Almost immediately at the beginning of the level is a Hammer Bro. If you don’t have any power-ups, he can be tricky to eliminate. Wait until he jumps up into the air, then dash underneath him. When he lands on the bricks, jump up and hit him from below to knock him out.
Notice the small pipes? Those are perfect for Mini Mario to speed through. Chances are, you don’t have a Mini Mushroom just yet, but return here when you do to speed through the tiny pipes and pick up some coins you missed as well as a 1-Up!
Hey look, it’s Yoshi! Coax him out of his shell by hitting the ? Block at Point 3, then ride your little buddy through the end of the level. As you progress, feed Yoshi the fruit growing on the bushes. For every five fruits you feed him, he’ll reward you with a power-up or 1-Up Mushroom!
There’s a second Yoshi egg at Point 5. If you’re still riding Yoshi, this egg will give you a power-up instead.
There’s another Hammer Bro. at Point 6. He jumps between two brick platforms, so watch him carefully before you try to take him out. If you mistime your attack or misjudge where he will be when you move it, you’re likely to take a hammer to the noggin. Instead, use Yoshi’s flutter jump to float above the Hammer Bro. when he drops to the ground level. You can also have Yoshi eat a hammer and spit it back out to hit the Hammer Bros.
At Point 7 there is another set of small pipes perfect for Mini Mario. This time, however, you’ll enter the pipe and follow it down to a lower-level cavern full of coins!
There’s another Yoshi egg hidden inside a ? Block after you pass by the deceptive pipes of Point 8. If you don’t have Yoshi with you when you reach Point 8, coax out this Yoshi, then backtrack to Point 8 and grab the second Star Coin.
There’s a Venus Fire Trap inside a yellow pipe at Point 10. Swallow him up with Yoshi, then spit out a fireball that can travel through enemies. Follow behind the fireball’s destructive path and rack up the points. If you keep up, you’ll score several 1-Ups!
High above the Venus Fire Trap pipe is a small ledge. Hop up the ridges to the right of the Venus Fire Trap’s pipe, then hop onto the ledge and walk into the wall on the right to find a secret area. Collect all the coins inside the secret area.
The two Hammer Bros. at Point 12 are very aggressive! They’ll rapidly hurl hammers at you with nearly no breaks between hammer tosses. The best chance you have to take them out is not to wait for a lull in their hammer tossing, but rather to wait until they jump high into the air and either speed past them from below or get into position to bump them from below. You can use the Yoshi hammer trick here as well (see Point 6).
