A guide to completing World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

How to Clear World 1-1

Press the A button to jump. Hold the B button to run.

To the right, there are ? blocks, and a Goomba walking along. If the Goomba touches you and you're small-sized Mario, you'll lose a life and have to start the level again. You can jump on top of the Goomba to stomp it and defeat it.

Jump up to hit the ? blocks. The first three contain one coin each, and if you collect 100 coins, you get an extra life.. The rightmost of these ? blocks contains a Super Mushroom (if you're small Mario) or Super Leaf (if you're Super Mario). This guide assumes that you just started the level and got a Super Mushroom. The Super Mushroom turns you into Super Mario. As Super Mario, you can get hit by an enemy without losing a life, but you will shrink back to small size.

To the right, a Venus Fire Trap goes up and down out of the pipe. It will spit a fireball at you each time it comes up from the pipe. If you stand near the pipe, the Venus Fire Trap will hide in the pipe.

Go past the pipe and there is a ? block, which just contains a coin.

Secret

Up ahead, there are some colorful blocks. One of them is white, and if you jump on top of the white block, then press Down on the directional pad to crouch for 5 seconds, you will fall behind the block and can walk around in the background. There is no advantage to doing this in the current level, but in some later levels, you can reach secret areas this way.

Moving On

In the area with the white block, there is a Goomba on the ground, and a red Koopa Troopa on a green block. Red Koopa Troopas will walk back and forth on whatever platform they are on. If you stomp a Koopa Troopa, it will hide in its shell, and if you hold the B button when you touch the shell, you will pick it up. If you hold it too long, the Koopa Troopa will come back out of its shell and hurt you. Or if you let go of B, you will kick the shell in the direction it's facing, and it will start quickly spinning in that direction. If it hits anything, it will bounce and start moving in the opposite direction.

Try using this Red Koopa Shell to hit the ? block on the ground. If you do it correctly, a Super Leaf will pop out if you're still Super Mario, or a Super Mushroom will pop out if you got hit and became small Mario. If you got a Super Leaf, you will transform into Raccoon Mario.

Raccoon Mario Abilities

As Raccoon Mario, if you hold B to run, and you keep running until the P-Meter in the bottom of the screen fills up, you can start pressing the A button repeatedly to fly. However, you can only fly for a limited amount of time. If you're falling, you can tap the jump button to wag your tail, which makes you fall more slowly.

You can also press B to hit things with your tail. You can hit Bricks with your tail to break them, or hit ? blocks with your tail to get the items inside, or you can hit enemies with your tail to defeat them.

Try Flying

There is another ? block after the one that had the Super Leaf in it, then there are some Goombas and a Para-Goomba. Get rid of these enemies, then go to the left, then hold the B button to run to the right until the P-Meter is filled. Then tap A to fly. Try flying through the coins. You will reach an area in the sky with some coins, and a ? block that contains a 1UP Mushroom. (The area beneath this just has several Green Paratroopas, a Green Koopa Troopa, and a ? block that contains a Super Leaf (or Super Mushroom if you're small). If you missed the other Super Leaf, you can get one here, then go to the left to run and reach this area in the sky.)

Note that if you skipped the sky area, there are a couple of gaps in the ground after the Green Troopas, so be sure to jump over them.

If you went to the sky instead, you will see several coins beyond the right side of the cloud platform. You can go to the left side of the cloud platform and run to the right to try to fly and collect those coins.

Directly beneath those last coins, there are a couple of pipes, one of which has a Green Piranha Plant, and the other of which has a Green Venus Fire Trap.

After that, don't hit any of the bricks near the Red Koopa Troopa, except for the upper-right brick of the larger pile of bricks. If you're Raccoon Mario, you can hit that brick with your tail to make a Switch Block (also known as a P Switch) appear. If you're not, you can try to stomp on the Red Koopa Troopa and hold the run button to pick up the shell, then turn to face the upper-right brick of the larger pile of bricks, and let go of B to kick the shell into that brick, making the P Switch appear.

Once the Switch Block has appeared, jump onto it to activate it. This turns all bricks into coins that you can collect.

After you have collected the coins, if you're still Raccoon Mario, make sure to get the Red Koopa Troopa out of the way if it's still walking around, then go to the left until you're up against the pipe with the Venus Fire Trap in it, then run to the right to fill the P-Meter, then fly straight up so you reach the top of the very tall pipe on the right. Land on top of the pipe and go down to find an underground area with some coins in the shape of the number 3. Then jump up against the rightmost pipe in the ceiling and hold the up button to go up the pipe.

Hit the Goal Block

Then go to the right and you reach a darkened area with a block that has a changing symbol inside. This is the Goal Block. It changes between Mushroom, Flower, and Star. When you hit it, you collect the symbol that was displayed when you hit the block. You will find Goal Blocks at the end of most levels, and when you have collected three symbols, you will get a number of 1UPs depending on which symbols you collected. If you don't have 3 of the same symbol, you get 1UP. If you get three Mushrooms, you get 2UP. If you get three Flowers, you get 3UP. If you get three Stars, you get 5UP, so it's best to try to get 3 Stars.

One easy way to get a Star from the Goal Block is to hold the run button as you go toward the dark area at the end of the level, then jump to hit the Goal Block at a 45° angle. You're likely to get a Star if you hit it this way.

After the Level

After you complete the level, the Hammer Bro on the map will move to a random location. Then you can move on to World 1-2.