The P-Wing first graced our television screens in 1990 with the advent of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Famicom system. It was a magnificent item that was introduced to allow the player the chance to fly through an entire level without having to actually play through it. The item was most often saved up until the eighth world, where gamers would use it to avoid stages that were often extremely hard. The P-Wing was designed as a semi-rare item It was especially popular with gamers who wanted to attempt the two world challenge, which required someone to beat the first world, collecting the two flutes and the P-Wing and then teleport all the way to the 8th dimension and beat the game. There are a total of thirty-six P-Wings in the entire game.
P-Wings are most likely received in letters from the Princess when you beat certain castles. The castles that give you P-Wings on completion are the first world, commonly known as Grass Land, the fourth world or Giant World, and finally the sixth world, Ice World. It can also be obtained in world seven, Pipe Land at the first Pirahana Plant stage.
Another way to achieve P-Wing greatness is collecting a certain amount of coins on specific levels, which allows you to get secret items. An example of this is to end the fourth stage in the first world with fourty-four coins, all the coins in the stage. This unlocks the secret White Mushroom House, which contains a P-Wing. All stages that contain this magical and exciting utility are listed below:
World 1 Stage 4 ...... Fourty-Four Coins
World 3 Stage 8 ...... Fourty-Four Coins
World 5 Stage 5 ...... Twenty-Eight Coins
World 7 Stage 2 ...... Fourty-Six Coins
There is one last way to obtain the magical P-Wings in Super Mario Bros. 3, and that is to literally beat the game. Now, those without patience would instantly flick off their Famicom and bask in the sweet glory that is the destruction of the evil King Koopa Bowser. However, if you sit through the credits entirely and allow yourself one last run-through of the game, you will find yourself with a full TWENTY-EIGHT P-Wings. Add that to the glory that is the two whistles and you can complete the entirity of Super Mario Bros 3 while barely breaking a sweat.
So, what happened to this beautiful and unique item? Why did it only last for one game, while other things like Firepower went through several incarnations? The flying ability was never taken out; Nintendo ditched all thoughts of an item that allowed us to simply soar through an entire level without doing a thing. In Super Mario World, the raccoon wings were replaced with a slip of cape that Mario would tie around his neck and use to soar across environment. In Super Mario 64, it was the wing cap that allowed a freer movement. But never again did we see an item that allowed us to fly for hours on end. I, personally, was sad to see it go.
One final say on the loss of our good friend the P-Wing, before we send him off into the world of ancient and much missed items of the video game world: You were there when we needed you, and everything you did made us feel magical. For that, we thank you.
Thank you P-Wing, for everything.
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R.I.Pwing.
You will always be missed
fidomaster says What of the feather/cape combo in Super Mario World? If you time each backdraft correctly, you can actually gain height with each pass, easily letting you fly over entire levels.