Super Mario Land

"Remains a short but satisfying Mario adventure"

Introduction

Nintendo's Game Boy, soon to become the dominant contender in the hand held field, finally landed in the laps of European gamers in 1990 and this game along with it. Selling widely, it turned out to be the third best selling game in the franchise, but one that receives mixed reviews nowadays. Each subsequent portable Mario game made since has towered over this one in nearly every way possible, but it's significance can't be ignored.

Gameplay (8/10)

The game engine is near identical to Super Mario Bros. right down to the intuitive control, it's just everything is now on a smaller scale. Despite the criticism it receives because of it, I feel this was almost certainly intended, to be able to experience the genuine Mario feel wherever you are. I find the game still holds appeal because of the interesting little additions it makes to the series that never reappeared due to the lack of creative involvement by Shigeru Miyamoto (Gunpei Yokoi takes over the reigns here).

This time around, Mario finds himself in a place called Sarasaland and is charged with traversing through the its four kingdoms to rescue Princess Daisy (who much later became a spin off games staple after appearing in the N64 Mario Tennis) from the mysterious alien Tatanga. The adventure is considerably scaled down for the portable format, the aforementioned 4 worlds containing a mere 3 levels each. Though comfortably familiar situations constantly rear their heads. Taking some chances on the Mario formula, a couple of levels involve an automatically scrolling scenario where Mario gets to pilot either an airplane or a submarine, and are all the better for it. Falling ceilings and riding atop rolling boulders also play a considerable part later on.

Mario can still obtain his classic super mushroom, fire flower and star man power ups, although here the flower allows Mario to shoot "super balls" which and bounce around and ricochet off walls. This is handy in certain places as it can pick up coins for you. A few regular enemies re-emerge (all under different names), but the majority of them are new designs. Goombas, piranha plants, bullet bill and koopa trooper type adversaries are most common, although these new turtle like creatures now sport bombs in place of shells which detonate when you step on them. Each world has a couple of distinct themes running through, such as stone/rock, water, sky and a mock ancient Egyptian design, with each boss echoing the theme.

Graphics (6/10)

Even by Game Boy standards, the visuals come off as rather basic. It's true though that this must have been an impressive thing to behold on release, as it easily surpassed its primitive Game & Watch LCD counterparts. The most conspicuous thing is the tiny size of the sprites on screen, especially when put aside the comparatively huge characters in Super Mario Land 2. Everything just about represents what it's supposed to be, though small Mario is a pain to make out much detail on the tiny screen. Backdrops mostly consist of sparse pyramids, palm trees, clouds and Easter Island heads. Though that's not a hindrance to enjoying things by any means.

Sound/Music (7/10)

Another part of the game not from its original contributor, in place of Koji Kondo, Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka takes over music composition. He does an admirable job, creating at least two of the Mario series' more memorable themes. His world 1-1 theme echoes Koji's legendary piece from the Super Mario Bros. world 1-1, but also stands distinctive in its own right. The sounds of the Game Boy is even more limited than the NES, but it's loud (but not too loud), crisp and varied at least. The effect used when you collect coins is particularly satisfying.

Play Time/Replayability (6/10)

I mentioned earlier that there are only four worlds here (four less than in SMB) with three levels each (one less than each world in SMB had in store). Likewise the difficulty is scaled down, there are a lack of irritating roadblocks like the Hammer Bros. and tricky leaps or other obstacles. A few sets of fireballs overlapping in circles that require some mildly tight jumping skills to get past are the only real annoyance. The ability to score up to 3 extra lives in a bonus screen in between levels only softens the challenge further. Bosses are ridiculously easy to dispatch, and two of the four can simply be jumped over to land on a diamond which will get rid of them instantly. Beating the game allows you to play a harder mode though, and you get a surprise once you get through twice so there is replay value, but not much since even a casual breeze through takes less than half an hour.

Conclusion (8/10)

As popular as it went on to be, the original Game Boy adventure is still my least favourite of the plumber's early hand held appearances (bar spin-off and unrelated games that star Mario). The increased scope of Super Mario Lands 2 and 3 with their battery backup and much larger adventures leave this behind somewhat. Though it's quirks manage to entice me back more often than I'd care to admit as the later games for the most part revert back to far more typical Mario fare.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/08/08

Game Release: Super Mario Land (EU, 09/28/90)