Super Mario Land
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| Released in North America on July 31, 1989 by Nintendo, and developed by Nintendo R&D1, Super Mario Land takes the storied plumber into the realm of the handheld. |
I saved up for so long to get a Nintendo Game Boy in 1991, I payed mostly in quarters. Staying focused on the goal wasn't difficult--by that point, Nintendo had already embedded Mario deep into my dopamine centers. Back in the 80's, I begged my parents for an NES for the sole purpose of playing Super Mario Bros. A few years after that, I used all my birthday money to get Super Mario Bros. 2. In 1990, I convinced my four year-old brother that what he really wanted for his birthday that year was Super Mario Bros. 3. Poor kid probably never got to play a full ten minutes of that game. After his first game over, I promptly confiscated it.
With those three games under my belt, I was ready to experience Mario's first handheld adventure. The thing is, I'd found my mom's Christmas present hiding spot that year and bragged to her about it. Her either genius or specifically cruel punishment was to force me to pay her half the price of the Game Boy (which came with the extraordinary Tetris) and Super Mario Land, the first Mario Game Boy game, before I could open them...funny thing, my childhood. I squirreled away my three-dollar a week allowance for months, and picked as many pecans as my prepubescent hands could handle until I saved up the requisite $60 bucks.
It was totally worth it.
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| So many options! |
Super Mario Land is a unique take on the Mario 2D essentials. Series producer (and living legend), Shigeru Miyamoto, remained outside of the game's development, the reins handed over instead to Miyamoto's wizened mentor, Gunpei Yokoi. Yokoi not only designed the actual Game Boy handheld unit, but produced the first entries in both the Kid Icarus and Metroid series.
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| See Goomba, stomp Goomba. Poor Goomba. |
Yokoi's credentials have credentials, but thankfully, the Nintendo elder statesmen very wisely left the core tenets of 2D Mario gameplay undisturbed here. The heroic plumber still jumps on enemies heads to vanquish them, eats a mushroom to grow bigger, and leaps across bottomless chasms. Gunpei's contribution is to instead add some funky, unique touches to this core gameplay. Yeah, I'm changing tense now.
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| Pictured: Mario getting funky. Deal with it! |
Super Mario Land is a shorter experience than its NES counterparts, consisting of four worlds, with three levels apiece. Hey, when you're taking a 45-minute car ride somewhere, playing a game with no save options (run out of lives, and it's game over), you want to be able to beat that game in 45-minutes. These four worlds leave the Mushroom Kingdom behind for the eclectic realms of Sarasaland. The first world is inspired by ancient Egypt, the second Atlantis, the third Easter Island, and the fourth Eastern Asia. Each world also has a decidedly alien touch, as the main foe here is an evil Spaceman named Tatanga. Tatanga has kidnapped not Princess Peach, but Princess Daisy, and it's Mario to the rescue.
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| I really can't tell the difference. |
Despite the alien and international inspiration, Mario still faces off against some familiar foes, like Goombas and Koopas (whose shells now explode a few seconds after they are vanquished) and Piranha Plants. However, he'll also have to tangle with a gnarly Sphinx boss, flying Easter Island statues, and deathless, Confucius-like zombies, among others.
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| What a crock, there's not one damn rabbit in this entire level! |
One of Mario's most famous power-ups is tweaked to help, as he no longer shoots ground-bouncing Fireballs when he picks up a flower, but Superballs, which not only bounce off of every surface, but collect any coins they touch for Mario. Like Fireballs, Superballs kill enemies on contact (some enemies, like the bosses, take more hits), though only one Superball can be onscreen at any given time. Super Mario Land also retains the series' classic invincible star, and hides one-ups in several places, though they're in the form of hearts now, instead of mushrooms.
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| I had a dream like this once |
As for the levels themselves, while there are only 12, they all live up to the Mario standard of excellence and innovation. Two even involve force-scrolling shooter gameplay, as Mario operates a missile-firing submarine and UFO, respectively--this is a first, and really "only" for the series. Levels still contain secrets, from an underground pipe leading to hundreds of coins, to alternate paths through some stages.
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| It does exist! Of course, I don't have a Superball right now. |
As always, Mario gains an extra life for every 100 coins he collects. Also, every non-boss level contains an upper exit, which can generally only be accessed by performing an impressive platform-jumping feat. Leave through the upstairs exit, and you get to play a bonus game where you can earn up to three bonus lives. You'll definitely want to rack up on lives early on, as later levels are tough. At least, I thought they were tough when I was a pre-teen. I made it all the way through the game on my second try here (I played through the game for the first time in more than 25 years for this review), though maybe I just have some enviable muscle memory. If there's a snag in the gameplay, it's that the controls are slightly, slightly, slightly tighter than in the NES Mario games, though only...slightly. They're still great.
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| What if Mario's entire existence is a a narcissistic fantasy? |
As for the production values, the graphics are very simple, with backgrounds generally consisting of minimalist line-drawings, and Mario himself only 12 pixels tall. However, there's a strange, zen-like beauty to it all...like it all looks exactly how it needs to. As for the game's music, chiptune maestro, Hirokazu Tanaka, has created a chiptune masterpiece. Super Mario Land's music is fun, varied, atmospheric, rhythmic. The biggest miracle of all is that Tanaka created both new "Underground" and "Invincible" themes here, despite the fact that Koji Kondo's originals are stone cold classics...and somehow Tanaka's hold up just as well. The sound effects are also charmingly spot on. These sweet Game Boy sounds are timeless.
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| Elegantly minimalist. |
Really, it's crazy just how well Super Mario Land has aged--perhaps because it does the basics so well. I'm glad I came back to it after all these years. Past the huge dopamine kick, i'ts great to discover that the games you loved as a kid still hold up today.
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