Koopa Plains is World 1 of Mario Adventure. This world is littered with Koopa Troopas. Every level has several roaming around. The levels aren't too rough, and plenty of chances to stock up on items and coins.

Map Music: Pipe Maze
Level Music: Plains

Most Mario games use a friendly, sunny, grass theme for the first world. In this game, even this world is pretty tough. But if you can blast through SMB3, then you should fare pretty well here. Since this is the first world, I’ll be offering a lot of detail early on, but in later levels only the difficult stuff will be covered by this FAQ.

First Level

Location: Just right of the Start
Time Limit: 300

Run right. When you get to the pipe, don’t forget the ? block, it has a mushroom. I wouldn’t worry about those 3 coins the chain chomp is guarding; you need 300 of them just to buy an item. When you get to the wooden staircase, watch out for the goomba on the ceiling.

There’s a pipe with a green piranha plant in it, careful not to stand on the pipe for too long (piranha plants in this game can nail you while you're standing on the pipe like the red piranha plants in SMB2- the Lost Levels). When you get to the hammer bros and take 'em out, examine the area; the top row of bricks has a power-up hidden in them.

After the flying goombas, there’s a brick that opens a beanstalk if you hit it. If you go up there, that glass brick is like the blue bricks in SMB3; you can hold them with the run button and kick them at stuff by letting go of the button. You can try to use it to hit that brick next to it. If you’re successful, you’ll get a potion, which acts like a P-Switch, which will let you go down a pipe (guarded by a shyguy) into a bonus room full of coins.

In any case, no matter what you do you’ll have to pass by a fire-spitting piranha. Whatever you do, don’t take a rest on the pipe!

Just one enemy left, a Boom-Boom. These things were pretty easy in dungeons, but now you’ve got to contend with one after every level. Look up for more info if you have trouble beating this one. Then collect the Golden Mushroom that was dropped and move on.

A Free Present

Location: Just right of the left-side mushroom house; one down from level 1.
Time Limit: 300

There’s a mushroom right at the start of this level, and there’s also a dangerous situation; you have to bounce across music blocks without falling. Not too bad, and even if you fall, this game doesn’t use lives, so you can practice and experiment as much as you want. Watch out for the piranha plant, too.

There’s a really tall pipe here, jump on the platforms to get over it. Watch out for the Shyguys. A while later, you’ll see a big ? block. This is a nice little free present. See what’s inside, you might be pleasantly surprised. Then try out your power-up on the Boom-Boom and finish the level.

If you have 300 coins, you can go to the mushroom house and pay coins for a random item. If you don’t have 300 coins, don’t bother, it’s time to play the fortress.

Fortress of Koopa Plains

Location: The fortress in the upper-right area; one right from level 2.
Time Limit: 300

Good thing the game has a fair number of power-ups and infinite lives, because there’s a Boo ready to take a cheap shot at you when the level starts. Look away so you can see it. If you do die at any point and want to power-up, keep in mind that you can play old levels over again. They look like pipes on the map.

Potions are like POW-blocks, so they’ll turn the coins into platforms, but you’re going over lava, so be careful, and reasonably fast at the same time. If you have Fire Fire Mario, this will be easier.

Once you go through the pipe, you’ll be challenged to an obstacle course of thwomps, those spinning circle things, Watch out for the lava there. The lava flowing across is a new background graphic for this game, but the bubbling stuff is lethal.

Now you have a pair of dangerous thwomps. You’ll have to lure both of them to drop so you can squeak by. There’s another annoying Boo here. Don’t worry, they’ll be around in every fortress.

The difficulty has officially been kicked up a notch, but at least the Boom-Boom is nothing new. If you’re not having much trouble, that’s a good sign. It’ll only get harder from here, though.

Now you’ve got two choices; up or down, high road or low road. Pick your fancy.

The High Road

Location: The middle level of the top row; up and to the right of the fortress.
Time Limit: 300

There’s a lot of pits to worry about, lots of pits and bullet-bills. Near the beginning, you can grab that koopa shell with you and hit the brick in the wood tunnel that comes after for a chance at a 50-coin mushroom. Near the end, you have only the bullet bill blasters to jump on; it’s a little tricky.

Afterwards, you need to use the Shyguy’s heads as shells to hit the brick in the wood tunnel next to them. Try to stay a few steps away from the tunnel, and the head near the top of your jump so it slides into the narrow tunnel. If you do it right, the head will strike the brick, revealing a potion so you can move on to the Boom-Boom. Watch out, the head you shot will bounce back at you, so make sure you avoid it!

If you couldn’t get the potion, go down the pipe after the tunnel and you’ll get to retry; the Shyguys will be back. You might see a bunch of colours change or even rain or snow, and think you’re somewhere else. You’re actually in the same place, but the weather changes randomly sometimes when you go down a pipe. Now try to get that potion.

Skypipe Swim

Location: The middle level of the top row; up and to the right of the fortress.
Time Limit: 300

There’s a waterfall here. You can swim in it to get to the bridge-like platforms. If you fall, try to get to this waterfall; it can save you.

Before you dive into the first pool of water, get the ? block on the pipe that’s sticking out. It’ll be tough to get if you’re Super already because you can’t fit. You have to jump from the bridge platform and do a sliding duck in that case.

After getting out of the first pool, there’s a small underwater tunnel that leads to a pipe for a bonus area. The invisibility hat is very useful in this level. Press B+Down to hide behind the water, perfect for avoiding the attacks of the bombitu and flying cheep-cheeps! Above water, though, there’s less to hide under.

Brother Challenges (Koopa Plains)

Lots of fights here. First, avoid the hammer bros (if you can, get the power-up from that brick), then get past two boomerang bros, but watch out for the shaking from a giant hammer bro. Then, three fire bros. Brothers Battles in SMB3 weren’t like this! At least you don’t actually have to defeat any of the Brothers, though for the Boomerang and Fire bros that’s probably the best strategy. Check the Enemies section for tips for beating the brothers. You get a raccoon suit and invincibility star item for winning.

The Low Road

Location: The bottom-leftmost level.
Time Limit: 300

This level doesn’t have any pits, but a ton of flying goombas and a tricky section with boomerang bills. The first ?.block has a power-up, Do your best and watch out for the invisible blocks that could put you in a tight place, and fight flying goombas in open areas where it’s easier.

Near the end is a plant that spits fire, like in World 7 in the original game. There’s invisible blocks that can make a platform, but you’ll have to jump near the plant to hit them.

An Old Trick

Location: The middle level of the bottom row.
Time Limit: 300

Near the beginning of the level, you need to pull off a trick from SMB3. Holding down on a white block platform lets you drop under it. Just keep away from the spiky shyguy and duck without moving for a few seconds to continue on. Learn how to bounce consistently on music note boxes; they float over a big pit. Hit the music note next to the pipe for a powerup. Make it past the obstacles and pits to get to the Boom-Boom.

Pipe Puzzle

Location: The right-most level of the bottom row.
Time Limit: 300

Grab the Shyguy “shell” and knock it down the small gap in the top of the wood structure to hit the ? block for a power-up.

Find the upside-down pipe with the green piranha plant and enter it (jump and hold up). It’s tough since you can’t go in while the piranha plant is popping out. The other pipes just lead to other pipes in the same area.

Now you have to hold the Shyguy’s head (after jumping on the Shyguy), take it up with you, stand on the right-most block before the pit, and let go of the head, which will kick it, making it bounce off the wall to the right, and hit a brick with a potion in it. Then after two boomerang bros, you face the Boom-Boom.

Tanks of Koopa Plains

Location: the level to the right that is a little off the main path.
Time Limit: 298

If you’ve gotten this far, you’re doing pretty good, but now you’ve got the Mario Adventure equivalent of the airships in SMB3. This is a tank level, and those tanks shoot some high-speed cannonballs and bob-ombs. The scrolling is also rather quick.

The tank level right before the final castle in SMB3 is good preparation for this. If you can do that level, you should be more than qualified for this one. When you see a pipe, make sure you enter it or you’ll be squished by the wall. Make sure you don’t jump on the ceiling above the pipe!

Once you enter that pipe, you move to the inside portion. There’s a boo up ahead. You can use the glass blocks to beat it (remember that it doesn’t move when it’s invisible), and also to clear the wall of bricks. Take another glass block with you and you can use it to get a thwomp out of your way.

There’s lots of obstacles afterwards, most notably, blocks that look like music blocks but drop as soon as you step on them. They take a little while to get used to. I suggest you keep on the higher routes throughout this area. They’re much easier. After some more fire-related challenges, like podoboos, walking flames, a lava pit with falling blocks, and incoming fire breath, you’re ready to take on Larry.

Larry Koopa is a bit harder in Mario Adventure. He still only shoots occasionally with his wand, but he takes 5 hits, and jumps very, very high after taking enough damage. Observe the way he jumps so you don’t try to jump on him when he’s about to launch into the air. With enough skill, you can hit him just as he comes out of his shell each time. With Fire Fire Mario, 10 fireballs will beat any Koopa Kid, and they don’t get more aggressive according to damage with this method.

You can either revisit this world and hunt for the key, or move on to world 2. You get a checkmark in the status bar which means you can now freely move through levels in this world now. But you’ll always have to fight Hammer Bros you run into.