A surprisingly remarkable and interesting adventure to look at.
The "surprisingly" might shock some people single the game on the matter is Super Mario, the franchise well-known for marking billions of childhoods across the globe and remain today just as influent. But to me, the Mario platformers never did as much as to entertain me... with the exception of the Super Mario Land series; There's just something in these games that prevents me from feeling bored as it's usually the case with any Mario game. Even though it's Mario, this game has something jammed in its very core that makes it interesting. I'm talking about a simple yet exotic adventure, giving life to the iconic Gameboy. There are two ways to face a game as old as Super Mario Land: take its era in consideration and think about its legacy or just put it on a modern context and avail if the game is worth checking out nowadays, and I certainly pick the second choice.
That being said, it's hard to talk about Mario without mentioning its legendary legacy. Many games I love wouldn't exist if it weren't for Super Mario. Nintendo always brings something related to Mario as a launch title and this is the living proof of its influence, its developers know mighty well of the titan they hold in their hands. And as a launch title for the Gameboy, a handheld that sacrifices hardware for the convenience of being a handheld, Super Mario Land adopts different design philosophies than its predecessors; while Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World expanded exponentially upon the previous games while remaining considerably consistent to a somewhat stablished formula, Mario Land essentially took the opposite way. In black and white and with graphics comparable to those of the early NES era, this is an exotic game that in a few hours restructured the formula created in Super Mario Bros. so that it could fit in a less powerful hardware. Just like the Gameboy itself, Super Mario Land essentially sacrificed size for creativity, sometimes barely feeling like a Mario game.
A change illustrated in its different scenario, Super Mario Land is no longer settled in the Mushroom Kingdom but instead in Sarasa Land, with new stages, new enemies, new bosses and even a new princess, Daisy, whose kidnapper is not your usual Bowser, but an alien, Tatanga. From the very moment the player sets foot in Sarasa Land the game explicitly tells that this is going to be very different from Mario's previous adventures.
Said change is also present in its soundtrack, that even though when compared to Koji Kondo's legendary work in the Super Mario Bros. series it is - in my opinion - less iconic and possesses less depth, I believe they do win when it comes to originality. Every song has an unique tone to it, bringing an extra layer to each stage and enrich the journey as a whole. Even though I'd much rather to have each overworld theme as "world exclusive" and not randomly distributed as them seem to be, the sound design took the major role on making this game so memorable to me, specially the touch of genius that was the ending theme; the final moments of Super Mario Land are the most vivid memories I had when I first played it, starting with the relatively smooth and sad melody of "Princess Daisy", that played every time you seemed to have found her just to find out it was an enemy in disguise, but this time it is different, she was indeed Princess Daisy and the "sadness" from her theme is now not about the fact that you didn't save her, but that your mission, just as your adventure, is over, a feeling cut off short almost immediately by a radiant song that scales with the airplane that Mario pilots with Daisy in sight, flying towards the credits' direction. This, with no hint of doubt, is one of the most memorable moments I had with the Gameboy, showing its potential in an exquisite manner.
And for all the weirdness in the level design, while I see the argument that some overworld themes fall under the stereotype side of the regions it's inspired by, songs such as Ruins and Chai Kingdom are so distinct from on another I can't help but to think they are undeniably effective, I truly feel I'm traveling throughout a Land and making progress on my quest.
I was never fond of the NES archaic controls, and even though that unlike Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Land's controls don't give me actual aneurysm, they are still so stiff and clunky they make it for a huge handicap for me to truly appreciate the game; the inflexible and outdated controls probably weren't such big deal back then and maybe even a improvement from NES games, however the feeling of moving around the stages is awful nonetheless, really giving away this game's age. Falling off a cliff or on the water for the lack of control adaptation is frustrating. Super Mario Land is not a difficult game, but since it's so short it simply lacks a save feature, so upon getting a game over one would have to start from the beginning, something I'm really not fond of, specially if it happens close to the end of the game. Even though it's a short game, losing an entire hour still means a lost hour. So for games like this, the only way for me to get some enjoyment out of it would be to utilize the spoils of modernity, save stating at the beginning of each level, at least this way, the punishment doesn't literally take me away from the game. Call me unfair, but this kind of feature is comparable to nowadays' Roguelikes, a genre where each death also means starting from the beginning and redo each level again and again to the point where you naturally master them, Super Mario Land doesn't do it because it's meant to be mastered like that, but because it lacks content and this is how it "makes up" for it. It doesn't come as a surprise that these games come with an official save state feature on the Wii U and the 3DS. I find its control scheme to be rather obsolete and as much as I wouldn't necessarily call the save system flawed, I'd still say it's something to be aware of before deciding whether to try it out or not.
Super Mario Land is assuredly a simple game, yet its creativity, diversity and short duration make the game more accessible and interesting for what it's worth. To those willing to forgive its limitations or just enjoy old school games and would see these things as strengths, Super Mario Land equals an hour or two of laughter and fun. Since at the end of the day, as weird as it is, Super Mario Land is still a Mario game.
As for myself, facing such temporal barriers added to the simplistic nature of the game were too much of a deal breaker to me and its qualities weren't as effective.
The "surprisingly" might shock some people single the game on the matter is Super Mario, the franchise well-known for marking billions of childhoods across the globe and remain today just as influent. But to me, the Mario platformers never did as much as to entertain me... with the exception of the Super Mario Land series; There's just something in these games that prevents me from feeling bored as it's usually the case with any Mario game. Even though it's Mario, this game has something jammed in its very core that makes it interesting. I'm talking about a simple yet exotic adventure, giving life to the iconic Gameboy. There are two ways to face a game as old as Super Mario Land: take its era in consideration and think about its legacy or just put it on a modern context and avail if the game is worth checking out nowadays, and I certainly pick the second choice.
That being said, it's hard to talk about Mario without mentioning its legendary legacy. Many games I love wouldn't exist if it weren't for Super Mario. Nintendo always brings something related to Mario as a launch title and this is the living proof of its influence, its developers know mighty well of the titan they hold in their hands. And as a launch title for the Gameboy, a handheld that sacrifices hardware for the convenience of being a handheld, Super Mario Land adopts different design philosophies than its predecessors; while Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World expanded exponentially upon the previous games while remaining considerably consistent to a somewhat stablished formula, Mario Land essentially took the opposite way. In black and white and with graphics comparable to those of the early NES era, this is an exotic game that in a few hours restructured the formula created in Super Mario Bros. so that it could fit in a less powerful hardware. Just like the Gameboy itself, Super Mario Land essentially sacrificed size for creativity, sometimes barely feeling like a Mario game.
A change illustrated in its different scenario, Super Mario Land is no longer settled in the Mushroom Kingdom but instead in Sarasa Land, with new stages, new enemies, new bosses and even a new princess, Daisy, whose kidnapper is not your usual Bowser, but an alien, Tatanga. From the very moment the player sets foot in Sarasa Land the game explicitly tells that this is going to be very different from Mario's previous adventures.
Said change is also present in its soundtrack, that even though when compared to Koji Kondo's legendary work in the Super Mario Bros. series it is - in my opinion - less iconic and possesses less depth, I believe they do win when it comes to originality. Every song has an unique tone to it, bringing an extra layer to each stage and enrich the journey as a whole. Even though I'd much rather to have each overworld theme as "world exclusive" and not randomly distributed as them seem to be, the sound design took the major role on making this game so memorable to me, specially the touch of genius that was the ending theme; the final moments of Super Mario Land are the most vivid memories I had when I first played it, starting with the relatively smooth and sad melody of "Princess Daisy", that played every time you seemed to have found her just to find out it was an enemy in disguise, but this time it is different, she was indeed Princess Daisy and the "sadness" from her theme is now not about the fact that you didn't save her, but that your mission, just as your adventure, is over, a feeling cut off short almost immediately by a radiant song that scales with the airplane that Mario pilots with Daisy in sight, flying towards the credits' direction. This, with no hint of doubt, is one of the most memorable moments I had with the Gameboy, showing its potential in an exquisite manner.
And for all the weirdness in the level design, while I see the argument that some overworld themes fall under the stereotype side of the regions it's inspired by, songs such as Ruins and Chai Kingdom are so distinct from on another I can't help but to think they are undeniably effective, I truly feel I'm traveling throughout a Land and making progress on my quest.
I was never fond of the NES archaic controls, and even though that unlike Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario Land's controls don't give me actual aneurysm, they are still so stiff and clunky they make it for a huge handicap for me to truly appreciate the game; the inflexible and outdated controls probably weren't such big deal back then and maybe even a improvement from NES games, however the feeling of moving around the stages is awful nonetheless, really giving away this game's age. Falling off a cliff or on the water for the lack of control adaptation is frustrating. Super Mario Land is not a difficult game, but since it's so short it simply lacks a save feature, so upon getting a game over one would have to start from the beginning, something I'm really not fond of, specially if it happens close to the end of the game. Even though it's a short game, losing an entire hour still means a lost hour. So for games like this, the only way for me to get some enjoyment out of it would be to utilize the spoils of modernity, save stating at the beginning of each level, at least this way, the punishment doesn't literally take me away from the game. Call me unfair, but this kind of feature is comparable to nowadays' Roguelikes, a genre where each death also means starting from the beginning and redo each level again and again to the point where you naturally master them, Super Mario Land doesn't do it because it's meant to be mastered like that, but because it lacks content and this is how it "makes up" for it. It doesn't come as a surprise that these games come with an official save state feature on the Wii U and the 3DS. I find its control scheme to be rather obsolete and as much as I wouldn't necessarily call the save system flawed, I'd still say it's something to be aware of before deciding whether to try it out or not.
Super Mario Land is assuredly a simple game, yet its creativity, diversity and short duration make the game more accessible and interesting for what it's worth. To those willing to forgive its limitations or just enjoy old school games and would see these things as strengths, Super Mario Land equals an hour or two of laughter and fun. Since at the end of the day, as weird as it is, Super Mario Land is still a Mario game.
As for myself, facing such temporal barriers added to the simplistic nature of the game were too much of a deal breaker to me and its qualities weren't as effective.