Minus World

Minus World
Game	Super Mario Bros.
Level(s)	Alternates
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The Minus World, or World -1, is an impassable glitch level in Super Mario Bros. that can be accessed from a Warp Zone. It is an underwater level, exactly like World 7-2 in geography and enemy locations. However, the destination of the Warp Pipe at the end is not updated, so it returns the player to the start of the level. As a result, once the player is there, it is impossible to leave without getting a Game Over or resetting. The Minus World is well-known, and it has been referenced in several later games.

The glitch was given its name by fans because its number displays as  -1. The actual number is World 36-1 in decimal (World 24-1 in hexadecimal), but the game displays a blank graphic for the number 36, so all the player can see is the -1. The glitch was described in the third issue of Nintendo Power, and it was later featured in its 100th issue.

The Minus World glitch has been removed from remakes of Super Mario Bros. In Super Mario All-Stars, if the trick is performed, the Warp Pipes will still take Mario to their respective worlds as if the pipes were reached by walking along the ceiling. In Super Mario Bros. Deluxe and Super Mario Bros. 35, the ability to perform the trick is removed entirely. However, the glitch remains in the Nintendo PlayChoice-10, the Classic NES Series and Virtual Console ports, the NES Classic Edition and Nintendo Classic Mini: Family Computer, Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online, and Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros., as they are direct emulations of the original game.

Methods of access

Warp Zone

Performing a variation of the wall-clipping glitch to enter the Minus World

The player can access the Minus World from World 1-2, using glitches to reach the Warp Zone without scrolling it completely onto the screen, namely by clipping Mario (or Luigi) through the wall before it. The Super Mario or Fire Mario form is required to perform this glitch.

A very common setup is to break most of the Brick Blocks forming the ceiling near the Warp Pipe leading to the normal exit, so that it leaves one Brick Block hanging near the vertical portion of the pipe. Next, the player has to face left, then jump backwards towards the bottom left corner of the single Brick Block. Crouching while jumping is optional, but it can be used to avoid accidentally breaking the Brick Block while performing the setup. If the action is done correctly, Mario/Luigi will clip through the block and slide through the wall, and from there, the player can enter the first pipe without showing the "Welcome to Warp Zone!" text to access the Minus World.

Another setup is that the player must jump right at full speed while crouching and without breaking any Brick Blocks forming the ceiling, then land in a very precise spot on the vertical portion of the normal exit pipe. Due to the more precise nature of this setup, this often takes several tries before the player can successfully clip inside the pipe and into the wall. In all setups, the camera has to scroll enough for even one pixel of the first Warp Zone pipe to show, otherwise the player is softlocked until the time limit runs out.

Once the player is in the Warp Zone room, entering the left or right pipe leads to the Minus World. The middle pipe leads to World 5-1. (This advances the player further than normal, although it skips past the Warp Zone from World 4-2 to World 8.) However, if the screen is scrolled all the way over so that the "Welcome to Warp Zone!" message appears, the Warp Zone is correctly loaded and the pipes lead to their intended destinations.

It is not possible to enter the Minus World from either of the Warp Zones in World 4-2. Through hacking, the pipes in the zone above the beanstalk are shown to lead back to the beginning of that section while the pipe leading to World 5-1 functions normally.

Cartridge swapping

Another method of accessing glitch worlds, including the Minus World, involves swapping cartridges with Tennis while the power is on, which can potentially damage the console's hardware. This glitch is due to the coincidental usage of the same RAM area between the two games that prevents a fail-safe from clearing the value that would normally store the most recently played world, which is used when the A Button is held down on the Start screen to continue a world after a Game Over. This value is overwritten by a footstep sound effect counter in Tennis.

Cause

The first 48 characters of the second CHR table within the Super Mario Bros. data, with tile 36 (blank) marked in red

The graphic that enumerates a world appears in the heads-up display and Warp Zone, and it is unbounded to the actual number graphics. For any world higher than 9, the game will start using graphics for text and level objects. This is used intentionally in World 4-2's Warp Zone, which has only one pipe in the center, even though all Warp Zones are designed to support travel to exactly three worlds. The left and right pipes have destinations set to World 36, corresponding to an empty background-colored tile in the second CHR table.

Entering the Warp Zone in World 1-2 without activating the "WELCOME TO WARP ZONE!" text causes the Warp Zone to behave like World 4-2's, with the center pipe sending the player to World 5. Since World 1-2 has three pipes, the player can actually enter the pipes corresponding to World 36, sending them to a level indicated with "World 'Blank Tile'-1."

Related glitch worlds and levels

"World --1" (actually World 40-1), one of the 256 worlds

Super Mario Bros. actually has 256 worlds in total; however, World 0 (which starts with an underwater version of World 4-4), World 9, and onward are glitched and reuse pointers from other levels in the level data. The Minus World (internally World 36) is the only one that can be accessed legitimately in the original versions of the game, and the rest can only be accessed via hacking, cheats, or via performing the cartridge swapping glitch.

It is possible for each world to have up to 256 levels, however most of these levels beyond the ones that can be normally accessed are glitched and either require hacking the game to access them, or by completing the fourth level and so on by using Goal Poles as exits. Common descriptions of these glitch levels include:

• Duplicate levels - some glitch levels simply reuse the original data, including the exact enemy layouts and properties, however warps do not work properly and send the player back to the beginning of the level instead.
• Incorrect graphics and palettes used in the level - for example, World -2 (36-2) loads World 3-4 with the palette and tilesets used from underwater levels
• Randomized enemy and level layouts, sprites and properties as a result of the game loading garbage data as a level
  • Sometimes, a glitch level could involve spawning into a Coin Heaven with a blank timer, which causes the player to instantly lose due to the game thinking the time is up.
  • It is possible for glitch levels to also load the pipe entering cutscene (which is normally used before underground and underwater levels), usually up to three times before the level actually begins. The player may also end up being in the cutscene state in some glitch levels and walk in an endless hallway until Mario/Luigi collides with an enemy or falls into a bottomless pit.
• Black screens or instant death due to bottomless pits or no timer, which put the player in an unwinnable state until they either reset the game or (if the game is still playable) lose all their lives.
• Sometimes, there are glitch levels that the player cannot move around in, such as World -A (36-10).
• Some glitch levels may even end up crashing the game if enough progress has been made into the level, usually from loading an invalid enemy or object.

In glitch worlds above World 8, beating a glitch level with a castle exit (hitting the Axe) will cause the ending to be treated as if the player has completed the game, even if it only displays the Mushroom Retainer's "Thank you Mario! But the princess is in another castle!" line. The player can return to the title screen as normal by pressing , and Hard Mode will also be triggered as usual.

"World 9"

"World 9-1" in Super Mario Bros.

The existence of these glitch levels created a rumor that sparked in Japan: a lightning strike on a Family Computer was said to create a Super Mario Bros. level never seen before, thought to be part of a secret World 9 (World 9-1 being an underwater version of World 6-2 that requires waiting a little to complete). According to an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto in Family Computer Magazine issue 9 in April 1986, the creation of World 9 in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels was inspired by the commotion surrounding the World 9 glitch. World 9 in this game also contains levels that are designed like overworld levels but with underwater properties, graphics, and palette, alluding to the descriptions of these glitch levels.

Other versions

It is possible to perform the Minus World glitch in other versions and direct emulations of Super Mario Bros., as well as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. However, the way this glitch behaves varies per version of the game, with some versions sending the player to completely different places in the same level or sending them to a different version of World -1 altogether. This does not include remakes of the game (such as Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe), which completely remove the Minus World glitch due to various differences in the games' technical data.

Family Computer Disk System port

The Family Computer Disk System version of the Minus World

In the Family Computer Disk System port of Super Mario Bros., the Minus World is accessed the same way, but it is very different in design due to the game loading different level data than the cartridge version.

World -1 is just like World 5-3 but with underwater gameplay (despite lacking actual visual water) and some unusual elements, such as multiple floating Princess Toadstools without hitboxes, a floating headless Bowser, a misplaced Hammer Bro, as well as all objects using the "underwater" palettes (that is, green is replaced by gray), causing odd visuals. If the player defeats the headless Bowser, the game will crash near the flagpole, though there is a small chance for the game not to crash and the player will instead receive a few fireworks.

The level has a Goal Pole (without the flag), allowing the level to be completed normally. It can easily stop the game from progressing if touched too high, however. The level eventually leads to World -2, a copy of World 7-3. However, the checkpoint is placed beneath the bridge, leading to an unwinnable state if Mario dies during the level. This level can also be completed normally and leads to World -3, a copy of World 4-4 that lacks its fake Bowser and maze elements, is set underground, and filled with flying Bloobers that can be stomped for 1,000 points. This weakness is otherwise unused due to Mario having different physics underwater, though it does appear in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. In addition, upon the player completing the level, Toad's message of "Thank you, Mario! But our princess is in another castle!" plays as normal, despite Toad's sprite being missing.

Beating World -3 takes the player to the title screen, as the game treats completing a castle level in World 8 or later as beating the game. If the player starts the game again after going through the Minus World, Hard Mode will be activated as normal.

VS. Super Mario Bros.

World -1 in VS. Super Mario Bros.

In VS. Super Mario Bros., some bricks located above the end pipe are removed to prevent the trick from being performed. However, it is not impossible to access, as the player can clip through the bricks under the pipe or the pipe itself. This version of the Minus World resembles the underwater portion of World 6-2. This room is actually the first level to exist in the Super Mario Bros. code in all versions.

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Attempting to do this with the Warp Zone pipe to World 4 in World 1-2 of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels will lead to two possible outcomes. First, it can send Mario or Luigi to the bonus area in another part of the level. Second, it could send him back to the underground bonus area of World 1-1. The game will still recognize the level as World 1-2 and the time will not reset. Completing it will send the player to World 1-3.

All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros.

By using the same trick in All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros., if Mario enters the leftmost pipe, he will instead be transported through the end-of-level pipe and be able to progress to World 1-3. If he enters the other pipes, he will be sent back to World 1-1, but it will be labeled 1-2 with the time not having been reset and all pipes hosting Piranha Plants. If he completes this level, he progresses to World 1-3, but dying sends him back to the real World 1-2.

NES Remix series

Most instances of Super Mario Bros. throughout the NES Remix series are direct emulations of the original game, meaning that most glitches, including the ability to access the Minus World, can be performed once again. However, due to the short nature of the various challenge stages throughout these games, any instances of accessing the Minus World cannot be performed. Although it is possible to perform the glitch in NES Remix's Remix I-16 (as it is a full run of World 1-2 but mirrored and playing as Luigi), attempting to use the Warp Zone in this stage will count as a miss, and as a result the glitch cannot be performed there.

Super Luigi Bros. (NES Remix 2)

The Minus World can be entered in Super Luigi Bros. from NES Remix 2; however, due to Luigi's higher jumps, it is trickier to do so than in the original game. Like the rest of this mode, it is mirrored so Luigi has to swim from right to left.

Speed Mario Bros. (Ultimate NES Remix)

Speed Mario Bros., a version of the original game that plays twice as fast, is a mode found in Ultimate NES Remix. The Minus World here behaves like the rest of the mode.

Championship Mode (NES Remix 2 / Ultimate NES Remix)

The Minus World as seen in Championship Mode from Ultimate NES Remix

The first stage in Championship Mode in NES Remix 2 and Ultimate NES Remix is set in Super Mario Bros., starting at World 1-1 then progresses as normal until 50 coins are collected or if the mode's timer is up. With this setup, it is possible to visit World 1-2 and perform the glitch to access the Minus World in this mode. Notably, because the coin counter is saved across worlds, it is possible to collect coins in advance in the first two levels to get enough to easily complete the stage while in the Minus World.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

Various challenges in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition are direct emulations of the original games, which also include Super Mario Bros.. However, while the Minus World glitch can be attempted in the challenges In the Zone and Mario Master, the game will detect doing the wall sliding glitch for the Minus World as a prohibited strategy, then rewind the player back to a point prior to doing the glitch, or (in the case of Mario Master) back to World 1-1. The timer will continue to run in these circumstances.

References in other games

• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: The instruction manual's description for Minus Barrels has Cranky Kong jokingly attribute them the ability to send the player to the Minus World, only to realize he was talking about the wrong game.
• Super Paper Mario: The Underwhere is called "World -1" by one of the residents.
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl: On Smash Bros. DOJO!!, the official Super Smash Bros. Brawl website, there is a screenshot showing a list of friends to whom Target Smash!! replays can be sent, with one of them nicknamed "World -1".
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: One of the weapons, the Splatformer (which has various sprites from Super Mario Bros. on it), references the Minus World in its description: "Send your enemies to the Minus World with this groundbreaking boomshot. The end."

Gallery

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  Intro card

• 

  World -2 on the Disk System port

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  Mario next to some Bloobers on the Disk System port in World -3

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	マイナス面[?] Mainasu-men	Minus World
German	Minus-Welt[?]	Minus World
Italian	Minus World[?]	-
Spanish	Mundo -1[?]	World -1
	Mundo Negativo (Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle)[?]	Negative World / Minus World