[big]__General Movement Rules[/big]__

• You accelerate faster in the direction you are not facing. So if you need to bump into a wall, do a backwards jump into it. • Maximum walking speed is 3/5 of maximum running speed. • If you fall under the maximum walking speed during a jump, you cannot go above it again until you touch the ground again. • If you touch the ground while holding right and letting go off B, you will be immediately reduced to maximum walking speed. If you need to shoot just as you land, briefly let go off right. • Shooting while running on the ground will not slow you down in the slightest, if you repress B quickly enough. If you let go off B for too long, you will be reduced to maximum walking speed instantly. • Acceleration in water is the same on the ground as in the water, but the maximum walking speed underwater is 2/3 of the maximum swimming speed. • Holding right+down (or left+down) counts as holding neither button while standing on the ground and as holding right (or left) while in the air or swimming. • If you touch underwater ground while holding right, you will be immediately reduced to maximum walking speed. If you need to only briefly touch the ground, hold right+down as it will yield less deacceleration than just holding right. Of course longer stays on the ground will reduce you to below maximum walking speed, so let go off down in these cases to stay at maximum walking speed. See this comparison video: • You can let go off right while swimming or jumping. • When you need to reverse direction and get below the platform, you are standing on, (for example when getting to the warp pipes in 4-2), you can reverse some of your speed by bumping into a wall and holding the opposite direction. If the gap between the platform, you want to fall off and the wall is less than 3 blocks, it's faster to do so than to just reverse at the edge of the platform.

[big]__Framerules[/big]__

Every time you enter a new level, the game delays for a varying amount of time. The delay actually waits for a counter that loops every 21 frames (~0.35 seconds).

As an example, this means that if you complete a level in • 1 frame, the level length will be N+21 frames • 15 frames, the level length will be N+21 frames • 20 frames, the level length will be N+21 frames • 21 frames, the level length will be N+21 frames • 22 frames, the level length will be N+42 frames • 30 frames, the level length will be N+42 frames • 42 frames, the level length will be N+42 frames • 43 frames, the level length will be N+63 frames And so on, where N is a constant minimum length of the black screen.

The only exception to this rule is the last level and certain events, during which the counter does not run, such as pauses, lag, transformations or entering pipes.

[big]__Flagpole jump[/big]__

If you hit a flagpole at the highest possible position, Mario will enter the castle about 11 frames faster. In most levels this saves a frame rule.

[big]__Avoiding fireworks[/big]__

The fireworks are set off when a level is completed with the last digit of the timer at 1, 3, or 6. Getting them wastes time, so you should slow down instead of hitting a time that yields 3 or 6 fireworks.

[big]__Despawning[/big]__

There can only be 5 "enemies" at once on the screen. The following count towards this total: living enemies, dead enemies as long as their sprite is still on the screen, all moving platforms, climbing vines, the flag on the flagpole When there are already 5 enemies on the screen, further enemies will simply not appear. This can be to your advantage, but also to your disadvantage.

[big]__Hit Detection[/big]__

It is possible to stand on the edge of a pipe even when a plant has risen out of it. There are a few pixels of room on both sides of the pipe that you can land on and immediately jump off again.

When a lot of hammers are on the screen, you can sometimes go through a hammer without getting hit, and sometimes a hammer can be invisible but still hit you.

You don't need to hit the top of an enemy to kill it. As long as you're moving downward as you hit the enemy, you'll kill it.

When entering a pipe with a piranha plant sticking out of it, jump into the middle and start holding down early, this will trigger the pipe transition and allow you to survive some encounters with the plant, which would normally kill you, if you did not hold down.

Also hit detection only happens every second frame.

[big]__Known pseudorandom enemy patterns[/big]__

The random number generation in this game is purely frame-based. If you reach an enemy at the same frame from reset, it will behave the same. Due to the 21 frame rule (which also applies to the title screen), it is possible to know what frame you are on and predict the behavior of the random elements.

[big]__Backwards jump acceleration[/big]__

When you need to accelerate from zero speed, you can do it faster if you jump a small jump backwards and steer to the opposite direction Mario is facing. This can be used to start a level faster and to accelerate faster after exiting a pipe.