Super Mario Bros./Techniques

Basic techniques

Mario and Luigi are men of many tricks when it comes to trouble. Use the following techniques described here while you play, and as building blocks for the more advance techniques described below.

Technique	Description
Jump	When your character is at a standstill, press the A button and up he goes.
Dash	To hightail it out of a trouble spot, press the B button. Run for it!
Dash Jump	Hold the B button to dash, and while you're running, press the A button. Extremely useful.
Stomp	Most of the enemies you encounter can be defeating by pressing A button to jump on their head.
Stomp and Chase	After you stomp a Koopa Troopa, you can give it a kick and chase it while it clears the path, until it hits a block and rebounds. Then jump out of its way.
Duck	Timing is everything when you hold Down on the D-Pad in order to duck out of trouble.

Advanced techniques

You'll have to perfect a few tricky moves in order to successfully explore every challenging level. Take a look and use them as they apply.

Technique	Description
Dash and Jump Back	With limited space to run, dash past high target platforms, jump and back up in the air to land safely.
Koopa Paratroopa Stomp	If the only thing between your character and a far away platform is a flying Koopa, you can bounce off of the turtle for extra distance.
Spring Jump	Springs provide minimal extra height if you simply bounce off of them. You'll get extra air by jumping when you hit the Springs.
Bounce on the Fly	This variation of the Koopa Paratroopa Stomp works for both height and distance. Dash, jump, stomp and continue to fly forward.
Low Slide	If your character is super-sized, he can't run under one-block high gaps. Make him dash, duck and slide under the obstacle.
Ducking Jump	Super-sized characters often hit low ceilings when they jump. To avoid this, you can make them duck first, then jump.
Fall and Curve	If a platform hangs over your targeted destination, you can jump and move in the air to the place that you need to land.
Narrow Gap Dash	If the gap in front of your character is one block in width, there's no need to jump. Just run over the gap with super speed.
Enemy Stop	Stop Green Piranha Plant and Bullet Bill activity by standing next to the pipes and cannons where they appear.
Power-Up Wrap Around	If there's a Power-Up at the edge of a series of blocks, you can collect it by jumping and changing your direction in the air.
Mushroom Rebound	Power-Up Mushrooms always slide to the right. You can make them go the other way by hitting the next block over.
Jumping stop	If you are afraid of sliding too far, you can stop a slide by jumping straight up. You'll land with no slide.

More advanced techniques

There are a few tricky maneuvers that have limited uses but are, nevertheless, good to know. Study the tricks below and try them out for yourself. You may impress other players with your skill.

Technique	Description
Mushroom Disappearance	Poisonous Mushrooms are a real menace. You can make them disappear in certain situations by finding a Power-Up Mushroom in the area. Just pop up one and the other will be gone.
Tight Squeeze	In a few very special situations, when you create a gap on the left edge of the screen that is exactly the right width, you can make your character jump into the gap and use it to move to higher ground.
Scroll In	If a moving target is off the edge of the screen before you jump, you'll have very little luck in hittin it. Move slowly to the right until the target is in view.
Scroll Out	A Fire-Bar will stop rotating around a block if your character has to move past it to the extent that its center is off the left edge of the screen.
Fireworks	Fireworks sometimes celebrate the end of a level. You can trigger them by grabbing the Flagpole when the last digit of the timer is a 1, 3, or 6.
1-Up Pole Grab	On in the Lost Levels, if your Coin total is two of the same digit and you hit the Flagpole when the last digit of the timer is the same as the others, you'll walk away with a 1-Up.

Errata

• Power-up double jump: When presented with either a Super Mushroom or Fire Flower, if you ensure that you are not holding A button when you collect it, you can press and hold A button during the powerup animation, which will result in Mario jumping from that point in midair as if he were standing on solid ground.

• Wall jump: When Mario hits the edge of a wall at a 16-pixel tile boundary, he will act like he is standing on solid ground for a frame. If you can manage to press A button on that frame, Mario will appear to jump from the side of the wall.

• "Hat stomp": Mario does not necessarily need to be coming down on an enemy from above to stomp it. As long as Mario is moving downward, he can stomp enemies.

• Accelerated Jump: If you jump into a block, you'll be pushed down at a rate higher than normal gravity; when you hit the ground immediately jump to rebound into the air at a higher velocity. You'll jump higher and farther with this.