The game begins with Bowser experimenting with multidimensional powers. Once successful, he starts granting some of his minions the power to travel between worlds. Polter, a boo given said powers, rebels against Bowser and joins Mario, giving him the power to jump between worlds as well.
This game provides examples of:
- Action Bomb: Alongside the returning Bob-Ombs and Bullet Bills, an original enemy named Eddsup will attempt to drop itself over Mario when he approaches it, and self-destruct upon touching Mario or a solid surface. Mario can make it explode preemptively by shooting a fireball or laser at it.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Many instances. Here are a few notable ones.
- World 1: Goomba Greens
- World 1-1: Pipe Plains
- World 2: Hot Hot Hills
- World 2-1: Tyke's Terrain
- World 4: Cool Cool Coast
- World 5-Tower: Tremendous Tower
- World 6-3: Indigo Inferno
- World 8-3: Mechanical Mayhem
- World Star-1: Autoscroll Attack
- Every Polter level has an instance of alliteration, for example "Polter's Blizzard Bash".
- All There in the Manual: The names of each world are not actually referenced anywhere in the game, and can only be found on the MFGG Wiki. The names of each individual level are, however, displayed on the map screen.
- Always Night: World 1-4, World 3-3, World 4-Palace, World 5-Tower and possibly World 7-3.
- Alternate Universe
- Another Dimension: The primary gimmick of the game is switching between Mario's world and the other, more desolate one.
- Anti-Frustration Features: There are some areas where dimension-switching is not possible, which is usually to prevent clipping into walls or falling into pits upon entering the other dimension, however the latter can still (and will) happen.
- The Artifact:
- Lives as well as Game Overs are implemented in the game, however a flaw with the implementation of the save system results in the player always restarting with the number of lives they had when they last saved the game, even after getting a Game Over. You do not lose any points for getting a Game Over, either.
- However, in Easy Mode you have unlimited lives.
- Princess Peach is referred to as her original Westernised name, Princess Toadstool in this game, in order to make it seem more like a sequel to Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Lives as well as Game Overs are implemented in the game, however a flaw with the implementation of the save system results in the player always restarting with the number of lives they had when they last saved the game, even after getting a Game Over. You do not lose any points for getting a Game Over, either.
- Attack Reflector: The Laser power-up has an enemy projectile-reflecting shield usable with Down+Run.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: World 1-3, the last part of World 3-3, World 4-3, the last part of World 5-3, World 7-1, and technically each of Polter's levels.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Bomb Mario is the only power-up that can break regular bricks (excluding the Nokonoko's Tank, as it is instead treated as a mount and can only be used in set levels) as well as cacti or rock, but it isn't particularly useful as an offensive power-up, as you can only use one bomb at a time, you have to wait for bombs to detonate (this can be triggered faster by pressing Down+Run), and the explosions can hurt Mario and remove the Bomb power-up. Thus, the Laser power-up is far more useful in this regard.
- Backtracking: You can travel between worlds using the Warp Zone on the map.
- After World 1, Worlds 2-7 can be done in any order, meaning you could even start with World 7 and finish at World 2 in order to unlock World 8.
- Badass Adorable:
- Polter, a Boo with a cute strangely-familiar face, shows off his genetically-modified strength in his own levels. He always has access to lasers, and can shoot two lasers at a time, unlike Laser Mario which can only shoot one at a time.
- In the intro, Polter flawlessly avoids a gauntlet of Thwomps, Rotodiscs and Lava Bubbles whilst covering his eyes.
- Excellass, a pink anthropomorphic butterfly is the boss of World 5. She can shoot large laser beams from just her fingertips and can make it rain electric stars.
- Sealils, blue and white seal/sea-lion enemies, whose bouncy ball attacks can sometimes make them hard to approach.
- Polter, a Boo with a cute strangely-familiar face, shows off his genetically-modified strength in his own levels. He always has access to lasers, and can shoot two lasers at a time, unlike Laser Mario which can only shoot one at a time.
- Battleship Raid: The last level of World 7 takes place on an airship very similar to the ones seen in Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Big Boo's Haunt: World 6, especially the last level which takes place in a Super Mario World-esque ghost house.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The aforementioned Excellass, as well as the existing Buzzy Beetles and the original Crosswebs, green arachnid-like enemies that spit acidic bubbles and turn invisible.
- Black Bead Eyes: Polter, which comes as a result of being modeled after Kirby. Also applies to the Sealil enemy.
- Blackout Basement: Both World 6-2 and World 8-2 have areas which hinder the player's vision via a dark cave.
- Blush Sticker: Polter again.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Robo-Bowser is defeated just by avoiding his attacks and attempts to butt-smash you. Every time he stomps, he makes the platform beneath him fall, and on the fourth attempt he lands in a pool of lava. The battle is essentially a simplified take on the Bowser battle from Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Boss Rush: A boss rush of every boss in the main story is unlocked after the credits roll, and later a second boss rush is unlocked featuring harder versions of the bosses as well as Cosmic Mario. Whilst battling bosses in these levels, the player has a limited number of Mushrooms they can use (five in the regular one, and three in the harder one).
- Bottomless Pits: Whilst they are present in the same way as any old platforming game, they become more of a nuisance when trying to use the dimension-switching gimmick, as switching in a seemingly okay spot in one dimension might place you right into one of these in the other dimension.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:Toad Jr.: Wow, it's really Mario! Can I ask when Super Mario Galaxy 3 will be out?Boo: It's just a pleasure to meet you! You see, I'm a member of Mario Fan Games Galaxy
!Polter: Mario Fan Games Galaxy? That sounds like some terrible Mario spinoff from the 90's! - Breakout Character: Polter is this game's secondary protagonist and appears alongside Mario throughout a lot of the game. He gets an even larger role in the game's sequel, where special fruits appear that can allow Mario and Polter to work together to use abilities, and he gets the ability to sometimes save Mario from falling into a Bottomless Pit when dimension-switching.
- Polter has become a fairly popular character among the Mario fangame community and has made cameos in a couple of other people's creations such as Super Mario ReMaker and Made in MFGG.
- LangtonLion64, the game and Polter's creator, sometimes uses Polter as his own ref, usually with the addition of glasses and/or Captain Crunch's hat, the latter of which is a reference to Super Charisma Bros.
- Call-Back:
- The inside of Peach's Castle, as seen in two cutscenes, looks exactly like the interior of the Kings' castles in Super Mario Bros. 3.
- The Frog Suit from SMB3 can be found in World 3, where it functions exactly as it did in that game.
- Several lesser known enemies from the main series are present, including Buster Beetles, Ptooies, Rotodiscs, Big Berthas, Bowser Statues, Albatosses, Fry Guy, Mekabons, Eeries, and Lakithunder.
- The Top Secret Area from Super Mario World is recreated, where the player gets access to every power-up. The area can only be accessed through a very-well-hidden secret exit in the first level of the game.
- A lot of music is taken from Super Mario Bros. 3, mainly almost all of the fanfares and overworld map themes. The arrangement of the underground theme is taken from a prototype of Super Mario Bros. 2.
- The checkpoints ring are based on the blue (possibly checkpoint) rings found in early versions of New Super Mario Bros..
- The "Fresh Veggies Co." sign found in World 5-1 features a picture of the Carrot power-up from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.
- Cap: The maximum number of coins is 9999, which was increased from 999 in Version 1.0.3.
- Unlike other Mario platformers (excluding Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins), the coin count does not roll from 100 to 0 when getting an extra life. This is due to, much like in Land 2, coins being usable in item shops.
- Checkpoint Starvation:
- Auto-scrolling levels usually do not have any checkpoints. World Star-1 is the best example, as it is essentially 1-1 and 1-2 glued together with auto-scroll throughout the entire thing, so it's a pretty dang long level.
- World 8-Castle is the longest level outside of World Star's levels, but only has three checkpoints - one halfway through, one before the first boss battle, and another before the second battle. The second half of the level has a scarce amount of powerups, a lot of dangerous obstacles and enemies and instant-death nuclear waste that will rise upwards in one section, making dying quite punishing combined with the checkpoint positioning.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Fire Blocks and Laser Blocks have the same appearance but are colored orange and purple respectively, matching the colors of the power-ups you need to destroy them.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Frog Suit for the same reason as in Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Cut and Paste Environments: The alternate dimension versions of levels always have the same assets as the regular dimensions, but recolored and edited, often to look grimy and more depressing, particularly in World 5 which features a destroyed city. Otherwise, World 1's grass tileset is recolored white and blue for World 4's snow tileset, and is also used in park areas in World 5.
- Cut Scene: A handful of 'em. One for the beginning of the game, one per world after defeating the boss of Worlds 1 to 7, one when entering World 8, one right after World 8-Castle is unlocked, one during the final battle and another after defeating Bowser, and finally an extra cutscene after beating the harder boss rush.
- Dark World
- Door to Before: Mainly featured in World 2-Pyramid, World 7-3 and World 8-2.
- The Dragon: Star-Dragon, although the name is somewhat misleading as it is in fact a transformed seahorse with dragon attributes.
- Duel Boss: Hyper Mario vs. Hyper Bowser for the final battle. Polter is absent after having passed out from transferring his powers to Mario.
- Easter Egg: There are a number of hidden rooms in levels, usually featuring multiple 1-Ups, hidden messages or pixel art formed out of level tiles.
- Easy Amnesia: Right after fleeing from Bowser's Castle, Polter crashes head-first into a wall and loses his memories, and even forgets his original name, which results in Mario giving him the name Polter.
- He is however able to recall that he had just been genetically altered in a castle from another dimension owned by "some turtle".
- In later cutscenes, he begins to recall some other things such as how he was once a Tweeter, but still cannot recall his original name. He states he likes "Polter" anyway.
- Eleventh Hour Super Power: Hyper Mario during the second phase of the Bowser battle. Functions and control very similarly to Polter, but has five health points instead of three, and shoots larger energy waves instead of lasers.
- If you lose all your health points, you will revert to Big Mario and inevitably fall to your death.
- Energy Weapon: An original power-up introduced in this game is Laser Mario, who does exactly what you'd think he'd do.
- Evil Laugh: Bowser's "Gwa ha ha!".
- Evil Overlord: Bowser, naturally. You don't want to mess with a guy with an unlimited power source.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The secret levels taken from previous games are simply named after the game and the level number they had in that game. For example, World 1-Secret, "Super Mario Bros. 3 1-1".
- Expy:
- Polter for Kirby, as previously stated.
- Robo-Bowser, the World 1 boss, has the same sprite as Bowser, simply recolored gray and black in order to look metallic.
- Brick-Boom, the World 2 boss, has Boom-Boom's appearance and color scheme but lacks spikes on their shell.
- Cosmic Mario.
- Extended Gameplay: The game also has a Hard Mode, which changes the enemies you encounter (for example Goombas become Buzzy Beetles like in the harder story of Super Mario Bros.) and requires you to collect 200 coins for a 1-Up instead of 100.
- Fan Sequel: Originally intended to be for Super Mario Bros. 3; it was originally titled Super Mario Bros. 4.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: There are a grand total of 300 Star Coins to collect. The average level has six of them, except for Polter and Enemy levels which have three. World Star levels are unlocked after collecting specific quantities of Star Coins, and thus don't have any Star Coins within them.
- There are also 64 Character Cards, however they are unlocked after every five Star Coins unlocked (save for the last four), so don't entirely count as collectibles.
- Green Hill Zone: World 1, as is tradition.
- Hailfire Peaks:
- World 2-Secret is a water level in a desert world (due to the original level being a water level).
- World 4 is largely ice-themed in the regular dimension, but the alternate dimension turns it into Lethal Lava Land. World Star-2 features ice and lava within the same dimension.
- World 6-3 is a combination of forest and lava themes.
- World 6-Secret is a desert level in a spooky forest world, but at least uses the purple grass tileset of the other levels.
- World 8-3 has a mechanical theme in an otherwise lava-heavy world.
- Harder Than Hard: Most of World 8 (in particular 8-3 and 8-Castle), World Star-4, World Star-Final and the harder boss rush.
- Heel–Face Turn: Polter, despite originally being a minion of Bowser, partners up with Mario for the entirety of the game upon losing his memory.
- Homage:
- Several to the Kirby franchise. The Laser power-up is based off of the Laser ability, and the Tyke enemy is based off of the Wheelie enemy. The Jetpack and Bomb power-ups also have similarities to Kirby abilities, however this was merely coincidental and the creator was not inspired by the franchise in those instances. Several songs in the game are taken straight out of Kirby's Adventure, and one level even has the infamous Gourmet Race theme.
- Several songs are taken from the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Inexplicably, the level clear fanfare is taken from Sonic Pocket Adventure.
- World 5, Mushroom City, is based off of the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! track of the same name, and also features the bridge from the track Mushroom Bridge. World 3, Koopa Troopa Beach, and World 4-1, Frappe Snowland, are named after Mario Kart 64 tracks.
- World 5 also features street signs with the streets named after Shigeru Miyamoto, Hiroshi Yamauchi and Koji Kondo.
- Bowser's silver floating surfboard looks oddly familiar, doesn't it?
- Improbable Use of a Weapon: Polter's version of the Bomb power-up has him throw bombs that immediately explode upon contact with a surface, instead of having to be detonated, making them function more like water balloons.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Laser Jetpack, which allows you to use both the Laser and Jetpack power-ups at the same time, can only be found by collecting a Jetpack whilst Laser Mario, or collecting a Laser Flower whilst Jetpack Mario, in certain Toad houses, or by buying it in the shop, where it is the most costly item.
- Interface Spoiler: The world select screen tells you that there are 300 Star Coins in the entire game.
- Interquel: The story of the game is set between the events of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. The game starts with Bowser feeling down after his defeat in the "previous" game, and he acquires a powerful weapon that allows him to build a new empire in a parallel dimension. After the final battle, Bowser is sent hurling down from high above the clouds, and Mario assumes he isn't anywhere nearby. In another post-game cutscene (unlocked by beating the harder boss rush), it is revealed that Bowser had landed on Yoshi's Island in Dinosaur Land, prompting the events of Super Mario World.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: World 5-Tower has you launched on to the top of buildings and enter a tower, which you then fight a boss at the top of. World 8-Castle has you enter a pipe going into an underground passage that leads into the castle, with the level then progressing further up inside it until it leads outside, where it becomes an entirely vertical trek up a tower. Bowser is fought at the very top.
- Jet Pack: As a power-up!
- Joke Weapon: World 5 features Goombas riding around in small cars. Certain cars can be hijacked by Mario. They essentially function like the Nokonoko's Tank but with a much higher maximum moving speed and without projectiles.
- Lock and Key Puzzle: A number of them throughout the game, with the first one occurring in World 2-1. World 2-Pyramid, World 7-3 and World 8-2 have you collect three keys of different colors to progress. Secret exits are also unlocked through touching a keyhole with a cyan key.
- Lethal Lava Land:
- World 8, and also World 6-3 (Indigo Inferno). However this is not true for World 8 in the alternate dimension, where the lava is replaced with nuclear waste.
- The alternate dimension of World 4 also features multiple instances of lava.
- Level in the Clouds: World 7, as well as a few sub-areas in earlier levels.
- Levels Take Flight: Polter levels and the second phase of the final boss.
- Light 'em Up: Lasers can be used to illuminate orb-shaped bulbs that can open pathways.
- Mini-Boss: Albatosses in Polter levels are considered to be mini-bosses of the worlds they are found in.
- Mutually Exclusive Power Ups: Oddly, the Jetpack can be combined with the Laser Flower, but not the Fire Flower.
- No Name Given: The various Toads found in World 5 have their own names, however the Toads managing the Toad houses and item shops do not get one.
- No-Sell: There are various areas in the game that dimension-switching isn't possible in, as several areas aren't designed with the gimmick in mind. Dimension-switching also isn't possible whenever auto-scroll is occurring. However, whilst not every level requires use of the gimmick, each level (except Polter levels, enemy courses, World Star-1, World Star-4 and boss rushes) has at least one area where it is possible.
- Nostalgia Level: There are a few levels littered about the game that recreate levels from the official 8-bit 2D Mario platformers, usually as secret levels.
- Worlds 1, 4 and 7 have levels taken from Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Worlds 2 and 6 have levels taken from Super Mario Land.
- Worlds 3 and 8 have levels taken from the original Super Mario Bros., and World 5 has the game's only Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels level.
- Star Maze Marathon, a level from World Star, is a homage to the Star Maze level in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.
- One-Winged Angel: After the first phase of the final boss, Bowser uses the power of the ring on himself to transform into Hyper Bowser, making him glow bright green and giving him wings.
- Optional Boss: Climactic Cosmos, the last level unlocked through collecting Star Coins, features a boss fight against Cosmic Mario from Super Mario Galaxy. His attacks consists of using a cosmic aura variant Mario's fireballs, performing a high jump whilst spawning cosmic blasts, and throwing a cosmic boomerang.
- Post-End Game Content: World Star is opened and Luigi becomes playable after the main game is beaten.
- Power Copying: Star-Dragon uses the same power-ups as the player to make itself stronger.
- In the regular battle, it uses a Mushroom, Fire Flower and Laser Flower in that order. In the harder boss rush, it uses the Laser Flower, Jetpack and Super Bomb.
- Power-Up Mount: Mario can, in some levels, board a miniature tank based on the ones from Super Mario Bros. 3. Said mount controls functions similarly to the Kuribo's Shoe mount.
- Punny Name:
- Polter, whilst being derived from poltergeist, sounds similar to "Peter".
- Shannon Cannon, being a parody of Koopa Troopa.
- Eddsup.
- Put on a Bus: Luigi is not playable in the main story and only becomes playable after the credits roll. From a story standpoint, it is never explained what Luigi was doing during the game's events, much like in Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.
- Puzzle Boss: Brick-Boom is defeated by sending the bricks he drops back at him using springs and switches. The switches that the springs are linked to changes after every two hits you get in, but the game displays the order after a short while.
- Retraux
- Save the Princess: Like in Super Mario Bros. 3, this doesn't actually happen until part way through the game. The post-World 1 boss cutscene shows the Princess safe in her castle, but a group of Buster Beetles kidnap Princess Toadstool after you beat the World 4 boss. Mario and Polter become aware of the kidnapping during the prelude cutscene for World 8-Castle, where Bowser appears before them alongside a captured Princess Toadstool.
- Shifting Sand Land: World 2 (sans the secret level).
- Shout-Out: A number to Mario Fan Games Galaxy, the site where the game was originally hosted. An MFGG headquarters building appears in World 5-2, with MFGG member Mors next to it, who will go into detail about it. Mors also appears at the end of World Star-Final, who asks the player to check out one of his games. The cutscene for after defeating The Big Boo features a Boo who claims to be a member of the site. Lastly, World Star-3, Wacky Walrus World, is a level consisting of nothing but walruses, which is a reference to a long-standing fad amongst the MFGG community involving the enemy from the cancelled game Super Mario's Wacky Worlds.
- Skyscraper City: World 5 takes place in a metropolitan city, a unique setting for a Mario platformer. At least, until 2017.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: World 4 in the regular dimension.
- Sound Test: Unlocked after beating the harder boss rush. Made somewhat redundant by the fact that the music files are separate from the game's executable and are in easily-accessible OGG format, however the sound effect files aren't, so this is the only way to hear them on their own. It also states what game each songs originally came from.
- Stalactite Spite: Featured in World 2-3 and a small area in World 8-3.
- Storming the Castle: The main premise of World 8-Castle; starting from outside the castle, entering it through an underground passage, then getting to the very top.
- Tennis Boss: You defeat Brick-Boom by sending the bricks he drops back at him using springs and switches.
- Teleport Spam: Hyper Bowser does this after almost every attack in the final battle.
- Throw the Mook at Them: Fry Guy can only be defeated by stomping on the Koopa Troopas that patrols from the right-hand side of the screen and launching the shell at him.
- True Final Boss: In the harder boss rush, Cosmic Mario will upon defeat transform into Cosmic Bowser, and later Hyper Cosmic Bowser, acting as harder versions of the Bowser fights. Hyper Cosmic Bowser is the last boss encountered by the player.
- Underground Level: World 1-2, 2-3, 3-3, part of 4-2, 4-Secret, 5-3, 6-2, 8-2, part of Star-1 and Star-5.
- Under the Sea: World 3-2.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: A few where you play as Polter.
- Variable Mix: While in the alternate universe, the music becomes slower and slightly distorted.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Star-Dragon is a much faster-paced boss battle than Robo-Bowser and Brick-Boom, and its attacks can be hard to react to due to the complete lack of telegraphing.
