Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land is a platformer action game with scrolling shooter levels developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy on 1989-04-21. Although part of the Super Mario series, it has several notable differences from the earlier games.
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 the beat it after a couple hours.
Contents
Status
I do not own the game, but I have beaten it.
Review
5 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 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, etc.
- The scrolling shooter stages are actually a refreshing change of pace that keeps the game from getting stale.
- I like that the bosses are all unique.
- Even on the weaker audio hardware, Hirokazu Tanaka's music is quite catchy.
- The entire game fits into a shockingly small 64 KB!
Bad
- The game is too short. Even for a Game Boy game, 12 levels isn't enough.
- The game is also too easy. Thankfully, you unlock a hard mode upon beating it to give a slightly more reasonable challenge.
- There is too much repetition in the levels. Nearly every level in the game repeats a section or two.
- It's not obvious which block Mario is going to hit due to the size difference between his sprite and the blocks. This causes a fair amount of re-jumping to finally hit the block you intended to hit.
- 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?
Ugly
- The player controls are pretty bad. Nintendo usually polishes player control really well, but this game is not very good. It is common to under-jump and over-jump in this game and a lot harder to change direction mid-air than it should be.
Media
Documentation
- Super Mario Land - GB - Manual.pdf
Game manual.
Maps
Videos
- youtube.com/watch?v=MGS2xqXtLFc - Game Boy Works.
- youtube.com/watch?v=hgBsLBd-GuM - Game Boy Works (Remastered).
- youtube.com/watch?v=EV0qJd-phvQ - Longplay.
- youtube.com/watch?v=sAtWQ_xn0kI - Brentalfloss music video.
Titles
Language | Native | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
English | Super Mario Land | ||
Japanese | スーパーマリオランド | Supa Mario Rando | Super Mario Land |
Links
- Pages with broken file links
- Video Game Rating - 5
- Video Game Graphics Rating - 6
- Video Game Sound Rating - 7
- Games
- Video Games
- 1989 Video Games
- Video Game Prime Order - Action, Adventure, Strategy
- Game Mechanic - Unlockable Difficulty Levels
- Game Boy Games
- Action
- Platformer
- Scrolling Shooters
- Trope - Damsel In Distress
- Games I've Beaten
- Grayscale Graphics