Imagine being the "B-Team" making a little handheld game. Now, admittedly this is for a juggernaut entertainment franchise, but still, you're not "the guys."
And then you invent Wario.
None of us will ever achieve that kind of high.
I owned Land the First as a kid and have played it to hell and back. Love it! But I didn't get much of a chance to play 2 and well, it was time. Even though it's been years, I can't imagine I'll end up disagreeing that this is the better game. In fact, it's just fully A Good-Ass Game. This was the last new 2D Mario before we went into 3D games and then the sterile-but-fun New series, so Mario was well established, but not so much that you couldn't go way off model. Nintendo would never let Mario own his own castle today, but he owns one here. He also has a gigantic mech modeled after himself, which says a lot about the conception of his personality we're working with here. The only other guys I can think of who have mechs of themselves are villains like Dr. Robotnik and Salazar from Resident Evil 4.
Mario Land 2 is on one hand a hodgepodge of elements and sprites from previous games-- I saw bits of 3, World, and even a little of the original Land all over-- and on the other a lot of weird new stuff that never came up again. Every level has a unique theme, loosely grouped by the overarching world theme but with plenty of variety within. For example, the water world has a normal water level, a submarine level, an a whale vore level. Mario games, always focused on the platforming, tend to repeat themes throughout, but no expense was spared in tossing every cool idea anyone had into Land 2. The platforming feels just as good as you want, too.
If I was to complain, it would only be to point out that the final level is one of the roughest difficulty spikes I have ever encountered. Put a checkpoint in that bad boy. This also might be the downside of the normally-nice ability to play the worlds in any order. But other than that, heck yeah. Super Fucking Mario.
And then you invent Wario.
None of us will ever achieve that kind of high.
I owned Land the First as a kid and have played it to hell and back. Love it! But I didn't get much of a chance to play 2 and well, it was time. Even though it's been years, I can't imagine I'll end up disagreeing that this is the better game. In fact, it's just fully A Good-Ass Game. This was the last new 2D Mario before we went into 3D games and then the sterile-but-fun New series, so Mario was well established, but not so much that you couldn't go way off model. Nintendo would never let Mario own his own castle today, but he owns one here. He also has a gigantic mech modeled after himself, which says a lot about the conception of his personality we're working with here. The only other guys I can think of who have mechs of themselves are villains like Dr. Robotnik and Salazar from Resident Evil 4.
Mario Land 2 is on one hand a hodgepodge of elements and sprites from previous games-- I saw bits of 3, World, and even a little of the original Land all over-- and on the other a lot of weird new stuff that never came up again. Every level has a unique theme, loosely grouped by the overarching world theme but with plenty of variety within. For example, the water world has a normal water level, a submarine level, an a whale vore level. Mario games, always focused on the platforming, tend to repeat themes throughout, but no expense was spared in tossing every cool idea anyone had into Land 2. The platforming feels just as good as you want, too.
If I was to complain, it would only be to point out that the final level is one of the roughest difficulty spikes I have ever encountered. Put a checkpoint in that bad boy. This also might be the downside of the normally-nice ability to play the worlds in any order. But other than that, heck yeah. Super Fucking Mario.