Game of the Week #3

[Metal Mario]

Super Mario Land (Game Boy, 1989)



As we look back upon it now, Mario's first Game Boy outing might seem to stand starkly out from the norm. But remember this; Super Mario Land was released in a time in which SMB 3 had yet to solidify the Mario franchise formula. At the time of SML's release, Bowser and his now-recognizable minions had appeared in just one game, Princess Toadstool had been kidnapped naught but once, and Mario had just come off of throwing Wart for a loop the previous year in a game that differed drastically from the original SMB. With this in mind, it doesn't seem so strange that the creative team behind SML should have seen fit to deliver us a new villain, a new damsel in distress, and a new cast of bizarre enemy characters. This was, after all, back when Mario's fans didn't automatically know ahead of time what their hero's next adventure would be about.

Super Mario Land introduced many novel concepts that, for better or worse, have yet to be reused. Such concepts and novelties include the Sky Pop Airplane and Marine Pop Mini-Sub, the Super Flower that granted Mario the ability to throw bouncing "superballs", and of course Tatanga, who, in this fan's opinion, is long overdue for a return. SML is also notable for serving as the debut of Princess Daisy, though it would take Nintendo more than a decade to find further use for her.

[the Octopus]

Well, the sub, etc, have been employed in the Wario Land series which is essentially the continuation of the Mario Land series. I'd prefer they still made new Mario Land games, considering how fantastic 2 was, but WL is decent all the same.

Considering the seemingly pointless changes made to the SMB gameplay style, I think SML came out as a fantastic game. It still irritates me when CK's mindless followers decide to bash the game for something like small sprite-to-screensize rations, especially when the resolution on the GB was so limited. Perhaps they should've increased the sprite sizes marginally, but that would've been a bit much to ask for the Gameboy's launch title in 89, imo, since sprite dimensions are traditionally dependent on measurements of bytes rather than bits, and come in multiples of 8. They would essentially have had to quadruple the size of the objects or use a multiple that likely would've crippled the engine, if the quad-sized sprites didn't manage to, already.

[CaptHayfever]

Wait, those weren't fireballs?

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[ZeldaGirl]

Originally Posted by MANLY RIPPLING MUSCLES

Well, the sub, etc, have been employed in the Wario Land series which is essentially the continuation of the Mario Land series. I'd prefer they still made new Mario Land games, considering how fantastic 2 was, but WL is decent all the same.

Considering the seemingly pointless changes made to the SMB gameplay style, I think SML came out as a fantastic game. It still irritates me when CK's mindless followers decide to bash the game for something like small sprite-to-screensize rations, especially when the resolution on the GB was so limited. Perhaps they should've increased the sprite sizes marginally, but that would've been a bit much to ask for the Gameboy's launch title in 89, imo, since sprite dimensions are traditionally dependent on measurements of bytes rather than bits, and come in multiples of 8. They would essentially have had to quadruple the size of the objects or use a multiple that likely would've crippled the engine, if the quad-sized sprites didn't manage to, already.

I'm not the only person who skimmed over this and immediately thought "why is he talking about Sword and Codie?"

[Luigiman7]

Never played it. I want to though.