Mario Adventure/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.