Super Mario Land is the first Mario's outing on the Game Boy. It is a side-scrolling platformer much in the vein of the previous Super Mario Bros. This time, Mario must save Princess Daisy, rather than Princess Toadstool, from her kidnapper Tatanga, a mysterious spaceman. The game follows largely the same formula of its aforementioned predecessor, with Mario defeating enemies by jumping on them and collecting coins and power ups by hitting floating blocks, with each world leading up to a boss fight which is defeated using by collapsing the floor. A unique feature of this installment is two scrolling shoot-'em-up levels, the first of which Mario pilots a submarine, and the second an aeroplane.
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Yall this game whooped my ass I was genuinely so surprised when I couldn't move backwards once the screen had scrolled and there were a few things about the collision (specifically around corners of platforms) that really threw me off and I definitely did NOT beat this game I didn't even reach the second boss despite playing for almost an hour. But...! I had fun and that's what matters. I just don't have the time to really learn this game right now especially when I have to restart from the beginning every time I die
For the first handheld mario game, I honestly enjoyed my time with it. It has a unique charm that makes it stands out from most other 2D mario games and the music is pretty neat. Controls take a while to get used to but overall a soild package if you have an hour to spare.
This game does not hold up well today, but it is a Game Boy game, so I suppose it is excusable.
Fun little good time.
Divertido e curto
Released in 1989 and developed by Nintendo, even though it wasn't necessarily the first Gameboy game, it was certainly the most iconic of its launch. A game from Nintendo's most famous series at the launch of the console represented a huge selling point, and indeed, Super Mario Land was one of the best-selling games on the original Gameboy, and is still one of the best-remembered to this day.
It's a game with a real story, albeit a simple one because it's an old Mario story. In this game, Mario has the mission of saving Princess Daisy, in her first appearance in the franchise, and the inhabitants of Sarasaland from Tatanga, the little villain on the ship. Sarasaland is a very different world from the standard Mushroom Kingdom in Mario games, with each stage based on a real-world location, and the enemies, although similar to the originals, are different versions, such as the Goombo instead of the Goomba.
Another notable difference is in the gameplay, where the classic fire flower has been replaced by the Superball Flower, which launches balls that bounce off walls, adding an interesting but sometimes problematic dynamic when you get stuck in a loop.
In addition, the game features spaceship stages, where you control a submarine called Marine Pop and an airplane called Sky Pop, providing an experience similar to a shooting game. The Sky Pop stage is particularly challenging, almost like bullet hell, but with hellish birds instead of bullets.
Returning to the story, to save Daisy, Mario must travel and conquer all four kingdoms present here, Birabuto Kingdom, a desert kingdom based on ancient Egypt, Muda Kingdom, a water kingdom, Easton Kingdom, a kingdom partly based on Easter Island, and Chai Kingdom, a kingdom inspired by mythical ancient China, this last one I can also call INFERNO, because my god what a difficult business, the enemies are positioned in a way that was either completely deliberate to make it difficult, or it was a very poorly thought out level design, every two steps you take an enemy from beyond appears to kill you.
At the end of each kingdom you meet Daisy and she's actually an enemy in disguise, every time...
At the end, after the Sky Pop stage mentioned earlier, you defeat Tatanga in his armed airship, the Pagosu. After defeating him, Mario finally rescues the real Daisy, and the two of them set off together in a spaceship.
That's the basic story of the game. Although it's simple, it's good to have a narrative attached to the game, as it makes things less random, although they are still quite random.
I don't know why they made all these changes, perhaps to innovate or attract attention, but perhaps it wasn't the attention they wanted. Although it sold very well, being the console's fourth best-selling game, the game was heavily criticized in reviews at the time for its graphics, which were too ambitious for the power of the Game Boy, which is understandable, and for its length, which was considered too short, and I disagree with this last point.
Yes, the game is short, but I think that's an advantage, firstly because I'm not the biggest advocate of "length = quality". Besides, I think the greatest quality of this game is its brevity. It's possible to finish it in less than an hour if you play well, and I think this was an important quality for Game Boy games, especially in the early days when it was convenient to be able to play for short periods of time during the day.
The main negative point for me is the gameplay, specifically Mario's movement. They've implemented a kind of momentum on him, so that when you stop pressing the direction button, he keeps moving a little until he stops completely, just like in real life. This mechanic would be bad enough for a platform game that requires some precision like Mario, but the problem is that it only works sometimes, which makes everything confusing.
Another problem with movement is that sometimes Mario simply turns into a rock and falls like a meteor into the holes in the scenery, which is quite annoying.
Despite this, Super Mario Land isn't a bad game, it could just be better. The shortcomings in the gameplay I attribute to the Game Boy's architecture, especially at the beginning, when they still couldn't get the most out of the console, so I put that down to a bit of relief.
The thematic and story part is a bit random, honestly the worlds don't even seem to be part of the Mario universe, they're just a generic desert, a generic ocean, Easter Island and a generic Chinese place. The only good thing that came out of it was the introduction of Daisy, who later became important in the franchise.
All in all, the first great Game Boy game, Super Mario Land, has many flaws, but it occupies an important place in the console's history and is remembered to this day as a classic.
My rating for it is: 3 stars.
It's a game with a real story, albeit a simple one because it's an old Mario story. In this game, Mario has the mission of saving Princess Daisy, in her first appearance in the franchise, and the inhabitants of Sarasaland from Tatanga, the little villain on the ship. Sarasaland is a very different world from the standard Mushroom Kingdom in Mario games, with each stage based on a real-world location, and the enemies, although similar to the originals, are different versions, such as the Goombo instead of the Goomba.
Another notable difference is in the gameplay, where the classic fire flower has been replaced by the Superball Flower, which launches balls that bounce off walls, adding an interesting but sometimes problematic dynamic when you get stuck in a loop.
In addition, the game features spaceship stages, where you control a submarine called Marine Pop and an airplane called Sky Pop, providing an experience similar to a shooting game. The Sky Pop stage is particularly challenging, almost like bullet hell, but with hellish birds instead of bullets.
Returning to the story, to save Daisy, Mario must travel and conquer all four kingdoms present here, Birabuto Kingdom, a desert kingdom based on ancient Egypt, Muda Kingdom, a water kingdom, Easton Kingdom, a kingdom partly based on Easter Island, and Chai Kingdom, a kingdom inspired by mythical ancient China, this last one I can also call INFERNO, because my god what a difficult business, the enemies are positioned in a way that was either completely deliberate to make it difficult, or it was a very poorly thought out level design, every two steps you take an enemy from beyond appears to kill you.
At the end of each kingdom you meet Daisy and she's actually an enemy in disguise, every time...
At the end, after the Sky Pop stage mentioned earlier, you defeat Tatanga in his armed airship, the Pagosu. After defeating him, Mario finally rescues the real Daisy, and the two of them set off together in a spaceship.
That's the basic story of the game. Although it's simple, it's good to have a narrative attached to the game, as it makes things less random, although they are still quite random.
I don't know why they made all these changes, perhaps to innovate or attract attention, but perhaps it wasn't the attention they wanted. Although it sold very well, being the console's fourth best-selling game, the game was heavily criticized in reviews at the time for its graphics, which were too ambitious for the power of the Game Boy, which is understandable, and for its length, which was considered too short, and I disagree with this last point.
Yes, the game is short, but I think that's an advantage, firstly because I'm not the biggest advocate of "length = quality". Besides, I think the greatest quality of this game is its brevity. It's possible to finish it in less than an hour if you play well, and I think this was an important quality for Game Boy games, especially in the early days when it was convenient to be able to play for short periods of time during the day.
The main negative point for me is the gameplay, specifically Mario's movement. They've implemented a kind of momentum on him, so that when you stop pressing the direction button, he keeps moving a little until he stops completely, just like in real life. This mechanic would be bad enough for a platform game that requires some precision like Mario, but the problem is that it only works sometimes, which makes everything confusing.
Another problem with movement is that sometimes Mario simply turns into a rock and falls like a meteor into the holes in the scenery, which is quite annoying.
Despite this, Super Mario Land isn't a bad game, it could just be better. The shortcomings in the gameplay I attribute to the Game Boy's architecture, especially at the beginning, when they still couldn't get the most out of the console, so I put that down to a bit of relief.
The thematic and story part is a bit random, honestly the worlds don't even seem to be part of the Mario universe, they're just a generic desert, a generic ocean, Easter Island and a generic Chinese place. The only good thing that came out of it was the introduction of Daisy, who later became important in the franchise.
All in all, the first great Game Boy game, Super Mario Land, has many flaws, but it occupies an important place in the console's history and is remembered to this day as a classic.
My rating for it is: 3 stars.