Super Mario Land was a launch title for the Game Boy, and I'm trying really hard to keep that in mind for this review. For perspective, the other launch titles for the Game Boy in North America were Alleyway, a boring breakout clone, the fantastic port of Tetris that was a true system seller and one of the best Game Boy games of all time, Tennis, and Baseball. So this is certainly the most ambitious attempt at a new game for the system, and that certainly counts for a lot.
It should be noted that Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, had very little involvement in the development of this game. It was handled mostly by Gunpei Yokoi, creator of the Game and Watch and the Game Boy itself, as well as Metroid, and a true visionary in his own right.
Super Mario Land follows the familiar style of Super Mario Bros., in which you move right along a scrolling screen, can jump over or on enemies, and have to get to the end of the level. In addition to the familiar elements, Super Mario Land introduces one unfamiliar, and to my knowledge never replicated gameplay genre, the side scrolling shooter (Think Gradius, not Halo)! Two of the levels of the game feature this shoot-em-up styling, in which you must maneuver around enemies in a ship and shoot them.
So how does the game stack up? As a kid, I thought this game was lame compared to Super Mario Land 2, and as an adult, I definitely still think that. As a launch title, however, it's really good. It lays the ground work for the big style adventures that were possible on the Game Boy, and shows a vision for the future for Game Boy platformers like the genius of Super Mario Land 2. The world is big and nice looking, with simple designs that still manage to be clear. They create a new world different from the Mushroom Kingdom, drawing more on Egyptian themes, as well as designs from Easter Island, to create the sense that this is a new Mario adventure.
It sticks pretty nicely to the established Mario formula in terms of gameplay, but changes things up just enough to make for a new and different experience. While the side scrolling levels themselves are fairly uninspired and boring, it does make for a nice change of pace in the game, and it's cute to see Mario in a submarine.
I couldn't listen to the music, as I beat it while my family was watching a movie, and turning up the volume would have been decidedly rude. I will say that other reviewers have said the music is excellent, so I will cautiously defer to them given my inexperience.
The controls are at times wonky and unresponsive, lacking that typical Mario polish that's present in most of the games in which he stars. They definitely tuned down the difficulty, perhaps in response to this lack of precision control, although I feel that Miyamoto would have balanced this perfectly. It's very annoying as well that the fireballs don't bounce repeatedly, they just bang into the ground and fly straight up into the sky. Ugh.
The game is short and easy, and while I wish it were a bit harder with better controls, I do think that the length is excellent for a game without a save battery. It took me about 45 minutes to complete (just an estimate), but a skilled player can probably beat it in 30 minutes. The world speedrun records are all in the 12 minute range, so I could probably do it in 30 minutes on my second playthrough.
Super Mario Land was just the beginning of showing off what kind of big adventures could be had on a handheld, and for that I'm grateful. It certainly laid the groundwork for platformers like Super Mario Land 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 2, but I think also showed off the potential for more expansive things could be accomplished on the system, especially compared to the other games released at launch, which were mostly single screen. Games like Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Metroid II follow in the tradition of Super Mario Land, and for that we should all be grateful. Tetris will succeed anywhere (plus it was just a port), but Super Mario Land thought big, and mostly succeeded in breaking new handheld ground. With that being said, Super Mario Land has its warts, and I would certainly recommend Super Mario Land 2 over it any day of the weak. But it's a pleasant enough half hour spent, and you can find cheap carts of it anywhere, so I'll say give it a whirl and see the grandaddy of handheld Mario games. I'll give it an 8.0. You won't hate it!
Up next on the handheld wing of what I'm playing is game that I've been looking forward to playing for a long time! Here's a little teaser...
-TRO
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