In Super Mario Bros. 3 the power ups that come out of the ? blocks will most of the time go to the right.

But occasionally they'll go off to the left

And if you're not prepared for it, you might lose them. But, why do they occasionally go left in the first place?

Take a look at the ? blocks

Where you hit the block determines which direction the powerup will go. Hit the left side and it goes to the right. Hit the right side and it goes left.

You can use this to force the powerups to go where you want them, instead of possibly off into a pit.

This also applies to any of the 1up mushrooms and starmen.

Some people think that Shatterhand is the epitome of NES gaming. I'm not quite sure that I agree.

But it's pretty tough, regardless, especially the boss fights. But there's a way you can practice them without having to go through the stages first.

First, go to the title screen

Then (quickly) press the following buttons:

A, A, A, A, B, B, B, B, A, B, A, B, A, B, A, B

Done quickly enough, you'll be taken to a screen loaded with goodies

You can hear any of the sounds the game has to offer or, more interestingly, you can play any of the bosses

But you don't have the aid of your little mech thing, so it's going to be a little harder than it could be. But practice enough it at, and it won't matter.

A while back I told you where you could make appear a money bag appear in Castlevania so that you couldn't actually collect it. But there are several more that you can actually collect.

Take the very beginning of the game, for example.

Most people will collect the powerups, and walk into Dracula's castle. But, if you hop over the entrance to the castle instead...

Free money!

You just have to remember to jump back over the entrance when you go to collect it, or you'll go in the door instead.

Solstice is pretty hard, your wizardy guy is very fragile and not very maneuverable, kind of like real life wizards. But there's a way to give yourself an advantage.

First, press Start a new game and then press Select to access your inventory screen.

Then, press the following buttons:

B, Start, Start, B, B, Start, Start, B, B, Start, Start, Start, B, Start, B, B, B, Start, Start, Start, B, Start, B, Start, Start, B, Start, Start, B, B, Start, B, Start

Your screen will start flashing weird colors.

Exit the inventory screen and come back to find that you have four full potions and a stack of lives (about 90). Will that be enough of an edge for you to finish the game? If not, it'll sure help you play longer.

Gun.Smoke is one of those games that's a self-scrolling shooting game, but with cowboys instead of flying machines. You start off pretty weak (natch) and have to slowly walk forward shooting the bad cowboys and buying guns from the townsfolk.

But, what if you went to the title screen

And quickly pressed

A, A, A, A, Select, Select, Select, Select, Right, Right, Start

And then checked your inventory?

You'd have a machine gun to do anything you want with.

Me, I like mowing down everyone in the first level with it.

The second Legend of Zelda game is polarizing in the Zelda fan community because it's way different than the first game, but assuming you did like it, I've got a tip to that'll help you out.

Normally, once you lose all your lives (you get three to start) you get the game over screen and the choice to save the game or to continue. Which is great, until you want to save and quit and there's no easy way to blow through your extra lives to generate the Save screen.

In that case you would press Start to pause the game

Then press Up on the Cross-pad and A on Controller 2. The result?

Taken directly to a Save screen!

Handy!

So what do you do if you want to hear some of the sounds that Tecmo Super Bowl produces, but don't want to bother playing through a game to do it?

Do you go to the title screen?

Do you hold B and then press Left on the control pad?

Do you then listen to all the sounds available in the game at your leisure?

It turns out that you do!

In Galaga you have these enemy bugs that take two hits to destroy.

They're the only ones in the game with a tertiary attack, instead of shooting or running into you, they can fire a tractor beam.

If they hit you with the beam, they'll capture your ship, and then attack you with it, it's dirty pool.

But!

If you can shoot down the enemy bug without damaging your ship, then you get yours back, and it's grafted onto your ship, doubling your firepower.

The downside is that now you're a much bigger target, and have two of your ships in play at the same time.

Is the tradeoff worth it? You'll have to decide that.

Just make sure that you don't let your last ship get tractored. That's a pretty lame way to lose the game.

In the NES Punch-Out!! the password entry allows for some interesting hidden tidbits.

Take this set of numbers for example:

Put that code in and the game gives you a busy signal.

Why?

Apparently that used to be Nintendo's Customer Service number, which was notorious for being difficult to get through.

What fun!

Some of the bosses (and some of the regular characters for that matter) can be a real pain in Mickey Mousecapade, but with a little prep they're pushovers.

In the very first stage, you're going to want to take the time to get the second Star, which goes to Minnie.

Then, carefully using ladders you can actually get the two mice separated

And, since Minnie's invulnerable, you can use her to attack enemies while Mickey hangs out at a safe distance

And if you didn't bother getting that star at the beginning, well then you're out of luck.