10 More Things You DEFINITELY Don't Know About Mario 3

[@dariendark7263]

The reason the coin counter flashes 64 before returning to 0 is due to the fact that 100 is 64 in hex and for that single frame. The conversion system isn't programmed to cover. As the system reads the value and sends a return to 0 command instead of the hex conversion subroutine

[@PaulRezaei]

No, it’s an Easter egg for the N64. 😜

[@Quarks123]

@@PaulRezaei 64 thumbs up :)

[@richard7743]

Oh.

[@Absolutely_puck_fakestine]

I have no idea what you're talking about but i trust you.

[@RippyClippy]

DUHHH

[@leesherman5192]

1:48 For the longest time I thought the "3" of coins was a clue to something I was missing. Like maybe I was supposed to find hidden rooms numbered "1" and "2," or I was supposed to do something three times to unlock something. It was only when I read trivia on the Internet years later that I realized it was just a "3" for "Super Mario Bros. 3"

[@superlomaniac]

Bruh moment

[@quill_x]

@@superlomaniac Mario Mario Mario Mario

[@tammid8423]

@@quill_x Mario Mario Mario Mario Mario

[@andreshead25]

damn 😓

[@illusioncity]

Same! I was confused too when I came across it thinking I missed something

[@MikeCrain]

I didn't know the powerup outlines in the sky were randomly generated. It's a really cool detail and I guess it might actually have a practical use of making that area look interesting without having to save mapping data for it to save space on the cartridge for other stuff.

[@JB-mm5ff]

or the devs used it for testing something in the alphas

[@nousukas]

I think I knew it before from using some level editor or even reading it somewhere, but i'm not really sure.

[@CeeJayThe13th]

I kinda thought it was but never tested it. I wonder if it's actually random on emulator?

[@bodie12333]

@@CeeJayThe13th good question, I'm curious 🧐 about that too now.

[@jonathanmarois9009]

RNG manipulation

[@GatoSlashFish]

I actually knew about the random mush/flower/star generation in the sky because I tried hacking smb3 a long time ago. It's an object that gets placed in the top-left corner of a level that generates the decoration.

[@thomasmathew13]

Interesting. I knew that object was there, but I had no idea that's what it did.

[@MeesterTweester]

It sounds familiar to me

[@maxmeepmeep991]

if only someone put 1 generation of it into mario paint composer

[@Jed360]

0:15 Mario thinks he’s in a Sonic game.

[@Yonah_144]

Whenever playing this game as an adult, I still feel a "tad" scared when entering stages that show nothing but sky or a blank screen. There's some sort of creepy vibe in old retro games, and it's likely due to the graphics being outdated.

[@runnersdialzero1244]

"outdated"

[@zicklane]

@@runnersdialzero1244 yes, outdated. Do you have a problem?

[@drbuni]

@@zicklane They look pretty good to me.

[@beanburritolol]

finally someone who feels the same way

[@michaelh404]

Am I the only person that think SNES graphics never look outdated, at least in first-party Nintendo games?

[@Sixfortyfive]

There's only one trick in this game I know that I don't think I've seen other people talk about, ever: In a two-player game, *either* player can initiate the battle game from the map, *regardless* of whose turn it is. If it's Luigi's turn on the map, but he passes over Mario's current location and stays there for a bit, Mario can press A to initiate the battle while Luigi is stopped on that space. It's kind of like the World 8 hands snagging you as you try to pass by. You can be a real jerk and just keep "stealing turns" by forcing a battle game and winning it, unless the other player has an alternate route on the map to skip you. Also I'm pretty sure this is one of those games where the pause function only works with the player 1 controller, which isn't *that* rare on NES, since the original model Famicom only had a Start button on its P1 controller.

[@UNHchabo]

The 2-player game is mentioned in the manual, so my brother and I played it a whole bunch when we were kids.

[@garuelx8627]

My older cousin would abuse p1 and pause at times to fuck up my momentum and kill me. And yes, he definitely stole turns this way when he forced battle. I stopped playing with him after that.

[@ThouzandWattz]

I use to do that when my cousins would come over and want to play but they weren't good enough to beat levels. Just steal their turn and keep it moving. 🤣😂🤷🏾‍♂️

[@ramencatbattlecats]

ur pro

[@gochadc]

It took me a few years to discover this one, but I did force some battles with my friends and brothers later, most people around me don't like it since if a player is good can make it almost imposible for the other to play the game.

[@CoffeePubGomer]

Fun fact: That flying under the level one applies to every other level like 1-2, where you have the dark green underside and at least one pit. I think I learned about that from the old SMB3 Nintendo Power guide, but they brought it up in... 6-8, I think? Whichever one's the only grass level in World 6.

[@tyo6896]

Isn't there a white instead of green in world 8. Think it's all quick sand tho...

[@CoffeePubGomer]

@@tyo6896 There is, but if it's got the darker shade on the bottom, you should be able to go under, I'd think.

[@Pepperly]

The guide brought up the behind-the-water trick, too.

[@RaulDukeKnife]

I think it’s because they programmed that part of the graphic to be true to its visual. (The darker green is deeper/farther in and thus is essentially a tunnel)

[@mikeytappe]

I remember watching a tv show about some of the secrets in Mario 3. It’s where I learned about the warp whistles. Every kid was talking about it on the playground the next day.

[@supersonicjc]

i vaguly remember that same show, thought it was some kind of like 20/20 news story cause it was how i learned how to beat bowser by flying up over the wall in the game

[@Thornbloom]

The Wizard

[@Dargonhuman]

@Boco Corwin The information I could find is scant, but from what I can tell, Prima never made a SMB3 guide - the game was released in Japan in 1988 and the US in 1990, while Prima was still being operated by one person out of a California home in that year and was focused on general anthology style guides like "Secrets of the Games" and "Nintendo Game Secrets" so they didn't have enough clout to land a license to do a full strategy guide from someone as big as Nintendo at the time. Most likely the official guide your uncle had was published by Nintendo Power, as they were responsible for most of the in-house Nintendo game guides until third party printers like Prima or BradyGames became successful.

[@boriszakharin3189]

​@Boco Corwin It wasn't prima. It was Nintendo Power - Straight from the Pros! I remember buying that. It notably didn't tell you how to beat Bowser. It did tell you about the behind the scenes thing, which is how it's the only one of these I actually know. They also printed level maps and tips on the insides of specially-marked boxes of cereals (I don't remember what brand).

[@buivars]

What you also didn't know: This NES footage is so clear that I couldn't tell it was real hardware until I saw brightness artifacts around the lines Mario is drawn on when he flew in 1-1.

[@sergiomejia7720]

The sprite overflow or the overscan didn't give it away?

[@stephenmanuel9860]

@@sergiomejia7720 Apparently not, but no need to judge, chief.

[@Dargonhuman]

@@sergiomejia7720 Considering those artifacts can be emulated fairly easily with most modern emulators (some of which even include it as an option that can be toggled on or off), not really, no.

[@josephmiller7075]

I noticed the mono audio

[@aroohwahoou]

@@josephmiller7075 bruh

[@Captain_Timezone]

2:58 someone should beat the game like this

[@mikethompson1653]

0:27, I feel like Speed Runners figured this out

[@niagargoyle]

Did you know that you can use the warp flute on World 6 to go back to world 5 and get additional tanuki and hammer brother suits?

[@Hello-hz7gj]

I was like: "I bet I already know all of it by now". But these things were really new to me.

[@ozma6918]

For the longest time I had an inkling something like the 1-2 under-the-stage trick was possible. I remember as a kid, dying in a hole in that level, in a way that I kinda clipped into the darker green bit, and for a few frames I was in a swimming state before I fell off very fast. I always found it strange, but knew something was up with that.

[@TonyHdzV]

I love how you mention you're 100% sure we didn't know about the random generation on the sky, and I think it's the only one I actually knew lol

[@TompaA]

4:09 Actually, I assume you used NESMaps for these: It's missing a Flower in 3-7. There is one hidden in a bumpable block downleft from the vine. Funnily, if one would use the map at VGMaps, it's even missing two of these flowers. So a total of 55! =D Then if you count the ones you can get in HB fights, there are additional 8 leaves and 1 flower =)

[@jayjasespud]

Are you certain they weren't included?

[@TompaA]

@@jayjasespud I re-counted everything, yes, I am certain.

[@cloud09gaming]

I slightly surprised the anchor item didn't make one of the lists. I'm sure a number of people may know it, but as a kid I only found out well after the SNES days started.

[@andrewgenz906]

I knew the anchor existed, but I never knew how to get it until the GBA version

[@idek6585]

It did

[@WingedEspeon]

I have to wonder if the spade card glitch could be used for a faster Speedrun.

[@theusher2893]

I remember doing the Boom Boom kill on accident. I was like "Oh...huh. So much for that."

[@Solesteam]

I literally know nothing besides a handful of features that are just part of the intended game experience, I don't even know how to use the flight.

[@Wesley-76]

I only knew about the behind-the-scene one. Everything else was really cool to learn!

[@SolitaireZeta]

That's the thing that bugs me about the hammer brothers suit. Such a cool idea in theory, but it's so rare and so easy to lose, that it might as well not exist.

[@supermariofan]

1:58 The mushroom, flower, and star objects in the sky are randomized in every level that has those objects, in every playthrough of the game.

[@hsjoberg]

5:01 It isn't actually that strange from a programming standpoint. Both the levels and the mini-games probably use some flag to indicate to the world map that something should be marked as completed. When entering the world map, a procedure is executed that would then mark both the card game and the level as cleared because Mario is standing on both.

[@SteveNeubauer]

After seeing the spade card glitch, it took me back to when I was a kid! The spade appeared in world 5 and cleared the level with kuribos shoe in it - I was so mad

[@Pinkio]

not even 10 seconds on the video and it already surprised me

[@JustinEvitable80]

Getting behind the water in 3-9 and flying under levels are the only ones I knew of.

[@_polpon]

It's interesting that there is still a lot to learn from these old classics :)

[@paystation164]

My favorite secret to an unrelated game is *black ops 3 zombies jet gun.* People hate it because it explodes really fast and you have to go around the entire tranzit map to collect parts and build it again. However what people never figured out was that gun is a TEAM weapon. That gun needs TWO people to operate it. When you do, it becomes UNBREAKABLE.

[@merluzacongelada5361]

I knew pretty much all of the random stuff involving rare power ups because the version I had as a kid was a chinese bootleg that let you equip them at any point in the game, so I got to experiment a lot. But man, has been decades since I last saw some of those, nostalgia is one hell of a drug.

[@uberfreak2]

The flying inder the level reminds me that in Super Mario World, there is a gap between the lowest point for blocks and the death plane. You can just swim under large portions of the levels

[@davincentcode3662]

I know that there are levels where you collect an exact number of coins and get an item after that. It was once in nintendo power or something like that, my neighbour kept a booklet with all the coin requirements.

[@h00.453]

Brain.exe has stopped working

[@M_Alexander]

Something I've never seen talked about and only found one video on is the P Tanooki Suit. The clip I found showed that if you pick up the suit while a P Wing is active, you keep the P effect. What I learned on my own as a kid is that you can use the wing followed by the suit on the map for the same effect

[@pentelegomenon1175]

The random pictures at the top of the level could be part of the whole "stage play" theme, people just draw weird things up there above the scene. However the theme would be much more overt if they had stage lights up there.

[@kaldo_kaldo]

I appreciate your "you don't know" videos because they have information that's not super obvious, too many of these things are like "did you know you can RIDE IN A BOOT?"

[@LuckyBacon]

I thought i knew about the boom boom thing, until i saw it just entirely skip everything. If you hit it with two fireballs in one frame, when he is on his last HP, he wont die. Shoot him a few more time, and he just suddenly explodes, except the orb spawns upside down immediately. Same as star-kill. Strange things happen if you do that to the Koopa kids. I knew more things here than i did in the other video. Including randomized sky.

[@renakunisaki]

What kind of strange things?

[@LuckyBacon]

@@renakunisaki The Koopa kid graphics glitch up, they fall through the floor, and then its a softlock.

[@jercron]

0:08 this is really cool lol

[@BlueFinch]

It’s so weird that they didn’t do a check to prevent n-spade from spawning on an non-completed level.

[@BlueFinch]

I know the hammer bros is checked for. There are certain tiles it can’t walk (rest?) on.

[@TRJ2241987]

I think a lot of people don't realize that if you don't collect the spades, and let them keep generating throughout your playthrough, you can let them multiply up as much as you want, so once you lose once it just brings you back into the game for another try, so you don't have to memorize where things were because you'll keep playing it back-to-back-to-back. You can rack up like 8 of them

[@Oneiroclast]

There is a check. You have to do some really specific things to trick the check into thinking it's placing the card in a valid spot. It's complicated and I don't know the details, but essentially it decides on what coordinates to spawn the card before it actually does, and there are specific cases where you can store those coordinates without the game updating them when you transition to the next world, so it puts it on what would be a valid spot in the previous world, but is actually on top of an uncompleted level in the current world.

[@bradenadams7511]

@@TRJ2241987 Get outta here!! I'm going to test this out!

[@AmyraCarter]

I'm pretty sure that the Memory Match mini-game glitch is fixed in later ports of the game. I think it won't spawn on top of any incomplete level tile in Mario Advance 4.

[@the_kombinator]

3:21 - I actually did know that, as a kid I decided to try it as falling in a hole at speed I kept going into the dark green "wall"

[@xenxander]

3:30. That's called "mole Mario " and was mentioned in strategy guides, in the 90's. Any level with that darker bottom boarder

[@insectduel]

3:12 In Super Mario All-Stars, you can no longer fly under as the programmers put an object to block entry.

[@johnsapp8810]

The only ones I knew, where the spade card thing, and the one with going into the pipe after going behind the scenes. Because I've had both of them happen, and was legit confused both times.

[@mccall7122]

I'm so happy I found this channel. Most Mario channels focus either on SMB1, or Mario 64 or Super Mario Maker. But my favorite was ALWAYS SMB3. The best game ever made (after Final Fantasy VII)

[@threehead99]

Mitch, bring back the "Spin jumping started in SMB3" bit of knowledge.

[@Olinser]

Mitch stepping up his game, I only knew 3 - the hammer suit vine spin, the disappearing UW Mario, and the Spade card game (because Mitch has talked about it before).

[@The_Future_isnt_so_Bright]

3-9 , do you think the developer noticed this and placed the white block so people could see it for themselves?

[@timpetrillo2802]

I literally can not hear the smb3 underwater music without hearing Mitch sing "Sea Creatures". It's forever attached in my brain.

[@Mikeystar45]

The N-Spade Card clearing a level once you clear the minigame reminds me a glitch from my Mario 3 fangame... Also I've seen the Boom Boom insta-clear level glitch in a couple TAS runs of Mario 3.

[@sues7277]

The ramdom baclgrpund on 1-1 just blew my mind dude, i ve been playong this game for over 34 years

[@temasongu]

Computer programmer here. It would have saved space on the ROM and time for the developers to have the star/mushroom/flower sprites in the sky randomly generated by algorithm as opposed to pre-mapping where each sprite is supposed to be each time and hard-coding it to the game. Had I developed this game, I would have done the same thing.

[@Kuli24000]

WOAH flying under the level in 1-2 is insane. I'm going to show my friends.

[@urzishra14]

I know them now. But seriously the pattern thing was something I never thought about.

[@lemonadesnake]

1:27 i think this is because below the water area is air, and its flying you upwards

[@AndrewMooreMar]

I sure didn't know all 10 of them, but I definitely knew about ZERO of them. This was a really interesting video! I have a couple questions, though. 1- I didn't really understand how the Boom-boom glitch 2- Can a Card game spawn in any tile of the map, then? Even Hammer Bros, castles, or floating Koopa ships?

[@Dargonhuman]

I don't know exactly how the boom boom glitch works, but drawing on my knowledge of similar types of glitches from other games, it likely has something to do with boomboom's HP going into a negative number that causes some weird stack overflow or something that affects how the orb spawns. It could be that the orb also has a hidden lifebar for some reason that's tied to boomboom's that falls immediately to zero due to the excessive negative HP on boomboom's lifebar which causes the game to incorrectly register that Mario touched the orb. There's a check in the code that prevents the card game from spawning on hammer bros, which I would imagine extends to other independently moving map entities like the airships. Castle tiles most likely have a toggle that just straight blocks the tile game from spawning on them. Why there isn't a check to prevent the card game from spawning on an uncleared level is ... well, unclear but it might be something the devs didn't think about at all or, if they did, thought it to be such an unlikely occurrence that they didn't bother to put a check in the game to prevent it.

[@lucyloo2228]

1:32 I think if you fly back up the tunnel it will “hit” you because there are upside down pirana plants that are covering the pipe.

[@edwardswinton1543]

As a kid me and my brother pooled our money together and brought it, didn't know all of them, but hey armed with Nintendo Power, I believe the wizard was just released, every white block was stood on to see was there anything else, or how many times we'd go back to the beginning of a level to look for clouds in the sky, or pipes. We had time back in the day, thanks for showing this video, bright back memories.

[@veggiet2009]

I think the one at 4:00, I did do as a kid, and was really confused. I'm pretty sure I thought it was a random glitch and just shrugged it off

[@Motolmang]

0:07 so that's where McPig got the idea for Peppino's ball transformation in pizza tower

[@shroomfruit345]

Weirdly the random power-up things is the only thing in the video I DID know. I don’t remember exactly where, but I learned it in a Mario trivia video.

[@johnrodriguez5092]

I don't know why but this video gives me 2008-2012 KZbin vibes. It's kinda beautiful.

[@Peter_1986]

I have played this game for more than 30 years, and I only knew about the P-Wing trick on stage 2 in Grass Land.

[@veryblocky]

I surprised myself, I knew exactly one of these things, which I wasn’t expecting going in. I remember hearing about the random star and flower positions in the sky before.

[@Ixapter]

Thanks. It's always cool to learn unorthodox things about games you have and love.

[@treperry9393]

The random objects in the sky was the one thing I did notice. I’d heard about the flying under the level thing but never seen it done.

[@Rainbowmon]

So basically, combining a star, vine, and hammer suit turns Mario into a human wrecking ball. Neat!

[@azinyefantasy4445]

The funny part is thinking that I actually knew that the hammer Brothers was a suit when I'm too busy flying through the level as leaf Mario

[@chuckchizzle]

The white block and P wing tricks I discovered when I was a child just messing around. I thought all the white blocks did that drop down when you duck.

[@mr.mediocregamer9653]

One thing that didn't really dawn on me until I was an adult was that Koopa doesn't kidnap Peach until you beat world 7. You only beat world 8 to free her. And if I remember correctly, none of the first 7 worlds are called "Mushroom kingdom" So, what was Mario even doing there? Why'd he leave Brooklyn?

[@flappybunz]

I don't recall EVER seeing the spade card spawn on top of an incomplete level. This has never happened to me on N.E.S. or All Stars.

[@Artoooth]

It really only happens if you completed the level, have a spade card spawn on that level, then get a game over and continue the game. When you continue, the game reverts to undone all the regular stages level in the current world.

[@BRGKasumi77Main]

There are sooooooo many secrets and glitches from this game. Good job Mitchflowerpower!

[@samplerInfo]

For once, a "you didn't know" video where I didn't know the majority of the stuff. Super happy, thanks! 🎉

[@StevenEvans]

What about being able to make Bowser "breathless" in the final fight. Makes the fight a lot easier when you don't have to dodge the flame breath.

[@Alexs23743]

1. SANIC 3. The hexadecimal number 64 equals 100 in decimal. 4. "Yeah, keep swimming down there, buddy...I'm reloading!" -Lakitu 9. This is why, by the time of "Super Mario Sunshine", the Mushroom Kingdom had come down hard on gambling...

[@cqis7820]

The power up outlines I did actually know, as well as flying under the stage, the hammer bros star vine thing I did once, thought it was a one time glitch

[@IndirectHydrox]

The behind the water and flying under the level things are mentioned in the Nintendo Power SMB3 strategy guide.

[@michaelsegal3558]

Did you know that when you have defeated Bowser and you don’t make it to the door at the end of the game in time the game will go into a state of infinite pause?

[@ThatOneStuff]

The pipes are animated with the same four frames, thats something I figured out while poking around in the rom.

[@jacobballenger5181]

The random sprites in the sky was actually the only one I knew!!

[@requiem224]

Love these videos! Is it possible to do something along the lines of a 125% run with all levels/items/secrets in the future?

[@hysterheister0947]

He started a series like this at one point. It was great.

[@ELJimO1985]

You are correct sir there’s some things I did not know about this game, and it’s great to know a game I’ve been playing for 30 years there’s new things to it

[@TommyVinMI]

The flying under the level in 1-2 I knew.

[@juanorta2124]

You can make up any random fact about smb3 or other classic game and there will always someone saying "oh yeah, I knew that. Used to do that every time i was bored. Just don't think much of it"

[@BladeCrossEXE]

I will say, the only one I actually knew. It was the behind water trick. Nicely done!

[@laylover7621]

Something in retro games that can't be matched by modern games is the amount of obscure secrets and glitches and shit, intentional or not, that you can find.

[@AlligatorArms]

I think there are only four white blocks in the entire game: 1-1, 1-3, 3-9, and in the secret area of 5-7. I found the 3-9 behind the water trick pre-internet through experimentation; knowing the 1-3 secret, it’s so odd that none of the other areas had their white blocks actually lead to other secrets. I got so many time-ups spanning every inch of that 3-9 water trying to find the spot that sends you to the secret toad house that was never there to begin with.

[@guitarunt]

i think i only knew about being behind the water. Everything else was new to me. Well done!

[@quanghuy691]

amazing, rolling when climb on beanstalk is never a bad idea

[@billepperson2662]

Holy crap! The biggest thing I learned was @ the end, I had literally NO idea whatsoever . . . Mitch!! Dude!!! You're a Volta fan (I got the same shirt from their merch stand around '05)?!? That's awesome! How many times (& when) have you seen them live? Fav album? Fav drummer?

[@Senshidayo]

I’ve done the spade level clear, and noticed the sky was random, but didn’t know you could collect vines. Like, how? I did know 2 hammer brother suits were collectible though.

[@DoCKathos]

I feel like I knew the 1-1 objects in the sky were random but never gave it much thought, and I'm pretty sure I've done the card game over top of a level before.

[@AnimalClans]

I have known about the trick at 3:13. I used to do it on my original NES copy in 1990. I've never pulled off any of the other tricks though.

[@paxhumana2015]

I just thought of something, @Mitchflowerpower, what if the randomly generating Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Star outlines that are in the clouds of World 1-1 also apply to other levels that have the Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Star outlines that are in the clouds of those levels as well?

[@NightshadeDt]

I only knew about the boom boom kill because someone- I assumed until the way he talked about it here that it was probably Mitch- had mentioned it in passing when talking about the graphical glitch with boom boom kills. I feel like the sky generation is the kind of thing you could make an observation on in the moment and not have it registered in your brain the moment you aren't looking at it anymore. I don't think I knew about that one, but it's 1000% in the ballpark of the random trivia I tend to throw at people when I'm introducing them to older games that they missed out on.

[@yunakitty2]

I noticed the images in the sky of 1-1 as a kid, but I’m autistic! You got me on the other 9 things though! I love your content, Mitch! SMB3 was my favorite game as a kid and I love seeing you find every secret!

[@mattb6522]

I've played this game for like 30 years and didn't know any of these! That N-Card level clear trick is especially interesting. I don't think I was ever able to spawn that mini-game over a level, so I had never encountered it.

[@rndmpinkiepie64]

I have my doubts for one reason: I've played Mario 3 since 1990. I've had the card game appear over a level. I've completed the minigame, the level has never auto-cleared once

[@dachreport]

I remember my first time ever playing M3. It was back in 92. Spent many many our with this game