.
• Super Mario XP: The Warp Zone is found in Stage 5. If used, the Reznor boss battle and a portion of stage 6 are skipped.