It deserves an upgrade, don't you think?

Game Info.

Genre (sub-genre) Action (side-scroller)

Publisher/Developer Nintendo

Release 8/89

This is probably the only Mario game (that wasn't on Virtual Boy) that's gotten so lost in history. People tend to forget that Tetris wasn't the only launch title for the original Game Boy. Mario also made it on that list in a game where he fought off the alien invader Tatanga in the desert country of Sarasaland to save Princess Daisy. Super Mario Land is also interestingly Nintendo's best-selling Game Boy game of all time, if you consider Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow three separate games. So why is it that it's one of the very last Mario adventures that hasn't been remade yet?

Gameplay
The gameplay basically follows the formula set up in Super Mario Bros. As with all Mario side-scrollers, you race through a level filled with enemies and obstacles, collecting as many coins as you can along the way. The power-ups in SML just cover the basics - super mushroom that makes you grow, fire flower that lets you throw fireballs (that ricochet in this game, strangely enough), and a glowing star that grants you temporary invincibility and the ability to kill enemies just by touching them. Since Super Mario Bros. 3 hadn't even been released before this game, this sticking to the basics is excusable.
However, maybe because it wasn't actually designed by Shigeru Miyamoto (the series' creator), Super Mario Land is overall a pretty boring game. It glows with originality in levels that see you piloting an airplane and a submarine, but otherwise features some of the most stripped-down platforming gameplay ever. Alas, this could potentially be charming amidst today's more complicated platformers like Kirby Canvas Curse and DK King of Swing.
7/10

Control
As with a majority of Nintendo's more primitive platformers, the jumping (arguably Mario's trademark ability) in this game is performed terribly. "Run-jumping" doesn't work, probably due to the three inputs going into the system at once (right, B, and A), Mario falls down way too fast, and in general, it makes the game feel a little unnatural and jerky. Plus, the "collision detection" (or whatever it's called) is pretty awful. Sometimes landing on something will register as a jump, to startling results such as instant death, and sometimes something will go through the edge of a platform instead of landing on it, which can be painfully irritating as well. This can all pretty much be excused for the first portable platformer ever, although it stands out as one of the main rough spots I'd like so much to see smoothed out in a GBA remake.
5/10

Graphics
The graphics aren't great, but they're detailed enough. There's an alright ammount of style in the sprites and environments, but none of it looks very "Mario", and comes off as sort of uninviting in that way. However, the game design's more original points, such as the UFOs in the picture above, help make Super Mario Land its own monster, you could say.
6/10

Sound
Surprisingly, Super Mario Land has some of the best Mario music ever composed. The two main level themes in particular stand out for me, but the whole experience is quite nice. It'd be nice if these songs got some more play in Nintendo's library of "nostalgia" games, like Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, and Smash Bros.
8/10

Replay Value
This game doesn't save. Welcome to the 80's. Thankfully, the entire romp is short enough so that an experienced player shouldn't have too much trouble completing it in one try.
7/10

Overall
Overall, my point in writing this review of a game nobody's thought about since its sequel came out in 1992 is that it's sort of an enigma today - in a generation when remakes and rereleases are at least as common as original games, why have the Super Mario Land games been the only ones left out? They were made for the handheld platform, and yet it's mostly Mario's console games that are being redone on the Game Boy Advance (with the exception of Mario vs. Donkey Kong). I'm not gonna' pretend like Super Mario Land is one of the greatest Mario games ever, but it's an enjoyable little game with its own unique world, and is perhaps worth a second look if you're into obscure retro platformers.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10
=Good=
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