Is it Possible to Beat Super Mario Bros 3 Without Touching a Single Block?

super mario bros 3 it's only the best 2d mario game hands down it's always nice to go back to this one from time to time but let's play it a different way the goal today is to avoid touching every single block and when i say blocks that means i won't be able to land or jump on brick blocks question mark blocks or ice blocks the only thing i'm allowed to do involving the blocks is to break them with a tanooki tail or koopa shell i can also skip levels if i need to but by the end of this i'll have attempted every level i personally feel like this challenge will be a brutal one so let's get on with it my first realization was that power-ups might be tricky to come by most of them come out of question mark blocks so that sucks right off the bat moving on though there's this long slab of blocks that i have to avoid and unfortunately i kept landing on them near the end i kept trying this with more speed but i just wasn't able to get fast enough so my next idea was to bring a koopa shell with me to destroy some blocks that are in the way this plan actually works pretty well but after a few seconds i wasn't breaking the final block after dying to the shell i realized i needed to be closer to the right side of the screen what's annoying about retrying this level was i kept killing the plants by accident it was just the worst after a few more tries i eventually broke through the barrier and cleared the level that wasn't too bad but i feel like this is gonna get a lot harder one two seemed impossible at first since you're supposed to use this question mark block to reach this pipe but with a very precise goomba jump you can just barely cling to the edge of the pipe the rest of the level was easy peasy next was 1-3 and it only had one tricky part i needed to clear this segment of blocks by using the music block in paratroopa after a couple tries i pulled this off i also decided to kneel on this white block so i could get access to the warp whistle i'm gonna try to get all three since i may need them to beat this game at all for fun i tried out one four even though it's optional and wasn't having any luck with some practice i got close to touching the platform without using the blocks in the middle but i knew i would needed tanuki to reach it i double checked the map and sure enough it would definitely be possible with a tanuki so let's just mark this with a yellow circle instead after that was one tower and there were literally two or three bricks in the whole level so it was a cakewalk one thing that sucked was that since i didn't have a tanooki tail anymore i couldn't go for the second warp whistle so i hope i don't need it later thankfully one five was super easy considering i didn't spot any blocks now one six had one jump where i had to bounce off this paratroopa but otherwise it was painless i hit up a mushroom house hoping to get a tanooki leaf only to receive a fire flower the fire flower was useful for the hammer bro fight but i really want to get those tanoki leafs since they're much more practical in most levels and wow we have already made it to one airship we're sailing pretty smooth so far the level itself has a couple of blocks but after taking out the koopaling we are finished with world one there's another warp whistle to find in world two so let's see if we can nab it the first few seconds for two one looked completely hopeless there was a giant pile of bricks in front of me with no way around but then a piledriver microgoomba hopped towards me and i knew i could use them to my advantage with some careful jumping i managed to get myself across by bouncing off these enemies after that i used a koopa shell to smack this brick to reveal a tanooki tail ah it's nice to have one again up next was 2-2 and this was fine for a little bit after riding this platform though there were columns of bricks i knew would be tricky to avoid so i opted to dive into the water i had to very carefully swim around the cheap jeep so i wouldn't lose my suit but i managed to do so and clear the level following that was two tower and it has one block to avoid and that's it the only notable thing to mention is the fight with the boomerang bro i somehow went completely through the boomerang without getting hit and i have no idea why i guess the hitboxes are wonky or something but man that was so lucky after that was 2-3 and i knew i was in some trouble and that's when i ran into this giant staircase of blocks but i had the tanooki tail and had an idea i built up some speed earlier on and managed to fly clean across the staircase that wasn't the problem though it was all about the end of the stage i had absolutely no way of clearing all these blocks so i thought i'd try using a koopa shell i threw it in the air but honestly i knew it wouldn't be able to reach the end on time without the koopa flipping back over my last idea before using the warp whistle was trying out the p-wing i feel so dumb using an elite power-up on such an easy level but i kinda have to i got to the end and first tried flying over the blocks which didn't work at all so then i very carefully flew down and hit the koopa i hit him again at just the right spot so i didn't touch the ground while also avoiding the shell now i had to double check my footage to ensure i didn't hit the ground and sure enough i only skimmed the koopa let me just say doing this was absolutely terrifying and after that maneuver i just had to wait for the shell to knock out the blocks carefully flying into the pipe without touching a block i somehow beat this level holy cannoli that's all i gotta say afterwards was the sand or angry sun level and it wasn't that bad there were some blocks that i had to make jumps over but really i just had to float across and i was pretty good on to our next mushroom house i got another fire flower come on man i'm so sick of getting these well anyway moving on to two four i had to jump over this one question mark block and the others were all easy to avoid next it was time to take out the hammer bro this was particularly important because he gives us the hammer item with this we can break the rock and reveal a hidden area of world 2. the following two fire bros have exactly what we want a warp whistle i tried the next mushroom house and after so many bad items spawned in the other houses i was hoping that this would be better but nope i got a frog suit because why not right but going back to the levels 2-5 was nothing short of a cakewalk and two pyramid was all well except for the beginning up these three stairs is three blocks and a question mark block and the only way you can clear them is with a super precise jump i built up a fragment of speed to be able to clear this and also hit the buzzy beetle and caught it without losing my suit how old that happened i don't know it was all reflexes alright after that though was two airship and like the previous airship there's almost no blocks to worry about and just like that we move on to world three the first level was super simple with only a couple of blocks to bypass and three two was pretty solid as well at the end there's a bunch of blocks i have to dodge and the only way i could do it was the damage boost through the piranha plant here's to hoping i can get another tanooki tail soon oh and speak of the devil i'm kind of mad i don't have the tanooki tail because i have no way to pass all these blocks i tried running as fast as possible and bouncing off the music block but even then i didn't come close this level would be possible if i had a p-wing but i'm all out of those sadly so instead i'm resorting to using my cloud item to pass through 3-3 and just move on 3 tower thankfully didn't have any blocks so it was a breeze to knock out with 3-4 i had to make a couple of careful jumps around the middle but it wasn't much trouble beyond that in 3-5 i ended up getting hit but it wasn't that big a deal since i could still clear the level with no blocks in sight i knocked out the hammer bros to get another hammer item and used that to access three mushroom houses and finally after so many houses i got a tanooki leaf geez that took long enough and carrying on to 3 6 it was another simple level i got hit but i have some backup power ups now so it's no biggie the same kind of thing goes for 37 but there was one scary jump there's a row of bricks that i can't clear with a jump so i have to try going underneath by building speed and sliding i barely squeezed my way through without touching a block that was a close one for 3 tower 2 the boost stretch floors were annoying but otherwise this was an easy one 3 8 is the most challenging big bertha level but with some careful jumping it wasn't too bad there's only a handful of blocks to evade then we moved on to three nine and this one was a touch problematic first and foremost though i brought a koopa shell over to this section to nab us a bunch of lives that was fine and dandy but then i got to this wall of bricks i couldn't jump over i busted out a tanooki tail and managed to fly to the end but the only problem is the final pipe is surrounded by a bunch of ice blocks and koopas can't break these blocks so there's seemingly no way around or so i thought by checking the map of the game i realized you could go down other pipes to go around the blockage so with tanooki mario i smashed my way through the blocks and went down the pipe doing this i was able to swim through the water and reach the goal and finally we made it to the airship and it was honestly pretty simple after taking out wendy okupa we can proceed to world four four one wasn't too shabby there was a lot of bricks to evade but it was nothing to sweat over and beyond this we actually had an easy streak of levels these include 4-2 4-3 4-tower 4-4 and 4-5 the difficulty picks up a bit in 4-6 firstly we have to make this super precise jump which requires us to build some speed to clear this line of blocks that's the easy one next is this giant section of nothing but bricks which are very easy to land on but i knew that with enough speed i could probably bounce off the koopas and get past everything after a dozen or so tries i built up enough speed to bounce off the koopa on the top platform and barely snagged the parakoopa which gave me enough hype to clear the entire thing this legitimately felt like a motorbike jumping over 20 trucks it was exhilarating as hell up next was the second tower and this one was really stupid halfway through i'm supposed to jump on this block to climb farther up and there's no way i can get up there that is unless i use a p-wing that i literally just got from the hammer bro so there we go i'm wasting yet another p-wing to get past one part of a level at least it worked and i can move on and finally we reach for airship and it's an incredibly slow auto scroller there's only one block to worry about and after that world four is done moving on to five one this one jump was a little difficult to navigate but that's about it for this level for five two i usually like to take this path on the right but i can't now because it's entirely built on bricks lucky for me there's another route at the bottom the buster beetles were really obnoxious to put up with so i basically had to be patient and let them throw the ice blocks to clear the path this level was possible thankfully now my god 5'3 was the most annoying level i had to play yet since i couldn't get access to the goomba shoe the muncher part was kind of a big problem so i decided that damage boosting across them was my best option at least until the next pipe that's because there's a square of blocks i can't jump over and no matter how many times i tried to squeeze my way through i just could not clear them the only solution was to bust out the tanuki suit and whack the blocks away 5'3 took a lot of attempts but it was doable now five tower was a hard level but the blocks were a non-issue the second tower was going alright until we got to this section the entire thing besides two enemies are made of blocks which is obviously a big no-no for us thankfully we've got two p-wings at our disposal and can very sneakily fly into the pipe without touching the blocks at all next was 5-4 and there was only one block so it was pretty easy 5-5 was an annoying level but it's more than doable next was 5-6 which was an auto scroller after a while it got to a point where all the platforms were just bricks and i couldn't clear them unless i had a p-wing so while this level is technically possible we have the option of skipping it to try 5-7 instead to preserve our power-ups but sadly 5-7 was also giving us a huge problem there's two giant columns of bricks in our path with no easy way to clear them you can build up speed and jump over them but then there's another series of blocks that you can't do much about looking at the full map of 5.7 you could definitely beat this with a p-wing but i only have one left i also have a cloud so i decided to use that instead since the p-wing is more useful in tricky situations for the third and final tower i just had to avoid the fireballs and that was pretty much it and five eight was also pretty simple as well as five nine five airship was another trouble free level and with that done world 5 is a wrap up and i gotta say i'm kinda surprised we haven't used the warp whistle yet but hey i don't wanna jinx myself so uh knock on wood so six one had very little blocks to worry about there were a few tight jumps to make in six two but it was all good in six three i had an insanely clutch moment where i was an inch from falling but it was otherwise a painless level and sixth tower was more the same it wasn't too bad six four was simple enough and six five is another level that can be done but we're not going to complete it 6-5 requires either a tanooki or p-wing to fly up top to the exit as you can see by this map since we can try 6-6 instead we'll do that to save our power-ups 6-6 is a slow paced level but it's more than possible and the same can be said for 6-7 as well as 6 tower 2. 6 8 was interesting because the only way i could get across this small mario was to let the beatles throw the bricks so i could get through and 6 9 was another painless level 610 is a couple tricky jumps and you have to let the beatles throw a lot of blocks but it's otherwise possible six tower three was yet again painless which means we've moved on to six airship you know i always forget how many levels there really are in world six it's quite a bunch but thankfully the airship was a walk in the park it's by far the easiest airship in the game after knocking that out we can trench on four to world seven [Music] seven one was not the greatest start that's because there's no way to get past this vertical jump without a p wing i need at least one platform that's made out of blocks you can't do this with a p-wing by looking at this map but we're going to use a cloud instead 7-2 is another level where we really need the tanooki suit there's two blocks on top of this pipe and no matter how many times i try i always barely touch the blocks this is yet another one that could be done but instead i'm going to use a cloud to pass 7-2 and just move on 7-3 is yet another level that requires the p-wing there's a large jump at the beginning and i can't reach it without touching the blocks now i do have two p-wings at my disposal but i really want to have these for world 8 but i guess i have no choice since i'm out of clouds thankfully 7-4 was much more manageable than the other world 7 levels now 7 5 is interesting because this is actually the first level that will be impossible that's because we're required to hit invisible blocks to make progress and those count as blocks so there's nothing we can do thankfully this level is optional but it's honestly mind-boggling that this was the first unbeatable level it took until world 7 to get to this point but within the first glimpse of 7 tower it's impossible because the entire level is blocks well this first room is at least but not even a p wing can save us here the last thing we can try is seven plant this is a hard level but with patience you can do it without touching a single block and what's really nice is you get a free p-wing after completing it but our dilemma now is that we're at a dead end we can't use a p-wing to clear seven tower and i'm fresh out of clouds that means it's time to finally use the warp whistle which takes us to world 8. this has been a long and treacherous journey so let's see if we can finish this challenge off strong first up was eight tank and there was only one block that i needed to avoid eight battleship was more of the same thing except the level is slightly harder next was the hand traps and i luckily only needed to play the last one this level had next to no blocks in my path and i was able to nab a free tanooki leaf as well while late airship was really challenging there is no blocks to worry about and then came 8-1 i tried it with fire mario and had no success getting over this pipe so by building some speed with my tanuki leaf i managed to fly right over it the rest of the level was really challenging but the blocks weren't in the way that much eight two is particularly scary because the level was flooded with fire piranha plant as well as the angry sun but if you play it carefully it's more than possible and here we go 8 tower this level is defined as pure evil not only is it insanely confusing but the blocks are so ridiculous to avoid i had to start by swiping my tail at this h to remove some of the blocks while also avoiding the radioactive waffle after barely managing to do that i needed to do the same on the other side the only problem is there is an invisible block all the way to the right so i have to make sure to not hit that while also avoiding the waffle next i have to perfectly jump off the dry bones while avoiding the waffle just to smack the side of the block to reveal the p-switch then when it came to actually hitting the switch it required a running start a frame perfect jump off this gray circle while achieving maximum height floating so i can barely hit the p-switch while also not hitting the block underneath and the waffle i don't even know of hitting this piece which was worth my time but my god i was so frustrated at this point i eventually got to the end of the level only to realize my run was over i needed to hit the second p-switch but the only way to do that was to break the block which obviously defeats the purpose of this challenge so is it possible to beat super mario bros 3 without touching a block maybe based on the choices and items i have i can't technically complete this run anymore but i theoretically could still keep going let's go back to world five seven i ended up skipping that stage with a cloud but i also had a p wing in my inventory if i had simply used the p wing for five seven instead of the cloud i would still have one cloud left which means i could have theoretically used that cloud to skip a tower so for the sake of this challenge let's keep on going and see if it's possible at this point i've got two p-wings left with only two levels so i just ended up using one on eight tank two it was really nice to have after eight tower i needed a bit of a breather but this is it everyone the final level in the game one p-wing left and one stupid idea for bowser's fight in fact the entirety of this video exists because i had this idea several months ago where i wondered if you could beat bowser without touching the bricks at all so it was my time to finally test this theory i got to the first room and then wait a minute there's an invisible wall okay so apparently bowser only spawns when you touch the ground this is actually an interesting problem because these blocks don't look like the normal blocks we're trying to avoid but they can also be destroyed so does it count if i touch them once just to spawn bowser i did so anyway because i've been wanting to try this dumb idea for a while now at first bowser landed on the left side without breaking anything so i knew i needed to play riskier i quickly learned that bowser tends to jump after spitting two fireballs so i jumped at just the right time so bowser would ground pound on top of bricks but i also had enough speed to get out of the way this strategy wasn't perfect though he did hit these bricks on this jump but it wasn't close enough for him to ground pound another careful jump though and he smashed another brick and another and another and another and another and going once and going twice in seoul miraculously besides spawning in bowser you can take him out without touching the bricks even one time so is it possible to beat super mario bros 3 without touching a single block uh yeah but maybe no if you consider the final fight to not count now before wrapping things up let's try out the levels from world 7 that we didn't get to because of the warp whistle 7 6 is pretty slow going but is definitely possible next was 7-7 and there is no way we can complete this one the gimmick for this level is to keep hitting the question mark block because they have stars inside but obviously we can't do that i got pretty far with a tanooki suit by just flying across half the level but eventually i had to damage boost and couldn't make much more progress you could use a p-wing on this level technically but we're just gonna move on 7 8 is a super obnoxious level but you can't complete it for 7 9 you immediately start by standing on blocks so you definitely cannot beat this level even with a p-wing you still have to jump off the blocks before flying 7 tower 2 is another tough level but there's almost no blocks to avoid and next is seven plant two and i had one spare p wing so i decided i might as well use it here and for the final level seven airship was a piece of cake but then of course there's the secret world world a wait what you've never heard of world a yeah if you beat the entire game in 15 minutes using only the frog suit you unlock this really cool world nobody ever brings up world audible it's kind of strange i mean it's only the best place to get your audiobook fill but they don't just have thousands of titles you can also listen to podcasts wellness programs a-list comedy and audible originals you won't find anywhere else and if i mentioned the app is free and can be listened to across devices without losing your spot i mean talk about handy now personally i've been listening to super mario how nintendo conquered america and it's been really great while working on youtube videos so with all that said make sure to visit audible.com nathaniel or text nathaniel at 500-500 and a big thanks to audible for sponsoring this video so i am stunned with how many levels were actually possible the final tally is 84 out of 88 levels that can be completed without touching a block that is simply crazy to me considering how common and iconic this mario asset is but i think that's enough for today i hope you all enjoyed this video and thanks a bunch for watching i'll speak with you all very soon and have a great day [Music]

Channel: Nathaniel Bandy

Views: 2,625,991

Keywords: super mario bros 3, without touching a coin, mario is it possible, is it possible, without touching a block, mario coins, super mario coins, super mario bros, supepr mario, mario, super mario challenges, mario challenges, nintendo, nes, nathaniel bandy

Id: V301He6VzoY

Length: 22min 9sec (1329 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2020