1) If you make sure that your 'P' meter is fully charged and you hit the goal marker to its bottom left, you will always get a star card. If you hit it from its bottom right, you will always get a mushroom card.

2) The card game appears each time you get over the next multiple of 80,000 on your score.

3) After you complete a level, you may have seen a ship appear on the map. It then works a bit like a Hammer Brother, in that it moves around the map. When you come across it, it will be filled with coins before a silver pipe, which you must go down. You pop out in a room with a couple of boomerang-throwing Hammer Brothers, who you must defeat for an item, like a star or cloud. To get the ship, end the level with a number of coins which is a multiple of 11 (i.e. 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88 or 99), and the second-to-last digit on your score counter be the same (e.g. if you have 99 coins, your score must end in 90; for 44 coins, your score must end in 40; and so on).

4) If you complete an end-of-world boss in the Tanuki suit, the king will give a different message from the usual "Oh, thank heavens! Here's a letter from the Princess".