Super Mario Bros. glitches (NES)

[DarkZero]

All of these glitches are from David Wonn's Unique Video Game Glitches.

Small and Fiery
by David Wonn

First, go to any castle level (e.g. W1-4, W2-4, etc.), preferably one that contains a power-up. Now get to Bowser when Mario is big. Get past him (over or under) without getting hit and wait beside the axe. Let Bowser come toward you, and when he gets close, jump into the air. Try to land on his head and the axe at the same time. The timing is very tricky, and will require a lot of practice. If you time it right, you will become semitransparent like you normally would when you're hit, but you will still be big! The reason for this is that you are frozen when you touch the axe and don't have time to shrink. Now Mario is actually big and Regular. Now find a power up in one of the following levels. It is actually a mushroom! Collect it to shrink! Now when small Super Mario gets another power-up, it will be a fire-flower! Collect it to be small an fiery!! If you ever feel the urge to grow, just run into an enemy. But don't run into an enemy while you are big or else you'll die immediately. The effect of this reversed "small-fiery mode" will remain in effect as long as you don't die. For some real fun, try getting it to work in W1-4 and finish the rest of the game without losing the effect!

"Minus World"
Did you know...?

The "Minus World" is not actually World Negative One, but is actually world "space", level 1. The "space" character actually represents a higher number (World 36 to be exact), but most people mistakenly refer to it as World Minus One.

OK, for those of you who aren't familiar with the "Minus World", here is how you reach World 36: In World 1-2, get to the end of the level and find the pipe that takes you to the exit. Mario must be big for this to work. Instead of exiting through the pipe, jump on top of it and stand on the leftmost portion of the pipe. Break some of the bricks above, but DO NOT break the rightmost brick. Now here's the tricky part. You will need to jump up and lean your jump to the right, so that Mario's head goes through the rightmost brick. This may take several attempts before you get it right. If everything goes well, Mario will then go through the rest of the bricks! Now you will appear where the three warp pipes are that ordinarily take you to Worlds 2, 3, and 4. As long as you don't scroll the screen too far, this trick will work. Go down the 1st (or 3rd) pipe and you're off to the "Minus World"! It's really World 36-1, but the programmers didn't make enough room for more than one digit in the level, which shows up as a space. The level is virtually identical to World 2-2 with one critical difference: THERE IS NO WAY OUT! The trick isn't very useful unless you plan on brushing up on your swimming skills

There is an alternate trick that you can do, which is more useful. Do the trick above and go through the bricks. Instead of taking the first pipe, take the second one. This will take you to World 5-1! If you enjoy World 5, this is the fastest way to get there.

Glide glitch
sent in by Brandon Marks

In Super Mario Bros on NES, you can make Mario run while standing on one leg. Find an area where you run into a pipe from the side that exits at the top (like in area 1-2 where the pirhana plants are). As Super Mario with fireballs, hold the B button and run into the pipe and don't let go of B. As soon as Mario exits the pipe press jump, and when Mario lands he'll be standing on one leg while you move him around.

Jump in mid-air!
by David Wonn

Here's a handy glitch that only works on the NES version: Whenever Mario is not Fiery, find a powerup Mushroom or Fire Flower. Now try to jump on top of it but release the A button just before you land on it. While Mario is growing or changing colors, hold the A button. After Mario transforms, you will be able to jump in mid-air! This can be especially for sticky situations where a mushroom is about to fall into a pit or if you just want to gain some extra height that you normally could not reach.

Climb to the top of the screen
by Jeff Walker

Here's another very handy glitch for SMB. In many of the castle levels and other areas, there are often tall bricks or platforms suspended in mid-air. In some cases they are up high enough where you can't seem to climb them. With this glitch you can! I will use W2-4 as an example, although this can be applied in several other places.

In World 2-4, get past the spot where you collect the power up and you will see that the screen allows you to take two possible paths. The trick is to make the beginning of the upper bricks scroll to the leftmost part of your screnn, but don't go too far. Knowing precisely how far to do this will depend on your TV screen. If you get to the right spot, you can jump to the very left side of your screen to get onto a low platform that you almost scrolled away, then jump again off that platform at full speed. If everything is done correctly, you will be able to jump up the side of the screen a few times, and make it to the very top! This is especially handy on levels like 2-4 and 5-4 since it allows you to bypass more dangerous paths. Be careful though as you can get stuck in some levels, especially in Worlds 1-4, 2-2, 6-4, and 7-2.

Jump backwards
sent in by Another Gamer

Turn Mario in the direction opposite of where you want to go. Then hold down and then in a downwards diagonal direction. (Mario'll stop crouching if he's big). Now, as long as you hold the controller like this, he'll remain facing in the same direction he faced originally until you release the controller, jump to the flagpole, or go down a pipe. Since you're holding in a direction, he can't walk, so you have to move by jumping. Also notice that he'll skid whenever he lands from a jump.

Floating glitch
sent in by Randy Solem

In level 1-1 go down the pipe. When you come up two goombas will be coming at you. Wait until they are almost near the pipe, then walk off and land on one of them. Mario will "bounce" up in slow motion. It's kind of dumb but a glitch none the less.

Turn Spinies into Koopas!
by David Wonn

This glitch works best in World 6-1, but it can be applied to some other levels. It also works best if Mario is small, but not required. Find the hidden 1-up underneath a row of bricks and activate that block. Now scroll the screen so that the block is almost to the very left of the screen. Now jump on top of that block. If you're big, be sure not to break to bricks above it! Now wait until Lakitu drops some Spinies onto the bricks above. As soon as one is directly above you, jump to knock him off the block. As long as the screen was scrolled just right, the Spiny may turn into a Koopa shell!

Jump through a brick
by David Wonn

This is a side effect of the glitch above, but Mario must be small for it to work. Jump on top of the hidden block that contained the 1-up and wait for a Spiny to walk on the brick above you. This time, jump twice in a row rapidly. With good timing, you'll not only knock the Spiny over (and possibly turn it into a Koopa) but you will also jump up through the brick and land on top of it!

Score points after dying!
by David Wonn

If you ever get killed by an enemy while there is a moving shell on the screen, you can still score points even after Mario dies! All you have to do is pause the game a few times repeatedly after Mario has been killed by an enemy. Normally all enemies are frozen after Mario is hit, but by doing this trick, they will unfreeze. If the turtle shell that you kicked hits any enemies, you can still score points!

Repeated death glitch
by David Wonn

This glitch is another extension of the previous glitch. If Mario gets killed by a Hammer Brother, pause the game a few times repeatedly. After the Hammer Bros. unfreeze, they will throw more hammers. If one of them hits the dead Mario below the screen, you'll hear the sound effect of Mario dying again! You can repeat the process for as long as you feel like torturing Mario, but he will still only lose one life.

Die and clear a castle
by Jeff Walker

In any castle level, let regular Mario jump on Bowser's head and the axe at the same time. You'll see Mario's death animation but still clear the level.

[Ed. Note: This is the very glitch which inspired me to find the Small and Fiery glitch!]

Do the Mario!
sent in by Victreebel64

On any level with a vine, climb up to the top of the vine, jump off, then jump back on and hold UP. Mario will be doing a cool little dance on top of the vine ^_^

Platform pulley glitch
sent in by Glitch Masta Buzda

This lil glitch has been throwing me off for years. First let a platform pulley (you know the two platforms connected together by a string on all of the jumping levels) fall down to earn 1000 points. If you try to jump past the area were the edge of the platform would be if it didnt fall, it should act as if it really is still hanging there and block your way!! It may even cause you to fall to your death!! Usually the invisible platform doesn't get in your way anymore after you touch it once.

ex. 0=====0
1 1
1 <------aim your jump at the arrow's tip
1
1
1
1
Easy 8000 points
by David Wonn

This could possibly be the least known method to get a quick 8000 points, although I've known about it for a long time. Go into any level which has a Koopa Troopa or Buzzy Beetle on top of bricks. Worlds 2-1 and 3-1 are notorious for this, as well as World 1-1 on the second quest. Just try to knock a Koopa or Beetle from underneath, and then kick its shell while it is still in mid-air. It takes a little time to get the timing right, but you'll be a pro at it with practice. As long as you kicked it in mid-air, you will immediately receive an 8000 point bonus. Cool!

Enemies walk on air
sent in by Jeremy Stone

In World 3-2 (and possibly others) about halfway through the level (at the two gaps with a block above the land in between the gaps) jump on the green turtle after it walks off the edge into the hole, and bounce up to solid ground. If done correctly the turtle will be in mid air. Let it come back to life and it will be walking halfway through the ground (if you beat the game you can do this with the beetles and they wont fall in holes, they walk over them like its solid ground).

Dance down a pipe
sent in by Jeremy Stone

In any world with a pipe you can go down get a running start and as you land on the pipe press down, Mario will dance down the pipe.

Vine glitch
sent in by Jeremy Stone

In at least level 3-1 go to where the vine is, if you hit it, and jump up where it comes up, fast enough youll be standing on the block instead of holding the vine. while your there you cant jump. It can be fixed simply by walking to the side untill you grab the vine.

Star trick
by Jeff Walker

In the first level, grab the Star as late as possible. Once you collect it, run full speed to the finish. If you are fast enough, the end of level music will change into the normal theme while your score is being calculated.

Going overboard on lives
by David Wonn

In the original NES version, if you use the "turtle on the stairs" trick repeatedly, you gain lots of points, and eventually lives. The end of World 3-1 is the most famous example of this exploit, but there are numerous other levels that work as well. The reason it works is that Mario is stomping the Koopa or Buzzy Beetle, then on his way down, he kicks it. In a fraction of a second, it ricochets back to Mario, and Mario ends up stomping it again, repeating the process, and gradually accumulating points as if he were stomping several enemies in a row. If you're not careful, you can go overboard and get too many lives. From numerous tests, I have concluded that you can safely accumulate as many as 129 lives, and that this value is stored in a signed byte (meaning that the number can be negative or positive). If you collect 130 or more, your life counter is treated like you have less than zero lives! This means if you get killed, the game will immediately end. If you go way beyond 130, and back to more than 257 lives, your lives will be back to a positive number! This means that you can safely die without ending the game. Cool.

If you have an unusual glitch to share, share it here.