Super Mario Land

Reviewed by Jackie Curtis (December 14, 2008)

Two levels amongst the dozen total stand out; the conclusion of the second world forces Mario into a missile-armed submarine for some side-scrolling shmup action while in the finale he becomes a red baron and takes to the skies to battle bird menace Biokinton and final boss Tatanga in a similar manner. Never before, and never since, has Mario strayed into this genre, and though relatively easy forays, the best reason to play Super Mario Land is for these novelties. The simple departures from the formulaic platforming are endearing; there's an unuttered joy in bursting blocks and collecting coins far from the established series manner. And if you'd rather be bopping enemies on the head, these levels hardly overstay their welcome. More likely you'll be wanting more.

Reviewed by Marc Golding (December 10, 2003)

Nintendo might have simply taken their classic Super Mario Brothers game and shrunken it down, stripped it of its colour and some of its depth and dubbed it Super Mario Land, and GameBoy owners would likely have been happy. Instead, the big N decided to give their then fledgling handheld unit a sort of Mario gaiden, and the result was very special.

Reviewed by goldenvortex (March 20, 2005)

Super Mario Land was one of the launch titles for the Gameboy and alongside Tetris, it may be the best game that the system has to offer. It took the basic Mario formula from the original NES classic, Super Mario Bros and added a few new ingredients to make it a little different from its bigger brother. It plucked our heroic plumber from the Mushroom kingdom, his usual base for his adventures and dropped him in the Sasaraland. Here, our chubby plumber was out to rescue Princess Daisy (What h...

Reviewed by Halon (November 28, 2007)

Besides not having color, one of the main reasons why I didn’t care for the Game Boy was because of its games. It had some solid titles, such as Bionic Commando, Castlevania, and Kirby’s Dream Land, but they were all watered-down ports of NES games. In the end most of the crap that came out for the Game Boy either sucked or was a port. This wasn’t the case with every game though. Two of the Game Boy’s few unique games were the well-known puzzler Tetris, and Super Mario Land, Mario’s first...

Reviewed by phediuk (November 02, 2006)

Take Super Mario Bros. Cut the game's 32 levels down to 12. Make two of those levels auto-scrolling shoot-'em-ups. Add in unique (but unremarkable) boss battles at the end of each world. Finally, make the whole game black-and-pea-soup-green. There's Super Mario Land.

Reviewed by ratking (July 16, 2002)

Super Mario Land was one of the first tests of the original game. To get a smooth action game, unlike the puzzle games that started it off. This is no easy feat, for the gameboy was not powerfully tested, and did not have any action games. Then Castlevania Adventure and Super Mario Land came out, one showing why it could do action games, another why it is weakened. However Super Mario Land showed that an action game could be made. It mostly resembles Super Mario Bros 1, with the simple jump game...

Reviewed by retro (October 31, 2003)

After nearly five years of platforming excellence, including the game that pretty much saved the video game industry from doom (Super Mario Bros.), Nintendo released the Game Boy. You just knew that yet another Mario game was going to be made for it right away. Whether it was another weirdo like Super Mario Bros. 2 or just another hop 'n bop rehash of the classic original, gamers didn't care. Either way, we were going to get Super Mario Land and there was almost a 100% chance that the majority o...

Reviewed by sgreenwell (Date unavailable)

All of this reminds me that the original creator of Mario must have had one hell of a time thinking of the concept. Honestly, an Italian plumber who gets more powerful after munching on pretty multi-colored mushrooms and ''flowers''? Me thinks some programmers should lay off the brown acid...

Reviewed by tomclark (March 07, 2004)

Plumbing looks like a top career. You can let your weight go as much as you like. You can proudly wear the worst facial fuzz since David Bellamy. You can have dodgy dress sense. And still you not only manage to pull, but you unfailingly land members of the monarchy!!! It's genius I tell you..... Plus, if the Mario games are anything to go by (and I'm sure that they are) the whole 'having to stick your arm down someone else's toilet? Lies. I've never once seen Mazza go near a U-Bend. Hell, he has...