Super Mario Bros. 3: Mario Oasis

Super Mario Bros. 3: Mario Oasis is a fan-made ROM hack for the Nintendo Entertainment System, designed for medium difficulty and promoting alternative gameplay. Players explore three main worlds with 40 levels and 47 exits, including hidden paths indicated by a subscripted '2'. The game emphasizes a variety of level designs and has received updates, enhancing difficulty balance and graphics while ensuring a non-kaizo experience.

Mario Oasis is a medium-difficulty, non-kaizo hack, great for streaming and speedrunning.

There are some levels with alternate exits (indicated by a subscripted 2 on the tile), and some of those levels will also place you on a different place on the map upon completing the level.

Three main worlds are present.
PLUS a 6-level challenging STAR world
and of course a Warp Zone (and something else)...
40 levels in all, 47 exits.

Take a peek at the enclosed README document for all updates, shout-outs, as well as for some helpful tips (and some detailed schematics about the game).

MOST RECENT UPDATE:
- March, 2023: 2 hotfixes involving level pointer, objects. Overhauled the design of 90% of all levels, improved the gradation of difficulty within worlds / across hack, reduced difficulty by removing all kaizo elements. Also, rerouted some overworld travel, simplified some situations, and refreshed graphics in a handful of places.

??This title uses PRG-0 U.S. Version of SMB3.

Legally, you must own a physical copy of SMB3

on NES Cartridge to possess a ROM image of SMB3.

(README formatted for nice reading in Notepad++)

Mario ?%?%<&?%?%?%<&?%

Oasis by BlueFinch, 2019 (updated in 2020, final version 2023)

A) About This Hack

A1) Introduction

A2) Gameplay

A3) Tips

B) Thank Yous

C) Level Schematic

D) Treasure Chest Locations and Contents

E) Updates to this Hack

F) Contact

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A) About This Hack:

A1) Introduction:

MEDIUM DIFFICULTY HACK

You will remember this hack for the way the levels and overworld interplay.

It is not always linear as a traditional overworld map setup.

Some exits in a level take you to different spots on the map.

Some exits in a level give you a different powerup.

Some of the secret exits are more secret than others.

Sometimes finding the secret pays off nicely.

You might want to use save states to explore levels with various exits.

Graphics:

I have sought to keep the familiar feel of the game, so I've kept graphic changes subtle.

Here is a list of the main graphics which have been modified:

title screen, overworld maps, warp zone elements

level-tiles numbers & the # "2" on a tile indicates 2 exits.

a star icon represents where Mario can be teleported to.

A handful of overworld map tiles have been heavily modified to no longer glitch with the sprite-swapping for a given map.

A few of the overworld map tiles have been modified to be slightly different than the original, to fulfill the game's theme.

Other minor graphical changes.

A2) Gameplay:

This brings us to distinctives. Though there are many tight jumps, precise jumps, and angled jumps ('controlled jumps', more generally),

there aren't any places where advanced ("kaizo") tech is needed.

I mean, some levels are easier than others, like with anything, but I'm not trying to kill anyone here.

I did want it to be a little more challenging, though.

If this hack were a hot sauce, then it would be like Cholula flavorful, enjoyable, but certainly not mistakeable for Ketchup or a Carolina Reaper.

A3) Tips:

Shell Jump: Hold the shell about a tile and a half - 2 tiles from the wall or pipe. Jump into the air and at about the height of the jump, release the shell. The shell will come underneath you as you come down from the apex of the jump. Once this happens, you jump off the shell, and you have fulfilled a shell jump. All of this happens very quickly, but i have attempted here to give you the slowmo version text instructions. Practice this and you will get it. Then you will simply get better at it.

Angled jump: Some of the jumps in this level are not max distance jumps; some are angled. You must cut your jump short at the height of it, then hold toward the direction of the desired platform. It will give you not a rounded arc to your jump, but a flatter, downward-slanted arc, and will allow you to avoid a low-hanging ceiling that would otherwise block you from making it to the next platform. A duck jump would probably not accomplish what an angled jump can do.

Controlled jump: A jump that might require letting go of the run button or changing direction. This is not a 'hold run and jump as far as you can' or 'max distance' jump. It is a...controlled jump. It can look many different ways, including the way i outlined right above this one.

Duck jump: Super Mario (who is 2 tiles tall) ducks to become 1 tile tall right before jumping to avoid hitting his head and killing the jump (and likely himself).

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B) Thank Yous / Contributions / Contributors:

- Hukka SMB3 Workshop

Joe Smo "Name Suggestions" Brand Spankin' New SMB3 Level Editor (not yet completed)

- KP

- Beneficii SMB3 Map Editor

- Dcahrakos SMB3 Text Editor (see Chaos Composer below)

- Chaos Composer Providing a powerful Text Table document pack which allows HEX editor Text Editing!

- Kent Hansen SMB3 Tile Layer Pro

- never-obsolete SMB3 Title Screen Editor

- QuickCurly SMB3Data.txt (invaluable!)

QuickCurly SMB3 Object Data & Enemy Data Orders.txt (invaluable!)

- Blue Crush Playtesting and Feedback (BlueCrush authored the gorgeous and massive Rainbow Realms SMB3 hack)

- My contributions, which i referenced as well (found on romhacking.net:

SMB3 LevelByte Data Calculator (https://jscalc.io/calc/AMqqsjMfZhyDCsUe)

SMB3 Enemy Document (Organized) (http://www.romhacking.net/documents/787)

SMB3 Beyond Pipes (http://www.romhacking.net/documents/788)

SMB3 Custom Boss Battle Document (http://www.romhacking.net/documents/797/)

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C) Level and Pipe Schematic:

I wanted to include this for the curious romhackers amongst us.

This way, you won't have to dig through Maps to find which level is pointed to which level-space.

Also, the information about which pipeset is used and for what purpose is explained here.

This could also be used to help you iron-out some logical problems for your own hack.

WORLD 1 - "Oasis Edge" (pipes 1-5)

Overworld Map Virtual Level Pipeset Pipeset As

1-1 1-1 1 as only exit to star #1

1-2 1-2 / Lost 2 secret exit, but to same location (gives different powerup)

1-3 5-3 / 1-5B 2,5 as exit to star #2 / secret exit to boat dock

1-4 1-4

1-5 1-5

1-6 1-6 / 5-1 3 normal exit / secret exit to star #3 (skip muncher level)

Piranha Plant 7-Piranha Plant

1-7 Lost 11 / 12

1-Dungeon 1-Dungeon 4 as only exit to star #4

1-End Castle 1-End Castle

Pipe in World 1 (Uses Pipeset #2)

A single, one-way pipe leads from the center of map to star #2 to its right

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WORLD 2 - "Desert Dusk" (pipes 6-10)

Overworld Map Virtual Level Pipeset Pipeset As

2-1 2-1

2-2 2-2

2-3 2-3 / NA:5-7 6,10/a no overworld exit / secret exit to (pre-2-dungeon-1), pre-2-4

2-4 2-4

2-Dungeon 1 2-Dungeon

2-5 2-5 / NA:5-6 7 normal exit / secret exit to pre-2-6

2-6 4-3

2-Dungeon 2 7-Dungeon 2

2-Quicksand 6-8

2-Pyramid 2-Pyramid

2-End Castle 2-End Castle

Pipes in World 2 (Uses pipeset #8):

Uses 2 instances of pointer "2-pipe1-end1" and 1 instance of pointer "2-pipe1-end2".

I placed pipeset 8-left at the bottom-most pipe on the map, and pipeset 8-right at the far-right pipe on the map.

Note that the left-most pipe does no have an instance of pipeset 8 (as there are only a left and right, and the pointer takes care of this first move anyway).

This creates an interesting effect on your overworld like a one-way road spilling into a two-way street.

You can enter through one pipe, but once you have passed through it, you've entered a situation where going back is impossible. The only place left to go is between the pipeset-8-right and pipeset-8-left locations, which are the right-most island, and the mushroom house blocked by a rock respectively.

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WORLD 3 - "Flooded Oasis" aka "Oasis Zone" (pipes 11-20)

Overworld Map Virtual Level Pipeset Pipeset As

3-1 3-3 11/b as only exit to pre-3-2

3-2 3-2

3-3 3-1 12/c as only exit to pre-3-4

3-4 3-4

3-5 3-5 13/d,14/e normal exit / secret exit to pre-3-6

3-Dungeon 1 6-Dungeon 3

3-6 3-6

3-7 3-7 15/f,16/10 normal exit / secret exit to pre-3-8

3-Dungeon 2 3-Dungeon 2 16/10 as only exit to pre-3-8

3-8 3-8

3-9 5-5

World 3b - "Fire Island"

3-10 7-3

3-Fortress 8-Dungeon 17/11 as only exit to pre-Bowser-Castle

Bowser's Castle 8-Bowser's Castle

First normal pipes in world 3 use pipeset 18/12.

Second normal pipes in world 3 use pipeset 19/13.

Third normal pipes in world 3 use pipeset 20/14.

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HAND-TRAP WORLD

Overworld Map Virtual Level

6-1 7-8

NOTES:

- Beating the sole level on this map will grant you a hammer to use in the warp zone.

- There is a Mushroom House here which contains a warp whistle to return to the warp zone.

- Use the hammer in the warp zone to not have to repeat this world again. (or just find both warp whistles in world 1)

- BLUE FINCH on last screen, accessible via pipe. :)

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STAR WORLD (pipe 21)

Overworld Map Virtual Level

S-1 6-6

S-2 7-2

S-3 6-9

S-4 5-2

S-5 7-9

S-6 7-3

Bowser's Castle 8-Bower's Castle

Pipe to Bowser Island uses pipeset 21/15.

NOTES:

- There are 5 Mushroom Houses in Star World (some containing the whistle to get back home.)

- One of the levels contains a hammer to break through the hill on the warp zone map. (otherwise, you chance crossing back over the hand trap into world 6 without the hammer).

- These star-world levels are more difficult than the rest of the game.

- You can finish the last non-dungeon level and Bowser's Castle from the star world, thus beating the game.

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D) TREASURE CHEST CONTENTS by World-Level

Items by Y Position:

0=Nothing 1=Mushroom 2=Fire Flower

3=Leaf 4=Frog Suit 5=Tanuki Suit

6=Hmr Bros 7=Cloud 8=P-Wing

9=Starman 10=Anchor 11=Hammer

12=Whistle 13=Music Box

Overworld Map Virtual Level(s) Treasure Chest Contents

1-1 1-1 11-Hammer

1-2 1-2 / Lost 2 Main: 5-Tanuki Suit / Next Area: 11-Hammer

1-3 5-3 / 1-5B Main: 3-Leaf & 2-Fire Flower / Next Area: None

1-4 1-4

1-5 1-5 8-P Wing

1-6 1-6 / 5-1B Main: None / Next Area: Empty Chest

Piranha Plant 7-Piranha Plant

1-7 Lost 11 / 12

1-Dungeon 1-Dungeon

1-End Castle 1-End Castle

Overworld Map Virtual Level(s) Treasure Chest Contents

2-1 2-1

2-2 2-2

2-3 2-5 / 5-6 5-Tanuki Suit

2-4 2-4

2-Dungeon 1 2-Dungeon

2-5 2-3 / 5-7 Main: None / Next Area: Empty Chest

2-6 6-8 6-Hammer Bros Suit

2-Dungeon 2 7-Dungeon 2

2-Quicksand 2-Quicksand

2-Pyramid 2-Pyramid 11-Hammer

2-End Castle 2-End Castle

Overworld Map Virtual Level(s) Treasure Chest Contents

3-1 3-3

3-2 3-2

3-3 3-1 / 6-5 Main: None / 3-Leaf

3-4 3-4

3-5 3-5 / 3-5 end 5-Tanuki Suit / Next Area: None

3-Dungeon 1 6-Dungeon 3

3-6 3-6

3-7 3-7 1-Mushrom & 1-Mushroom

3-Dungeon 2 3-Dungeon 2

3-8 3-8

3-9 5-5

3-10 7-3 1-Mushroom

3-Fortress 8-Dungeon

Bowser's Castle 8-Bowser's Castle

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E) Updates

2020

Fully incorporated "pipe magic" into this hack. Lots of secrets. (Innumerable fixes and tweaks along the way.)

Updated Bowser's Castle to meet modern building codes of Mushroom Kingdom.

Added a "2" tile to the levels which contain 2 exits.

Added a star tile to indicate where you might end up after exiting a level. "Landing Pads"

exit-pipe heights fixed in many places.

level lengths fixed in many places.

2 instances of incompatible enemies spaced further to avoid sprite-glitching.

chain chomps replaced due to bad behavior; replaced with fire bros.

Anchors Away in World 1 has been repaired, after suffering some kind of abuse.

former level 1-7 replaced with a new and challenging piranha plant level.

all of the game's text has now been customized, instead of just in a handful of places. (Thanks to Chaos Composer's Text Tables!)

lots of overworld ideas implemented which I hadn't yet implemented due to time.

Alternate exits implemented in some levels of World 1 and World 3, after uncovering a novel method for doing this...

music for all three worlds is the desert theme music.

2023

Refined each and every level, ironing out unfair setups.

Reducedthe overall difficulty by probably 20%, while focusing on improving the difficulty grade within the worlds, and over the whole hack.

Change some overworld arrangements and level exit situations.

Modified some graphics.

Changed some palettes.

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F) Contact:

Once again, please enjoy this game and please email me any feedback.

BlueFinch2012@gmail.com

No-Intro Name: Super Mario Bros. 3 (USA)
(No-Intro version 20130731-235630)
File MD5: BB5C4B6D4D78C101F94BDB360AF502F3
File SHA-1: A03E7E526E79DF222E048AE22214BCA2BC49C449
File CRC32: 85A79D9C
ROM MD5: B76F978AD3076EA67F2B0ACA7399C9E9
ROM SHA-1: A611B90B4833B20A364BF06EE3BE3B9093EA4DF9
ROM CRC32: A0B0B742

NES Cores

Time to Beat

Main Story 5h 0m

Main + Extras 6h 0m

Speedrun Avg 0h 17m

Release Date

Mar 2, 2023

1 years ago

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