World 8-1 (Super Mario Bros. 3)

Level
World 8-1
Level code	World 8-1
World	Dark Land
Game	Super Mario Bros. 3
Time limit	300 seconds
Music track	Underground BGM
Music sample
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World 8-1 is the first main level, and the seventh level overall, of Dark Land in Super Mario Bros. 3. It becomes accessible after the player clears World 8-Jet and its own completion opens World 8-2. Originally, the level was wholly dark, resembling the areas at the ends of most of the game's levels, but in remakes, it was given a deep forest theme. Despite its appearance in the original, the zigzag border marking the black-colored end of most stages is still programmed into the stage, and the background hills at the end use different tiles than the hills seen throughout the stage, but due to the colors they are visually indistinguishable.

Layout

The NES version of the level

The player starts on a small piece of land; directly above them is a Switch Block within a Brick Block that the player has to fly up to in order to find, and pressing the switch will reveal many Blue Coins. Across the gap are pipes with a Venus Fire Trap followed by several Piranha Plants, and a Fire Flower (or Super Mushroom) power-up can be collected from the second ? Block. If the player can fly up to the top of the tall Warp Pipe, they can enter a room containing three 1-Up Mushrooms. After some Brick Block formations are several Turtle Cannons that fire standard Bullet Bills, and a ? Block containing a Starman can be found in between them. Afterward is a narrow section with more Turtle Cannons and a row of ? Blocks, with a Brick Block containing a 1-Up Mushroom placed between them. Beyond the narrow section is a Boo and a Brick Block containing a Super Leaf (or Super Mushroom) power-up. Next is a lone Koopa Troopa on a Semisolid Platform followed by a set of pipes with a Piranha Plant, which is where the player will fall down near if they went through the secret room from earlier. Afterward are more tall Turtle Cannons with Koopa Paratroopas placed to help the player jump across the gaps. Next is a Jump Block the player can use to jump to the pipe ahead, and after the next set of pipes is the goal.

Enemies

Name	Count
Venus Fire Trap	3 (green)
Piranha Plant	2 (green) 1 (red)
Green Koopa Troopa	1
Red Koopa Troopa	1
Green Koopa Paratroopa	2
Red Koopa Paratroopa	1
Turtle Cannon	13
Bullet Bills	Infinitely spawned by Turtle Cannons
Boo	1

Level statistics

• Power-ups: 3 (2 Super Mushrooms or a Super Leaf and a Fire Flower, and a Starman)
• 1-Up Mushrooms: 4
• Secret areas: 1

Trivia

• The bonus rooms in this level, World 6-9 and World 6-10 are the only ones in the game that do not use the new bonus room tileset in the All-Stars version of the game, instead using the standard cave tileset (as well as the regular cave background, unlike the aforementioned rooms which feature the unique bonus room background). This is due to said tileset lacking slopes, which all of these rooms use. This was fixed in Super Mario Advance 4, which added slopes to the bonus room tileset.
• The narrow section features a Turtle Cannon attached to the ceiling, the only instance of such in the game. It appears to be floating in the NES and All-Stars version of the game as the cannon isn't properly flipped; this would be fixed in Super Mario Advance 4.