Played on 3DS Virtual Console
Originally written April 18, 2016
While I don’t find Super Mario Land to be a bad game by any means, it’s definitely one of the most standard Mario games out there. By today’s standards I think you would find that the game isn’t all that impressive in comparison to other Mario games we’ve gotten, but when playing this I think it should always be remembered that this is one of the earliest games in the Super Mario series, and was the first one to tackle a handheld platform. The game is good for what it is and was probably quite innovative in its time, but we have definitely gotten better Mario games since then.
Story has never played a huge part in many of the Mario games, but I find that it’s at least interesting to mention for Super Mario Land because it’s much different from the norm. Most Mario games feature Mario traversing the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, but Super Mario Land finds Mario in a new land called Sarasaland, where he’s trying to rescue Princess Daisy (who made her first debut in this game and has since become a recognizable character in the Mario series). The game doesn’t really feature its story at all in-game, but I thought it was an interesting diversion from the classic Mario setting.
As far as gameplay goes, the game is most similar to the original Super Mario Bros. game for NES, but just tailored to fit on a Gameboy screen instead. For the uninitiated (even though most people should be familiar at this point), the objective of the game is to get Mario from one end of the level to the other by making crazy jumps and avoiding enemies in a classic platforming style. For the most part, I found the gameplay to work just as well as other Mario games, or any platforming games for that matter. I only have two real complaints, and they might be more subjective than anything. For one thing, I found that Mario seemed to control a bit awkwardly at first. I got used to it eventually, but he just didn’t feel the same as he usually does in these kinds of games, and it was a bit weird at first. Second, I found the hit detection could have been a little better. There were times where I swear I didn’t touch an enemy but wound up dying anyway. For the most part, these are minor complaints and don’t present too much of a problem most of the time, but it was just something I noticed. Otherwise, everything works and feels great.
Graphically, the game is a little lackluster, but I don’t think it’s bad. This was a launch title for the original Gameboy, so I don’t think it should come as a surprise that it’s not the best looking game the system has to offer. The platform needed some time to fully realize its potential, but for what it’s worth Super Mario Land still looks pretty good. Everything is still perfectly distinguishable and I never had any troubles figuring out what something looked like. Black and white graphics might be a bit off-putting to gamers today, but if you can get past that the game looks pretty decent.
I don’t really have much to say about the sounds of the game though. Usually I’m able to discuss how I feel about the music and sound effects at the very least (since this game features no voice acting), but nothing really stood out to me in Super Mario Land. Like most things in the game, that doesn’t make it bad necessarily, it just doesn’t stand out much from the crowd.
I think the biggest complaint most people are going to have about Super Mario Land is its length. Even the very first Super Mario Bros. game featured eight worlds with four levels each, with a total of 32 levels. Super Mario Land, on the other hand, features four world with three levels each, for a total of a measly 12 levels. Because of this, the game is very short. I didn’t even find it to be all that difficult either, so it’s not like difficulty extends the length at all. This is a game where most people should be able to beat it in about an hour. It’s one of those things where you have to judge the game based on what it’s worth, and so I can understand why some people might be upset about the shortness of the game. Personally, I found that the game was exactly what I needed. When I played the game, I just wanted a quick break from other longer games that I was playing, and so it provided me with just the kind of experience that I needed. The worth of a game based on its length is always completely subjective, so that’s something you’ll need to judge for yourself. As far as any replay value goes, there is a harder difficulty to play through once you beat the game once, but other than that there isn’t anything else to it.
I do like Super Mario Land for what it is, but it’s definitely one of the least memorable Mario games out there. There have been so many fantastic entries in the series that when you compare this game to them, it definitely falls a little short. I think it was a great effort for what it is at the time it came out, but at this point in time I’d only highly recommend it to fans of the Mario series that are looking to play through all of the Mario games they can. Otherwise, the game is fun but it’s not really a “necessary” game to play for gamers.
3/5
