Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3/World e Part 3

e-6 Magical Note Blocks

Get to the top of a cylindrical tower with note blocks being your only platforms.

The initial area is wide open with two Buzzy Beetles making their only appearance in this course. Go up the pipe to enter the real meat of the level. This is an unusual level as the sides wrap around itself; going off the screen to the right and you will appear on the left. You will also notice that the level is composed entirely out of Note Blocks, so you're in for quite a bumpy climb. The first few floors are wide and flat with some red Koopas that can be dispatched from underneath.

Next, the Note Block platforms take the form of jagged, disconnected slopes arranged in such a way as to force you to wrap around the screen to progress. Both green and red Koopa Troopas appear in this section and your awkward bounce adds a layer of challenge to stomping them out. As you climb you will see an Advance Coin surrounded by Note Blocks to the left. Grab it by jumping into the right edge of the screen.

Now comes the hardest part of the course: jumping up individual Note Blocks. The platforms become narrow and chaotically scattered so you need to be precise with your jumps. Several Note Blocks contain power-ups when hit. A wrong step can cause you to lose a lot of progress, especially since bumping into Note Blocks from the side can mess with your momentum. To compound the problem, a Fire Chomp and a red Paratroopa appear as added threats. The second Advance Coin is above the wooden blocks where the Fire Chomp spawns.

The last Advance Coin can be seen at the top of the screen, but requires some out of the box thinking. It's too high and too far away to jump to from the middle, so instead jump off the highest Note Block on the left and wrap around the edges to collect the Advance Coin. Head into the pipe to reach the level's ending.

e-7 The ol' Switcharoo

P-Switches play a big role here. Be quick on your feet unless you wish to bathe in lava!

You begin in a secluded desert oasis, but the waterfall hides a secret. Take a plunge in the falls to find an Advance Coin, as well as the pipe that leads into this underground fortress. Inside you'll find a pit of lava and a load of coins. Hit the P-Switch in the floor to make a path across the lava. Right before you make the last jump to solid ground, hit the protruding block of the left wall of blocks to find another P-Switch to prolong the effect. Grab the Advance Coin, go into the pipe, then jump into the first ceiling pipe before the P-Switch ends.

If you were fast enough, you'll end up in a tower full of coins, including the third Advance Coin of the level. Take the wooden platform to the top, then jump into the pipe to emerge back on to the desert. You have to swim up the waterfall flowing around the pipe to get the next Advance Coin. Return to the room with the two ceiling pipes where you'll spot a lone patch of grass on the ground. Pluck the vegetable and hang on to it as you go through the pipe on the right.

After passing an empty room, you're faced with an even wider lava pit here and a longer path of coins. Hit the P-Switch when you're ready and get across quickly. An e Coin can be found on the other side of the lava, which is where your vegetable comes into play. If you're still holding it, toss it at the coin to collect the Star e-Coin! Use the pipe to return to the desert waterfall. Swim around the top edge of the waterfall to get the last Advance Coin, then proceed toward the exit.

e-8 Piped Full of Plants

The pipes in this course have been infested by Piranha Plants and they are growing restless. Sear them with fireballs or you may get roasted yourself.

The level begins on a challenging note: two pipes face each other with Piranha Plants emerging in an odd pattern. After that is a series of pipe platforms all of which have Piranha Plants in them. Venus Fire Traps get added into the mix as you continue, until you reach a pair of bottlenecks created by warp pipes. Again, both pipes will have Piranha Plants coming out regularly and now you have Venus Fire Traps firing at you from all directions. You can get an Advance Coin jumping from the second bottleneck to the first, but it's very hard to do so unscathed.

After a harrowing series of pipe platforming, you are rewarded with a Super Mario World-styled power-up roulette. Your next obstacle is a Venus Fire Trap and a mini pipe path where Munchers periodically emerge. You must time your jumps very carefully to grab the Advance Coin without taking a hit. Toward the end is a stack of horizontal pipes featuring a new enemy: horizontal Venus Fire Traps that shoot two fireballs before retreating. Head in the lower right pipe to warp to the exit. For the last Advance Coin, you must simply have a power-up that will let you fly on to the exit pipe formation, not easy given the difficulty of this course.

e-9 Swinging Bars of Doom

Boom Boom has gone all out with rotating Fire Bars when building his next fortress, and this time he's bringing his twin to the fight.

The opening hallway of this course is a gauntlet of various enemies. The Bony Beetle from Super Mario World makes an appearance, being immune to fire and harmful to jump on when its spikes are out. After that, you will pass the first Fire Bar of the course, followed by a combination of a Thwomp and a Thwimp. Next, you'll encounter a Boo and have a chance to grab an Advance Coin, followed by a Piranha Plant in a pipe.

Your next obstacle is to jump over several lava pits with Podoboos leaping out at regular intervals. Between the lava pits is a Fire Bar and an Advance Coin that you must skillfully nab without getting burned. The course then separates into two floors with Fire Bars spanning both of them. As Small Mario, jump into the hole in the ceiling to reach a cache of coins. Watch out for the Lil Sparky; it circles around the platform its on and is harmful to touch. Stick to the more dangerous upper path to get an Advance Coin. You must then content with both double length Fire Bars and a Thwomp.

The final stretch of the level is to ascend and descend pillars of varying heights. In addition to the Fire Bars, you will also encounter Bony Beetles and Boos. Once you get on to the highest pillars, drop down the gap of the left tallest pillar and go right. Jump to the right of the one-way paddle to reveal some blocks. Return to the pillar and slip through the two Fire Bars to drop on to the blocks you just revealed, letting you take the Advance Coin. Descend down some more pillars while avoiding the Fire Bars to find the door to the boss.

There is power in numbers and Boom Boom doesn't play fair. He has brought a friend to gang up on Mario! Despite there being two of them, the Boom Booms don't behave differently from their normal appearances, but they do have different abilities. One Boom Boom has the high jump, while the other can sprout wings and fly. Focus on one Boom Boom so that you can get rid of him early, leaving you with only one Boom Boom left to deal with.

e-10 Para Beetle Challenge

The last of the North American e-Reader levels ramps up the difficulty with tricky platforming action. It would be another 10 years before the rest of the e-Reader levels were released worldwide.

This entire level centers around jumping between Para Beetles. The Para Beetles function like tiny platforms and shift when Mario lands on them, so it is likely to fall to your death from a missed jump. The first Advance Coin can be obtained immediately after the auto-scroll begins. There are clouds at the bottom to catch your fall here, but you'd want to stay on the Para Beetles to get the second Advance Coin. The scrolling will speed up and pan upward, slowing down once it reaches the third Advance Coin.

If you have managed to keep the pace with the ascending camera, now comes the second major section of this course. Instead of a bunch of Para Beetles, you only have two that will carry you through this third of the stage. Remember that you can hop on the Para Beetle to lower its height, or stay on it to make it fly up. First ascend to get an Advance Coin, then weave around the wooden blocks. Descend below the third wooden block to nab the last Advance Coin.

After the wooden blocks, more Para Beetles will fly in from the right. The screen scroll speeds up drastically here, forcing you to abandon your pair of Para Beetles and jump across the incoming swarm to keep up with the autoscrolling. You can relax once you reach a platform of wooden blocks, as the course end is just an exit pipe away.