Our adventure in Dinosaur Land continues in Donut Plains!
Overworld map by Rick Bruns. All other maps by Stefan Mahrla.
Donut Plains
Up until this point, every single normal course you have seen has had a yellow course marker. This signifies that there is only one exit. Donut Plains 1 is the first instance of a red course marker, which signifies that there is two exits. One of them is the traditional end of level goal, but the other one is located somewhere else.
Donut Plains 1
The first enemy you will meet here are the Caped Koopas. These guys wear capes, and they will run at you before jumping up and flying forward. There will be others that swoop in out of the air. Some of these Caped Koopas will have flashing capes, and when you stomp on them with a normal jump, you will receive a Cape Feather. You can then stomp on him again to destroy him.
Grabbing the Cape Feather will turn you into Caped Mario, which allows you to fly in the air for longer than you could as Raccoon Mario...if you know what to do.
Run forward until Mario has hands to his sides. (This is harder than in Super Mario Bros. 3 due to the lack of a P Meter and the lack of an audio cue saying you're at full running power.) Keep holding the run button, and then press and hold the jump button. From there, you have to alternate between Left and Right on the Control Pad in order to fly. You have to get a certain rhythm going to stay in the air without going all over the place, but once you get it down, you can use it sail over some levels and look for hidden things in mid-air.
The first Charging Chuck you see throws baseballs forward. Some will be high, some will be low. The throwing of balls in sports that have them will be a theme with these guys.
The plants that spit tiny fireballs that gently float down are Volcano Lotuses. You can easily destroy them with a Koopa Shell, or you can spin into it by moving into it while spinning as Caped Mario. To spin as Caped Mario, press Y while on the ground or in the air. Keep pressing Y to constantly keep spinning. You can also perform a spin attack by pressing A. Fireballs will not work on Volcano Lotuses, so forget about burning them to a crisp with Fire Mario.
The Paratroops - the Koopas with wings - make their debut here. Sometimes they hop around, sometimes they fly in a certain simple pattern. They take one hit to de-wing and another to de-shell.
With the cape, you can hold A or B to gently float downwards. Using the regular B button jump gives you better results, since you can hold that in conjunction with Y and sometimes bounce off stuff if you know what you're doing.
There are two blue pipes that you can go through. The first one that is connected to four stone blocks takes you to a bonus game. Here, you have a few chances to hit three ? Blocks in a certain order. If you hit the right blocks in the right order, they will all have O's on them and the third one will give you a 1-Up. If you get any one of them in the sequence wrong, the remainder of the blocks in the row will also turn brown, meaning you messed up. You will have to activate the switch at the Yellow Switch Palace in order to enter this area, though.
The second set of blue pipes, which is just after the checkpoint, takes you to a wide-open area where you can practice your skills with Caped Mario, if you so choose. You'll also see the Triangle Blocks. If you see these, you can run into them and then keep running forward to run all the way up the nearby wall. If you're on Yoshi, you will merely bounce off the top of it. There are a ton of coins in this room, so you can get a few 1-Ups here. (If you collect all the coins in this area in the Game Boy Advance version of the game, the four birds from Yoshi's House will fly around you until you leave the room as a reward. This takes a lot of time to do, though.)
Near the end is a bunch of green-dotted line blocks as well as a Triangle Block. If you can get up there, you will reach a key and a keyhole. Grab the key like you would a Koopa shell, then carry it into the keyhole. If you did it right, the keyhole will expand and suck you in, and you'll be able to enter another course. In this case, it will be Donut Secret 1, which is in the lake to the north.
Donut Plains 2
If a course marker has dirt around it, it means that the stage will take underground.
The screen is an auto-scroller, so be ready to pay attention, move and avoid things when necessary. Ememies here include the Swoopers (the green bats that swoop down and then fly forward when you get close enough), the Buzzy Beetles (the blue-shelled turtle like enemies who are impervious to Fire Mario's fireballs just like in games past) and Spike Tops, new turtle-like enemies who debut in this game and slowly walk forward. They have the ability to turn corners on floors, walls and ceilings as well as they can walk on them.
The yellow floors and ceilings will slowly move up and down.
You'll also see the winged ? Block for the first time. It's just a ? Block that has wings that allow it to fly around. Hit it from below to get something. Stand on the top of it to move around as it flies (though there's no reason to do so here).
Thankfully, the auto-scrolling here is pretty slow, and if you're patient, you should be able to get through this course without a problem.
After the crushing ceiling shortly after the start, there are a couple of pipes in the ceiling. The second green one will take you to a hidden area. Here, you will meet a Chargin' Chuck that kicks footballs at you, and you will also see a couple of blocks followed by a blue Koopa shell located underneath three blocks. You can get the Koopa shell and hit the highest block to reveal a vine, then you can use the lower blocks like a staircase to the vine and climb up it to a key and keyhole. You can also hit the highest block with a cape or a Yoshi super jump. This takes you to the Green Switch Palace.
The auto-scrolling gets a little faster near the end of the stage that leads to the goal post, but thankfully, it's no sweat.
Green Switch Palace
If you can press the P Switch just right, the naked Koopa will kick the Koopa shell to the left. It will bounce off the wall, and if you keep running to the right from there, you can get a 1-Up.
Hitting the Green Switch will changed all the green dotted-line blocks to solid green ! Blocks. Hitting them from below will always give you a Cape Feather.
Donut Ghost House
The Ghost Houses are a maze of sorts, and most of the time they will have two exits. Whenever you complete a Ghost House, you will be allowed to save your game.
Remember those pamphlets that advertised Nintendo Power that appeared in the boxes of every Super Nintendo game ever that started in 1991 and never changed? If you played these games back in the day, there's no way you can forget them. If you can fly up and all the way to the left at the very beginning, you can reach a hidden set of platforms above. Jump over the pits and avoid the ghosts when they turn solid, and at the end you will find a few 1-Ups and a goal post that leads to the Top Secret Area. The Top Secret Area allows you to get your fill of power-ups, and if you ever need a Fire Flower and a Cape Feather, you can find them all here. You can even get Yoshi in the Top Secret Area, which is nice.
Anyway, here's how to deal with the level normally. Run all the way to the right at the beginning, avoiding the Boo Buddies when they turn solid and dive down at you, as well as the pits in the floor. From there, run to the right. You'll end up on the lower level of the next room. Leap to the left to the stairs and go right to the door on the upper level and enter it. From there, you'll be on the lower level of the previous room. Hit the block to the left from below, then go up to the upper level and climb up the vine. That's all you have to do to reach the normal exit.
In the second room, if you hit the block from below there, you'll get a P-Switch. If you hit it, you'll see an arrow made of coins telling you to go to the left. There, you will find a silver door that isn't normally there. If you enter it, you will be in another room. Hitting the ? Block here from below will cause a line of coins to come out, and you can control where it goes with the Control Pad. Mario will, of course, be moving as you do this. If you have Caped Mario, you can fly around and get your fill of coins. Thankfully, it's easy to figure out where to go to exit the level regularly.
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