Super Mario Land

Well, time for my first normal review in... two months. What with Month of Horrors, Wreck-It Ralph, and general laziness on my part in September, I haven't reviewed a game without any particular theme in mind since early September. So, I figured it might be good to get back into the swing of things with something easy. And thus, I decided to review Super Mario Land.

Super Mario Land was released by Nintendo for the Game Boy on July 31st, 1989, over two full years before I was even born. In it, you play as, big surprise, Mario, who has to save Princess Daisy from the evil alien Tatanga, but to do so, he must traverse across the four kingdoms of Sarasaland, defeating Tatanga's minions along the way.

Now, this game is a bit of a black sheep in the Mario series, just because of how incredibly different it is from any other title. Koopas now explode when you jump on them instead of turning into kickable shells, worlds only consist of three levels, as opposed to 4 like in Super Mario Bros., and there's only four worlds to begin with, giving a total of 12 levels, and leaving a bit to be desired when it comes to length. Also Mario must save Daisy instead of Peach. Daisy would go on to appear in precisely none of the main Mario games, though she has appeared in numerous spin-off titles, and the fandom has taken to pairing her with Luigi to complement Mario's pairing with Peach.

Gameplay-wise, it's fairly similar to Super Mario Bros. The only differences that come to mind are the enemies, and the fact that the Flower gives you the ability to shoot balls that bounce at 90-degree angles, instead of allowing you to shoot fireballs.

With graphics, it's a 23-year-old game, and it shows. It's perfectly reasonable for the beginning of the handheld-era, I'd say. The music, however, is great. Yes, it's 8-bit, but that doesn't necessarily mean that its bad. Also, the first time you get a star and hear the Can-Can played, it's kind of jarring, but in a good way.

So, all in all, I enjoyed Super Mario Land. It's not a particularly long game, but if you have a couple bucks to burn, and a couple hours to waste, I would definitely recommend picking it up on the 3DS's eShop.