The Game Boy. Gunpei Yokoi's little magic brick. Handheld gaming had been a part of the industry before it, but what Nintendo offered with the Game Boy was game changing. Sure, the selling point of the handheld became a competent port of Tetris on the go, but the system offered gameplay quality that was almost to the level of "an NES in your pocket", even with the awful lime green screen. And to show that the system wasn't a one-title wonder from the start, who better to help bring the Game Boy some notoriety than the plumber who helped drag the American gaming market back from the depths of the devastating 1983 crash? Thus we got Super Mario Land.
Despite this being a game with Mario in the title, its development is intriguing as it's the first major Mario title to not feature Shigeru Miyamoto in development. This project was handled by Nintendo's R&D1 developers, headed by Gunpei Yokoi as producer With a new system with a smaller screen and the inability to truly emulate something to the level of Mario's NES adventures, Yokoi and co. still tried to create a game that would serve as something that showed early on what the Game Boy was capable of. Was it a perfect way to bring Mario to the big time on the small screen?
The story is your average Mario fare, though radically different in plenty of ways. Mario finds himself in a new land called Sarasaland as the princess of the land, Princess Daisy has been kidnapped by the evil alien Tatanga. It's up to Mario to traverse land, sea and sky to rescue the princess. If Mario's conquered the mushroom kingdom and the dream world of Subcon before this advenure, then he's more than capable to take this quest. Through 12 levels broken into three worlds with three levels packed within each, Mario will have to quest through pyramids, caves, underwater, a land with Easter Island heads and more to make it to Tatanga.
Controlling Mario is similar to the NES original. A jumps while holding B runs. Although the first major flaw of Mario Land is felt with Mario's momentum while running and jumping, which feels a bit more slow and heavy. This in turns makes pitch perfect platforming a bit difficult, which can lead to easy deaths. The plumber has his regular arsenal of stars which provide invincibility, mushrooms to grow him and fire flowers which he can use for projectile attacking. Only this time they shoot a "super ball" that will bounce around for a few seconds if it doesn't hit its target. This can make Mario a sitting duck if he doesn't time the shot right. It's one of the many major differences from this game that does make it feel foreign. Speaking of foreign, the enemy list is interesting to say the least. Koopa Troopas that explode when you jump on them, giant enemy flies, fire spewing sphinxes, evil Easter Island heads and more add to the oddball cast. It also feels odd for Mario to be rescuing a princess often considered to be paired with Luigi for her "second banana"-ness.
The other thing that really stands out are the two side scrolling shooter levels. First Mario is under the sea, shooting at octopi and anything that comes his way, including an end-level boss of a giant seahorse. The next being a plane level at the end of the game similar to the style of the undersea level, where you'll fight a sentient cloud and then Tatanga in his spaceship. The game contains five bosses. Alongside the aforementioned ones, there's a sphinx and an Easter Island head to contend with. Another new addition is an end-level bonus game earned if you can reach the top door at the end of a level (or you'll get it automatically at the end of a boss stage). Just select Mario's position to send him to either a 1, 2, or 3up or a fire flower. Be wary of the ladder which will change Mario's direction as well.
Graphically, the game looks really bland. Granted, it's early game boy and I don't expect something to blow me away so early, but Mario looks the smallest he's ever looked. Even the mushroom doesn't make him look any bigger. Levels feel like they lack much in terms of design as you'll often have to do the same few things at least a couple times in each stage. These stages, which also can feel cramped at times. On the audio side however, the soundtrack is another excellent piece of work. All original tracks (excluding the use of the can-can) from the iconic Hip Tanaka. The first theme "Athletic" is particularly excellent.
Overall, Super Mario Land is okay, but compared to later platformers on the Game Boy, it hardly holds up that well. It's a slightly easier, much shorter affair than the Mario games before it, and shouldn't take you long to master. That being said, for a development that didn't involve the original creator and for a debut platformer on a new device, Super Mario Land is a good way to kick a great system's legacy off. Though you'd likely end up spending more time with Tetris than you would Super Mario Land.
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