The first time I'd ever heard of this game was at a Raley's I belive. I saw an old advertisement for it--Mario jumping up with a beetlike begatable in his fist (turnip?).
We rented it from Raley's for a couple of days. I came close to hitting the first Ostra, but didn't quite make it (I had Toad holding one of Ostra's eggs, but I ran straight into her). Later, after getting a Super Nintendo with Mario
All Stars, we finally got a hang of the game, and "won" it.