System: Gameboy (backwards-compatible with the Gameboy Color & GBA/GBA SP)
Price: I dunno. You could probably get it cheap at a used game store
Publisher: Nintendo
Rating: K-A (this was Pre-E rating)
Release Date: North America: November 1992
STORY: 7/10
Okay, here’s the deal. In the first
Super Mario Land game, Mario had to travel to Sarasaland to rescue Daisy
from Tatanga. But it turns out that Wario (the new character, but he has
since become a staple of the Marioverse) paid Tatanga to kidnap her so
he could steal his castle while he was gone! Greedy little pig… Anyway,
after Mario got back, he was MAJORLY ticked off, especially since his old
rival (meh, don’t ask me, ask Nintendo) stole his home. Now Mario has to
go find his castle keys… but they aren’t regular keys. Wario gave the keys,
actually the 6 Golden Coins, to 6 of his minions (interestingly enough,
one is Tatanga), so Mario has to travel through the 6 worlds, reclaim his
keys, and fight that lazy tub of lard! FOR MARIO LAND! *charges*
Gameplay: 9/10
It plays like a classic handheld Mario game. A jumps and makes you glide when you’re Bunny Mario, B runs and shoots fireballs when you’re Fire Mario (a good replacement to Super Mario Land’s horrible “Superball” power).
You take control of Mario and travel through the 6 Zones of Mario Land- Tree Zone (a giant tree), Space Zone (I’m afraid I have some bad news, Mario… but you’re in space!), Pumpkin Zone (a haunted zone), Macro Zone (Honey, I Shrunk the Mario), Turtle Zone (under the sea is the place for me), and Mario Zone (a giant clockwork Mario) to get the 6 Golden Coins from Wario’s lackeys. Those lackeys are Sabasa (Pumpkin Zone), Ricky the Rat (Macro Zone), The Three Little Pigheads (Mario Zone), Tatanga (Space Zone), Octopus (Turtle Zone), and Radonkel (Tree Zone). After beating the necessary 1st level, the world map is free to explore- you can access any world in any order. You beat levels to get to the Boss Level, where the boss lays after you traverse it.
In Mario’s adventures, when he collects
coins they are stored in his pockets. But instead of getting an extra life
when you get 100 (the Enemy Kill meter is for that now, but kill 100 enemies
and you get a Starman), you can store up to 999 coins and spend them on
a roulette-type game to earn fabulous prizes… well, items and extra lives.
But if you get lucky, you can get a 20-Up from one of them!
Graphics: 10/10
Man, for a Gameboy game, this game has
extremely good graphics! As a friend said, “These are good enough to be
SNES graphics!” In an absolutely enormous overhaul from Super Mario Land’s
graphics, Mario is now a full-fledged sprite 1 inch tall on the screen,
while in SML he was just some pixels about 1 centimeter tall onscreen.
Everything is bigger, smoother, and way easier to see than tiny, super-pixilated
and hard to see SML (unless you’re playing it on the Gameboy Player, according
to a friend). To be honest, this is probably the BEST Gameboy graphics
that I’ve ever seen!
Music: 8/10
The music in this game is good, good
enough to get stuck in your head. The music during most levels has the
same tune to it (this is especially true with the boss stages), but there’s
still a wide variety of music. There’s the calm-sounding Space Zone music,
to the underwater music during your trek through the Turtle Zone. The only
complaint I have music-wise is the music inside the Whale on your way to
fight the Octopus. Not only does the level remind me of Jabu-Jabu’s Belly
in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but the music does too!
OVERALL SCORE: 9/10
Hooray! A good game deserves a good score, and this game DEFINITELY deserves this good score. If I were you, reader, I’d start scouting around eBay and GameStops looking for this little Gameboy gem. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed about buying this game! But sadly… *sniff* It won’t play on a DS…
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