World 7-1

Well, here you go. There can be no doubt at this point that Super Mario Bros. wants you dead. World 7-1 consists of a pure gauntlet of devastatingly placed foes, specifically Bullet Bills and Hammer Bros. There are a few other enemies that appear here and there, most notably a hilariously ineffective Buzzy Beetle tossed as an afterthought onto the final staircase, but the Bullet Bills are what you’ll remember about this level.

Generally, the Bullet Bills appear in pincer formations, something you’ll see right from the start. As the stage opens, you immediately face a Bill launcher situated at the height of Mario’s head. It’s easy enough to dodge, but once you reach the launcher you’ll find that there’s no real safe place to stand; opposite the first launcher is its double-decker companion, which fires Bills at ground level and a tile above Mario. If you’re lucky, these will fire alternately. If not, they’ll fire together, leaving you very little room for evasion. Potentially, there can be a Bullet Bill crossfire that stacks three right on top of the other.

The entire level consists of similar pairings of Bullet Bill cannons. Their height varies from installation to installation, but the overall theme remains consistent: You are under constant assault by Bullet Bills.

This is another of those stages where regular Mario has an advantage over Super Mario. The smaller character can fairly easily leap between Bullet Bill formations, duck the ones a tile removed from the surface, and make small hops to avoid the ones gliding along the ground without fear of bumping into higher ones. Super Mario, on the other hand, needs to duck in order to squeeze through these situations, which kills his momentum and leaves him vulnerable.

When you’re not facing Bullet Bills, you’re dealing with Hammer Bros. Two pairs appear, each in the usual configuration of hopping along two parallel rows of bricks at different heights above the surface. Of course, tiny Mario is at a disadvantage here, because their constant flurry of hammers can easily take him out. So there’s really no ideal strategy for World 7-1; no matter how you approach it, you’re going to be in trouble.

Also of note is the fact that the two power-up blocks in this stage are placed pretty high. It’s easy enough to coax a mushroom from them, since that power-up slides along the ground, but grabbing a Fire Flower requires a lot of effort. Even something as simple as collecting power-ups has to be difficult here. What, you think you’re gonna beat this game? Super Mario Bros. has opinions about that little plan of yours.

World 7-2

As opposed to World 7-1, doing well in World 7-2 reduces down to a very simple strategy: Grab some dang fireballs. Of course, this is more easily said than done, as World 7-2 contains no power-ups. But, if you managed to carry over a Fire Flower from the previous stage, this level is more or less a cinch: Underwater, everything falls before the fury of Fiery Mario. Really, your only concern is the abbreviated time allowance, which greatly increases your chances of running out of time if you take things slowly and fry every enemy in sight.

On the other hand, if you don’t have firepower on-hand… hoo boy.

World 7-2 begins with a fusillade of Bloobers. Three appear in quick succession, doing their usual herky-jerky swimming thing and basically being complete bastards to avoid. If you can’t take them out, they’ll follow you, and there’s nothing more fun than being surrounded by fast-moving, unpredictable enemies that can center in on you from all directions.

Further along, Cheap-Cheaps begin to appear en masse. They’re thick enough (and the level design cluttered enough) that they’re difficult to avoid on their own, but when you have an army of Bloobers in hot pursuit, it’s like wading into a minefield.

At this point in the game, we’re long past the point where new hazards and challenges will be added to the mix. Instead, what we’re seeing are denser, more devious arrangements of known dangers. Bullet Bills appearing in trickier formations, Bloobers chasing you through congested fields of Cheap-Cheaps — these elements were introduced in Worlds 2 through 5 in challenging but not unreasonable configurations. Now that you’ve gotten a taste of them, however, World 7 shows you what they’re capable of when arranged to fully devious effect.