Although I have seen people talk about Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins just a bit more than its predecessor due to it being the last 2D Mario game until the release of New Super Mario Bros. in 2005, as well as it featuring the first appearance of Wario, I would still consider these two to be some of the most overlooked games in the entire franchise right alongside those Game Boy Color ports of Mario Tennis and Mario Golf that are actually sports-themed RPGs. On its own, Super Mario Land didn't age all that gracefully, but it was still a fun enough experience, but I was genuinely excited to play the sequel, even if it took me well over a year to actually get around to playing it. Even with that in mind, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins still managed to surprise me, and it worked as both a direct improvement on Super Mario Land and as a solid Mario game in its own right.
Super Mario Land had a number of features and mechanics that never made it to any other games in the series, and the same can be said for its sequel thanks to the amount of creative and interesting ideas that it brings to the table. Pretty much every level here in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins manages to stand out without feeling gimmicky with their different platforming challenges, and while none of the changes to the formula were as drastic as the bouncier fireballs, exploding koopa shells, and shoot-em-up levels of the previous game, their implementation still made the game as a whole feel unique. On top of having almost three times as many levels as the first game, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is also much more consistent in its level design, and while Mario still felt a little slippery with his movements, the zoomed in screen and larger platforms made jumps feel a lot more precise. My favorite element of this game would easily be its world themes, because whereas Super Mario Land had worlds based on real-life locations, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins had a world based around a giant tree, a level set inside of a whale, a set of levels taking place within a giant mechanical Mario statue, and even some space levels a whole 15 years before Super Mario Galaxy. The sheer amount of variety and imagination in this game's world and level themes could arguably rival that of the Mario games on home consoles, and the ability to approach the levels in any order was a nice touch as well.
The first Super Mario Land has some of the best music in the whole series, and while the sequel's soundtrack didn't reach those heights for me, I still quite liked the songs here in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, as they were all catchy and fit the laid-back atmosphere of the levels quite well. Mario games were never exactly known for being challenging, but even then, the easiness of this game's levels paired with the game's bite-sized length still caught me off guard, and if you compare the steadily increasing difficulty of something like Super Mario Bros. 3 to the bosses in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins dying in less than five seconds (and occasionally less than even one second), the difference is night and day. I also felt that it really wasn't necessary for the game's final castle to have absolutely zero checkpoints, because while that level wasn't all that hard, it was still annoying to have to do everything from the beginning whenever you died. Despite its flaws, I still really enjoyed my time with Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, and I might even give the first four Wario Land games a go at some point.
Super Mario Land had a number of features and mechanics that never made it to any other games in the series, and the same can be said for its sequel thanks to the amount of creative and interesting ideas that it brings to the table. Pretty much every level here in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins manages to stand out without feeling gimmicky with their different platforming challenges, and while none of the changes to the formula were as drastic as the bouncier fireballs, exploding koopa shells, and shoot-em-up levels of the previous game, their implementation still made the game as a whole feel unique. On top of having almost three times as many levels as the first game, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is also much more consistent in its level design, and while Mario still felt a little slippery with his movements, the zoomed in screen and larger platforms made jumps feel a lot more precise. My favorite element of this game would easily be its world themes, because whereas Super Mario Land had worlds based on real-life locations, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins had a world based around a giant tree, a level set inside of a whale, a set of levels taking place within a giant mechanical Mario statue, and even some space levels a whole 15 years before Super Mario Galaxy. The sheer amount of variety and imagination in this game's world and level themes could arguably rival that of the Mario games on home consoles, and the ability to approach the levels in any order was a nice touch as well.
The first Super Mario Land has some of the best music in the whole series, and while the sequel's soundtrack didn't reach those heights for me, I still quite liked the songs here in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, as they were all catchy and fit the laid-back atmosphere of the levels quite well. Mario games were never exactly known for being challenging, but even then, the easiness of this game's levels paired with the game's bite-sized length still caught me off guard, and if you compare the steadily increasing difficulty of something like Super Mario Bros. 3 to the bosses in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins dying in less than five seconds (and occasionally less than even one second), the difference is night and day. I also felt that it really wasn't necessary for the game's final castle to have absolutely zero checkpoints, because while that level wasn't all that hard, it was still annoying to have to do everything from the beginning whenever you died. Despite its flaws, I still really enjoyed my time with Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, and I might even give the first four Wario Land games a go at some point.
EldestBrisingr
17 days ago