I love the Super Mario games, but I am not a fan of almost all Game Boy titles I have played in the past year. That's to be expected considering the handheld's limitations and the fact it loses its charm when emulated on a monitor, but based on this, you can maybe imagine how my expectations were both high and low for Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Its the sequel to Super Mario Land 1, which itself was the start of the Game Boy Mario platforming series. After Super Mario Land 2, Nintendo did not release a new mainline Mario platformer for a handheld system until New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS in 2006 (!) and didn't follow up on that until 2011 (!) with Super Mario 3D Land. However, Super Mario Land itself did get continued without Mario, and the name of the third game ended up being Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, a character which was first introduced in Super Mario Land 2. Why did this game get another sequel? Simple.
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins sold over 10 million copies over its lifetime and became the fifth best selling game for the Game Boy (Color), only to be beaten by the first Super Mario Land, Tetris and two sets of Pokémon games. It sold twice as much as the 6th placed game, Dr. Mario.
This game is a 2D platformer in the vein of the home system games. It improves significantly over the original, which released in 1989, while this game in particular released on October 21, 1992. The original had somewhat odd looking and very small sprites, bland environments and very little variety in gameplay. Super Mario Land 2 meanwhile feels like it was made for a different handheld due to how many more features it manages to pack into a Game Boy cartridge.
First up, sprites are a lot bigger. In general, you see a lot less of a level, but what you do see ends up being much more visibly pleasing as a result. Some games, like the Mega Man series on Game Boy, don't work this way because they are usually much more difficult and when you have a small screen like this, enemies showing up at the edge of the screen being right next to you can become a problem. In Mario, that didn't feel like an issue to me because the difficulty felt pleasant at all times. In Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge on the other hand, you are much more susceptible to unfair hits because you just can't react that quickly.
Second, environments look much more varied. Instead of same-y settings, the game is divided into six zones with their own themes. So you end up having multiple basic "tree" levels that you will remember from the opening levels of Super Mario World, but you also have water levels, the Mario zone with its moving floors and lego levels (here, what look like Lego bricks are actually N&B blocks from Nintendo which competed against Lego in the 60s and 70s) and there is even a Space Zone where you explore the moon and where Mario changes into a spacesuit. It's all done on a pretty basic level of course, since this is a Game Boy game whichever way you slice it, but presentation and variety does a lot to keep things fresh and interesting, and ends up putting this game into 'Recommended' territory for me.
To conclude, here is a summary of my thoughts on each area of the game.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS |3/10
- Story is explained in the manual. Wario took control of Mario's castle in Mario Land. That's it.
- Wario is a new character in the Super Mario franchise at the time of this game's release. This fact plus keeping things consistent with the enemies is where the game gets the points from me
- There is a commercial on YT for this game that introduces Wario. Very much worth checking out
GAMEPLAY | 15/20
- Great controls for the most part, but sometimes they can feel a bit slippery
- Next to your typical power-ups, there is a new one, the "Carrot", which is fun to use
- Well-balanced in terms of difficulty
- Plenty of variety, such as the water levels, the space levels and the Mario zone levels
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 7/10
- No voice acting
- You'll instantly be familiar with the sound effects. As per usual, they are fantastic
- Good soundtrack, but no memorable tracks and not as good as for other Mario platformers (my favorites: Athletic, Tree Top and Star Maze)
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 7/10
- Graphics on the poorer side with the industry now firmly in the 16-bit era
- Game makes up for the Game Boy's limitations through presentation
- Varied locations make for a pleasant experience for the eyes, unlike the original Super Mario Land
ATMOSPHERE | 8/10
- Great overworld with 6 unique zones
- Plays and feels like a typical Mario platformer
CONTENT | 8/10
- 6 zones with multiple stages on each
- A few extra optional stages
- Bonus levels for ringing bell at the end of each stage
- High quality and varied content
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 9/10
- The game allows you to choose in which order you want to tackle the zones
- The zones have variety in style and challenge
- Difficulty is fair, stages never felt like they were made extra difficult just to pad playtime
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 6/10
- Conceptually not different from the home console Mario platformers
- Added a couple new features like the Carrot power-up and balloons that you can ride into the 'sky'
- New iconic character introduced
- Probably did as much as they could with the Game Boy's limitations
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
- Main replay value comes from beating your high scores
- You can find a few extra secrets
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
- Worked well at all times
OVERALL | 70/100
(This is the 74th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins sold over 10 million copies over its lifetime and became the fifth best selling game for the Game Boy (Color), only to be beaten by the first Super Mario Land, Tetris and two sets of Pokémon games. It sold twice as much as the 6th placed game, Dr. Mario.
This game is a 2D platformer in the vein of the home system games. It improves significantly over the original, which released in 1989, while this game in particular released on October 21, 1992. The original had somewhat odd looking and very small sprites, bland environments and very little variety in gameplay. Super Mario Land 2 meanwhile feels like it was made for a different handheld due to how many more features it manages to pack into a Game Boy cartridge.
First up, sprites are a lot bigger. In general, you see a lot less of a level, but what you do see ends up being much more visibly pleasing as a result. Some games, like the Mega Man series on Game Boy, don't work this way because they are usually much more difficult and when you have a small screen like this, enemies showing up at the edge of the screen being right next to you can become a problem. In Mario, that didn't feel like an issue to me because the difficulty felt pleasant at all times. In Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge on the other hand, you are much more susceptible to unfair hits because you just can't react that quickly.
Second, environments look much more varied. Instead of same-y settings, the game is divided into six zones with their own themes. So you end up having multiple basic "tree" levels that you will remember from the opening levels of Super Mario World, but you also have water levels, the Mario zone with its moving floors and lego levels (here, what look like Lego bricks are actually N&B blocks from Nintendo which competed against Lego in the 60s and 70s) and there is even a Space Zone where you explore the moon and where Mario changes into a spacesuit. It's all done on a pretty basic level of course, since this is a Game Boy game whichever way you slice it, but presentation and variety does a lot to keep things fresh and interesting, and ends up putting this game into 'Recommended' territory for me.
To conclude, here is a summary of my thoughts on each area of the game.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS |3/10
- Story is explained in the manual. Wario took control of Mario's castle in Mario Land. That's it.
- Wario is a new character in the Super Mario franchise at the time of this game's release. This fact plus keeping things consistent with the enemies is where the game gets the points from me
- There is a commercial on YT for this game that introduces Wario. Very much worth checking out
GAMEPLAY | 15/20
- Great controls for the most part, but sometimes they can feel a bit slippery
- Next to your typical power-ups, there is a new one, the "Carrot", which is fun to use
- Well-balanced in terms of difficulty
- Plenty of variety, such as the water levels, the space levels and the Mario zone levels
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 7/10
- No voice acting
- You'll instantly be familiar with the sound effects. As per usual, they are fantastic
- Good soundtrack, but no memorable tracks and not as good as for other Mario platformers (my favorites: Athletic, Tree Top and Star Maze)
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 7/10
- Graphics on the poorer side with the industry now firmly in the 16-bit era
- Game makes up for the Game Boy's limitations through presentation
- Varied locations make for a pleasant experience for the eyes, unlike the original Super Mario Land
ATMOSPHERE | 8/10
- Great overworld with 6 unique zones
- Plays and feels like a typical Mario platformer
CONTENT | 8/10
- 6 zones with multiple stages on each
- A few extra optional stages
- Bonus levels for ringing bell at the end of each stage
- High quality and varied content
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 9/10
- The game allows you to choose in which order you want to tackle the zones
- The zones have variety in style and challenge
- Difficulty is fair, stages never felt like they were made extra difficult just to pad playtime
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 6/10
- Conceptually not different from the home console Mario platformers
- Added a couple new features like the Carrot power-up and balloons that you can ride into the 'sky'
- New iconic character introduced
- Probably did as much as they could with the Game Boy's limitations
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
- Main replay value comes from beating your high scores
- You can find a few extra secrets
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
- Worked well at all times
OVERALL | 70/100
(This is the 74th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)