How to Die in Mario Games

Learn how to get unlimited 1-Ups, level warps and more in Super Mario Bros. for the NES Classic Edition.

Published Nov. 22, 2016, 10:03 p.m.

by Josh Hawkins

The NES Classic Edition is out now, and if you were lucky enough to nab one while they were on store shelves, then you’re probably already knee deep exploring the vast dungeons of your childhood. Today we’re going to take a look at Super Mario Bros. and go over some of the coolest secrets and cheats available for the game.

How to Get Unlimited 1-Ups

First up on our list is a secret way to acquire an unlimited amount of 1-Ups. Nobody likes to die, and being able to achieve this little secret will allow you to keep playing Super Mario Bros. until your heart is content. To make use of this little secret, though, you’re going to have to play the game a little.

Make your way through the game to World 3-1 and acquire the Super Mario power-up. Then, at the end of the level, just beside the staircase that leads to the end flag, you will spot two Koopa Troopas waltzing down the stairs. Jump over the first Koopa and land on the second Koopa. This will bounce you back down the steps, and the Koopa will recede into his shell. Get on the step just below the hibernating Koopa and jump up, landing on the edge of the shell. This will knock it back into the stair where it will rebound and hit Mario, causing him to constantly jump again and again without touching the ground. After a moment your points will begin to add up, and then you’ll suddenly receive 1-Up after 1-Up until you stop the process.

Level Warp Locations

In Super Mario Bros. you can easily warp to Worlds 2, 3, or 4 from World 1-2. This can be accomplished by following the instructions we listed below.

While playing through World 1-2, make your way to the end where the two platforms rise up in the air. Hop on the first platform and then jump to the highest structure in the center. Now jump to the second platform and wait until it reaches the top. From here, you can jump onto the top of the level. This will allow you to walk forward and drop down a small drop where you can enter the desired tube to instantly warp to Worlds 2, 3, or 4.

You can also warp to Worlds 6, 7, and 8. To do so, you will need to make your way through the game to World 4-2. You can get there easily by using the steps above to warp to World 4-1. Continue through World 4-2 to the area where three breakable blocks can be seen suspended in air, just before the two pipes with the Koopa Troop between them; this is also right after the first elevator platforms. Jump to discover two invisible blocks, then break the two blocks to the right. Now hit the final block to spawn a vine that you can climb up and out of the level. This leads you to a special area with three Warp Zone pipes.

To warp to World 5, you will need to continue on towards the end of the level in World 4-2. Near the end of the stage, you can ride an elevator platform to reach the top of the level. From here, simply run across the top of the level to enter the Warp Zone that leads to World 5. Note that because these Warp Zones are both located in World 4-2, you can only choose to take one of them.

How to Continue the Game After you Die

So, you ran out of 1-Ups. If you find yourself in this precious situation, and chances are that you will, you can easily continue the game from your previous level. To do this, you’ll need to wait for the Game Over screen to appear, then press and hold A. Press Start and choose your amount of players. This should spawn you back at the beginning of the World that you died in, allowing you to simply continue the game from your last point.

The NES Classic Edition is a great way to enjoy the best video games of your childhood, and it’s great to see the timeless secrets and cheats make their way back to the games. We’ll have even more tips coming for the games included in the Classic Edition, so be sure to check out our NES Classic Edition guide to see what other secrets and cheats your favorite old-school games might be hiding.

After multiple lukewarm Mario Party entries and a brief flirtation with 3DS versions, Nintendo finally brought its beautiful, competitive self to the Nintendo Switch with Super Mario Party. Nintendo looks to be banking on nostalgia for older players with this entry, referring to it as a “complete refresh” of the Mario series and focusing on the basic elements of the game: playing mini-games and collecting stars. It’s the first Mario Party to have an online mode of any kind and will also implement the Joy-Cons in fun ways for its new line-up of mini-games.

November 8, 2018: New Super Mario Party bundle coming to the Nintendo Switch!

Get the party started with the new #SuperMarioParty bundle for #NintendoSwitch, featuring the game and a pair of Neon Green/Neon Yellow Joy-Con! This bundle arrives 11/16 and will retail for $99.99.

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 8, 2018

Today Nintendo of America released a Tweet to let us know that there is a new Super Mario Party bundle coming to the Nintendo Switch on November 16, 2018. This bundle will include the game and a pair of Joy-Cons that are a mix of Neon Green and Neon Yellow. Stay tuned and we’ll let you know when this bundle goes live for purchase!

You weren’t able to buy this combination of colors as a bundle before. Now you can add a little more color into your life without having to buy two different sets. If that’s not enough to get your excited you can always check out more color options for your Joy-Cons. The possibilities are endless.

What is Super Mario Party?

Super Mario Party is the latest entry in the Mario Party series and the first to release on the Nintendo Switch. Up to four players can face off in a board game-style competition to see who can collect the most stars, but elements of both strategy and randomness can throw off even the best players. Mini-games sit at the center of Mario Party as always, challenging the skill of players and offering coin rewards to those who can master them.

What’s different from past Mario Party games?

Super Mario Party promises a return to a more classic Mario Party experience, nixing features that appeared later in the series such as the car mechanic in Mario Party 9 that wasn’t very popular with fans. The game focuses on traversing a game board to collect more Stars than your fellow players by the end of the turn limit. Some elements from recent games do return, such as ally characters, but the focus is largely on star collection and playing mini-games.

As in past games, mini-games occur at the end of each turn and pit players against one another to earn coins, which can be exchanged for Stars at certain spots on the board. The board also includes other obstacles that might take away stars or coins, give stars or coins, move players around, or otherwise allow for strategic elements to trip up opponents or elevate one’s own position.

Super Mario Party is also the first Mario Party game to include online play, but it only works for the game’s Online Mario-thon mode.

What characters can I play as?

Here are all the characters we’ve seen for sure so far in Super Mario Party:

• Mario
• Luigi
• Peach
• Wario
• Daisy
• Boo
• Rosalina
• Yoshi
• Waluigi
• Donkey Kong
• Bowser
• Bowser Jr.
• Hammer Bro
• Goomba
• Dry Bones
• Pom Pom
• Shy Guy
• Diddy Kong
• Isabelle
• Koopa Troopa
• Monty Mole

What kinds of mini-games are available?

Though we haven’t yet seen a full list of mini-games, Super Mario Party promises over 80 different mini-games that incorporate both old and new styles of play. The Joy-Cons will be used liberally for motion control elements, such as flicking it like a frying pan. Other games center around ideas like fishing, racing trikes, cooking, catching falling items, dodging Fuzzies, picking cards, guessing games, horse racing, skewing fruit, bumper cars, and far more.

Games will return in free for all, 2v2, and 1v3 varieties. Some of them look to be similar to past games while others are entirely unique.

What modes are included?

Super Mario Party includes multiple game modes. The basic game is a four-player board game in the classic style, though there are some board features that will throw new mechanics into the mix such as character dice blocks. There is also a Partner Party mode where you can play in teams. A single player experience, called Challenge Road, allows one player to work through what’s effectively a party campaign.

Another mode, Toad’s Rec Room, allows players to bring two Nintendo Switches together and play in tabletop mode. Both systems must own a copy of Super Mario Party to play. The mode includes several minigames that use both Switches together, allowing the player to draw across both systems to connect the two in small games such as matchmaking and maze navigation. One of the games, Shell Shocked Deluxe, is a tank battleground that plays out across both screens.

Online Mario-thon is the game’s online mode and lets players compete with one another in a series of five random minigames, with scores tracked on online leaderboards.

River Survival Mode is a co-op, four player experience where players control a boat with Joy-Con paddles. There is also a Sound Stage rhythm game that’s separate from the normal minigames.

Finally, players will be able to play mini-games of their choice in a separate mode just for mini-games.

When can I get it?

Super Mario Party launches on Oct. 5, 2018, and will cost $60.

Any questions?

Want to know more about Super Mario Party? Ask your questions in the comments below!

Updated Nov 8, 2018 : We’ve updated this aritcle with information about a new bundle option that is coming to stores soon!

Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests. The most common causes of this issue are:

• If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse. Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests.
• Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps.
• Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine
• Running a “scraper” or “downloader” program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection
• Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content
• Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time

If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we’ll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.

If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here.

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

There are certain seminal moments in history, and July 9, 1981, should surely stand among them. That was the day Nintendo officially began selling Donkey Kong to arcades—and introduced the world to a mustachioed little fellow named Jumpman.

Jumpman was a simple soul with a simple talent: jumping. He jumped over barrels thrown at him by the game’s eponymous gorilla villain. He hurdled fireballs scooting across the iron beams of the busted construction site where he and Donkey Kong did battle. He leapt, leapt, leapt—all in pursuit of the Princess, his lady love who had been captured by the abominable ape.

But to leap is not always to live, and so July 9, 1981 was also the first day that Jumpman began dying. A lot. When players fed a quarter into one of the 60,000 Donkey Kong machines sold in that first year, it bought them three precious lives, none of which lasted very long. As Billy Mitchell, one of the greatest Donkey Kong players in history, put it: “The average game of Donkey Kong doesn’t last a minute. It’s sheer brutality.”

So, in the spirit of celebrating the 36th birthday of the character formerly known as Jumpman—whose exact moment of metamorphosis into Mario is a matter of serious debate—WIRED got to thinking, just how many times has Mario died?

The little guy has appeared in more than two hundred games, but Nintendo graciously granted the beloved Italian plumber some immortal relief in a number of them. Thus, WIRED decided to focus strictly on the Super Mario series, a franchise that dates back to 1985’s Super Mario Brothers and includes 20 original games (with a 21st, Super Mario Odyssey, to be released later this year). Using figures from Nintendo’s Wiki, WIRED tabulated that the series had sold a grand total of 408.23 million physical and digital units, give or take.

But this is where extrapolating the number of deaths quickly became a data quagmire. How does one best approximate hours played for each game? Or how many times Mario dies per hour? How does one account for variables like degrees of difficulty, tiered skill levels, number of players in a household, or how many times users played, won, and replayed the game?

To be fair, WIRED recognizes it is not the first to pose this question, nor even the first to pose it after an evening of libations near a bartop arcade machine. A cursory Google search found at least one Redditor estimates the Total Mario Deaths to be 26 billion; another ventures 10 billion. That’s quite a spread—assuming it’s not off by an order of magnitude. So now we turn to you, the community, to ask: what do you think is the right number? Or, perhaps more fundamentally, how do we go about divining it? We’re starting this off by listing the games and their approximate sales, but hope to use your suggestions to devise a workable methodology. Don’t think of this as a midsummer lark—think of it as a matter of life and death.

• Super Mario Bros. (1985): 40.24 million
• Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986): 2.65 million
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988): 7.46 million
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988): 17.28 million
• Super Mario Land (1989): 18.14 million
• Super Mario World (1990): 20.61 million
• Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992): 11.18 million
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (1995): 4.12 million
• Super Mario 64 (1996): 11.91million
• Super Mario Sunshine (2002): 6.31 million
• New Super Mario Bros. (2006): 30.80 million
• Super Mario Galaxy (2007): 12.72 million
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009): 29.90 million
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010): 7.67 million
• Super Mario 3D Land (2011): 11.17 million
• New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012): 11.09 million
• New Super Mario Bros. U (2012): 5.62 million
• Super Mario 3D World (2013): 5.47 million
• Super Mario Maker (2015): 3.89 million
• Super Mario Run (2016): 150 million downloads

Total: 408.23 million units sold/downloaded

The Wing Cap is Super Mario 64‘s most iconic item, but finding it isn’t the most straightforward thing in the game. Of course, you’re going to want to grab the Wing Cap because not only is it a cool-looking addition to Mario’s wardrobe, it helps you get floating coins and stars, and it helps slow Mario when he’s falling.

Our guide covers how to get the Wing Cap, how to control Mario in flight, and how to complete some of the trickier Wing Cap Star challenges in Super Mario 64 for 3D All-Stars.

How to Get the Wing Cap in Super Mario 64

You’ll need to gather 10 Stars before the Wing Cap becomes available. That should be easy enough, with four stages available almost from the start.

However you choose to get the Stars, head back to the Castle Lobby once you’ve acquired your 10th Star. There’s a shaft of light shining on the sun icon in the lobby. Switch the camera mode so it’s looking over Mario’s shoulder, then look up at the light.

You’ll be transported above the Castle and automatically have the Wing Cap, but there’s one more step to get the Wing Cap outside this stage.

Head down to the platform, and activate the red switch to make all red blocks solid. These red blocks cough up Wing Caps in certain levels moving forward.

The Wing Cap only lasts for 60 seconds. Hit the red block again to either refresh the cap or acquire it anew.

Fly around the towers and collect all the Red Coins to earn a special Star.

Super Mario 64 Wing Cap Controls

Mario’s Wing Cap controls use an inverted scheme.

• Landing: Do a Ground Pound (press “ZL”) to land.
• Takeoff: To fly, do a triple jump, and Mario stays in the air after the third jump.
• Flight controls: Move the left stick down to make Mario fly up, and move the stick up to make him fly down

How to Complete “Wings to the Sky”

The next Wing Cap challenge is “Wings to The Sky.” It’s in the first stage, Bob-omb Battlefield, and you can complete it once you’ve activated the red switch as mentioned above.

“Wings to the Sky” is a Coin collecting mission, but this one has you soaring through Coin rings instead of collecting Red Coins.

Once you start the level, head right, near the first ramp, and hit the now-solid red block to grab the Wing Cap. Now go back to the start of the stage.

Enter the cannon there, then aim roughly near the floating island. Accuracy doesn’t matter here, since Mario starts flying at the end of the blast arc.

It’s best to land on the island now, then refresh the Wing Cap at the block there.

Then, drop into the cannon on the island, and aim at the Coin rings. Aim just a touch higher than the center Coin, and fire the cannon. Depending on how the flight goes, you may need to re-try a few times to get all of the coins, but there’s no time limit.

Wing Mario Over The Rainbow

There’s one other Wing Cap secret stage, opposite the entrance to Rainbow Ride. Go through the painting, and you’ll start Wing Mario Over The Rainbow. It’s much the same deal here: fly around, snag eight Red Coins, and get the Star.

That’s it for how to get the Wing Cap in Mario 64, as well has how to use it and how to complete the “Wings in the Sky” challenge. Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Super Mario guides.

Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests. The most common causes of this issue are:

• If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse. Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests.
• Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps.
• Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine
• Running a “scraper” or “downloader” program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection
• Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content
• Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time

If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we’ll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.

If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here.

This page contains a list of characters for Super Mario Party, including each of their unique dice blocks. There are 4 unlockable characters as well.

Unlockable Characters

Super Mario Party features four unlockable characters, each with their own special Dice Block.

After you’ve completed the requirement, head over to the Party Plaza and look for the character hanging out in the background. Speak with them to unlock them!

• Donkey Kong – Finish three different courses in the River Survival mode. Keep an eye for him out in the crowd at the end of the river! (Dice: +5© 0 0 0 10 10)
• Diddy Kong – Complete World 2 (Chestnut Forest) in Challenge Road. (Dice: 0 0 0 7 7 7)
• Dry Bones – Will randomly appear in the Party Plaza. (Dice: 1 1 1 6 6 6)
• Pom Pom – Complete World 5 (Salty Sea) in Challenge Road. (Dice: 0 3 3 3 3 8)

Reddit user Trilerium did the math and compiled it into a very helpful table here. In the table at the link, and below, you can see the mean dice roll and how high you average roll with characters like Bowser, Boo, and Wario can be. Note that these characters also come with the risk of losing coins AND not moving. But on average, they should generally get your further than any other character.

Curious to find out whic h of the new character-specific dice in Super Mario Party was the best, a math teacher in Ohio decided to research their underlying statistics. While he found that some characters are better for rolling higher numbers on average, the game is overall too random for character choice to always matter.

In the 20 years since Mario Party came out on the N64, the struggle for each new Mario Party has always been to distinguish itself just enough to warrant a new numeral without shedding too much of the mysterious magic that keeps a not insignificant number of lost souls coming back every couple years. Super Mario Party tries to accomplish this with a new system of custom dice rolls unique to each character. Previously, characters had equal odds of getting a random number between one and 10 every time they punched a block to start their turn. Now, they also each have access to a custom six-sided die with various mixes of advantages and disadvantages.

For instance, Bowser, playable for the first time in Super Mario Party, has a custom dice block with two faces that dock him three coins instead of moving him. Another face has a value of one, and the three remaining sides have values of 8, 9, and 10 respectively. He’s risky, in other words, but he has a 50-50 chance of rolling an 8 or higher.

Austin Wayne, who teaches algebra as well as English, took to the Switch subreddit to post a table showing all of the dice roll possibilities for each character in the game and the resulting mean, variance, and standard deviations. While the means (averages) for most characters are between three and four, there are a couple of notable outliers like Bowser, whose average is 4.67, and Hammer Bro, whose average is 2.83. What this means is that someone playing as Bowser using the King Koopa’s custom die is likely to move 1.6x as many spaces during a match as someone using Hammer Bro’s.

The more interesting takeaway has to do with the variance, or how dramatically characters’ individual dice rolls differ from their average. Donkey Kong, for instance, though his average die roll is in the center of the pack, has a variance of 26.67. That’s a reflection of the fact that while he’s averaging 3.33 spaces per turn over the course of a game, his actual turn-by-turn rolls fluctuate between 0 and 10. He’s either not moving at all or moving a ton.

“I was surprised that there was so much variation character to character, and such a large swing between fan favorites (eg. Yoshi having an average of 3.17 and Bowser having an average of 4.67),” Wayne said in an email to Kotaku. He doesn’t think that means people should only be picking Bowser, though.

“If you’re interested in which cha racters will win you bragging rights at the expense of your friends on game night, it’s not necessarily the case that a high average die, or a die with a couple of high sides, would be the best choice,” he said. “For example, Bowser should work out nicely if you’re playing a long game, especially after you have a few allies, but you have a good chance (50%) that you’re going to move either 1 or 0 spaces, which is a risk that may cost you.”

If you’re only a few spaces away from buying that all-important star before it moves, a more reliable roll will help out more than an unpredictable one with a better overall average.

While it’s not enough to transform Mario Party into a game of sheer skill, it does add a nice layer of light strategizing that lets people approach the game differently. Of course, as I said in Kotaku’s VG chat about the game earlier today, I’d like to see the series adopt even more RPG mechanics and go full-blown D&D, but for now unique dice will have to suffice.

Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests. The most common causes of this issue are:

• If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse. Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests.
• Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps.
• Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine
• Running a “scraper” or “downloader” program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection
• Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content
• Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time

If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we’ll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.

If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here.

With a game like Super Mario Maker, the history of Mario is on display, and many secrets, easter eggs and more are just waiting to be found in the game.

Unlock The 8-Bit Mario Amiibo’s CRT Vision With a Code

Using the 30th Anniversary Mario Amiibo will trigger a mega mushroom powerup that changes several things on the screen, most notably a old-timey filter that replicated a CRT televesion screen. However, you can trigger this effect without the Amiibo. When on the loading screen for any level (not just Super Mario Bros. style levels) hold down on the D-pad, as well as the A and B Buttons to turn the effect on. You can turn it off the same way.

Bypass the 9 Day Content Lock

New players will not be able to use every single item right out of the gate. Instead, Nintendo has opted to let players ease into the game by only unlocking certain items after time spent using the tools available. The only requirement is that you play around with the editor for around 5 minutes, and you will be notified that a new shipment of items will arrive shortly.

Interactive Title Screen

When the title for the game appears along with the background for a sample stage (which you can take control of and play at any time!) The title itself can be interacted with much like Mario Paint.

• Tap the “Super” part of the title to hear a crowd shout out the title, along with the bunch of Super Stars that will burst out.
• Tap the “M” in Mario to change it to a W. Wario will call out in appreciation and give you a Wario costume! (Not for keeps, though and only in SMB theme.)
• Tap the “A” in Mario to summon a bright and fantastic shower of falling stars. Not only does it look nice, but it will destroy any enemies wandering around.
• Tap the “R” in Mario to stretch the letter out, spilling out a horde of coins in the process.
• Tap the “I” in Mario to call in a parrot, who is used in the Sound Effects editor.
• Tap the “O” in Mario to summon a Koopa Clown Car.
• Tap the “M” in Maker to drop a Buzzy Beetle Shell down. If it lands on Mario, he’ll wear it as a helmet!
• Tap the “A” in Maker to initiate a countdown, before the A blasts off into space.
• Tap the “K” in Maker to turn on an old-timey filter, rendering the title screen in sepia with retro music to boot.
• Tap the “E” in Maker to drop down a trampoline.
• Tap the “R” in Maker to stretch out the R, which will spit out a Kuribo’s Shoe in the process. If the the title screen is in the Super Mario World or New Super Mario Bros. U style, it will release a Yoshi egg.
• Tap anywhere else on the screen to summon a random enemy – much like the Magikoopa’s attack. Hold down and drag to show off the magic effects.

Fly Swatter Minigame and Builder Mario

A throwback to Mario Paint has returned in the form of the Fly Swatter game. At a random point when creating levels, you may notice 3 flies buzzing around the screen. Hitting all of them on the gamepad will trigger the mini-game to begin. Unlike the previous version of Fly Swatter, this mini-game utilized the touch screen to swat flies, and has a very limited timeframe, rather than using lives. If you complete the minigame the first time, you will unlock Builder Mario. Additional playthroughs do not seem to unlock further costumes.

Change the Hand

You can change the image of the hand on your TV screen while placing items simply by pressing in on the right or left control stick. Depending on which side you press, you can choose to either have it show a right or left hand. You can also cycle between different skin colors, or even animal paws!

Rescue the Princess with a Costume

When playing 10 Mario Challenge or 100 Mario Challenge, if you beat the final level while wearing a costume, it may have an effect on the dialogue when meeting Toad or the Princess. For instance, Toad will panic if you are wearing the Bowser costume, while Peach will be surprised Bowser saved her himself. If you’re wearing the Toad Costume, Toad will refer to you as Captain.

Tall Mario

At any point when playing levels (either your own, sample levels, or even community levels) you may come across a tall skinny looking Super Mushroom in place of a normal one. This will transform Mario into a very odd looking tall and skinny version of Super Mario, complete with odd sound effects and wiggling legs when running and jumping. Creepy.

If you manage to beat all the Nintendo World Championship Levels, you’ll be able to place the Skinny Mushroom at will!

Unlock the Nintendo World Championship Levels

If you’d like to try your hand at the four courses made specifically for the 2015 Nintendo World Championships, you can unlock them yourself. To do so, keep playing and completing 10 Mario Challenge. Each time you beat it, the 8 courses you played will be added to your Coursebot. Once you’ve unlocked everything but the last row on the Coursebot, you’ll be rewarded with the 4 championship courses!

Shell Helmet In-game

If you find a Shell Helmet, but it is lying on the ground in Super Mario World or New Super Mario Wii-U Theme, you can simply pick the helmet up and duck and it will go on your head. However, if Mario is not small in the Super Mario Bros. 3 style, the player can put the helmet on as aforementioned.

Hidden Videos In Digital Instruction Manual

In the Digital Instruction Manual, you can enter a variety of four digit codes that will prompt a video. Many of these four digit codes can be found in the booklet that accompanied physical copies of Super Mario Maker. This booklet could also be viewed via PDF format online for those who purchased a digital copy of the game via Nintendo’s Wii U eShop. Physical copies of the booklet could also be obtained by contacting Nintendo by telephone and requesting a physical copy of the book after verifying that you in fact did purchase a digital copy of the game via the Nintendo Network ID (NNID).

However, there are a few codes worth pointing out that aren’t actually gameplay footage. By entering the code 0913, you can watch a video of Koji Kondo (Super Mario Bros. musical composer) playing a medley of music from Super Mario Bros. on an electric piano. By entering the code 1309, you can watch a video in which both Tezuka and Miyamoto sign their autographs on large white cards. These signatures can also be found at the back of the aforementioned booklet. The numbers 0913 and 1309 have significance as the original Super Mario Bros. was released on September (9th month) 13, 1985.

Use these tips to become a Super Mario Run legend. or just impress your friends.

Even if your gaming skills haven’t been finely honed since the first Super Mario Bros., you can overcome level after level of Super Mario Run with these tips.

1. Master the tap

To truly master the game you need to hone your jumping skills. But remember: a jump isn’t just a jump. A quick tap on the screen causes a short jump, for example. If you hold your finger down on the screen, though, your jump will be much higher.

2. Mega jump

If you can’t quite jump high enough to reach that coin, hit jump again while you’re midair. It will boost Mario just a little higher, giving you just the edge you need. For the most height, wait until Mario is just about to descend and then hit jump again.

The right jump can make a huge difference in how well you play the game.

3. Boost even more

Another way to blast high into the sky is to hit jump just as you land on an enemy. You’ll get a big launch in the air.

When you step on a pause box it stops Mario. It will also turn into a golden arrow to remind you to keep going.

4. Pause it

No matter how addictive Super Mario Run is, sometimes your finger gets tired. Luckily, throughout the game, there are red blocks you can use to pause the action. When you get to a red block, don’t jump over it!

Position Mario so that he runs over the red block. He will stop on top of it and chill until you’re ready to go again. The clock pauses too, giving you the time to look around and form a strategy.

5. Bubble up

Aww, man. Did you miss something in a level and want to go back? Hit the bubble button at the top of the screen to be transported a few seconds backward. Tap on the bubble to pop it right where you want Mario to land. Think of it as your personal redo button.

You have a limited amount of bubbles though, so use them wisely. To get more bubbles, make sure to hit the question mark bricks.

6. Unlock some friends

Getting bored of the mustachioed plumber? You can unlock other friends from the Mario world. Each one has their own abilities. For example, Peach can float and Luigi can jump extra high.

You can unlock Toad by linking your My Nintendo account to the game. Playing Toad Rally and building your Mushroom Kingdom can unlock other characters. Gain coins in the rallies and use them to buy homes for the gang in the Mushroom Kingdom to unlock each character.

To use other characters, tap on the character icon when choosing a level.

7. Hammer time!

If you’ve gotten hammer rewards throughout the game, you can use them to destroy Thwomps (the scary looking stone cubes) in your kingdom. Open the Build menu, tap on the hammer icon and tap on the Thwomp to knock it out of existence.

Mario bouncing up walls like a champ.

8. Parkour

Come to a wall and don’t know what to do? Jump! A well-timed jump will send you up the wall. If you’re between two walls, Mario will bounce between the walls, getting progressively higher. This also works if you want to go into a pit to find hidden coins. Just fall in and bounce yourself from wall to wall to get out.

9. Get down with your bad self

If you want to jump down from a wall, swipe left during a jump and Mario will descend. This also works if Mario is jumping and you decide the jump was a bad idea. Swiping left can also make you stall in midair for a split second, which can be a useful strategy move.

10. Back-jump for Boo coins

Jumping backward on a Boo can unlock extra coins. To jump backward, jump onto a wall and hit jump again when you connect with the wall.

11. Become a star

One of the keys to Toad Rally is coin collecting. To get the most out of your run, be sure to snag stars. They will make the coins you pass fly to you, giving you a huge boost in coinage.

12. Impress Toads every day

Play Toad Rally every day. If you do, you’ll get a reward. You can find your rewards in the My Nintendo screen.

A few little red toads running around a kingdom.

13. Keep Toads happy

Be sure your kingdom includes Toad houses. Toads will produce coins for you each day, making your supply more bountiful.

14. Get a bonus house

Get a bonus level house by playing World Tour mode. Place it in your kingdom and tap on it once a day to play a bonus level that gets you coins and Toad Rally tickets.

15. Check your colors

If you need a Toad of a certain color, only challenge other players in Toad Rally who have toads that are the same color as the ones you need. You can see which toads are on the line by looking by their username.

But, to be able to challenge people with other colored toads, you need to beat the first world for purple and green toads and the second world for blue and yellow toads.

16. Attract various colored toads to your rally

You can also attract a certain color of toad during a rally by palling around with that same color Yoshi. There are green, red, yellow, blue and purple Yoshis you can get by buying and placing their house in your kingdom. If you take Yoshi on a rally run with you, the same color toads will come to cheer you on.

17. Don’t be afraid to die

During rallies, I’ve found that your best strategy is to die. If you’ve blown past coins, just throw yourself into a hole or get eaten by a flower. Float backward in your bubble until you get to where you missed your coins and pop the bubble. Your opponent will beat you if you do this, right? Nope. Even though the mode is called rally, it’s really all about who gets the most coins and toads, not who makes it farther before the time runs out.

Question blocks can deliver your kingdom goodies.

18. Get a question block

As soon as it’s unlocked in your kingdom store, purchase a question block and place it in your kingdom. Tapping on it will give you extra coins and other items. There are several different boxes, so collect them all.

Events can give you items and extra coins.

19. Check your notifications

When you log in, check your notifications by tapping on the big toad in the upper left corner. Look for events that can win you new kingdom items, rally tickets and coins.

20. Stomp those bad guys

Stomping two or more goombas or cannonballs in a row will get you stylish move points in the rallies to bring in more cheering toads.

Editors’ Note: This article was originally published December 27, 2016, but has been updated since then with additional information.