At the end of each location, each of which includes three levels, all of the players are rated based on their performance. If you are playing by yourself, you still receive a grade.
Based on your rating you can receive one of four different awards: gold, silver, bronze, or loser. Ratings take several factors into account: enemies defeated, gold collected, stars collected, and gold challenge medals won.
The ratings are based on percentages. Here is what you need to do to earn three of the ratings:
100% – Silver
99-50% – Bronze
49-0% – Loser
Let’s take a look at what you need to get the Silver grade.
GOLD
Gold makes up 40% of your total. Collect 1,600 gold over the course of the three levels in a location to get 40% towards your grade. Get another 200 gold to increase this to 45%.
ENEMIES DEFEATED
Defeat 70 enemies to get another 30% of your total. Defeat an extra 15 enemies during the three levels of a location to increase your percentage.
GOLD CHALLENGE MEDALS
Earn a gold challenge medal in each of the three arcade challenges for 15%. (Each is worth 5%).
COLLECT BLUE STARS
This is for another 15%. If you are playing with one or two players, you need to collect 3 stars. For 3 players you need 6 stars and then 9 stars if you have four players.
Note that these totals are cumulative for all players. Therefore, when playing with other players, you do not have to get 1,600 gold all by yourself. Instead, all players must collect a total of 1,600 gold to get the 40%. If you miss out on some of the arcade challenges or blue stars, be sure to collect 200 extra gold or defeat 15 more enemies to help make up for this.
The gold grade is tougher to earn. In fact, you must play through a location twice to even be eligible to earn it. To get the gold grade, you first have to meet the requirements for the silver grade. Then you also have to do the following:
WORLD COLLECTIBLES
Collect all nine (three in each level) collectibles in the world.
GUESTS
Free both guests. You can only free one guest on your first time playing through a location and must then play the location again to rescue the second guest.
In addition to receiving a grade for each location, you also are graded for worlds. This grade take the average of all three locations within the world, so you have to earn gold grades in all three locations to get a gold grade for a world.