In Super Mario Bros 3, how can you break an underwater block if you don't have any shell to throw, and you can't swim up from underneath it? I'm thinking of the secret room in world 4-1 with the Big Berthas swimming around. There's a breakable block at floor level but I see no way to break it. You can't use the Tanooki tail to break blocks underwater.
(I'm playing the SNES version from Super Mario All Stars, but I assume the physics are the same as the NES.)
Best Answer
Rather than just simply say a boring "there's no way to break this block" I think I'll mention that the block appears to be there only to be in the path of the 1Ups that come out of the blocks to the left.
Presumably, if you fail to catch these 1Ups as they drop down they will bump into this block and return to you without having to cross paths of the nearby Berthas before collecting them.
Perhaps just a hint of mercy from the developers? On the other hand, they could have used a non-breakable block type for this to prevent any confusion about it's contents and we likely wouldn't be discussing it today.