Super Mario RPG might be fairly linear if you’re sticking to the main story and doing nothing else, but it’s full of interesting content to discover if you go off the beaten path, like powerful weapons, easter eggs, and much more.
Perhaps one of the most interesting locations in the whole game is one that you have to go out of your way to discover – Grate Guy’s Casino. As the name implies, the casino is a neat little bonus area where Mario can spend some coins to take part in games like Blackjack, a slot machine, and “look the other way”. Before getting to all that fun gambling, though, you’re going to need to actually get to the casino.
Updated November 24, 2023: We’ve added a video guide to help you find this casino and do some gambling.
How To Find The Key To Grate Guy’s Casino
First things first, though, you need to find the key that lets you get access to the casino. To do this, head on over to Booster’s Tower and choose to spawn at the entrance. Then, make your way up the stairs, past the train that Booster first rides in on, and then keep working your way up. You basically want to make your way one level above where you find the 8-bit Mario easter egg.
You’ll know you’re in the right place once you see Knife Guy sitting in the corner juggling balls like in the photo above. Talk to him and he’ll offer to play a game with you where you have to watch him juggle the balls and then guess which hand the yellow ball is in when he’s done. Get this right 12 times in a row and he’ll give you the Bright Card, which is your entrance to the casino.
Until you get the Bright Card, your reward for beating the minigame will be some incredibly useless HP-healing items. Persevere, though, it’s worth it!
There’s no way to trick the game into telling you the right answer here or a pattern to follow, so just watch his juggling closely and pick the hand that last has the yellow ball. I found that there are one or two brief frames where the yellow ball stops in either his left or right hand, so it’s worth focusing and looking at the screen as closely as you can.
How To Access Grate Guy’s Casino
Once you’ve gotten the Bright Card from Knife Guy, head on over to Bean Valley. If you’ve beaten this area before (and it’s easier if you have), then you can choose to spawn in by the beanstalk at the end of the level. Do that, and then you only have to jump down the pipe and walk backwards through two areas.
You’re looking for the section of Bean Valley that has a save box and a shy guy watering a bunch of potted Piranha Plants. Wait for the Shy Guy to water them all, and then you want to get in a fight with the plant in the top left corner. Doing so will unlock the pipe that it was sitting on and let you travel downwards.
Now, go up the stairs and towards the Golden Chain Chomp. Defeat it in battle (which is another easy fight) and then go right to the upper corner of where it was sitting. Then, jump three times in a row and you’ll make a platform appear. Use that to jump up and leave the area, and you’ll be brought to Grate Guy’s Casino.
What You Can Do In Grate Guy’s Casino
After all that hard work, you’re probably wondering what the point of Grate Guy’s Casino even is. Well, as the name implies, it lets Mario take part in a bunch of different minigames, like Blackjack, a treasure chest slot machine, and a game called “Look the other way”, that tasks you with looking the opposite direction of where Grate Guy is pointing.
The main reward here comes from the slot machine, which will give you a Frog Coin if you manage to win the minigame. You can also get the special Star Egg item if you win “Look the other way” 100 times in a row. More power to you if you can put up with Grate Guy for that long.
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