Oh, Mario Land... you could have been so much more...
Okay, so, this game is just. It's jank as fuck. I understand being a Game Boy launch title, it didn't have the time, resources, or knowledge to be as good of a game as it could have been, but at the end of the day, the product still isn't great, no matter how many reasons it has to be that way. The controls are slippery and stiff at the same time, I can never count on being where I want to be in the same way I can with even SMB1. The screen crunch isn't awful, especially when taken against its older brother, but it still does pose an annoying and occasionally unfair layer of challenge on a game that already has that classic arcade difficulty, padding out its runtime by making sure you spend your sessions dying and replaying so you don't realize there's only twelve levels. Oh, and I dunno if this is a hot take, but I don't actually like the Superball powerup. Its path, while predictable under the right circumstances, just isn't actually great for hitting things, and especially in the too-common tight spaces, you can get stuck with no defense if you miss and you already have two balls out bouncing around, which is very common.
Some things I can praise this game for is the variety in the world design. While it basically amounts to swapping out background assets, having locations inspired by real-world places offers a sense of a worldwide adventure. As well, I really like the shmup sections in the Marine Pop and Sky Pop, honestly more than the main gameplay style. Finally, the music is really memorable and catchy, and it does partially make the game easier to... tolerate. Still, it's not great, so it gets a 2.
Okay, so, this game is just. It's jank as fuck. I understand being a Game Boy launch title, it didn't have the time, resources, or knowledge to be as good of a game as it could have been, but at the end of the day, the product still isn't great, no matter how many reasons it has to be that way. The controls are slippery and stiff at the same time, I can never count on being where I want to be in the same way I can with even SMB1. The screen crunch isn't awful, especially when taken against its older brother, but it still does pose an annoying and occasionally unfair layer of challenge on a game that already has that classic arcade difficulty, padding out its runtime by making sure you spend your sessions dying and replaying so you don't realize there's only twelve levels. Oh, and I dunno if this is a hot take, but I don't actually like the Superball powerup. Its path, while predictable under the right circumstances, just isn't actually great for hitting things, and especially in the too-common tight spaces, you can get stuck with no defense if you miss and you already have two balls out bouncing around, which is very common.
Some things I can praise this game for is the variety in the world design. While it basically amounts to swapping out background assets, having locations inspired by real-world places offers a sense of a worldwide adventure. As well, I really like the shmup sections in the Marine Pop and Sky Pop, honestly more than the main gameplay style. Finally, the music is really memorable and catchy, and it does partially make the game easier to... tolerate. Still, it's not great, so it gets a 2.