Control

Basic Control

Up:

• Climb up the vine

Down:

• Crouch
• Go into the pipe

Left/Right:

• Go to left/right

A button:

• Jump, the longer you hold the button, the higher Mario jumps. (of course there is a limit, normal jump can only go over 4 blocks high)
• Swim, only in the water, each press of the button makes Mario bob up.

B button:

• Accelerate, by pressing the button, Mario will move faster and jump higher.
• Fireball, use the button to throw fireballs after Mario pick up the fire flower. (only 2 fireballs can be thrown at a time)

Start button:

• Pause and unpause the game

Select button:

• Not used in the game

Advance Control

There are many control techniques to play with, but I think the below 3 techniques are the most useful.

Crouch Sliding
Even BIG Mario can go through a one-block height gap.

• Move to the gap (no need to run), crouch when the distance between Mario and the gap is within 1 block, if success you are in the gap now.
• When you are in the gap, you can jump to hit the block, or you can release the down button to let Mario slide out of the gap. (and you can crouch again to stop the sliding)

Wrap Around Jump (Up and Down)
This move is for jumping to a block directly above or below Mario.

• Jumping up is easier, let Mario stands at the edge of the block, jump, and move to inward direction.
• Jumping down is a little bit tricky, let Mario stands at the edge, jump up and move just a little bit outward, and then move back to the inward direction.

Plant Edge Trick
What this trick doing is let Mario stands just at the edge of a plant, while the Piranha (flower) is on the plant.

• Jump and move towards the plant, it is easy, it just need a little practice ^^