Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land | ||||||||||||||||
Game Boy - USA - 1st edition |
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Super Mario Land is a platformer video game with scrolling shooter levels developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy on 1989-04-21. The Super Game Boy supports the game. Although part of the Super Mario series, it has several notable differences from the earlier games. It has a sequel, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.
The game takes place in a new realm called Sarasaland which is ruled by four kingdoms, however, a dangerous space monster named Tatanga has hypnotized the people of the land in order to conquer it. he's trying to marry Princess Daisy and force her into being his queen, but Mario is on the scene ready to stop him.
Contents
Personal
Own? | Yes. Loose US cartridge. |
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Won? | Yes. Including hard mode. |
Finished | Normal: 2015-01-07 / Hard mode: 2020-08-10. |
Not owning a Game Boy, I remember watching some friends play it at school and wanting to play it really badly, but, unfortunately, Game Boys were banned in the school before I got a chance. Since I didn't own a Game Boy myself, I only ever got a few chances to play when I was younger, but I remember the game feeling a bit cheap. It wasn't until many years later that I decided to make a serious attempt at the game, and then beat it after a couple hours. Then, years later, after learning it unlocked a hard mode, I played and beat that too.
Review
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5 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
Best Version: Game Boy
— This section contains spoilers! —
Good
- The game is pretty fun, and the designers did a good job of adding new aspects to the game while still keeping with the Super Mario theme.
- I like how each world has a unique theme to it: Egyptian crypts, Easter Island statues, Chinese folklore, etc.
- The scrolling shooter stages are actually a refreshing change of pace that keeps the game from getting stale.
- Even on the weaker audio hardware, Hirokazu Tanaka's music is really good.
- The bonus game is a nice reward for ending the stage on the upper platform, even if it's a bit too easy.
- I like that the bosses are all unique.
- The entire game fits into a shockingly small 64 KB!
Bad
- The game is too short. Even for a Game Boy game, 12 brief levels isn't enough.
- The game is too easy. Thankfully, you unlock a hard mode upon beating it to give a slightly more reasonable challenge, though it would be nice if there were some indication in the game or manual that this happens.
- Due to the size difference between Mario's sprite and the blocks, it's often not obvious which block he is going to hit. This causes a fair amount of re-jumping to finally hit the block you intended to hit.
- Due to memory constraints in the ROM, a lot of the background had to be repeated, but it happens so much, it's quite obvious.
- The Super Ball is a poor replacement for a fireball. While I like the fact that it can collect coins, and having it bounce up into the sky is occasionally useful, most of the time I would prefer it bounce along the ground like the fireballs. When you miss, and there are a lot of wall, it usually sticks around for much longer than you'd want it to, preventing you from throwing another.
- Why did the designers create a new princess? Why create Princess Daisy when Peach already existed? Is Mario meant to be a professional princess rescuer?
- The manual strangely doesn't translate any of the monster names.
- Without a save feature or password, there is no way to pickup the game where you left off. On consoles this was acceptable at the time, but for a portable game that was meant to be played in car rides, it's a problem since you have to beat the game in a single sitting.
Ugly
- The player controls are pretty bad. Nintendo usually polishes player control really well, but this game has some serious flaws. You will find yourself under-jumping and over-jumping a lot, and it's harder to change direction mid-air than it should be. There is also an odd problem with forward momentum when hit a wall. Run into a short wall and then immediately jump, and you'll find yourself moving forward over the obstacle even if you're no longer pushing forward.
Media
Box Art
Documentation
Nintendo Player's Guide - Game Boy.
Maps
Font
Videos
Representation
Strong female character? | Fail | The only woman is a damsel in distress and reward. |
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Bechdel test? | Fail | There is only one woman. |
Strong person of color character? | Fail | Everyone is white. |
Queer character? | Fail | There are no queer characters. |
Credits
Roles | Staff |
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Producer | Gunpei Yokoi |
Director | Satoru Okada |
Designer, Graphics | Hirofumi Matsuoka, Masahiko Mashimo |
Programmers | Takahiro Harada, Masao Yamamoto |
Music, Sound Effects, Audio Programmer | Hirokazu Tanaka |
Amida ? | Masaru Yamanaka |
Special Thanks | Y. Taki, Takehiro Izushi, Hideo Nagata, Makoto Kanoh, Nishizawa |
Titles
Language | Native | Transliteration | Translation |
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English | Super Mario Land | ||
Japanese | スーパーマリオランド | Supa Mario Rando | Super Mario Land |
Links
- Video Games
- 1989 Video Games
- Video games developed by Nintendo
- Video games published by Nintendo
- Game Boy Games
- Video Game Genre - Action
- Video Game Genre - Scrolling shooter
- Video Game Genre - Platformer
- Media Theme - Cartoon
- Media Theme - Surreal
- Software Distribution Model - Commercial
- Video Games I Own
- Video Games I've Beaten
- Video Game Rating - 5
- Video Game Graphics Rating - 6
- Video Game Sound Rating - 8
- Video games without a strong female character
- Video games that fail the Bechdel test
- Video games without a strong person of color character
- Video games without a queer character
- Video Game Prime Order - Action, Adventure, Strategy
- Game Mechanic - Autoscroller
- Game Mechanic - Ratchet Scrolling
- Game Mechanic - Unlockable Difficulty Levels
- Trope - Damsel In Distress
- Trope - Women As Reward
- Grayscale Graphics