Mario Adventure/Printable version

Mario Adventure

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What is Mario Adventure?

As said before, Mario Adventure is a very good ROM hack of Super Mario Bros. 3. You’ve never played Super Mario Bros. 3 like this before, I assure you! (Well, unless you already played this game). This page outlines the main changes.

Completely new maps

These maps are designed from scratch, structured differently with new graphics. Each map has several unnumbered levels, a fortress, and a final level that looks the same as the regular levels, but is always at the end.

Completely new levels

The SMB3 levels have been thrown away. The new ones are generally a lot harder, the same way that Lost Levels is harder than SMB1. Some of the later levels have special objectives, such as surviving for a set time or collecting all the coins.

Juiced-up items

Thankfully, there are new, powerful items that can help you through the hard stuff. Most notably, the Magic Wand will let you clear the path of enemies, and the Fire Flower lets you jump a lot higher, helpful for navigating platforms. Kuribo’s Shoe now carries over between levels and can even be stored by pressing Run and Up at the exact same time.

New enemies

Some enemies have had their looks changed, and many have had a few behaviour changes. For example, Boos turn invisible when you look at them, Bullet Bill Blasters shoot a lot more frequently, and Piranha Plants will come out even when you’re on the pipe. Buzzy Beetles are now Gold Shy Guys, and Lakitus are now bomb-dropping Warkitus.

Save Feature

A “battery” saves the game, so you don’t have to use the state-saving ability of your emulator. It saves your score, coins, time, and items, as well as keys collected and worlds finished. It doesn’t save every level you beat, but when you finish the world, you can skip past levels freely. Saving and loading is automatic and instant; don’t you wish it was like that nowadays? You can erase the game save by pressing Up and Select at the title screen when it says to press start.

Keys

Each world has a hidden key. By clearing the world, you get a hint about where the key in that world is. After you collect the key, reset the game and use the key to open a door in the Warp Zone. You need to get all the keys, as well as clear all the worlds, before you can play World 8. If you really can’t find a key, check out the Key locations section.

Spare Item Box

Just like in Super Mario World, but it appears at the left of the status bar. Pressing Select swaps your current suit with the one in the spare item box. When you collect an item, the suit you were in replaces the one in the spare item box, if any. Do a find on “? spare” without the space for more info.

Infinite Lives

No worries about replaying levels after a Game Over. Mario Adventure doesn’t keep track of lives lost, so tackle a level as many times as you want. Practice, practice, practice, there’s no harm in it (unless you go in with an item, then you’ll risk losing it).

Coins

You can hold up to 9999, and can use them at Mushroom Houses to buy a random item (300 coins) or play a game (just like the Spade House) for an item (100 coins). Instead of 1-Up Mushrooms, this game has Gold Mushrooms that are worth 50 coins, and hitting enough enemies consecutively also results in 50 coins. Spare time when you finish a level is worth coins too.

Weather

It’s random each time you enter a level. Early day, late day, night, rain, or even snow. When it’s snowing, the ground is much more slippery, but for other weather it’s just a graphical change, although the rain and snow allow you to see hidden blocks more easily.

New Status Bar

The status bar has a built in game timer, shows your keys and cleared levels, and even displays the name of the world you’re on.

Sound Test

A little cheat code. At the start of the game, enter the classic Konami code: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Select, to enter the sound select. Left and right moves between songs, A plays them.

A few bugs

With all the new features, there are a couple bugs in the game, but most of them are graphical. The biggest thing to make sure you don’t do is collect items when your inventory is full and the last item is a key. Your key will be replaced, and you won’t be able to get it again, so you’d need to erase your game. This shouldn’t be a problem if you use keys to unlock doors as soon as you collect them. Aside from that, certain objects and enemies look screwed up on occasion; for example, a Boom-Boom sometimes looks like a messed-up Dry Bones. Try to ignore this weirdness, it usually goes away quickly. The word “up” in “time-up” is replaced by a treasure chest. This is because the same “up” is used as graphic when you get lives in the spade house game (ie “2-up”), but in Mario Adventure, you get treasures instead of lives. Aside from the easy-to-avoid key bug, there aren’t any game-breakers here.

Story

After Mario defeated Bowser in Super Mario Bros. 3, he and his brother Luigi began to escort Peach back to the Mushroom Kingdom. They were having a nice, safe journey until a Bob-omb fell from the sky! Luigi looked up and to his surprise saw an enemy he had never saw before! It looked like a Lakitu, but it was black with odd eyes. He claimed to be Warkitu, a mutant Lakitu. Mario got into his usual stance to take down this "Warkitu". However, Warkitu started to throw more Bob-ombs on the ground. Peach ran behind Luigi for safety while Mario tried to dodge the bombs, but Mario was hit and knocked out cold...

When he finally came to, he found himself in an odd world. Fortunately, Toad found him just in time to explain what was going on. Toad told that Bowser had stolen a powerful crystal that magnify the natural forces of the world. Everything had mutated. Some of Mario's enemies had become more powerful! However, Mario's abilities also became more powerful! Toad explained that the crystal's power worked for both good and evil. Mario obtained a nearby Fire Flower that changed his clothes to an unfamiliar orange. Mario found himself jumping higher than before, and his fireballs moved in a straight line! When they came in contact with an object, they didn't disperse, they continued going! Mario smiled and knew that with these new powers, he must set out on another adventure in this strange new land to restore peace and find out what happened to Peach and Luigi!

Mario traveled to the usual place that lead to Bowser's world, but the entrance was gone! Not knowing what to do, he asked Toad what could done. Toad explained that the only way to reach Bowser's Castle is by warping there. So Mario journeyed to the Warp Zone. On his arrival, he saw there were giant locks blocking the path to the warp pipe to Bowser's world. He asked a local who had put them there. The local explained that Bowser placed the locks there and hid the magic keys to them in the seven worlds that can be visited from the Warp Zone. Mario thought, no sweat, he would just go find the magic keys and unlock the locks. However, little did he know, Bowser had hidden the keys very well and guarded many areas to throw Mario off. And to make it worse, each of his kids had re-stolen the wands, which would be needed if Mario were to activate the magic needed for the keys to work. A very complex situation laid before Mario. He knew he had to do it. So packing a bag for collecting coins, Mario set off on his adventure...

Enemies

All the enemies are based on Super Mario Bros. 3 enemies, but many look differently, act differently, or both. Some subtle and not-so-subtle changes adds to the challenge of the game.

Warkitu

Based on Lakitus from SMB3, Warkitus fly in the sky (or sometimes under the ground) and throw bombs at our hapless hero. These bombs explode really quickly too. Try to run really fast, or look at the bombs ahead of time. Oh, by the way, if you’re running and run into a bob-omb, you’ll hold it. You might (will) want to let go of the run button to kick it away from you!

Bob-Omb

Just like the ones from SMB3, except they explode faster. It is advised is keep away; there’s usually not enough time to do anything helpful with them.

Boo

You remember Boos from SMB3, right? They float towards you when you look away, but stop and look sad when you look at them (but still do damage if you touch them). In Mario Adventure, Boos are also invisible when you look at them. Very annoying to run into one of these guys, so in fortresses you’ll want to look back every so often just so boos reveal themselves. I’ll try to document where they are, but some fortresses have tons of these things.

Boom-Boom

In SMB3, each one is the mini-boss that you fight at the end of fortresses. An easy exercise for veteran players; just hop on it three times before it can do anything. Still, for Novice players, they were tough enough.

Mario Adventure puts one at the end most levels, so you should be at the skill level to beat these things consistently. When you see one, just be relentless! Jump on him before he moves. Then, after he gets hit, he shows off his spikes. Just jump at him at that point and he’ll be vulnerable when you land the jump. Do that a third time, and you’re done. If you do let one fly, wait for him to swoop, avoid him, and jump on him when he’s near the ground.

See Boom-Boom Troubles for more info on complex situations.

Boomerang Brothers

They throw boomerangs that move toward you, a good deal above the ground and then come back to the Brother much closer to the ground. Don’t touch the boomerangs, and try to jump on the boomerang brother, but not when he’s about to throw a boomerang, or when a boomerang is coming back at him.

Don’t be afraid to stand near a Boomerang Brother; the boomerangs will be thrown over you. In most cases, you can run (duck) past the first boomerang, then jump on him before he throws a second.

Bullet-Bill Blasters and Bullet Bills

The blasters shoot Bullet Bills at you unless you’re very close the them. The Bullet Bills themselves can be hopped on, but any hit from the side or underneath and you take damage.

Cannon Balls

They move in a straight line. And… you can hop on them… and… aside from that only Wand sparks hurt them. The small ones come out of blasters (some of which are pipe-shaped), and sometimes from the edge of the screen. The big type always comes from the edge of the screen and moves across quickly.

Chain Chomp

Chain Chomps constantly lunge at you. Touching them hurts, but the chain they’re leashed by is harmless. Glass blocks, koopa shells, and shyguy heads are all useful for attacking Chain Chomps. Otherwise, try to keep under them, or jump over them. Either way, really.

Fake Glass Block

Some Glass blocks are a little more red-hued. These are small goombas in disguise. Jump on them, but watch out because their hops are pretty high.

Fire Boo

Fire Boos are another can o’ worms. Remember those things that looked like big black evil bowling balls that had a tail of fire and shot the fire at you? They’ve been replaced by fire boos, which are similar, but you can’t jump on them, and they’re invisible when not shooting. But you can still see the tail of fire, so you’ll know where they are until they’ve used up their fire (they’ll explode a little while after that). Learn their patterns if you haven’t in SMB3. Fire balls and wand sparks both kill fire boos.

Fire Brothers

There were only two guarding a warp whistle in SMB3 (And one at the start of a level in World 8 of SMB3), but there’s plenty of them in this game. Their fireballs bounce and are stopped by walls. They shoot fireballs in twos, so you can run up to them after the second shot. It’s best to defeat them as you pass by. If you just avoid them, they’ll keep shooting at you until they’re off-screen.

Fryguys

Fryguys are those big hopping flames. Running under them is usually a good way of avoiding them. They can be killed with Raccoon tails, wands, and invincibility stars.

Gold Shy Guys

Gold Shy Guys generally work like Buzzy Beetles from SMB3. Jump on them and they turn into like round heads that act just like shells. Upside-down Gold Shy Guys are just like Upside-down Buzzy Beetles; they drop from the ceiling and slide towards you quickly when you’re close.

Goomba (or Flying Goomba)

The weakest enemies of the game. They move in one direction, only changing directions when they hit a wall. A single jump will defeat them.

Some have wings; once they start making tiny hops, they’ll take a big hop soon after. Other goombas with wings fly in the air and drop tiny goombas at you. The tiny ones make it hard for you to jump; shake them off by rapidly turning left and right. When you hit a goomba with wings, the wings fall off and it turns into a regular Goomba.

Hammer Brothers

Watch out for the hammers they shoot in an arc. The classic “hammer brother dance” works here, where you go just next to him, under his hammers, and run under them when they jump. You can also try to do a running jump over them, or even hop onto them, though that’s hard to do without hitting a hammer. Some of them behave a little oddly in this game, and jump down through the ground, and off the screen.

Koopa

These popular enemies are unchanged from SMB3. Koopas walk forward like goombas, but the red ones will turn around instead of dropping. Hitting flying ones takes away their wings. When you hit a walking koopa, it turns into a shell. Hold the run button to hold the shell and let go to kick it. Don’t get hit by a shell that rebounds off a block or wall. You can use koopa shells to knock over other enemies and to hit bricks and ? blocks.

Piranha Plant

These things are in SMB3. In that game, they hid away whenever you were close or on the pipe. In this game, if you stand by the left of the pipe, the Piranha Plant stops coming out, but if you stand on the center or right of it, it will come out (and damage you). The fire-spitting type shoots straight fireballs at you, and has been given the same change as the regular Piranha Plant.

Spiked Brothers

They throw hammers like hammer bros, but are much bigger and cause the ground to shake, making Mario unable to move. Jump so you’re in the air as the giant bro lands on the ground. I usually like to jump over him (you can’t jump on him), but the hammers are hard to avoid. The other way is to run under him as he jumps, but make sure to jump after getting under him, before he shakes you up!

Spike

Those green things that shot spike balls at you in a couple of SMB3 levels are back as black Shy Guys that are covered in spikes. They can’t be jumped on, but you can duck under their spike balls.

Spiny

They move around like Goombas, but you can’t jump on Spinies. Watch out for upside-down Spinies; they act just like upside-down Gold Shy Guys, except you can’t jump on them.

Spinning Circles

There’s always two of these that move around each other in a circular path. Watch their patterns carefully, some levels have big clusters of these things and it pay to see how they move.

Stretch

Also known a Boo Bar, Stretching Boo, Boo Blocks and a myriad of other names by SMB3 players, but the enemy's game is the same here-- these are long eerie white rectangular blocks usually found in fortresses that have Boo heads pop out and chase you as you walk upon the white block! The blocks themselves really don't harm you and can be used as a platform, but watch out so you're not hit by the Boo's head. You can blast the Boo's head with a wand and charge at it with a Starman. Otherwise, use fancy footwork to dodge the Boo within the block and tread carefully.

Walking Flames

These little flames walk toward you when you’re not looking. Jumping over them is usually the best course of action.

Items

Gold Mushroom

Replacing the 1-Up Mushroom, these oft-hidden mushrooms give you 50 coins.

Coin Multiplier

This item applies a multiplier to collected coins for one stage only. The multiplier is either 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x as much and is decided at random the moment you choose the item.

Fire Flower

Fire Fire Mario can jump a lot higher than normal, which makes platform jumping a whole lot easier. Aside from that, it shoots straight fireballs that go through walls, but they’ll drift up as they do. You can use fireballs to knock away certain enemies, including Brothers with one hit. Boom-Booms can be defeated with five fireballs, and koopa-kids with ten.

Heart

This is an awesome item, because it transforms you into Magic Mario and puts an invisibility hat in your spare item box! Magic Mario is pretty powerful, the invisibility hat is icing on the cake.

Super Star

This star makes you invincible for a while. Lava, pits, and squishing will still kill Mario though. A great item for blazing through Brother Challenges.

Invisible Cap

Taken from Tanooki Mario, but it’s pretty different. He can float (pressing jump in the air), but can’t fly. Tap Down + Run to hide behind the background (for a short time), where enemies can’t hurt you. It’s particularly good underwater.

Kuribo’s Shoe

Kuribo’s shoe was in one level in SMB3, and at the end of the level, it was taken away from you. In this game, you can collect Kuribo’s shoe in many levels, either as an item, a direct power-up, or stealing them from Goombas as before. You can keep them across levels, and you can store or retrieve one by pressing Run and Up at the exact same time. You must store one away in situations like swimming (he can’t swim with the shoe).

Kuribo’s shoe lets you jump high, jump on certain enemies you couldn’t before (though many still damage Mario), and it just looks cool.

Mushroom

The mushroom transforms Mario into Super Mario. He’s twice the size, and if he gets hit, he reverts to little Mario. It’s good since you can get hit without dying, but it’s bad in that it’s harder to avoid or get under obstacles. You have to be Super before ? blocks will give you Fire Flowers or Raccoon Tails.

Potion

Look sort of like the potions in SMB2 (USA), but they act just like POW blocks in SMB3. They turn bricks into coins and coins into bricks. Bricks that contain items look like coins but still act like blocks. Potions last a limited time, and in this game are often used to open passages (changing bricks into coins) and form platforms (turning coins into bricks).

Raccoon Leaf

The classic Raccoon Tail works just like it did in SMB3. You need a big running start to fly, sometimes you can do it by running back and forth between a smaller area, but you need a decent amount of space. After you start to fly, a small counter to the bottom left of the status bar will count down for 10 seconds. After it reaches zero, you need to run full-speed again to fly some more. Even when you can’t fly, the tail is invaluable for letting you slow down your fall (float) by pressing the Jump button repeatedly in the air. Aside from that, the Raccoon tail can used to attack by tapping the run button. It’s great for hitting bricks and ? blocks that can’t be hit from underneath, and for defeating certain enemies like Fryguys.

Spade

Use this item and you’ll be in a Raccoon Suit, with a Fire Flower in your spare item box. Use select to switch between the two and use the right one for the right situation.

Magic Wand

Mario Adventure is a lot harder than SMB3, but the wand lets you conquer enemies much more easily. When Magic Mario jumps on a Koopa, it dies instantly, which means you can’t take their shells; you’ll have to switch out of the wand if you need a shell.

The main advantage to using the Magic Wand over other items like the Fire Flower is that Magic Mario shoots sparks that defeat most enemies, including Boom-Booms, in one hit. Also, unlike the Hammer Suit, the Magic Wand lasts for three hits before you lose it. If you find a level frustratingly difficult, the wand can help you get past it, because it is over-powered.

When you beat a Koopaling with it, the King gives you a special message asking if Mario can perform at their Kid's Birthday Party.

Secret Whistle

Not as valuable as in SMB3, but a good item nonetheless. Every world has a special area only accessible through the warp whistle. The area usually has all sorts of goodies to collect. Check the Warp Whistle levels page for details on warp whistle areas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ducking-Slide:
“There’s a passage that’s too small to go into when I’m Super. Do I have to take damage so I can fit?

This passage can be entered Super, but it requires the ducking-slide. If the passage is on the ground (you don’t have to jump to enter it), then run at the passage from a distance, and when you’re about to hit the passage, hold down on the D-pad. You’ll duck, but you’ll keep moving because you were running. If you stop and are still in the tunnel, you’ll be forced right. This means it’s easy to enter left-to-right tunnels, but only right-to-left tunnels that are a couple blocks long, since the game will shove you right if you can’t slide under all of them at once. It’s much easier on ice.

As for tunnels in the air (you have to jump to enter them), there are nigh impossible to do from right-to-left for any more than a tiny distance (without ice anyway), but for a left-to-right tunnel, as long as you can get in there a little bit, the game will shove you through the rest it. The method is to get as big a running start as possible, then sometime before the tunnel, duck so you’re duck-sliding, and then jump immediately after, and if you position it right, you will enter the tunnel while ducking.

Boom-Boom Troubles:
“These Boom-booms… it wasn’t like this in SMB3. what do I do?”

Kill ‘em, that’s what you do! But it’s not that simple. Boom-Booms are the mini-bosses you face at the end of dungeons in SMB3. Back in the day, a good player hopped on a Boom-Boom, waited a second (it becomes invulnerable after being hit), hopped again, waited another second, and hopped again, which killed it. At that point, a “?” appears, and collecting that ends the level after a short fanfare.

In this game, most regular levels end with one of these guys, and they drop a mushroom-like thing (not a power-up) instead of a “?”. In many levels, though, you’ll face two Boom-Booms at once! Since you fight them both at once, it’s very hard to focus on one and then the other.

To make matters worse, since Boom-Booms were designed to be fought one-on-one, a couple of oddities make a tag-team of them difficult to fight.

Firstly, you can’t jump on both of them at once. You’ll hit one, but the other will hurt you. You can bounce from one to the other though, which is the best strategy if they’re close enough to each other. If they’re a distance from each other, attack the one closest to you. Of course finishing one Boom-Boom makes it easier to fight the other one.

The Second oddity, and this is nasty, when you kill one, it drops the mushroom-like thing. Don’t collect that! You won’t be able to move since the game thinks you won, leaving the other Boom-Boom free to give you a beating! You’ll leave the level a few seconds later, but the second Boom-Boom will normally damage or kill you.

So, make sure you keep away from Boom-Booms after delivering the final hit. The mushroom stays there, too, so while this oddity is not necessarily deliberate, it adds another obstacle to worry about as you fight.

Challenges:
“I’ve beaten this game and I want to try it again but make it harder. What should I do?”

Well, if you used save states mid-level last time, play the game again without them.

One great way to make the game harder is to disallow wands. Don’t pick them up and don’t use them in your inventory. If you need to clean out your inventory, use up all your wands at once, and in the next level, deliberately take damage to lose your wand. Without the wand, you can’t zap away everything in your path, which makes it a lot easier to finish the game. The Bowser Battles in World 8 are much harder without the wand.

Another challenge is to use the timer DahrkDaiz built into the game. Try to get under 10 hours, 5 hours, even less (the best tool-assisted speedrun is under an hour, surely a non-tool-assisted speedrun can be a good deal under two). Try speedrunning the game with or without magic wands and with or without tool-assistance (this game is better without) and challenge your best times.

Mushroom Houses:
“So what’s the d with Mushroom Houses?” There’s two types, and they look the same on the field. The first will give you a totally (?) random item for 300 coins. If you don’t have 300 coins, you won’t get an item, and won’t lose any coins either. If you do have enough, there’s no turning back, but hey, coins are only good for items anyway.

The other type acts like the old spade house. Collect 100 coins, then try to time the slots so they’ll form a picture. A completed Mushroom gives you a star (huh?), a Fire Flower gives you a Warp Whistle, and making a star gives you a sweet, sweet wand. I suck at this. Learn the timing; if you went one picture too far on the first slot one time, then press A one picture earlier the next, etc.

You can revisit either house as much as you want. It’ll look like a pipe now until you leave the world.

Save States:
“How does the save feature work? Is saving states cheating?” Mario Adventure saves which worlds you’ve beaten and which keys you’ve found. When you clear a world, you can skip through whatever levels you feel like in that world. The game also saves all your coins and items, among other things, so aside from individual levels in worlds you haven’t completed, the game saves everything. This does mean you have to clear whole worlds at once though.

On almost any emulator, you can save at any time and load from that save. It’s helpful for games without a save feature, but it’s cheap to use all the time. In Mario Adventure, you really shouldn’t use a save state mid-level. I think it’s ok to use a save state between levels if you don’t have enough time to play an whole world in one sitting. Think of it as leaving your NES on pause so you can continue later on.

As a rule of thumb, you should always quit right after using a save state, and not use the save state after loading it once. This way, you can’t use it for an unfair advantage. Of course, if you find this game too difficult, even with wands (or you don’t want to use wands), you could use save states as a handicap. It’s not as satisfying as beating the game fairly, though.

Saving more than one file:
“I want to play another save file without erasing the first. How?”

This works for FCEU and probably most emulators. Take the game, copy it, paste it, name it whatever you want (ie “Mario Adventure Second File.nes”), and run it. In FCEU, the newly made file won’t have any data in it. On certain emulators, the save data might have been copied as well, but just press Up and Select at the same time at the title screen to clear the data.

Keep in mind that this technique copies the entire game. It’s like having two separate cartridges of Mario Adventure.

Spare Item Box:
“I’m confused by the spare item box. Any tips?” Press select to use it. Your suit will swap with the one in the box. You can’t swap if there’s nothing in the box.

Say you’re Super and you get a Fire Flower. A mushroom will go in your spare box and you’ll be Fire Fire Mario. If you get hit, you’ll still be Super, and have a mushroom in your box. If you get hit again, you’ll be small, but you can press select to retrieve the mushroom for another hit of damage. That means collecting a Fire Flower while you’re Super is actually worth both the flower and a mushroom.

If you’re small with an item in your spare box, and you come across a ? block that you think is a power-up, press select to go Super, and the power-up will give you a flower or tail instead of another mushroom.

If you’re one suit and there’s a better one in your spare, make sure you swap out before collecting any more power-ups, or you’ll lose the good suit in your spare box.

Too Hard:
“I’m finding this game too hard. What should I do?”

If you find the whole game in general too hard, you should play more Super Mario Bros 3 and brush up on your skills. If you find most levels not too bad but have trouble on certain ones, check the walkthrough and look for your level. The walk-through is only half-finished. If I haven’t covered the level you’re stuck on, e-mail me at headcase88@gmail.com and I’ll prioritize that level.

If the level is still too hard, pull an item out of your inventory, that’s what they’re for! Fire flowers help clear the way of pesky Brothers and make platform jumping a lot easier (usually). Raccoon leafs let you fly given enough room, or float otherwise. Invincibility stars let you blaze through the start of a level, very helpful for Brothers Battles.

If the challenge is just too soul-crushing to continue, pull out the mother-lode and take a wand out of your inventory (or go back and find/buy/win one, but don’t leave the world unless you’re in World 8 or the levels will be reset!), and use it to our advantage. The sparks the wand shoots can fry most enemies in one hit! Koopa Kids don’t seem affected by it, but you can take three hits before losing it, so it’s a help in those battles as well. The only disadvantage is that it knocks away koopas without giving you their sometimes valuable shell. You can always switch out the wand with Select though, as long as you have a back-up item.

World 8 Doesn’t work:
“I found all the keys, but when I pick World 8 nothing happens. Why not?

Have you actually cleared all the levels? In particular, many people find the key in Desert Dares and reset the game to unlock the last door. Problem is, even if you’ve unlocked all the doors, World 8 will not be accessible until you actually finish all the worlds. You’ll have to go back to worlds you haven’t beaten (check the status bar for levels that don’t have a check mark), and play them over. The bad news is that you have to play the levels over (they can only be skipped after you clear the world). The good news is that the levels you played shouldn’t feel quite as hard, now that you’re practiced up.

Another Question:
“I have another question that hasn’t been answered. What do I do?”

Edit this page and add your question to the end of this page. Hopefully someone will fill an answer to your question.

Cheats

Yes! Mario Adventure has cheats! These can and probably will take the challenge out of the game, but can really help if You happen to be stuck. Below are the cheats with instructions. Enjoy.

• Music Test: On the title screen, enter the Konami code (Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select) and “Grassy Hills” should appear. Pressing left or right will change the track, pressing A will play it.

The following codes work wile playing a stage but NOT while the game is paused:

• Frog Suit (BAD LAD): B A Down Left A Down
• P-Wing (LUB DA DD): Left Up B Down A Down Down
• Invincibility (RUBBA DUB): Right Up B B A Down Up B
• 9900 Extra Coins (SARSLAB) : Select A Right Select Left A B
• Unlock World 8 + Unlock all locks (DD LUBS ALL): Press Down Down Left Up B Select A Left Left. A coin sound is played, and world 8 is accessible in the warp zone; you may need to reset the game.

Mario Adventure 2

Mario Adventure 2 is the sequel to the greatly acclaimed hack, Mario Adventure. Mario Adventure 2 boasts twice the size of a quest, many new items, many new enemies, great improvements on existing features and the an entire quest made just for Luigi.

Mario Adventure 2 was created from "scratch", using a brand new ROM as a base, rather than hacking the existing Mario Adventure. Gone is the weather effects, day/night effects, constant mini-boss battling and the old key system.

New is the ability to choose a character from the start, a new Central Hub system, keys work much differently, the item shop has been improved to actually buy differently priced items, a few mini-games, alterations to Boom-Boom and much much more.

A quick run down of features follows below:

A new world hub...

Rather than start with 7 worlds to play through, you must start at world 1. After completing that, you will be given an open path to choose different worlds. It is possible to complete the game in a minimum of 5 worlds, but maybe completing them all will yield something..

Brothers unite...

This hack allows you to choose either Mario or Luigi from the start of the game. However, their differences are not just a simple palette swap. Luigi has his own sprites set, his own abilities, items and own set of 8 worlds to complete. Luigi's quest is generally easier, where as Mario is generally harder.

Mario vs Luigi

Mario retains the item storage from Mario Adventure. Only, it has been refined in this. Pressing select "throws" the item from Mario, so he has to catch it. Luigi has the ability to use certain items on the map screen that will be carried into the level and used later. He can carry such items as a P-Switch, Star and Stop watch. Luigi also retains his altered control and can throw 5 projectiles at once (fireballs or boomerangs).

New powerups!

Unlike Mario Adventure, the sequel has real new power ups. Among these are the Mouser Suit, a suit that lets you throw Bob-ombs, the Panda Suit, a suit that lets you stick to the ceiling and walk across it, and finally the Boomerang suit, lets you throw boomerangs and makes you completely fireproof. It's rumored there there are a couple of other power-ups not normally attainable in the game...

New items!

Mario Adventure 2 has quite a few new map items to use. Among these are the Clear Level card (Luigi equipped), Item Bag (Luigi equipped), Starman (Luigi equipped), P-switch (Luigi equipped), key, Mega-Starman (Mario Only), 1 Up (only way to obtain them), Safety Wings (Luigi equipped), POW (Luigi equipped), Ice Block Generator (Luigi equipped), and top Watch (Luigi equipped).

New Enemies!

This adventure gives a plethora of new enemies to watch out for. Among those are the Chomper Cheep, Ninji, Fire Snifit, Fire Goomba, Fire Blooper, Giant Ghost Snifit, Giant Muncher, Giant Buzzy Beetle, Giant Spiny, Peek-a-Boo Cheep, and alterations to existing enemies, including the now Piranha Fire Plant and Inflammable Fire Brothers.

Bonus stages!

Mario Adventure 2 comes at us with new bonus stages. These bonus stages are accessed by grabbing three goal cards. The last goal card you grab determines the bonus stage you go to. Bonus stages reward you with coins, power-ups or even 1-Ups.

Release date...

Unknown at this time.

Koopa Plains

Koopa Plains is World 1 of Mario Adventure. This world is littered with Koopa Troopas. Every level has several roaming around. The levels aren't too rough, and plenty of chances to stock up on items and coins.

Map Music: Pipe Maze
Level Music: Plains

Most Mario games use a friendly, sunny, grass theme for the first world. In this game, even this world is pretty tough. But if you can blast through SMB3, then you should fare pretty well here. Since this is the first world, I’ll be offering a lot of detail early on, but in later levels only the difficult stuff will be covered by this FAQ.

First Level

Location: Just right of the Start
Time Limit: 300

Run right. When you get to the pipe, don’t forget the ? block, it has a mushroom. I wouldn’t worry about those 3 coins the chain chomp is guarding; you need 300 of them just to buy an item. When you get to the wooden staircase, watch out for the goomba on the ceiling.

There’s a pipe with a green piranha plant in it, careful not to stand on the pipe for too long (piranha plants in this game can nail you while you're standing on the pipe like the red piranha plants in SMB2- the Lost Levels). When you get to the hammer bros and take 'em out, examine the area; the top row of bricks has a power-up hidden in them.

After the flying goombas, there’s a brick that opens a beanstalk if you hit it. If you go up there, that glass brick is like the blue bricks in SMB3; you can hold them with the run button and kick them at stuff by letting go of the button. You can try to use it to hit that brick next to it. If you’re successful, you’ll get a potion, which acts like a P-Switch, which will let you go down a pipe (guarded by a shyguy) into a bonus room full of coins.

In any case, no matter what you do you’ll have to pass by a fire-spitting piranha. Whatever you do, don’t take a rest on the pipe!

Just one enemy left, a Boom-Boom. These things were pretty easy in dungeons, but now you’ve got to contend with one after every level. Look up for more info if you have trouble beating this one. Then collect the Golden Mushroom that was dropped and move on.

A Free Present

Location: Just right of the left-side mushroom house; one down from level 1.
Time Limit: 300

There’s a mushroom right at the start of this level, and there’s also a dangerous situation; you have to bounce across music blocks without falling. Not too bad, and even if you fall, this game doesn’t use lives, so you can practice and experiment as much as you want. Watch out for the piranha plant, too.

There’s a really tall pipe here, jump on the platforms to get over it. Watch out for the Shyguys. A while later, you’ll see a big ? block. This is a nice little free present. See what’s inside, you might be pleasantly surprised. Then try out your power-up on the Boom-Boom and finish the level.

If you have 300 coins, you can go to the mushroom house and pay coins for a random item. If you don’t have 300 coins, don’t bother, it’s time to play the fortress.

Fortress of Koopa Plains

Location: The fortress in the upper-right area; one right from level 2.
Time Limit: 300

Good thing the game has a fair number of power-ups and infinite lives, because there’s a Boo ready to take a cheap shot at you when the level starts. Look away so you can see it. If you do die at any point and want to power-up, keep in mind that you can play old levels over again. They look like pipes on the map.

Potions are like POW-blocks, so they’ll turn the coins into platforms, but you’re going over lava, so be careful, and reasonably fast at the same time. If you have Fire Fire Mario, this will be easier.

Once you go through the pipe, you’ll be challenged to an obstacle course of thwomps, those spinning circle things, Watch out for the lava there. The lava flowing across is a new background graphic for this game, but the bubbling stuff is lethal.

Now you have a pair of dangerous thwomps. You’ll have to lure both of them to drop so you can squeak by. There’s another annoying Boo here. Don’t worry, they’ll be around in every fortress.

The difficulty has officially been kicked up a notch, but at least the Boom-Boom is nothing new. If you’re not having much trouble, that’s a good sign. It’ll only get harder from here, though.

Now you’ve got two choices; up or down, high road or low road. Pick your fancy.

The High Road

Location: The middle level of the top row; up and to the right of the fortress.
Time Limit: 300

There’s a lot of pits to worry about, lots of pits and bullet-bills. Near the beginning, you can grab that koopa shell with you and hit the brick in the wood tunnel that comes after for a chance at a 50-coin mushroom. Near the end, you have only the bullet bill blasters to jump on; it’s a little tricky.

Afterwards, you need to use the Shyguy’s heads as shells to hit the brick in the wood tunnel next to them. Try to stay a few steps away from the tunnel, and the head near the top of your jump so it slides into the narrow tunnel. If you do it right, the head will strike the brick, revealing a potion so you can move on to the Boom-Boom. Watch out, the head you shot will bounce back at you, so make sure you avoid it!

If you couldn’t get the potion, go down the pipe after the tunnel and you’ll get to retry; the Shyguys will be back. You might see a bunch of colours change or even rain or snow, and think you’re somewhere else. You’re actually in the same place, but the weather changes randomly sometimes when you go down a pipe. Now try to get that potion.

Skypipe Swim

Location: The middle level of the top row; up and to the right of the fortress.
Time Limit: 300

There’s a waterfall here. You can swim in it to get to the bridge-like platforms. If you fall, try to get to this waterfall; it can save you.

Before you dive into the first pool of water, get the ? block on the pipe that’s sticking out. It’ll be tough to get if you’re Super already because you can’t fit. You have to jump from the bridge platform and do a sliding duck in that case.

After getting out of the first pool, there’s a small underwater tunnel that leads to a pipe for a bonus area. The invisibility hat is very useful in this level. Press B+Down to hide behind the water, perfect for avoiding the attacks of the bombitu and flying cheep-cheeps! Above water, though, there’s less to hide under.

Brother Challenges (Koopa Plains)

Lots of fights here. First, avoid the hammer bros (if you can, get the power-up from that brick), then get past two boomerang bros, but watch out for the shaking from a giant hammer bro. Then, three fire bros. Brothers Battles in SMB3 weren’t like this! At least you don’t actually have to defeat any of the Brothers, though for the Boomerang and Fire bros that’s probably the best strategy. Check the Enemies section for tips for beating the brothers. You get a raccoon suit and invincibility star item for winning.

The Low Road

Location: The bottom-leftmost level.
Time Limit: 300

This level doesn’t have any pits, but a ton of flying goombas and a tricky section with boomerang bills. The first ?.block has a power-up, Do your best and watch out for the invisible blocks that could put you in a tight place, and fight flying goombas in open areas where it’s easier.

Near the end is a plant that spits fire, like in World 7 in the original game. There’s invisible blocks that can make a platform, but you’ll have to jump near the plant to hit them.

An Old Trick

Location: The middle level of the bottom row.
Time Limit: 300

Near the beginning of the level, you need to pull off a trick from SMB3. Holding down on a white block platform lets you drop under it. Just keep away from the spiky shyguy and duck without moving for a few seconds to continue on. Learn how to bounce consistently on music note boxes; they float over a big pit. Hit the music note next to the pipe for a powerup. Make it past the obstacles and pits to get to the Boom-Boom.

Pipe Puzzle

Location: The right-most level of the bottom row.
Time Limit: 300

Grab the Shyguy “shell” and knock it down the small gap in the top of the wood structure to hit the ? block for a power-up.

Find the upside-down pipe with the green piranha plant and enter it (jump and hold up). It’s tough since you can’t go in while the piranha plant is popping out. The other pipes just lead to other pipes in the same area.

Now you have to hold the Shyguy’s head (after jumping on the Shyguy), take it up with you, stand on the right-most block before the pit, and let go of the head, which will kick it, making it bounce off the wall to the right, and hit a brick with a potion in it. Then after two boomerang bros, you face the Boom-Boom.

Tanks of Koopa Plains

Location: the level to the right that is a little off the main path.
Time Limit: 298

If you’ve gotten this far, you’re doing pretty good, but now you’ve got the Mario Adventure equivalent of the airships in SMB3. This is a tank level, and those tanks shoot some high-speed cannonballs and bob-ombs. The scrolling is also rather quick.

The tank level right before the final castle in SMB3 is good preparation for this. If you can do that level, you should be more than qualified for this one. When you see a pipe, make sure you enter it or you’ll be squished by the wall. Make sure you don’t jump on the ceiling above the pipe!

Once you enter that pipe, you move to the inside portion. There’s a boo up ahead. You can use the glass blocks to beat it (remember that it doesn’t move when it’s invisible), and also to clear the wall of bricks. Take another glass block with you and you can use it to get a thwomp out of your way.

There’s lots of obstacles afterwards, most notably, blocks that look like music blocks but drop as soon as you step on them. They take a little while to get used to. I suggest you keep on the higher routes throughout this area. They’re much easier. After some more fire-related challenges, like podoboos, walking flames, a lava pit with falling blocks, and incoming fire breath, you’re ready to take on Larry.

Larry Koopa is a bit harder in Mario Adventure. He still only shoots occasionally with his wand, but he takes 5 hits, and jumps very, very high after taking enough damage. Observe the way he jumps so you don’t try to jump on him when he’s about to launch into the air. With enough skill, you can hit him just as he comes out of his shell each time. With Fire Fire Mario, 10 fireballs will beat any Koopa Kid, and they don’t get more aggressive according to damage with this method.

You can either revisit this world and hunt for the key, or move on to world 2. You get a checkmark in the status bar which means you can now freely move through levels in this world now. But you’ll always have to fight Hammer Bros you run into.

Hot Foot Caverns

Hot Foot Caverns is World 2 in Mario Adventure.

Map Music: Bowser Castle
Level Music: Underground

Enter the Caverns

Location: Bottom-left of map, Just right of the start
Time Limit: 300

Well, it’s called Hot foot Caverns for a reason. You’ve got more fiery enemies that you can shake a stick at, including a usually invisible fire boo. You can get around most of these enemy’s pretty easily though. Like in the last level of World 1, I suggest you keep the higher routes. There are less enemies and obstacles, but still enough for a challenge.

Crash and Burn

Location: top-left of map, three steps above the first level.
Time Limit: 300

This one has a really nasty beginning. Basically, pretend the platforms with fire-spitting plants aren’t there. You have to make a couple big jumps, but they’re possible. Just make it hasty or you’ll get burned.

You should know to hit that ? block when you exit the first pipe. Most isolated ? blocks, music blocks or bricks, even wooden blocks, will have something good in them. The diamond platforms wouldn’t be too bad, but there are lots of fire boos to worry about! Make it fast, but don’t run into them. The last jump is a bit of a leap of faith. Just make a nice big jump to land on the ground below. Remember what I said about isolated blocks? Hit that wooden one from the side.

Fire Slide

Location: Left of the cliff face, four steps right and one up from the start.
Time Limit: 300

So many of those flame-throwers from SMB3, but they just come out of the ground! Still easy though, just time your movements accordingly. The fryguys are little tougher. The third pipe in the waterfall can be entered to get a potio. that will let you grow through the pipe guarded by two piranha plants. The potion is hard to get to if you’re big, though. See (? duck) without the help on ducking-slides. If you do get that potion, use it to go through the middle pipe guarded by two piranha plants.

Brother Challenges (Hot Foot Caverns)

Start with a boomerang and hammer bro combo. I suggest defeating the boomerang bro or the hammer bro will be tough to get past. Then you’ve got three fires, two giants, and a boomerang brother (in a pear tree). You can bounce off of one onto another, except for the giants. There’s a brick wit ha power-up halfway through, and a fire flower and invincibility start item at the end as a reward. Look up enemies you have trouble with.

Clock Challenge (Hot Foot Caverns)

Location: The clock at the top of the level, about a half a screen right from the start.
Time Limit: 100

It’s just you against the clock. Make your way across this maze in 100 seconds! You have tons of spare time, so be careful and don’t over-rush it. The Fire Flower can actually be a bad thing here, because the pits are short and over-jumping is a disaster in some places.

I love this level, but the time limit was a bit lenient. The other clock challenge in the game is a slow-moving maze.

Decision

Location: The level just on the left edge of the rock face.
Time Limit: 300

You get a three-way choice on this level. The left pipe is the easiest. You need to be able to fly to use the bottom one. No matter what pipe you go into, you’ll eventually find your way to a pipe next to two upside-down pipes. Go down that pipe.

This Boom-Boom starts on a bridge. I’d wait for him to slide to the ground before attacking.

Lake of Fire

Location: The level at the top of the rocks.
Time Limit: 300

Flames come out of the water, but don’t worry, the water itself is fine. Take a swim to get the power-up.

There are plenty of bonuses in this level. In the sky is a pipe that takes you to a Kuribo’s shoe and a shortcut. Store it for now (Up+B at the same time), because you’ll need to swim with it. It may be better not to take that pipe, because there’s a pipe below a row of ? blocks later on that takes you to a wand. If you see a couple fire breath attacks, look for music notes above, you can use them to get a power-up and shortcut. No matter what secrets you find, the level ends without a Boom-Boom. A solid level for revisiting for items.

The Amazing Sliding Jump

Location: The right-most level.
Time Limit: 300

Once you go down the pipe, things get harder. This wood platform area has a couple long jumps in it. For the last jump, it’s best to get a running start on the big platform, hop onto the small platform while running, and then do a big jump over the pit. If you have a Fire suit though, it’s much easier. There’s two power-ups early in the level, so you can get the fire suit even if you start small.

Afterwards, you’ll see some wooden blocks in the sky that look like they can’t be reached without a Raccoon or Fire Fire suit. You don’t need a suit though; just slide off of the hill to the left, and jump off near, but not at, the bottom of the hill, while you’re sliding. Make sure you have enough room to jump over the flame! If you hit the ceiling, you jumped too early. If you don’t make it on this platform, you’ll repeat part of the level, so keep trying until you get on top of it.

Eventually you’ll get to a fire boo. Cross the platforms, and take a big leap of faith off of the last block of wood. A Boom-Boom is waiting below.

Underwater Obstacle Course

Location: The left-most level that is entirely inside the rocks. One step down from where you enter the rocks.
Time Limit: 300

After getting the potion, swim across the lake as quickly as possible. The effect of the potion will let you enter an area normally guarded by bricks. If you don’t make it before the potion’s effect runs out, go down the pipe next to the bricks and try again.

After that, you have a lack full of fiery enemies that have no trouble surviving underwater. The Boom-Boom works his way down a few rows of bricks to fight you. You might even notice him hitting a brick.

Music Note Mayhem

Location: The level at the bottom-right of the map, near the fortress.
Time Limit: 300

Fast Podoboos right at the start; watch out for them. Take the first drop for a mushroom and shortcut. Grab stuff to destroy bricks that are in your way or contain potions. After passing the fire brother on top of the tall wall, you can drop for a bonus round that takes you to a wand, but it will also take you back to start.

After that, there level splits into two routes. The upper route is easier, just one catch: the pipe at the end of it doesn’t go anywhere! You have to take the bottom route. Watch out for the podoboos around the section with real bouncing music notes.

Now you’ll have to face two Boom-Booms at once! Do a find on “? Boom” without the space for more information. If you have a wand, the sparks it shoots will defeat a Boom-Boom in one hit!

Fortress of Hot Foot Caverns

Location: The fortress near the right of the map, part of a path that leads to a dead-end with a level on it.
Time Limit: 300

Quite a series of obstacles. Remember that thwomps behave like in SMB3. The spikes are pretty tough, it just takes some good jumps. Keep in mind that you normally won’t be able to reach the ceiling spikes. When you get to the Tetris-piece shaped platforms after the boos, keep in mind that there’s no ground below that ? block. Go into the pipe.

It looks like you come out of the same pipe, but look at the ? block by the Tetris-shaped platforms. It’s in the air now, because the whole level has flipped upside-down. Also, the pipe at the beginning of the level can be entered now, so make your way back. Just one more thing to do now; two Boom-Booms. See Boom-Boom Troubles for help.

Airship of Hot Foot Caverns

Location: The level around the middle-right area that is a dead-end.
Time Limit: 300

Unlike Koopa Plains, which ends with a tank, this one ends with an airship just like in SMB3. The scroll is slower but there are plenty of bombs, bullet bills and cannon balls to look out for. Sometimes, the ground of the airship will be just a sliver above the status bar, so look for it, though some weather makes it impossible to see.

If you’re small, wait a little while to hit the first ? block. The mushroom will slide off the screen if you hit it too early. If you’re super, forget about the ? block, the Fire Flower that comes out will be impossible to collect. Then make it across the zigzag before you get crushed. The cannonballs that shoot up aren’t too bad because you can stand on the center of where they’re shot from, and you won’t get hurt. Then jump across the small platforms. You can run over the gaps between the platform and the little thing coming out the back of it.

Okay, on to the inside section. The scrolling area took up a lot of the time, so don’t go too slow at the part. The glass blocks are great for clearing the way for Podoboos, and are also needed to hit the brick for a beanstalk. I have a bad habit of pressing left just as I get on the beanstalk and falling into the lava. Don’t do that. If you have a real problem doing that like me, jump onto the block first and then climb the beanstalk.

Right after riding the moving platform, drop down the small gap to the right of it. There is a coin present to the right of the gap, but if you’re Super, it’ll be pretty tough to duck-slide out (see ? duck without the space for more on that). Be careful with the fire, but don’t be too slow. There’s a big jump right before the door to the boss. You might have to run off first platform onto the second to make it.

If you fought Larry in World 1, Morton Koopa Jr. shouldn’t be much tougher. It might look like there are pits (depending on the weather), but there aren’t. There are however flame throwers to look out for, so keep in mind where they are. Morton Jr. is also a little more aggressive with the wand. If you have extra time, lure him to the low ground on the right side.

Lakitu Glacier

Lakitu Glacier is World 3 in Mario Adventure.

Map Music: Winter Wonderland Level Music: Underwater

Wow, the obligatory ice level and the obligatory water level all wrapped into one! The physics of this game have been changed from the original; this ice is much more slippery. It takes some getting used to.

+Brother Challenges (Lakitu Glacier) All right, a mushroom right at the start, but also a chomp and boomerang brother. You’ll have to get used to the slipperiness of this ice! Two fire bros are up next, then a choice.

You can go up and try to pass the giant, or you can do lower and try to get passed the boomerang bro. Just remember, you’ll be affected by the thumps of the giant hammer bro no matter which route you take. I like the top route more. It seems that if you collide with the giant bro but you’re both above the top of the screen, you don’t get hurt. Then just jump on a few platforms to finish the level. It might be tough with the ice, but you have plenty of time. And you get a valuable Fire Flower for your trouble.

+Ice and water, together at last Location: Two steps right of the start. Time Limit: 300

The title is based on the fictional product in The Simpsons: “Nuts and Gum, together at last!”. Anyway, it’s forced-scrolling, and starts with a power-up right away.

When you get to the blue fireball, swim underwater to find a passage that takes you to a pipe with a bonus room. In the bonus room, the right passage gives you a star, the middle one gives you a coin bonus, and the left passage gives you a power-up (a raccoon if you’re already Super). The drawback of this bonus is that it takes you back to start, unless you can fly, in which case fly over the wall to the right and find an island with a door to the mini-boss. Flying is pretty tricky; you have to run back and forth over the limited space.

If you don’t take the shortcut, don’t worry. Pretty easy stuff here, and no enemies. You can hop out of the water by holding Up on the d-pad while jumping at the top of the lake.

The Boom-Boom arena here is slightly flooded. If you’re small, this water will affect you in the worst way, but if you’re Super, it won’t have much of an affect, so try to retain power-ups during the level.

+Slip-Slide Shenanigans Location: Five steps right and two steps up from the start. The second level. Time Limit: 300

Use the shell and/or glass blocks to knock out the fire-spitting plant. You also have to hit the brick it’s standing on to grow a beanstalk. Eventually, you’ll see a pipe to the left that can only be entered by taking a small passage. If you’re Super, start at the right side of the screen and run left, then duck before hitting the roof of the passage. Since it’s icy, you’ll slide to the pipe (keep holding down so you’ll enter it).Then you get a bunch of coins.

Watch out for the upside-down spiny, and for the large-ish pit that follows. There’s a pillar there, but it’s just in the background; you can’t stand on it. Another big leap of faith after a fire bro, don’t get distracted by the pillar! It’s just in the background.

+Fortress of Lakitu Glacier Location: Just before the last little swerve in the path before it ends. Time Limit: 300

A few obstacles to pass here, but hey, at least it’s not slippery. There’s a Boo around the thwomp and dry bones. Jump across the platforms quickly enough that the Boo goes off-screen. Drop into the water, and hit all the invisible blocks. Now go back and get up there again to use those blocks.

Watch out for the Spinning Circles. Try to get in the middle of the first one so it goes around you. Then wait for a good time to move to the middle of the second one. From here, wait to hit the beanstalk block, and climb it. The sideways pipe doesn’t go anywhere.

To pass the thwomps, keep high and hop past them after they drop. The underwater pipe doesn’t go anywhere, either. The power-up is easy to get if it’s a mushroom, but if you’re already Super, a hard-to-collect fire Flower appears instead. It takes a great duck-slide into a jump with the limited space to fit in there (do a find on “? duck” without the space for help on duck-sliding).

Then you’ve got tons of dangerous treadmills. Make sure to look at the direction they move in. Get used to these treadmills; you must fight two Boom-Booms on them.

+Ghost Ship of Lakitu Glacier Location: The rightmost level at the end of the path. Time Limit: 400

Some forced-scrolling swimming. Lure that thwomp early or you won’t have time to avoid it. Watch out for the other thwomp above the power-up holding ? block, and don’t worry about the pipe, it doesn’t go anywhere.

Now you have Boos to deal with. Look away to lure the first one to the left. Then swim to the right quickly and hope the boo goes off-screen. Whenever a Boo goes off-screen, it will go back to where it was initially, and out of your area. Now there’s another Boo, forcing you to do a snaking run quickly, and after that, a power-up and a third Boo.

If you survive past that, there’s some bullet bill blasters, followed by Boo #4, Power-up #3 (you need all the help you can get), and a Cheep-Cheep. Get to that pipe so you can enter the ghost ship.

You might have noticed how glass blocks, unlike blue blocks in SMB3, never disappear if you hold them for too long. In this level, you’ll have to hold a glass block for a long time. So ignore that brick by the lava, and trek right.

Take a big leap of faith over the spike pit with the spinning circle, running at the spinning circle when it starts moving down into the ground. Don’t worry about all the blocked potions for now. Thankfully, there’s only one Boo in here, which hangs around the snaking passage. Don’t enter the door in the bottom-right corner unless you run out of glass blocks and want to reset the level.

After some thwomps you’ll get to a row of glass blocks. Grab one, and take it all the way back to where you came in. If the block hits an enemy you’ll lose the block, but at least the enemy will die. Still, time will be tight if you have to keep going back. The piranha plant in particular is tricky to get past without losing your block.

When you get back to the brick on the lava, kick the glass block while standing on the block next to the lava. No need to jump, a ground kick will hit it the brick. Get the potion inside, and make your way back, hitting each potion along the way.

When you get through the passage after the glass blocks, there’s a coin (really a brick) under the door. Hit it for a power-up and get ready for your battle with Wendy.

Wendy O. Koopa shoots hoops at you that bounce around in a straight diagonal line, predictably bouncing off of walls. She shoots them early, but after three are in the level, she can’t shoot any more. Try to keep track of where the hoops are going. It’s pretty cramped because there are two big blocks in the arena. She takes five hits and jumps higher each time she takes damage.

Kuribo's Woods

This is world 4 of Mario Adventure.

Starry Slopes

• Map Music: Doom Ship, then Coin Heaven after clearing the fortress.
• Level Music: Hills

Wow! World 5 is in outer space.Too many sparkling,shining and bright stars.I wonder how can Mario live in outer space without air (I mean oxygen).

Coin Hunt

• Location: The fifth level from the start, the rightmost one you’ll see before scrolling the map.
• Time Limit: 300

To the untrained eye, it’s an easy level that ends with a giant wall that you can’t pass, thereby destroying your hopes of ever finishing the game.

In reality, you have to collect every coin in the level, then enter a magical door that appears near the start of the level. You’ll have to duck-slide to get a few of those coins. There’s a few spike-ball blowing piranhas here. The glass block can be used on the first one, and the flying koopa’s shell on the second and third, if you want.

I’m not a big fan of the bullet-bill part at the “end”. Just remember that they don’t launch if you’re next to or on them. If you start small, it would be helpful to get both power-ups (one at the start, and all the way to the right of the level) without taking damage.

Colossal Classics

• Map Music: Grassy Hills
• Level Music: Plains

Very classic but not the classic I know. Colossal Classics is a giant new version of Super Mario Bros.

Brothers Battle (Colossal Classics)

Not the easiest one. Wait until the boomerang bro throws a boomerang over you and then jump on him. Run to the music block without getting hit by the giant hammers, the bounce up and run against the block that the giant bro is standing on.

My favourite way of getting past this bro is wait for him to be at the right side of the block, then wait on the left side. If he jumps, run under him, but take a short jump off of the block or he might stun you when he lands (or maybe you’ll still be in the air from the drop). If he doesn’t jump, walk off the block before he walks into you. Then you have to fight two more boomerang bros (I don’t recommend just trying to run past them).

The Five(!) Fire Bros at the end are really tough. Jump on the first one’s head, then keep bouncing from head to head. I just treat the floor underneath as lava. The battle is way up so you can’t see Mario when he’s up in the air… you can judge your position with the movement of the screen. If you can get out the 5 consecutive bounces, you get a 50 coin prize.

The Stationary Airship of Colossal Classics

• Location: The rightmost level, two steps right of the fortress.
• Time Limit: 300

No forced scrolling, but some invisible platforms! Maybe it’s going to be a stealth ship, but it’s under construction. Right now, most of it is visible.

Go up and to the right, then bounce on the bullet bills to get on top of the wall. There’s an invisible floor to the left of the wall near the top of it, so you don’t have to make it all the way to the wall. Now you’ll have a huge bottomless pit with some coins hovering on it. The coins mark the invisible floors.

Now you have to zig-zag your way down. Careful when dropping down the left side; there’s an invisible floor there so that cannon blaster might be dangerous. The trick for the next giant pit is to run across it, as there are small chunks of invisible floor.

Next part is pretty simple. There’s a part with a bunch of cannons and a long row of coins; speed past it and you’ll out run the cannons, which looks a little cool. Keep going right until you get a power-up, then go back left a little bit to the wall with space under it. To the right of that wall is an invisible platform; climb it to progress.

The next pit is a doozy; there are two columns of coins that mark where the real pit begins and ends. Keep to the left of the first column and jump to the right of the second column. The coins themselves have no invisible coins under them.

Now that you’re inside, maneuver the obstacle course consisting primarily of podoboos (including upside-down ones) and thwomps. The next part with the spinning circle things is really tough; concentrate on one part at a time. Baby steps.

Now it is time to fight Lemmy. He’s the guy who shoots bouncing balls all over the arena, ‘cept now he takes 5 hits of course. He can’t jump, and he’s still capped to three balls total (after that, his wand won’t do anything), but the arena is a little more cluttered, thanks to the two large blocks occupying a good deal of space.

You have two ways to beat Lemmy. The first is to wait for him to roll to you, then jump on him. A safer way would be to jump on the balls and bounce onto the blocks above. Then you can drop on Lemmy.

Desert Dares

Desert Dares is World 7 in Mario Adventure.

Map Music: Koopahari Desert Level Music: Plains

After doing the first 6 worlds, you might already be fearing what World 8 has to throw at you. Well, don’t worry about World 8, because you might not be seeing it for a while! World 7 consists of a large number of very small levels that play out as stunts. As first, these stunts aren’t too bad, but soon enough Mario will be putting Evel Knievel to shame.

+Dare 0-2: Perilous Bounce Location: move down once from the start. It’s the leftmost level in the middle row. Time Limit: 100 It takes some good music note block bouncing to clear this level. Just climb up the blocks. When you make it to the top, take a big jump to get over the spikes below. Then finish your act by defeating a Boom-Boom.

+Dare 0-3: Bull’s-eye Location: move down twice from the start. It’s the leftmost level in the bottom row. Time Limit: 100 Defeat the koopa and grab its shell. Kick it into the tight passage from a distance, near the top of your jump. If you miss, Walk into the door and the level resets. Once you get the potion, move on to the Boom-Boom.

+Dare 1-1: Spike Hurdle Location: move right once from the start. It’s in the top row, second level to the left. Time Limit: 100 Jump between the spikes. The spikes actually cover a block of width. The safe areas are two-blocks wide, so these spikes aren’t too hard to pass.

+Dare 1-2: Koopa Climb Location: move right once and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, second level to the left. Time Limit: 100 This one isn’t easy. You have to jump on the flying koopas to reach the wooden ledges to climb the wall. Go just right of the first spike, then as the koopa approaches you, run and jump at it to bounce on the ledge. Now, wait for the next koopa to pass over you, and turn around and move away. If you jump on the koopa while it’s moving right, the third koopa will be doing the same and will hit you when you bounce. Then just bounce on the third koopa to get over the wall. Oh yeah, and there’s spikes in the Boom-Boom area, so just avoid them.

+Dare 1-3: Leap of Faith Location: move right once and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, second level to the left. Time Limit: 100 You’ll see a platform over a pit, and under the platform is some coins. Jump onto the platform. Watch of for the Fake Glass Blocks. Run to the end for a power-up, then go back to the pit. There’s a platform below the coins, just jump for the coins and then jump off where the coins end. Run all the way left, then go right and you’ll see a door before the pit. This is a good level to get a free power-up if you need one.

+Dare 2-1: Spike Hurdle’s Revenge Location: move right twice from the start. It’s in the top row, third level to the left. Time Limit: 100

I’m not great at this level. It’s basically a floor littered with spikes. First a spike, then a block of space, repeat a few times. Remember, the spikes actually take up a block of space. Rain makes this easier to visualize.

How many spikes should you jump at a time? Surprisingly, I have more luck jumping two at a time than one at a time. It’s a more natural jump, and of course it covers twice the ground. Whatever works for you, though. If you do better playing it safe, you have plenty of time, and if you can jump three at a time, more power to you. Another level with a power-up.

+Dare 2-2: Double Trouble Location: move right twice and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, third level to the left. Time Limit: 100

Two Boom-Boom’s attack from above. Do a find on “? Boom” without the space if you still need help on this. Let them drop before you fight them. You can use the neighbouring level Dare 2-1 to power-up Mario for this fight.

+Dare 2-3: Three-On-One Brawl Location: move right twice and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, third level to the left. Time Limit: 100

Here’s a good level to avoid. But if you want to play it, you might want to power up. Beating three Boom-Booms starting out small is no easy task. Try to bouncing from one to the next to the next.

+Dare 3-1: Three-On-Raccoon Brawl Location: move right three times from the start. It’s in the top row, fourth level to the left. Time Limit: 100

You get a free leaf here, but it’s surprisingly hard to leave this level with more than you come in with. The best way to beat those guys is bouncing on one, then the next, then the next. If you get the rhythm right, you can hit them all a second time this way. They move fast after that so the third hit will be trickier. Just remember to keep moving after that third hit to avoid those mushrooms. As always, they’ll make Mario a sitting duck!

+Dare 3-2: Cheep-Cheep Waterfall Location: move right three times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, fourth level to the left. Time Limit: 100

You have two choices: try to swim under the cheep-cheeps or hop over them. I think hopping over is easier. Just pay attention to their patterns.

The Boom-Boom is really hard with this waterfall. Jump out of the waterfall and land on the Boom-Boom to hit him. The key is to get on top of the waterfall quickly after the first jump on the Boom-Boom so you can hit him again before he flies off.

+Dare 3-3: Waterfall Jumps Location: move right three times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, fourth level to the left. Time Limit: 100

I’ll just say the key is to jump out of the water right at the corner, running forwards at full speed. The Boom-Boom is the same as the last level.

+Dare 4-1: Wacky Sky-jinx Location: move right four times from the start. It’s in the top row, fifth level to the left. Time Limit: 100

I never have a problem with this one The odd-numbered platforms are affected by Mario’s weight, the even-numbered ones spin as they enter the screen but will not be spinning by the time you reach it, as long as you’re keeping the pace. Just get the rhythm and it’s not too hard. One good way may be to pretend the platforms aren’t moving, and try to do it nice and fast.

+Dare 4-2: Whip over the wall Location: move right four times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, fifth level to the left. Time Limit: 300

You have to use the spinning platforms to move up. For the first one, I jump on the wooden block just to the left of the spinning platform, then jump and move slightly right, so the edge of the spinning platform whips me up to the ledge. For the second one, you can try to use the spinning effect of the platform, but I find it easier to hop while it’s stationary and hop off over the wall.

There’s spikes by this Boom-Boom, but don’t panic. There’s just one, so hop onto it as normal. The spikes don’t affect the Boom-Boom.

+Dare 4-3: Thwomp Madness Location: move right four times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, fifth level to the left. Time Limit: 100

Move right when you start the level, or a thwomp will get you right away. Do a nice, short, running hop over the spikes and you’ll avoid the next thwomp.

To get past the thwomp combo afterwards, move towards the thwomps, and then as the sideways moving one approaches, run a few steps back. Aftehr thwomp starts moving right again, lure the other thwomp down, then as it goes back up, quickly sneak under it. This level has a power-up at the end.

+Dare 5-1: Bombitu Dash Location: move right five times from the start. It’s in the top row, two levels left of the central mushroom house Time Limit: 100

Not only is there a Bombitu in the bottom of the screen, but bombs drop from the top of the screen as well. It’s pretty hard if you’re small, but if you actively avoid the bombs, you can do it. I recommend a power-up from another level though.

+Dare 5-2: Bombitu Survivor Location: move right five times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, two levels left of the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 50 to win)

The dare in this level is to survive in a small area for 50 seoncds while a bombitu drops bomb after bomb from above. It takes some slick running to avoid all these bombs and their big explosions.

First, run to the right side of the screen, then wait for three bombs to explode, and run to the left side (wait so you don’t hit the explosions, though). Then wait another 3 explosions, and run to the right side. Do this over and over and survive for 50 seconds.

+Dare 5-3: Bombitu Survivor MAX Location: move right five times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, two levels left of the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 50 to win)

This one is like Bombitu Survivor, but with two spikes, it’s presumably much harder. However, there’s a good strategy you can use in this one to survive the onslaught of bombs while maneuvering past the spikes. It’s best to formulate your own strategy, but if you’re really stumped, here’s a foolproof strategy:

The Bombitu starts the level in a position where he won’t hit you if you don’t move. Just stay still for 50 seconds and you’ll win.

+Dare 6-1: Bombitu Survivor MAX Oni Location: move right six times from the start. It’s in the top row, one level left of the central mushroom house. Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 50)

Same as Dare 5-3: Bombitu Survivor MAX, but now there are four spikes! Try to beat it on your own, but if you need help, refer to Dare 5-3.

+Dare 6-2: Bombitu Survivor… with Bullet Bills Location: move right six times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, one level left of the central mushroom house. Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 50)

Not this again. This one works just like all the other survivors, but now there are bullet bills. The same strategy from Dare 5-3 works yet again, except bullet-bills add an element of luck sometimes.

+Dare 6-3: Hang In There Location: move right six times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, one level left of the central mushroom house. Time Limit: “300” (Survive for 25)

Here’s a good jumping one. There’s a couple of those platforms that spin at intervals. You have to jump in the air when they spin so you don’t fall off. The clouds below are fake.. There are two platforms, but it’s simpler just to stay on one. Just keep the rhythm for 25 seconds.

+Dare 7-1: Tilt of DOOM Location: move right seven times from the start. It’s in the top row, directly above the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 50)

Move right when you start or you’ll fall. This level is just one platform that tilts to Mario’s weight. Keep yourself on it for 50 seconds. The key is jumping just as you hit the platform to minimize the time your weight affects it. If you land and stay dead center on the platform while it’s perfectly flat, you’ll balance on the platform, but it’s a little tricky to pull off.

+Dare 7-2: Tilt of DOOM… with bullet bills Location: move right seven times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, directly above the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 50)

Same as Dare 7-1, except another tilted platform is on the other side, but there’s no reason to use it. Bullet-bills are fired from both sides, don’t run into them! Just keep a little right-of-center of the left platform and jump as soon as you land on it each time and hope the bullet-bills don’t get in your way. Use shorter hops if one is fired above you.

+Dare 7-3: Military Testing Zone Location: move right seven times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, directly above the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 25)

There’s quite a lot to avoid here. Cannon-balls drop from the sky; one from the center, and one from the left. I like staying to right not only to avoid those cannon-balls, but because the bullet-bills to the right can be ducked under (you run under them if you’re small). The main challenge is those fast moving giant cannon-balls. Try to stay low so you can jump out of the way of these things when you have to. Even though you should keep to the right, stay away from the edge so you’ll have time to react. Without power-ups, it might take some luck, but you only need to survive for 25 seconds.

+Dare 8-1: Bullet Bill Waterfall Location: move right eight times from the start. It’s in the top row, one level right of the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 75)

Keep swimming in the waterfall without dropping below the bottom of the screen. Move right to the center of the screen. The bullet bills are pretty infrequent, so this level isn’t too hard, it’s just long.

+Dare 8-2: Tilt of DOOM… with Cheep-Cheeps Location: move right eight times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, one level right of the central mushroom house. Time Limit: “100” (Survive for 25)

This one isn’t easy. Like the other tilt of DOOMs, jump off the platforms as soon as you land on them. Keep on the left platform. Pay attention to their arc. The Cheep-Cheeps from the right will usually fly over you if you stand or do short hops on the right of the platform. Keep the platform tilted so the right side is pointing up. Then you can stand on the right side for a while without dropping. So you can stand under, hop under, jump over, or jump onto Cheep-Cheeps to avoid them. Luckily, you only need to survive for 25 seconds.

The platform doesn’t count as solid ground, meaning that if you jump on Cheep-Cheeps, you’ll score more points for each one. Jump on enough and you’ll start getting 50-coin bonuses! If you’re very good, you can keep bouncing on Cheep-Cheeps in the middle of the screen without even using the platforms.

+Dare 8-3: Coin Climb Location: move right eight times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, one level right of the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (Fail after 10)

Collect all the coins in under 10 seconds to win this one. You actually have a little spare time to work with so don’t get flustered or you’ll fall. After a few tries it shouldn’t be a problem.

+Dare 9-1: Coin Fall Location: move right nine times from the start. It’s in the top row, two levels right of the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (You fail after 30)

You need all the coins to win. At first, go to the top, and try to collect all the higher coins by dropping in between the two columns (hence collecting both). Then, near the bottom, you’ll probably want to jump back and forth a couple times to get ‘em all without falling off the screen. You’re not really pressed for time at all.

+Dare 9-2: How does he do that? Location: move right nine times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, two levels right of the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (You fail after 15)

You need all the coins above the lip of the waterfall. I don’t know anyone who can jump out of water like that, but this is Mario we’re talking about! Rapidly press jump to swim up, and hold Up on the d-pad, then hold jump the button as you approach the lip, still holding Up. If you’re jumping out but not high enough, hold the jump button earlier.

+Dare 9-3: Gotta Catch ‘Em All Location: move right ten times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, two levels right of the central mushroom house Time Limit: “100” (You fail after 27)

Tons of coins in this level, and you have 27 seconds to get them all. Jump up to the right side, and get all the coins as you move up, around, and back down to where you started. It’s easier to collect them if you’re Super. Otherwise, keep hopping to collect the coins. Just make sure you don’t leave any behind.

This isn’t a bad

+Dare 10-1: “Four”-letter words Location: move right ten times from the start. It’s in the top row, third level to the right. Time Limit: 100 (Survive for 50)

WTF? Four Boom-Booms? This is getting a little out of hand ;). Remember you can always go back to levels like Dare 1-3 to power-up Mario and give him a chance.

This is a survival stunt. You can try beating them to thin out their numbers, but it makes them more aggressive. Stay in the center, and after they’re all on the ground, jump over one pair of them (either to the left or right edge or the screen). If you’re lucky, they’ll sort of move as a group. Keep jumping over the group until the 50 seconds is up.

+Dare 10-2: It’s even easier in the rain Location: move right ten times and down from the start. It’s in the middle row, third level to the right. Time Limit: “100” (Fail after 25)

Not really much of a dare. There’s an invisible coin block below the outer sides of each of the two higher platforms. Get those, then move onto those platforms and hit each of the invisible coin blocks above the inner sides of the platforms.

+Dare 10-3: Freebie Location: move right ten times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, third level to the right. Time Limit: “100” (Fail after 25)

Whether you fail the level or not, you get a power-up. Get all the coins across the bottom. Then time your jump onto the first platform so it’ll be flat when you land on it. Get the coin, and run to the tilty platform, and balance on that until you can jump on the next spinning platform, then jump back and you’ll have all the coins. Alternatively, you can fly and get them with the Raccoon suit.

+Dare 11-1: Bounce Around Location: move right 11 times from the start. It’s in the top row, second level to the right. Time Limit: 100 (You fail after 30)

No strategy in this one. Just bounce your way up and down the three columns to get all the coins. Watch out for the effect of the sideways bounce.

+Dare 11-2: ? Block Marathon Location: move right 11 times and down once from the start. It’s in the middle row, second level to the right. Time Limit: 100 (You fail after 99)

Jump, jump, jump. You have 99 second to empty 6 rows of ? blocks in seconds. It’s easy but takes so much time. Or, if you have a Raccoon suit (you can get one in Dare 10-3, among other places), you can fly into the blocks which is a lot faster.

+Dare 11-3: Dangerous Coins Location: move right 11 times and down twice from the start. It’s in the bottom row, second level to the right. Time Limit: 100 (You fail after 16)

Don’t move at the start, you want to drop into the top-rightmost coin. The left platform will spin, so get the coins on it and jump off to the middle platform. It’s a titling one, so balance on it and jump on the left platform again to get the coin in the air to the left, but time the jump so the platform won’t be spinning when you land.

Then jump back on the middle one, get the coins above it if you haven’t yet, and then do another well-timed jump to the right to get both coins to the up right, and land on the right platform when it’s not spinning. Then get those coins and you should be done.

+Dare 12-1: Free (money) fall Location: move right 12 times from the start. It’s the top and right-most level Time Limit: 100 (You fail after 3. Not a typo)

Tough one. This one is a quick drop, in which you must collect every coin. The coins swerve left, and then right. I think it’s set to fail so quickly for two reasons. One, so you can’t use Raccoon Mario. And two, so you don’t die every time and lose your power-up (if any).

I prefer to run right, then hold left as soon as leave the platform, then right to follow the trail of coins. Just hit the very left edge of the first coin. It’s much harder but not impossible if you’re small. It’s nigh impossible in icy conditions.

+Dare 12-2: Not Dangerous Coins Location: move right 12 times from the start. It’s the rightmost level in the middle row. Time Limit: 100 (You fail after 3. Not a typo)

I think DahrkDaiz ran out of ideas for stunts, but there’s still one space for him to fill! Climb the platforms, hit the potion, and get the coins. This one’s easy, because you don’t even need all the coins. It would be harder if he had like four columns and you had to collect most of them, because you’d have to climb the platforms really quickly the second time around. As it is, it’s a nice break to enjoy before the fortress, unlike the other entrance, Dare 11-3.

+Desert Dares Fortress Location: move right 12 times and down once from the start. It’s the rightmost level in the middle row. Time Limit: 400

Ok, forget about the door and ? block to the left, and watch out for the podoboos (move right when you start or one will hit you!) The second ? block in the row has a power-up for you, but watch out for the second podoboo. For the thwomps, show some guts and do running jumps past the platforms they’re guarding.

Now, the moving platform (watch out for boos!), you have lots of routes. Take the platform to take the up-left route (ie go above where you came from). Watch out for the podoboos (the same ones from the start) after the spikes! Then hit all the invisible blocks that are blocking you from going futher.

Now go back to the platform. The platform is waiting for you at the center of the bottom side of the octagon, so jump for there. Now use the platform to take the high route to the right. The spikes on top of upside-down spikes are harmless (they are the non-laser shooting statues from the last castle in SMB3, but with different art), so run across the “statues” to zip past the harmful spikes underneath.

When you have to go down and left, make sure you hit the row of invisible blocks. To get to the platform again, you’ll have to face plenty of obstacles, a shooting “statue” (two spikes; just take a good-sized hop over it), and boo bars. You’re probably meant to do this route on the way there, too, but I’d say the up-right route is easier.

Now when you get to the moving platform, take the up-right route again. This time the invisible blocks will take you to a higher area. Look near the top for those thwomps. Watch out for boos up there and don’t get careless at the pool of lava. Watch out for podoboos (the same ones yet again) after the spike pits. Work your way down the music note blocks. The last one is actually a dropping block. Hit the two invisible coins that are below the door. Now you’ll be able to enter it!

Before you can, you have to run all the way back to the start. If you’re Super, Duck-sliding across that pipe can be a bit tricky since you’re approaching form the right this time (see ? duck without the space for help). Remember again that the platform waits for you at the center of the bottom side of the octagon

Once you get to the door, you face just one Boom-Boom, and you get a leaf and a fire flower. Try to retain as many power-ups as you can to help you against Lugwig.

+Battle of Desert Dares Location: The one in the bottle right corner away from the others. Time Limit: 400

No airship or tanks or what have you here. Just a battle with Ludwig. Four pits of lava, two flamethrowers and plenty of shaking. My advice: keep yourself in the air when Ludwig is about to land. It’s pretty hard to survive very long in this arena, so don’t be afraid to take some risks, after all, you can always try again. Once the shaking gets you, you’re in trouble.

Keep in mind that you do have some space on the platforms next to the flamethrowers, and the added height of these platforms is helpful. I like to jump on him, run to a raised platform, then jump on him and run to the other side, etc.

You can beat this level small, it’s just not particularly easy.

Bowser's Castle

This is it. After clearing seven worlds and gathering seven keys, you finally get access to the last world. The map is a long path of levels, with no mushroom houses or hammer bros. There are eight levels, the first seven have the theme of an older world. The first level is like Koopa Plains, the second is like Hotfoot Caverns, etc.

A deadly surprise awaits at the end of each level though. The game saves every level you’ve beaten in this world, so you can go back to other worlds, stock up on items, and charge back to Bowser’s Castle to take on the next level. This world is normally very difficult, but you can bypass a lot of the hard stuff just by collecting a few wands in older worlds and using them here.

Koopa Plains revisited

• Location: The first level on the path
• Time Limit: 300

A lot to go through here. Try to do it quickly or you’ll run out of time. Don’t worry about the door, just get past all the obstacles (the chain chomp ? block only has a coin in it). At the bouncy music note blocks, drop down and go left for a power-up and a potion. Once you get that potion, bounce back up to where the closest chain chomp is. Go through the coins that used to be bricks. If you don’t make it in time, go back to the start of the level and go through the door for a retry.

Now you have to swim all the way left, hit the brick at the start of the level, then swim back and go back to start to climb the beanstalk. Don’t go in the door by the beanstalk.

Once you get to the top, there are plenty of chain chomps. You can use the glass blocks and koopa shells to knock them out. The bricks in the corners just have 50-coin mushrooms, not worth going for unless you have a raccoon suit to whack it.

After you go up the pipe, take a short hop, keeping close to the wall. You’ll land on a moving platform, which you have to keep pace with. After jumping a few pipes, you must take the platform under a bunch of blocks, then race around a tunnel and land in the platform before it moves across the next set of blocks.

Survive that for a door to Bowser. In this world, every level ends with a fight against a Bowser, probably fake versions of him. This layout it pretty similar to the final boss in SMB3. If you need more help with Bowser Battles, check the Bowser Battles section further down in this world (find “+ Bowser Battles” without the space).

Hot Foot Caverns revisited

• Location: The second level on the path
• Time Limit: 300

Starts off with fire brothers, so jump on them. Go all the way right for the power-up, then grab a glass block to drop down. Keep holding the glass block as you go right and hit the brick, which holds a potion. Don’t get the potion yet. Climb up the wood platforms. The first two have walking flames. Grab a glass block, don’t get hit by the fire-spitting plant next to it. Carry the glass block and hop on the potion. Take the coins and keep to the left of the bricks. The bricks will change back into coins and you’ll drop to the ledge on the left. Jump and kick the glass block at the brick on the right side. If you’re Super, you have to take a short distance duck-slide under the wood block without much spare room to work with. After that is your second Bowser Battle.

Lakitu Glacier revisited

• Location: The third level on the path
• Time Limit: 300

Just like Lakitu Glacier, this level is really slippery. Climb up the platforms, and once you jump over the ice wall, there’s a pit underneath. After you pass the second ice wall, drop down to safe ground below (and an evil face made of coins). Then you have to jump across some slippery one-block platforms. Ignore that pillar; it’s strictly background. Try to cross the bouncing music blocks without touching the upside-down spinies. Don’t go too fast through this area. Then when you get to the pool of water, drop to the bottom of it, and enter the (usually) invisible door in the center. This will take you to the next Bowser Battle.

Kuribo’s Woods revisited

• Location: The fourth level on the path
• Time Limit: 300

There is no especially good way to get the shoes off any of the goombas in this stage, so it's better not to waste time on that and instead take them down before they take you out instead. When you get to the logs, drop, and go right. Watch out for the winged goombas. Climb up the wood blocks and you’ll move up to a platform with lots of glass blocks.

Grab a glass block, and make your way left. There are four piranha plants. You can either kick a glass block at each one (moving back and forth), or make sure you stand on the left side of the pipe, so piranha plants don’t pop out.

While holding a glass block, go down the falling log pit again. Kick the glass block at the isolated brick. It has a potion inside; use it to take the lower passage. Enter the door to take on the local fake Bowser.

Rain causes a small glitch that makes this level much easier. Guess we can call this one a convenient feature instead! The platform that forces you to cross the piranha plant pipes is gone, so you can go back with the glass block the same way you came.

Another very minor glitch is that sometimes one of the piranha plants won’t appear. Not a big difference, you'll likely be glad when this other "feature" happens.

Space Slopes revisited

• Location: The fifth level on the path
• Time Limit: 300

A Super Leaf (Raccoon Mario) is a pretty useful item here as the SMB3 desert tornado is back in black. Run at it and jump when you’re about half a block’s width away from hitting the middle of it. When you land, jump again to clear the other tornado. Otherwise, if you run into the second tornado, you’ll be dropped into the pit and that's no good, but this is where a Super Leaf can save you since you can float back to the edge and keep trying to get away. Being able to consistently cross this pit will be important. Now that you’re here, hit one ? block, collect that power-up, and then do the same for the other ? block. Don’t hit both of them before collecting either or you’ll lose one!

Now you’ve got a pile of glass blocks. Grab one, and do the same thing you did before to get back to the other side of the gap, while holding the block. Use the Raccoon suit so you can float, making the jump easier. You’ll have to take 4 glass blocks to break 4 bricks, which means you have to go back and forth 4 times, 8 jumps total. The fasted method with the Raccoon suit is do the jump as normal (with a running jump), and when Mario is about fall into the pit, press jump a few times to fly a little higher. Then the ability to fly will run out (check the timer below the world number) and you should float to safety, then jump through the second tornado. Other methods tend to slow you down, and you need as much time as possible for the Bowser Battle.

A curiosity observed on this stage while flying high as Raccoon Mario is that the tornadoes clip through the stage ceiling as a glitch. These will do the same thing as the ones on the ground and spin you in the air if you fly into them, so be aware they are there if you want to fly up high in this stage!

Colossal Classics Revisited

• Location: The sixth level on the path.
• Time Limit = 300

Now this one’s simple. Climb or fly up the big clouds to the far right and enter one of the small rooms with flying turtles in it from above. To the left of where you entered is an invisible block to get out of the room. Hit the flying Koopa once, then avoid it and grab the glass block, climb out of the room, run to the right, and kick the block at the next Thwomp. Don’t let the glass block hit the koopa, or it will be lost. You have to defeat 4 Thwomps to get to Bowser.

If you want to do this faster, or have run out of blocks, you can use a single Koopa shell four times. However, the shell will bounce off of bricks placed after every Thwomp. You have to (duck and) jump to stop the shell so you can grab it again try to run at it (very hard to do it you’re Super), so you’ll hop over it as you stop it so you won’t hit it again. For the fourth Thwomp, just run into it with the shell. You’ll lose the shell, but you won’t need it. It’s tougher but faster than using glass blocks.

Note on an easy way to do this stage: If you brought Raccoon Mario and you are using the Koopa shells to bust through the Thwomps, release the shells and follow them in the narrow thwomp space while flying. The neat thing here is that the shell will hit and pass through the defeated Thwomp, hit the brick, then rebound back. If you are flying while doing this, the Koopa shell will safely stop like you stomped it, then you can drop to the side and pick it up to do the trick again to the next Thwomp-block combo in line. Rinse and repeat the trick until you reach the pipe leading to the local fake Bowser.

Desert Dares Revisited

• Location: The seventh level on the path.
• Time Limit = 300 (fail at about 50)

This stage is a bit misleading at a first glance. The potion at the end is a red herring; you can’t go through those bricks even if you turn them into coins because they have stuff in them, so ignore 'em. Instead, you must collect all of the coins such as the ones by the glass boxes, the coin arrow, and the ones on the platforms that go up to the left. Next, drop to the beginning of the level, and there should be a door at the right side of the pyramid leading to the final fake Bowser. If not, move to the left edge of the level and back or try again as you may have missed a coin somewhere.

Note: For those who are interested, there IS actually a way to find out what's in those mysterious boxes blocking your path (but this will not allow you to complete the level and will make you wait for the timer to run out, which will be explained).

Pop the potion out of its box, slide under the bricks nearby, then stop ducking. Mario will walk through the bricks and potion to the other side of the wall. For your reward, you get a whopping ONE COIN EACH in that three-box brigade as you wait for your fifty seconds to be up since you really can't get back to the left side of the stage. It's not a reward, per se, but it's an interesting trick and there may be other areas in the game where you can pull similar shenanigans like this to better effect and make unintended shortcuts in some levels with experimentation. Just be careful trying this in some levels as you can get caught and be forced into waiting for the timer to run out.

Big Bad Bowser Battles

At the end of each level is a battle against a fake Bowser. It gets harder each time, but with masterful timing and cunning, you can trick him into dropping off the bottom of the screen with clever jumping skills!

Of course, one can also simply use a Magic Wand to beat big bruiser Bowser by brute force. That’s right, if any of these battles are too much of a challenge, just pull out a wand from your inventory (or reset the game and get one from another world if you don’t have one). It takes quite a few sparks from the wand to beat Bowser, but it’s often much easier than getting him to drop through layers of bricks and lava. Still though, all of these battles are definitely beatable without a wand, albeit potentially hard, so where's the fun and challenge in that?

There is ANOTHER rather old, but still gold leftover trick from SMB3 if you use the advice of "know thy enemy" that may help immensely with the Bowser battles. A quirk regarding Bowser's sprite is that you will only take damage from the top half and NOT the bottom half! You can also jump off of Bowser's head for no damage to either party in a pinch (if you are properly centered and not hitting the top sprite section weirdly), but don't do that while our big King Koopa friend is jumping unless you want to take a hit. It also goes without saying not to run or collide into Bowser's head if you're Super Mario or another costumed Mario as Bowser has teeth and likes to bite (too bad we don't see animations for that though, this is just the local tongue-in-cheek explanation for collision damage here).

If you are Small Mario (or crouching as Super Mario, Raccoon Mario, or any other suit that is not one block high, noting that Small Mario or Small Mario wearing a Kuribo's Shoe counts as one block) and Bowser is dropping on you, STAND STILL and you will not be hurt unless you were hit by an incoming fireball, were slightly beyond the bottom half of Bowser's sprite and got nailed by a fireball he spat out, stopped ducking as Super Mario or other two-block-high Mario costumes, or jumped due to gamer instinct and/or a lack of trust of this guide. What will happen is that Bowser will be doing his usual thing in your space while belching fire as always before making another jump (which will either be directly above your spot or very slightly to the side of you in the direction Bowser is facing). If you are Small Mario, you may move freely around Bowser's lower-half sprite, just beware moving out just enough to get torched on fireballs. Always try to stay as much in the center as possible so that our friend Bowser doesn't give you the gift of Mario barbecue.

Now that the precautions are covered and Bowser is ready to make a jump down onto your space, you can either repeat this trick (if he lands on you and you're ducking or small, you will not be hurt unless you hit lava or buddy up and follow Bowser offscreen into the abyss), or you can quickly bail out to another spot, taking care that Bowser's head (the damaging part of the sprite) or fireballs do not hit you. You can also slide-duck under Bowser as Super Mario or even run to his lower half as Small Mario to nice effect to do this trick, but always be aware to not touch his upper sprite half or touch fireballs while doing this, or you will get hit. If you're a bit too close to the edge of his sprite's bottom half, he may still be able to touch you with fireballs.

1. Three rows of bricks

A lot like the final boss layout from SMB3, but no indestructible bricks around the edges and no door with blocks above it for protection. Stand about half a screen away from him and dodge his fire breath. When he jumps, run away so he doesn’t ground pound you. Now jump over him to the right side, and get him to ground pound those bricks. Then move back to where he has pounded some bricks, stand in the middle of the groove, and as he’s about to ground pound, take a short hop out of the groove and let him hit it again. Now it’s two blocks deep. Lure him somewhere else and go back into the groove. As he ground pounds into it, hop away from him again, and he’ll fall out of the bottom of the screen.

2. Four rows of bricks, only three blocks wide.

This is like the first level, but now it’s four bricks high, and much of the area is indestructible. No big deal, just form a pit at the area with the destructible bricks. Lure Bowser carefully, jumping out of the pit as he’s about to pound down.

3. Four rows of bricks, strip of lava above the bottom row.

This is where the Bowser Battles start getting tough. The last set of bricks is guarded by deadly lava, though Bowser isn’t affected by it. You can have Bowser crush the first three rows as normal, but then you can’t enter the pit without falling into lava. Lure Bowser a few steps from the pit. Then jump to the other side of the pit, and wait for Bowser to jump. As he jumps at you, take a short hop (don’t hold the jump button for very long) over the pit, timed just so Bowser will pass over you as you’re both over the pit. If you timed it properly, Bowser will ground pound right into the pit and fall. This takes some practice, but keep at it.

4. Four rows of bricks, strip of lava above the 2nd-to-bottom row.

Same thing, but the lava has been moved up. That means you have to do the short hop over the pit twice this time. Doing the short hop precisely and consistently takes practice! It’s a satisfying challenge to overcome, though it’s pretty easy if you use wand attacks. Still though, you got this far, so why not go for a proper challenge?

This fight also has an audio glitch. If you enter the battle while still listening to the potion music, then when that music ends, the ordinary fortress music plays instead of the Bowser music. This is reminiscent of a bug in Sonic 3 where if you played the drowning music against a mini-boss, then hop out of the water, that game plays the Sonic & Knuckles mini-boss music instead, even though that game wasn’t connected or even out at the time. The point is that the game is cued to play different music, but it’s no biggie and it won't affect any gameplay. If you just can’t get pumped into battle without the appropriate music, wait for the potion music to end before you face Bowser.

5. Four rows of bricks, strip of lava separating the top row from the other three, and two sets of bricks to use as platforms.

You could do it the same way as battles 3 and 4, but the platforms allow a new strategy.

First, stand on the left platform. After Bowser jumps at you, jump over to the right platform. He should be on the left platform. Now, when he pauses to jumps at you, immediately jump to the left platform (the one he was on), in a way where you will crash into him in midair above the top of the screen.

The way this works is that you don’t get damaged by him if you’re off-screen. If you position it right, he’ll ground pound the two bricks left of the right platform. Now lure him back onto the right platform so you can do it again. Keep doing this until he falls off the bottom!

If it’s more comfortable for you, mirror the strategy so left is right and right is left.

6. Three rows of bricks, a strip of lava, and then three more!

Use the small hop strategy here from battle #3 here. You’re higher up, and it’s a really tough challenge. Use the SMB3 lower sprite trick to help you out and watch out for fireballs while doing so. Make sure not to stay under Bowser's lower sprite while using the respective trick if he's about to bust into the lava, or Mario will have a nasty time sitting down for weeks.

7. Mamma mia! Two pools of lava on top, five rows of bricks, a row of lava and yet another row of bricks below!

This one's pretty intimidating with all rights. There are two ways of doing this and they’re both kind of ugly (disregarding the bringing of a Magic Wand and blasting Bowser out of the fight), but tricky stunts were always the theme for Desert Dares, so expect no less for Desert Dares Revisited and its respective fake Bowser. Grit your teeth, get comfy and get ready to rumble, don't forget to bring out your best skills and tricks.

If you’re good at the small-hops from battle #3, do that but over the existing lava pits, so Bowser destroys the blocks underneath the lava until he falls. If you let the platform at the edge of the level get destroyed, it’ll be really hard to hop over the lava pit, so watch out for that.

The other way you can beat him is to drill down the center, but it’s hard to complete this strategy without having to stay really close to Bowser, making the fire breath attacks difficult. Use the SMB3 non-damaging lower sprite trick for this one. The platforms to the outside of the lava pools can be valuable in this case, just don’t let Bowser destroy them.

Again, you could also just zap him a bunch of times with the wand, but where’s the fun and accomplishment in that unless you're really having a hard time here?

If you beat this without a Magic Wand, pat yourself on the back, then get someone else to pat your back, preferably your bro or somebody you know, of course.

Now don't touch that dial (if your TV or monitor actually has one), the final level is coming:

Bowser’s Castle, uh, visited

• Location: The eighth and last level on the path (even though the path keeps going).
• Time Limit = None

This level features nearly every enemy in the game like a sort of enemy cast roundup. "Nearly" means all except the dreaded bomb-throwing Warkitu, Boom-Boom, Stretch boos, and perhaps a couple other ones. Still, who wants those crashers invited to this Mario Party?

This level is quite a long run, but there are some power-ups along the way, like one high-up near the beginning in the alcove that the Piledriver Goomba came out of above. It ends with brothers of all kinds. After defeating the Hammer Brothers and climbing the bricks, take a big jump over the giant Spiked Hammer Brother below. This can be a bit tough without a Fire Flower or wand (from outside levels), so take your time. There’s no limit in this castle, but it sucks to have to start over after coming so far.

When you get to the next area, you lose all your items and are reverted to Small Mario. You won't be able to bring in a wand or other fancy stuff in here without cheats, so don't try. Run through the tunnel with gaps to get two fire flowers, past the note block and on over to the lava pits; don't fall in or do anything silly like that here as it’s time for the final battle!

Bowser’s above the ceiling and in the rafters offscreen (!!) and coming on through, breaking what bricks that are in his beeline path to Mario. You'll hear a bunch of thumps and see some of the brick breakage at the bottom of the screen so you'll know that he’s working his way on down for a grand entrance of shock and awe. Just wait for a minute or two, preferably while using the old SMB3 ducking trick earlier described on the middle or lower block of the right platform so he crashes on you with his bottom half and does not hit you with his damaging upper one. None of the bricks where you are at, including in the lava pits, are breakable, so you'll have to use different tactics against our fiery turtle-dragon friend.

You have a Fire Flower, another one in your stock, and one in the music note box for later use (try not to hit it out and use it prematurely!), so three total for lobbing fireballs at Bowser, the ONLY weapons that can damage him. If you lose them all, you won’t be able to beat Bowser and you'll have to take yourself out in the lava to do the level over and get Fire Flowers for a rematch. This can stink pretty badly for such a long stage so try hard not to get hit.

If you do get hit once and revert to Super Mario, it is recommended that you make sure you get hit as Super Mario and not Fire Fire Mario if you cannot dodge a hit and the note block flower is used up. That way you can shoot Bowser a bit more, have a bit more of a chance (and maybe even take Bowser out if you're lucky) and not have to redo the stage immediately for Fire Flowers by an unavoidable, tricky or unlucky fireball potshot. Always remember that Super Mario cannot harm Bowser, making this form the insurance policy (in this case meaning the meat shield) for your reserve Fire Flower against stray fireballs if you have to jump. Repeat this phrase: Only Fire Mario can damage Bowser in the final battle, Fire Fire Mario form is to always be protected!

Our good friend Bowser takes a rather sizable number of hits, like at least a hundred if not more so don't get discouraged if it looks like nothing is happening. This is not quite as hard as some of the earlier fake Bowser Battles but there's no bringing a wand this time, so you have to be good with the Fire Flower. A controller (if you're using a keyboard, you get extra applause) with turbo set up might be useful too if you want some rapid-fire on those fireballs.

Finish this intense battle and you’ve won the game!

Credits

This is not really a level, but your reward for beating the game beyond some bragging rights!

You rescue Peach / Princess Toadstool again, though her ending speech is a little different.

Whereas SMB3’s ending showed off all the worlds, Mario Adventure uses the end sequence for credits, though there are some pictures to look at too.

After you win, you’re taken back to the title screen, but your victory has been saved. Now you can play all the levels in World 8 whenever you want. Also, whenever you beat any World 8 level, A door opens up and you can see the ending again. Those seem to be the only changes. The game timer still counts up, so you might want to record how long it took to beat the game if you took less than 10 hours.

Warp Whistle levels

If you blow a whistle in Mario Adventure, you’re taken to a different bonus level depending on what world you were on.

World 1: A bunch of ? blocks. There’s two Fire Flowers and two Raccoon Tails to collect, as well as some coins. Keep in mind that only one power-up can be displayed on-screen at a time, and if you hit another ? block with a power-up in it, the first one will go away.

World 2: Battle Goombas up a hill, then slide down it (use Down to slide). When you slide to the bottom, press A on the music note block, keeping your momentum, and you’ll launch right up into another music note block. Continue this 5 times and you’ll get to the top, which has better prizes; an invisibility suit or a wand.

World 7: Takes you to the key.

World 8: Lots of prizes. Two Fire Flowers, two Raccoon Suits, and a Kuribo’s Shoe to boot (pun not intended). No wand though, which is what you need to fight the many Bowsers the easy way.

Key locations

The keys aren't too hard to find, but there's a whole world to hunt around and sometimes the clue isn’t so specific about which level to go to. As a last resort, this page will tell you where to go for the keys.

World 1: Koopa Plains

“Between two hills in a level at the bottom of the world is a block you cannot see”

Well, there’s three levels that fit that description, but it’s the middle level of the bottom row that has the key. You have to know to hold Down for a while on the white block to get through. A little while after the music note block pit, you’ll see two groups of hills with eyes on them in the background. In between them is a music block. Ride it to heaven. Finish the level (or die, it doesn’t matter), and reset the game to use your key.

World 2: Hot Foot Caverns

“A fire spitting boo is guarding the entrance which lies near the end of the world and the level.”

It’s the right-most level, and yep, it’s near the end of it. When you get to the Fire Boo, jump to the lowest wood platform. The left side of that has an invisible music note block. Unless you’re Fire Fire Mario, hop onto a higher platform before attempting to jump on the music note block.

You can see where the invisible blocks are, because no rain will be falling through them. When you see the Fire Boo, look for the one spot that is clear of rain.

World 3: Lakitu Glacier

“Under the Bottom of the ocean is the key to finding the key”

It’s pretty vague. Looking at the map, you’d probably go for the lower levels since they look like they’re underwater, but no, this ocean is actually above water. It’s the fourth level on the path.

When you see the chain chomp, swim down and to the right. There’s enough space to swim under the blocks. Move up the upside-down pipe to get the key.

World 4: Kuribo’s Woods

“The right of the cloud gets the key... at least it did in the past!”

The “past” past of the clue refers to the level one step left of the fortress. That level is based on World 1-1 from SMB1. A music note block appears just right of the first cloud, right at the start of the level. Now you get to play a new version of the level filled with Brothers, and the Boom-Boom is replaced by a key.

World 5. Starry Slopes

“The arrow points to the coins needed to pay the toll to see the door”

OK, so hopefully you remembered where there was an arrow in this world. Well I’ll just tell you; it was the fortress. Like the World 4 clue, this clue isn’t really accurate. The fact is, the arrow is made of the coins needed to pay the toll to see the door.

Anyway, start the fortress as normal, but make sure you collect every coin. When you get to the arrow, collect all those coins, but instead of dropping down, go back to the start of the level. The dropping music note blocks have a door on them now. Enter the door, pressing up as soon as you land on the block before it drops. Congrats, that’s key #5.

World 6: Colossal Classics

“In the Land of Giants, a tiny way is for tiny people where music notes are silent and fake”

Look at the fortress, now take the low route to the left of that, and play the first level you run into. When you get to the part with the music notes, get shrunk into little Mario if you’re not already. Now go on the ? block and hop. The top row of music notes are fake. You get a key made out of coins, then go down a pipe so you can get the real key.

World 7: Desert Dares

“Toot!” (letter comes with a whistle)

Toot the whistle.