In this episode, we head to the Star Road for the first time and we also take on the Vanilla Dome!
Overworld map by Rick Bruns. All other maps by Stefan Mahrla.
Star Road
With the Star Road, you can play some rather interesting courses, skip ahead to other parts of Dinosaur Land, skip ahead to Bowser's Castle (if you so choose), and even discover something Special. There are five entrances to Star World all throughout Dinosaur Land, and with that come five courses.
Star World 1
If you're Small Mario, grab the Super Mushroom and become big, then spin jump through the blocks. If you know where you're going here, you can find all five Dragon Coins to get the 1-Up.
Be careful if you're Caped Mario when you do this; if you move around too much, you can accidentally trap yourself in the blocks and die, even if you're riding Yoshi.
Speaking of knowing where you're going, going all the way to the right at the second spin jump section and breaking the blocks from above there takes you to the key and keyhole. This will take you to Star World 2 and its respective Star Road entrance (which is in Vanilla Dome, where we can't go yet).
If you continue to go down, you'll find a Starman and even find a Red Yoshi. In the Star Road courses, you can find Red, Blue and Yellow Yoshi; however, they will be a baby and cannot be ridden on right away. Move it into an enemy to eat it, as eating five enemies will let the Yoshi grow into a full-grown Yoshi which you can then get on and ride. Red Yoshis can spit fireballs out after eating a Koopa, regardless of what color the shell was. Also, you can combine Koopa shell powers this way, too. Let's say you're riding a Red Yoshi, and you eat a blue Koopa shell. You'll be able to fly like you could with the blue shell, but since Red Yoshi will spit out fireballs upon spitting out a Koopa shell regardless of color, you'll have a free three-way shot for when you're finished.
If you take a Baby Yoshi to a goal, you will turn them into a 1-Up. If you feed a Baby Yoshi a power-up, they will grow to full-size instantly.
If you take the regular, goal-type style exit, you'll just go back to the Star Road entrance. If you use a Star Road entrance again, you'll warp back to Dinosaur Land.
Donut Plains
#2 Morton's Castle
If you fly all the way up at the beginning, you can play the three-box mini-game again for a few extra lives. You can then skip all the way to the last section before the boss. I'll cover that section shortly.
At the beginning, you'll meet a new enemy: the Thwimps. The debuting Thwimps are tiny Thwomps that are just as indestructible and take little leaps back and forth at regular intervals. Sometimes they will leap straight up.
If you took the slow-moving escalators - and avoided the slowly swinging spiked ball-and-chains that go in a circle, which shouldn't be too hard - you'll meet the Thwomps themselves. (At least the chains on the ball and chains can't hurt you.) If you've played Super Mario Bros. 3, you should know the drill by now: wait for them to drop when they close, them move past them when they rise up. This time around, the Thwomps will make irritated faces when you get close enough, and if you get just a little bit closer, that's when they drop down for the potential kill.
The next section is the one you could have skipped over earlier. Here, platforms will be moving back and forth through static floor, and you will have to move carefully so that you can get on certain platforms and also avoid jumping on spikes. The spikes do not kill you instantly, but they do bring you back to being Small Mario, so be careful.
You'll also meet the Dry Bones, another enemy from Super Mario Bros. 3 who makes their first appearance here. You can kill them if you spin into them as Caped Mario, but if you jump on them, they will break apart and eventually pull themselves together. In later courses, they will stop moving and throw a bone forward every once in a while.
You'll eventually meet Morton Koopa, Jr. (a reference to the late comedian Morton Downey, Jr.). Jump on him before he runs onto the wall and climbs up it. If you're lucky, you can jump on him three times before that can even happen. If he runs on the wall, he will be invulnerable until he runs on the ceiling and tries to drop down on you. He will try to drop down on you when you are directly under him, but if you stay on the move, you will definitely avoid this attack. Once he is on the floor, his attack pattern starts anew. Three bops on the head will do him in. If you are Fire Mario, you can throw two fireballs at him and then jump on him once to defeat him almost immediately.
After beating Morton Koopa, Jr, you will be able to head to Vanilla Dome.
Vanilla Dome
It's time for some fun in the caves as the difficulty gets a little higher and things get a little crazier in the third world of the game.
Vanilla Dome 1
This is the first course that has a big dot instead of a little dot. A big dot means that it is a little larger than other courses. Most of the big dots will be red.
The Swoopers, Spike Tops and Buzzy Beetles all come back from Donut Plains 2, and you won't be meeting any new enemies here.
If you can get above where the red dotted-line blocks are, you'll be able to open a path leading towards the Star Road entrance from earlier.
In the underground part with the yellow platform and the lava, use the star to get a 1-Up from all the enemies if you can, and get to the other side before the platform sinks into the lava.
You may have to be small Mario to get some of the Dragon Coins, but thankfully there's not much to this level. Just remember to run and jump up the super-steep slope when you see it.
Vanilla Dome 2
You'll be doing a lot of exploration here as you swim around, hit blocks to find vines, and take on Chargin' Chucks who will burst through blocks with their tackles to get to you.
At one point in the stage, you will have to surface and go left. There will be a P Switch. Carry it to the right past the wall of coins to the left, then hit the switch and drop down where the blocks covering the gap after the Buzzy Beetles are now coins. You will be able to find the key. Just take care of the Cheep Cheeps with Fire Mario and get the key into the keyhole to access the Red Switch Palace.
At one point near the end, there is an ice cavern - with ice physics - that seems nice, but does not let you skip much of the level. The gate at the end will take you to Vanilla Ghost House.
Red Switch Palace
If you can hit the P-Switch, grab the yellow shell before the Koopa can get into it, and use the newly-made platforms, all without firing a fireball at any of the Koopas, you can get a 1-Up just by keeping the shell you just kicked on the screen.
The Red ! Blocks don't do anything when hit from below, but they can act as platforms to previously inaccessible areas.
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