For what it is, I like Super Mario Land, and even being a game with significant limitations, it has a certain charm about it. The wealth of catchy new music and the unique settings of Sarasaland give the game a simple, yet colorful personality, despite the simplistic gameplay from the early days of the game boy.

Regardless, charm can only do so much, as the game can still feel incredibly frustrating to play. Jumps are wonky compared to the normal ease with which Mario handles, as controlling your momentum is incredibly difficult. The graphics are ancient, even by Game Boy standards, as the sequel on the same hardware looked much better. It felt like I was playing some overly simple mobile game, like Flappy Bird or Doodle Jump. Not what you want from a platformer, even on a mobile console. The poor aging of Super Mario Land make it hard to justify coming back to it, even with its unique characteristics. Nothing this game did was the best in the series, not by a long shot, so there's always a better game to play.

Still, there are a few things that helped the game for me. The platforming and level design did not overstep its limits for what players could realistically accomplish with such simple controls. It also did its best to create its own identity, contrasting with other games in the franchise. It replaced the typical enemies with bomb koopas and spiders. The bouncy-ball power up was fun to aim and ricochet. The game's airplane segments were a fun break from the platforming, allowing for a new style of gameplay that Mario hadn't seen before. The game is short, at only 12 levels, but frankly, it didn't need to be much longer - it was a designed as a simple, replayable Mario game that could be taken on the go.

Overall, decent game. Certainly not a must-play, but I can see the appeal.

Great game. Easily my all-time favorite title on the NES, and it's not even remotely close.

Firstly, despite being on the same hardware as its predecessors, this game fixes EVERYTHING that made the previous installments so frustrating and, at times, lackluster. Movement is clean, consistent, and inherently fun, emphasizing player control over difficulty. You can save frequently, letting you feel like you're actually progressing through the game rather than just practicing its mechanics on the same levels over and over again. Even the level design is incredible - no two levels feel too similar, and while the challenges presented are difficult at times, they never felt cheap or unfair, as the difficulty originated more from the platforming and obstacles rather than from clunky controls and spammy enemies.

One of the staples of the Mario franchise is freedom - freedom to choose what objectives to pursue, in how you pursue those objectives, in how mario moves - and Super Mario Bros. 3 does this exceptionally well. The new map system allows players many opportunities to choose which levels they wish to play, while also giving the game a sense of place, allowing the player to feel like they're actually exploring and progressing through a unique world.

The freedom offered by this game is best exemplified by the power-up system, which is far more creative and fun than in previous installments. SMB3 introduced a wealth of new power-ups with unique movement and attack options, giving players a variety of ways to approach each level. The frog suit is my personal favorite - I love power-ups that affect not only how you handle enemies, but also how you handle the platforming itself.

This was actually my first playthrough of SMB3, but it's a great platformer that I'll definitely come back to in the future. Solid title all around, and I'd most certainly recommend it for any platforming fan.

While Super Mario Bros. 2 has many of the same NES-related failures as its predecessor, it has a great deal of unique mechanics that set it apart from even modern-day installments in the series, giving players a reason to come back to this fun, well-crafted platformer.

While it may be little more than a reskin of an existing game, this serves it well, in a way, as it has a whole new wealth of options when it comes to movement and combat, distinguishing itself from the series' norms while still staying within the theme of a Mario game. It still plays exactly like Mario, with satisfying jumping and creatively intuitive platforming, but the newly-introduced grabbing mechanic reinvigorated the franchise's gameplay in a big way.

I think this is an underrated game, and is worth playing for any fan of good platformers. I love the game's catchy music, its distinct worlds and environments, and its addicting platforming. I do wish that they had done away with the shoddy save system, but it's much more forgiving in this game. You should only game-over once or twice before you get the hang of things, and by then you can have fun cruising through the rest of the game.

There are still a few drawbacks. I feel that the power-up system is incredibly confusing in this game, and it should have been modified to fit more within the Mario theme. Bland, repetitive health buffs aren't nearly as fun as the Fire Flower from the previous game, or the wealth of fun power-ups in the sequel. The gameplay is fun, so it's somewhat forgivable, but lacking power-ups and having to play with largely the same abilities for the entire game can cause challenges to feel repetitive, with one set way to approach most situations.

Overall, I enjoyed this game. I wish it could have kept the typical Mario power-up system, and removed full-game restarts, but I can say with certainty that it's a solid platformer nonetheless and has aged impressively for being built for NES hardware.