Beetle Mania was one of my favorite secrets to discover inSuper Mario RPGas a youth. Here was this kid playing with a Game Boy. I wanted it. Sure enough, you can get it for yourself. But how do you get a high score in Beetle Mania.
First off, let’s talk about actually getting Beetle Mania. The kid I just mentioned is in Mushroom Kingdom. More specifically, they’re in the Inn (the building with the Star sign), located in the back corner of the first floor. You can try talking to them to interrupt his game and cause them to lose, but you can’t actually buy the Game Boy from them until after you break up the attempted wedding in Marrymore.
Once you’ve completed that part of the game, revisit the kid, then talk to them a few times until they nab the high score. At this point, they’ll offer to sell you Beetle Mania for a whopping 500 coins. If you manage to scrape together the cash to make a young child wealthy, the option “Play Game” will appear in the pause menu. This will take you to Beetle Mania.
Getting the high score
The child you just made rich set the high score at 5000 points. This can seem insurmountable under normal play, but don’t worry; there is a trick to it.
Popping a single shell with a shot from your beetle will net you a single point. If you do the math, this means you would need to pop 5001 to get a high score. That’s not very realistic, but thankfully, that’s not what you need to do.
When a shell pops, it sends stars in all directions. If another shell gets hit by one of these stars, it will also explode and provide bonus points. If a third shell gets caught by the second’s stars, it too will explode, giving an even bigger bonus. And so on, and so on, in a continual chain reaction.
In order to get the high score in Beetle Mania, you need to set off the largest chain reactions you can. Each shell caught in the reaction doubles the point you’re gaining from it. This means the second shell scores you 2 points, and the third shell gives you 4.
So, from the beginning of the round, you’re going to want to let as many shells as possible crowd onto the screen, then fireonceand watch the ensuing chaos. If you do this correctly and get somewhat lucky, you can see your bonus climb to 1024 per shell and beyond (capping out at 9999). You only need a few successful chain reactions to get a high score.
I want to stress that you should fire one shot into the crowding shells. If you fire two, you set off two chain reactions, which means your score might not climb as high. Fire once, wait until shells stop popping, and then you can fire again.
Before long, you should be able to crush that child’s score. What do you win? Absolutely nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. You get a sense of accomplishment and bragging rights. However, Mario is too humble to rub the Game Boy child’s face in it. Personally, I’d be making sure the kid and everyone in the immediate surroundings know how much of a scrub they are.
