Super Mario Bros. 3/World 1

This is the Plains World. The levels are pretty straightforward and should not pose too much of a difficulty. Interestingly enough, you can beat 4 levels and make it to the final World right from the first World.

1-1
You will start the level with two sets of two item blocks and a Goomba in front of you. The top right one contains a mushroom. Proceed over the pipe and you will find a Koopa Troopa. Jump on it once, then kick it to the right to hit the block containing a leaf. Kill the next three Goombas. Now, there are two routes:

Route 1 (Raccoon Mario necessary)
If you are Raccoon Mario, collect speed and fly where a trail of 4 coins lead you. You will find a platform of clouds with a block that contains a 1up mushroom.

There are two pipes at the very end of the level. Collect speed on the platform of clouds and fly to the right. Land on the top of the top pipe to access a secret room with a big "3" spelled out in coins.

Route 2
Continue to the right and you'll see Koopa Paratroopas. If you're Raccoon Mario and you're really skilled with them, you can stomp on them several times without touching the ground and get 1-Ups.

Coin Trick
If you follow Route 1, you'll come out of a pipe almost at the end of the level. If you go left through the hole in the broken pipe (be careful of the bottomless pit, you'll encounter the first level's coin trick. If you take Route 2, you'll simply come upon this scene naturally. Either way, you'll run into something that looks like this: The circled block conceals a P-switch. When you jump on a P-switch, all of the bricks on the screen are transformed into coins for a short time, and vice versa. To make the switch come out of the block, just jump on the Koopa Troopa and kick the shell to the left. The shell will smash the bricks underneath the switch-block, allowing you to jump up and bump the block, revealing the switch. Be careful not to get in the shell's way while it's whizzing along below. Also be careful when standing on the block to the right of the Troopa; if you're big, the turtle can still shrink you if you get to close. Alternate method: If you're Raccoon Mario, just whack the block with your tail to reveal the switch. The Koopa Troopa wil simply fall through the coins to the ground.

Finishing this level with a coin number a multiple of 11 and the tens digit of the point count the same digit (for example, 0001120 points and 22 coins) with an even number of seconds on the clock unlocks the ghost coin ship.

1-2
Early in this level, there is a pipe with Goombas coming out of it. Raccoon Mario can touch 9 or more of them without touching the ground and get 1-ups. There is a 1-up on top of the pipe in the middle of the level that takes you to the coin room. To get up to the pipe, use the P-switch concealed in the circled block to change the coins to bricks. Tail-whip the block, or run, duck and slide to get under it and jump. Climb the staircase of bricks and wait until the piranha plant on top retracts to jump on top of the pipe, You can then grab the 1-Up by jumping up while standing on the right side of the pipe. Then, press the down button to enter the coin room. Hurry up; if you leave it to long, the bricks will turn back into coins. If this happens, and you're Raccoon Mario, you can run, jump and float to the pipe, although you will almost certainly lose your raccoon suit. Note that the coins in the coin room may momentarily be bricks because of the P-switch effect. If this happens, just wait. When you exit the coin room, you'll be set back at the top of the hill, just after the red Paragoomba. Now, jump around to grab all the coins. Near the end of the level is another pipe with Goombas coming out of it. There is a Paragoomba that drops microgoombas near the exit, so watch out for that.

1-3
At the start of the level there is a Boomerang Brother. You can knock it out with the Green Koopa before it.

Right after that, there is a small mass of breakable blocks. Kick the Red Koopa at the Music Block, that will clear it out. There is a mushroom/leaf in one of the blocks on the bottom, and 10 coins in one on the top.

Coin Heaven Route
There is a concealed pink music block in the small mass of blocks. reveal it, jump on it, and you will be taken to an auto-scrolling place called coin heaven. in addition to this, when you get to the halfway point of coin heaven, fly up (If you are Raccoon Mario,) and get the 1up mushroom in the box. drop back down and go down the pipe, you will end up near the exit. Proceed right and finish the level.

Normal Route
From the mass of blocks, go right. you will see 4 columns of wooden blocks, one of which is only three blocks tall. bump the top block for a mushroom/leaf. There is a Boomerang Brother later, and the rest is straight forward. Unless, that is, you want to get a warp whistle. proceed right, and you will notice a white block. Clear it off (enemies wise,) then duck on top of it for 3 seconds or so, until you fall behind the scenery. Now just run to the end of the level. You'll go behind the exit, and to a secret toad house with a warp whistle.

It is possible to combine these routes by completing the Coin Heaven Route and then backtracking to the white block to get the warp whistle.

1-4
The first auto-scrolling level of the game! This level has you jumping from platform to platform reach the exit. In addition to the solid blocks, there are floating woodem platforms that will drop soon after you land on them. Raccoon Mario is recommended!

Everything is straight forward in this level, but there are a few items hiding in these blocks.

Only a few seconds into the level, you will see a two-block platform with a four-block platform above it. Stand on the two blocks, and hit the third block in the four block expanse, while facing right. You will release a 1up. Try standing on the second block to insure that it heads towards you rather than away.

After that, there are three L shaped masses of block. In the lower right block of the third L, there is a mushroom/leaf.

You may notice the Red Koopa on the platform above you. Jump on it, then pick it up. Now go jump up to the next group of blocks. Kick the koopa you're holding at the block sticking out of the platform to release the second 1up.

Continue to the right to finish the level.

The White Mushroom House
If you grab all the coins in this level, a white mushroom house will appear in the screen. Most of the coins you can see, but a lot are hidden in blocks.

Remember that Mushroom/leaf that you found in the L shaped block group? Well the block just over to the right has 10 coins in it, if you hit it in succession. Work fast though, before the block scrolls off the screen, and you're pushed off the edge.

Later on in the level, you may notice an 8-coin high column of coins. get those by standing on one of those floating wooden platforms, then falling to get all of them, then jumping up to that L shaped mass of blocks. stay on the top of that L, and quick, start jumping! If you are not Small Mario, you will break the block above you, then start getting coins out of the one on top of it. Hurry and get them all before it scrolls away, and the rest is easy. The white mushroom house will contain a P-Wing.

After entering the pipe, a Boomerang Brother will be on your left. Stomp on it, and then get to the Goal Panel. Note that it is hard to get a star in this level because of the short distance between the Pipe and the Goal Panel. However, if you run back and forth a few times in the black area before jumping, you will probably get one.

Fortress
This fortress has 2 new kinds of enemies, podoboos, which are fireballs coming out of lava, and Rotodiscs, which circle around, and which you're going to have to be careful passing. There is small platform with a "?" box in the middle of the room. The box contains your first fire flower, which will only appear to big or Raccoon Mario. At the far right there is a door, an item box, and a Dry Bones enemy. Knock out the Dry Bones and run to the far right of the level. Maintaining your P-meter, run to the left.

Whistle route
One of the warp whistles is obtained in this level. To get this you have to have a flying leaf. If you have a full P-meter, take off and fly to the left of the wall and fly right until you start moving right. Go all the way to the right and enter a secret door to be transported to a room in the fortress with an chest. The chest contains the warp whistle. If you take this route, it will destroy the fortress, but it will not open the lock.

Regular route
Alternately, if you don't want the whistle, enter the door at the right of the wall and you'll be in a room with a spiked ceiling that will come down to crush you. Follow until the door at the end is reached, and enter it to see Boom Boom. Stomp on his head 3 times or fireball him five times and the fortress will be destroyed and a lock will open.

1-5
You begin by sliding down and killing 4 Buzzies. You'll then encounter a pool with coins floating above it. Press the up button while tapping the A button to jump out of the pool and grab all the coins. Soon, the level will diverge into three different paths.

Route 1
Jump over the hole with the Piranha Plant and run up the side of the hill. You will face several Koopa Troopas climbing up hills. If you can get to the hills quickly enough, you can just slide down and kill them. Soon, you'll come to a pit. Walk down the hill and get a mushroom/flower power-up from the "?" box.

Route 2
Wait until the Piranha plant retracts, then run down. You'll encounter a series of small pits. Just press the B button to dash and run across them. You'll see another small pool with coins above it, and past that, a "?" box that conceals a mushroom/flower power-up. Then, climb the hill.

Route 3
Climb the hill, then jump up at the side of the wall to reveal a coin heaven bounce box. If you have trouble finding it, look at the picture above (the bounce box is just above the top of the arrow) or scrutinize the screen for tiny pink specks among the white ones. Unfortunately, these specks will only appear in the NES version, because of the changed backgrounds in other renditions of the game. Bounce off the box to enter a coin heaven.

All of the routes come together at this point. You'll see a single Troopa climbing a hill. Slide to kill it. Soon, there's another hill with a fire-spitting Piranha Plant at the bottom. The next pipe is empty, but there's another plant that emerges from the pie that points downward. Run into the horizontal pipe to go aboveground and finish the level.

1-6
This is a mushroom-top level. You must jump from giant mushroom to giant mushroom to finish the level. When you get past the first two Troopas, you'll come to a sliding platform. This is a platform that moves back and forth on a track, and will not fall when you jump on it. You must jkump on it, then jump from it to the next platform. Then, kill the Troopa on the platform below to get the mushroom/leaf power-up. After the red paratroopa, you'll see a single turtle walking back and forth on a platform, imprisoned by two bricks on either side. The top brick on the left is a one-coin block (circled in blue on the picture), the top brick on the left is a ten-coin block (circled in purple in the picture), and the third from the left on top has a 1-Up mushroom (circled in green on the picture. The easiest method to get the coins is to use the Troopa shell to smash out the two bottom bricks, then get under them and jump to grab. You'll soon encounter a series of platforms suspended in mid-air. To get to the next moving platform, travel to the top and drop through the tiny gap to fall on the single block. Jump onto the next platform. Be careful of the red paratroopa, and jump on to the sold platform at the end before the moving platform drops of the track at the end. The next platform, although it has no track, is solid. Jump from it to the vertical platform, then from that to the pipe. Also, watch out for the Koopa Troopa below the goal panel. Raccoon Mario can fly over and get coins just about halfway through the level.

Airship
This is the first Airship. Just before getting onto it at the castle, you'll see that the king has been transformed into a snake. The enemies are Bullet Bills and Cannonballs. Follow it and enter the pipe at the end and kill Larry Koopa by stomping on him 3 times. You can also use fireballs to defeat him (as long as you don't get hit, of course).

You will get his wand and change the king back, and receive a message from Princess Toadstool containing a P-wing. The message says, "If you see any ghosts, be careful. They will give chase if you turn away. I have enclosed a jewel that helps protect you."

Getting killed while in the airship causes it to move to a random location on the map.