The trick should work on the original NES cartridge, as well as the Wii U and Switch Online versions. It wasn’t included in the manual for the game, so it would have likely been disclosed via gaming magazines or word of mouth. The video has caused some controversy, with some ‘80s players insisting they already knew of the “hack” and others discovering it for the first time. Pressing A and Start means you can resume the game in 5-1 instead of 1-1. But if you press the A button and then Start after being killed once back on the home screen, Mario will be automatically transported to the last world he was in. Normally, players who run out of lives have to begin the game at level 1-1, even if they progressed all the way to world 8. It turns out the game was a lot easier to play than it seemed: Players didn’t have to start the entire thing over when they ran out of lives.Īccording to Lifehacker, the feature was recently excavated in a now-viral TikTok video from RetroGamingOnline. The game, which pits swarthy Italian plumber Mario against Bowser and his minions, was bundled with the system and became a productivity-killing pastime for millions of children and adults. When Japanese video game company Nintendo decided to target the North American market in 1985, they knew their chances of success hinged on the public response to Super Mario Bros.
