Mario Adventure/Lakitu Glacier

Lakitu Glacier is World 3 in Mario Adventure.

Map Music: Winter Wonderland Level Music: Underwater

Wow, the obligatory ice level and the obligatory water level all wrapped into one! The physics of this game have been changed from the original; this ice is much more slippery. It takes some getting used to.

+Brother Challenges (Lakitu Glacier) All right, a mushroom right at the start, but also a chomp and boomerang brother. You’ll have to get used to the slipperiness of this ice! Two fire bros are up next, then a choice.

You can go up and try to pass the giant, or you can do lower and try to get passed the boomerang bro. Just remember, you’ll be affected by the thumps of the giant hammer bro no matter which route you take. I like the top route more. It seems that if you collide with the giant bro but you’re both above the top of the screen, you don’t get hurt. Then just jump on a few platforms to finish the level. It might be tough with the ice, but you have plenty of time. And you get a valuable Fire Flower for your trouble.

+Ice and water, together at last Location: Two steps right of the start. Time Limit: 300

The title is based on the fictional product in The Simpsons: “Nuts and Gum, together at last!”. Anyway, it’s forced-scrolling, and starts with a power-up right away.

When you get to the blue fireball, swim underwater to find a passage that takes you to a pipe with a bonus room. In the bonus room, the right passage gives you a star, the middle one gives you a coin bonus, and the left passage gives you a power-up (a raccoon if you’re already Super). The drawback of this bonus is that it takes you back to start, unless you can fly, in which case fly over the wall to the right and find an island with a door to the mini-boss. Flying is pretty tricky; you have to run back and forth over the limited space.

If you don’t take the shortcut, don’t worry. Pretty easy stuff here, and no enemies. You can hop out of the water by holding Up on the d-pad while jumping at the top of the lake.

The Boom-Boom arena here is slightly flooded. If you’re small, this water will affect you in the worst way, but if you’re Super, it won’t have much of an affect, so try to retain power-ups during the level.

+Slip-Slide Shenanigans Location: Five steps right and two steps up from the start. The second level. Time Limit: 300

Use the shell and/or glass blocks to knock out the fire-spitting plant. You also have to hit the brick it’s standing on to grow a beanstalk. Eventually, you’ll see a pipe to the left that can only be entered by taking a small passage. If you’re Super, start at the right side of the screen and run left, then duck before hitting the roof of the passage. Since it’s icy, you’ll slide to the pipe (keep holding down so you’ll enter it).Then you get a bunch of coins.

Watch out for the upside-down spiny, and for the large-ish pit that follows. There’s a pillar there, but it’s just in the background; you can’t stand on it. Another big leap of faith after a fire bro, don’t get distracted by the pillar! It’s just in the background.

+Fortress of Lakitu Glacier Location: Just before the last little swerve in the path before it ends. Time Limit: 300

A few obstacles to pass here, but hey, at least it’s not slippery. There’s a Boo around the thwomp and dry bones. Jump across the platforms quickly enough that the Boo goes off-screen. Drop into the water, and hit all the invisible blocks. Now go back and get up there again to use those blocks.

Watch out for the Spinning Circles. Try to get in the middle of the first one so it goes around you. Then wait for a good time to move to the middle of the second one. From here, wait to hit the beanstalk block, and climb it. The sideways pipe doesn’t go anywhere.

To pass the thwomps, keep high and hop past them after they drop. The underwater pipe doesn’t go anywhere, either. The power-up is easy to get if it’s a mushroom, but if you’re already Super, a hard-to-collect fire Flower appears instead. It takes a great duck-slide into a jump with the limited space to fit in there (do a find on “? duck” without the space for help on duck-sliding).

Then you’ve got tons of dangerous treadmills. Make sure to look at the direction they move in. Get used to these treadmills; you must fight two Boom-Booms on them.

+Ghost Ship of Lakitu Glacier Location: The rightmost level at the end of the path. Time Limit: 400

Some forced-scrolling swimming. Lure that thwomp early or you won’t have time to avoid it. Watch out for the other thwomp above the power-up holding ? block, and don’t worry about the pipe, it doesn’t go anywhere.

Now you have Boos to deal with. Look away to lure the first one to the left. Then swim to the right quickly and hope the boo goes off-screen. Whenever a Boo goes off-screen, it will go back to where it was initially, and out of your area. Now there’s another Boo, forcing you to do a snaking run quickly, and after that, a power-up and a third Boo.

If you survive past that, there’s some bullet bill blasters, followed by Boo #4, Power-up #3 (you need all the help you can get), and a Cheep-Cheep. Get to that pipe so you can enter the ghost ship.

You might have noticed how glass blocks, unlike blue blocks in SMB3, never disappear if you hold them for too long. In this level, you’ll have to hold a glass block for a long time. So ignore that brick by the lava, and trek right.

Take a big leap of faith over the spike pit with the spinning circle, running at the spinning circle when it starts moving down into the ground. Don’t worry about all the blocked potions for now. Thankfully, there’s only one Boo in here, which hangs around the snaking passage. Don’t enter the door in the bottom-right corner unless you run out of glass blocks and want to reset the level.

After some thwomps you’ll get to a row of glass blocks. Grab one, and take it all the way back to where you came in. If the block hits an enemy you’ll lose the block, but at least the enemy will die. Still, time will be tight if you have to keep going back. The piranha plant in particular is tricky to get past without losing your block.

When you get back to the brick on the lava, kick the glass block while standing on the block next to the lava. No need to jump, a ground kick will hit it the brick. Get the potion inside, and make your way back, hitting each potion along the way.

When you get through the passage after the glass blocks, there’s a coin (really a brick) under the door. Hit it for a power-up and get ready for your battle with Wendy.

Wendy O. Koopa shoots hoops at you that bounce around in a straight diagonal line, predictably bouncing off of walls. She shoots them early, but after three are in the level, she can’t shoot any more. Try to keep track of where the hoops are going. It’s pretty cramped because there are two big blocks in the arena. She takes five hits and jumps higher each time she takes damage.