Inspired by this video and the recent release of Piranha Plant for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I want to talk about my personal gaming origins: the Super Mario Land Trilogy for the good old GameBoy.
The GameBoy was my first own console and Super Mario Land, next to Tetris, was my first major video game experience. This would led to the sequels and eventually to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, making me a Zelda fan for life. And because of this those three titles will always be my original Super Mario games, despite the outings on the NES and SNES.
These three Mario titles probably couldn't be any more different to a point, where the one major thing they have in common besides the Jump'n'Run action is the "Land" in the title. And there is certainly a big emphasis on the lands in these games. Just look at the covers:
Sarasaland, the actual Mario Land and Kitchen Island. They are all the real stars of these games and are there featured quite prominently on the covers of the Super Mario Land games. The pyramids and Moai statues on the cover of Super Mario Land, the castle and different islands on the cover of Super Mario Land 2 and finally Mt. Teapot and Syrup Castle on the cover of Wario Land – it's all intriguing and exploring these worlds was a part of the excitement about these games.
You weren't just playing generic Jump'n'Run levels in the same generic plain, desert, forest, snow and volcano scenarios (looking at you, New Super Mario Bros. series), you were diving into interesting worlds, all completely unique within the Super Mario universe. That makes these games stand out and the exploration is certainly also part of what makes Super Mario Odyssey currently so successful.
Let's take a brief look at each of the Super Mario Land games individually:
This is the most straightforward experience out of the three games, but since this was one of the GameBoy's launch titles, you can't really complain about it. It's an entirely linear game with twelve subsequent levels divided into four worlds. No Warp Zones or other shortcuts.
Today I can beat the game within under an hour, but as a kid beating this game was considered a noteworthy experience. I remember, how I talked with schoolmates about the game's later levels, as if they were some far-off mystery...
We also talked about the various secrets within the levels, like the hidden elevators in World 1-3. And there was always a certain wonder about the worlds in Sarasaland, which were mostly inspired by real world locations from ancient history, like ancient Egypt.
But the graphics were quite basic at the time. Everything was designed around an 8x8 pixel grid, where Mario and his enemies were quite small when compared to other games in the series. The music on the other hand was really catchy and offers something that sticks with you for the rest of your life.
The sequel, dubbed Six Golden Coins, became graphically a lot more advanced compared to the first game to a point, where it doesn't have to hide from its big brothers on the console. It is quite the charming the game, where the music admittedly isn't as remarkable as in the first game, but still very good and catchy.
The world also became a lot more important, where you're exploring the eponymous Mario Land itself, an entire island. Yes, Mario has his own island with a castle at the center – something you never hear about in later Mario games again. And unlike the first game you get a real world map that you can navigate freely after the first level:
With that Super Mario Land 2 is also one of the most non-linear Mario games ever created, where you can compare its overall structure to that of completely non-linear Zelda games. There is Wario's Castle in the center, which is your ultimate goal, but to enter the castle you need to collect the "Six Golden Coins" first, which are earned from bosses in the six main worlds, the Zones. And some of these Zones are also very unique within the series, where the most notable example would be the Mario Zone, where you play inside a giant Robot Mario and where the final level is even made out of N&B Blocks – Nintendo's own version of LEGO. Or in the Macro Zone you shrink down to a level, where ants are the same size as Mario.
However, like with A Link Between Worlds, the non-linearity also came with the price of a washy difficulty, where everything is quite easy, since everything can be played in any order. This results later in a massive difficulty spike, once you finally enter Wario's Castle, which is by far the most challenging and demanding level in the game.
Some levels also offer hidden exists to secret levels, which are often quite rewarding, where it can be quite fun to explore the entirety of Mario's own island. There isn't really anything to discover beyond the secret levels, however, which is something that was done a lot better in the sequel...
With the final Super Mario Land game Nintendo took an interesting risk, where instead of following Mario's adventures, you were now playing as the antagonist from the second game: Wario. And it was a risk that paid off greatly, spawning the Wario franchise along with it.
This game can also be considered as the pinnacle of GameBoy gaming. For a GameBoy game, the visuals, the sound effects, the music, the atmosphere and everything else was absolutely superb. When it comes to presentation, I would put Wario Land even above Link's Awakening, which is saying a lot.
It's also the most explorative game in the Super Mario Land trilogy, despite the fact that the game course is overall quite linear. But there are quite a few secret levels and treasures hidden within the various levels, where finding them will reward you greatly at the end of the game. This gave you an incentive to explore every corner of every level to find all those treasures. And this made optional levels a lot more lucrative than in the prequel, where this goes as far as having an entire secret world in the game: Sherbet Land.
Exploring the levels of Kitchen Island can be a lot fun and some worlds also have interactions, where one level can completely alter others. For example you start the game on Rise Beach during a low tide, but you can later re-explore the levels there in a flooded state, which lets you find the secret treasures there.
The aspect of hidden treasures and secrets within levels also carried over to the sequel, Wario Land II, but the "land" was gone to a point, where it can only be briefly seen on the title screen as an island that has little to do with the actual levels within the game, which followed more a concept of alternate storylines... It was still a solid game, but not as a good as the original Wario Land.
The "Super Mario Land" subtitle was also dropped for the second Wario Land game, where Wario ultimately became more his own thing with transformations and other gimmicks.
Now, the focus of this article so far was clearly on the "lands" in the Super Mario Land trilogy and this should give you a clear idea that I mainly played and enjoyed these three titles not for their Jump'n'Run gameplay, but for the exploration. Especially the islands of Super Mario Land 2 and Wario Land fascinated me to a point, where I kept drawing them in my notebooks at school.
Of course the exploration of those islands was limited by the Jump'n'Run level-based nature of Super Mario Land games. But it wouldn't take long until I discovered a game, which would allow me to explore an entire island from the bird's eye perspective in great detail – The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
So, in a way the Super Mario Land series is what ultimately brought me to Zelda, where still to this day I enjoy exploring the lands of Hyrule, Koholint, Termina and co.
The GameBoy was my first own console and Super Mario Land, next to Tetris, was my first major video game experience. This would led to the sequels and eventually to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, making me a Zelda fan for life. And because of this those three titles will always be my original Super Mario games, despite the outings on the NES and SNES.
These three Mario titles probably couldn't be any more different to a point, where the one major thing they have in common besides the Jump'n'Run action is the "Land" in the title. And there is certainly a big emphasis on the lands in these games. Just look at the covers:
Sarasaland, the actual Mario Land and Kitchen Island. They are all the real stars of these games and are there featured quite prominently on the covers of the Super Mario Land games. The pyramids and Moai statues on the cover of Super Mario Land, the castle and different islands on the cover of Super Mario Land 2 and finally Mt. Teapot and Syrup Castle on the cover of Wario Land – it's all intriguing and exploring these worlds was a part of the excitement about these games.
You weren't just playing generic Jump'n'Run levels in the same generic plain, desert, forest, snow and volcano scenarios (looking at you, New Super Mario Bros. series), you were diving into interesting worlds, all completely unique within the Super Mario universe. That makes these games stand out and the exploration is certainly also part of what makes Super Mario Odyssey currently so successful.
Let's take a brief look at each of the Super Mario Land games individually:
Super Mario Land
This is the most straightforward experience out of the three games, but since this was one of the GameBoy's launch titles, you can't really complain about it. It's an entirely linear game with twelve subsequent levels divided into four worlds. No Warp Zones or other shortcuts.
Today I can beat the game within under an hour, but as a kid beating this game was considered a noteworthy experience. I remember, how I talked with schoolmates about the game's later levels, as if they were some far-off mystery...
We also talked about the various secrets within the levels, like the hidden elevators in World 1-3. And there was always a certain wonder about the worlds in Sarasaland, which were mostly inspired by real world locations from ancient history, like ancient Egypt.
But the graphics were quite basic at the time. Everything was designed around an 8x8 pixel grid, where Mario and his enemies were quite small when compared to other games in the series. The music on the other hand was really catchy and offers something that sticks with you for the rest of your life.
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins
The sequel, dubbed Six Golden Coins, became graphically a lot more advanced compared to the first game to a point, where it doesn't have to hide from its big brothers on the console. It is quite the charming the game, where the music admittedly isn't as remarkable as in the first game, but still very good and catchy.
The world also became a lot more important, where you're exploring the eponymous Mario Land itself, an entire island. Yes, Mario has his own island with a castle at the center – something you never hear about in later Mario games again. And unlike the first game you get a real world map that you can navigate freely after the first level:
With that Super Mario Land 2 is also one of the most non-linear Mario games ever created, where you can compare its overall structure to that of completely non-linear Zelda games. There is Wario's Castle in the center, which is your ultimate goal, but to enter the castle you need to collect the "Six Golden Coins" first, which are earned from bosses in the six main worlds, the Zones. And some of these Zones are also very unique within the series, where the most notable example would be the Mario Zone, where you play inside a giant Robot Mario and where the final level is even made out of N&B Blocks – Nintendo's own version of LEGO. Or in the Macro Zone you shrink down to a level, where ants are the same size as Mario.
However, like with A Link Between Worlds, the non-linearity also came with the price of a washy difficulty, where everything is quite easy, since everything can be played in any order. This results later in a massive difficulty spike, once you finally enter Wario's Castle, which is by far the most challenging and demanding level in the game.
Some levels also offer hidden exists to secret levels, which are often quite rewarding, where it can be quite fun to explore the entirety of Mario's own island. There isn't really anything to discover beyond the secret levels, however, which is something that was done a lot better in the sequel...
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
With the final Super Mario Land game Nintendo took an interesting risk, where instead of following Mario's adventures, you were now playing as the antagonist from the second game: Wario. And it was a risk that paid off greatly, spawning the Wario franchise along with it.
This game can also be considered as the pinnacle of GameBoy gaming. For a GameBoy game, the visuals, the sound effects, the music, the atmosphere and everything else was absolutely superb. When it comes to presentation, I would put Wario Land even above Link's Awakening, which is saying a lot.
It's also the most explorative game in the Super Mario Land trilogy, despite the fact that the game course is overall quite linear. But there are quite a few secret levels and treasures hidden within the various levels, where finding them will reward you greatly at the end of the game. This gave you an incentive to explore every corner of every level to find all those treasures. And this made optional levels a lot more lucrative than in the prequel, where this goes as far as having an entire secret world in the game: Sherbet Land.
Exploring the levels of Kitchen Island can be a lot fun and some worlds also have interactions, where one level can completely alter others. For example you start the game on Rise Beach during a low tide, but you can later re-explore the levels there in a flooded state, which lets you find the secret treasures there.
The aspect of hidden treasures and secrets within levels also carried over to the sequel, Wario Land II, but the "land" was gone to a point, where it can only be briefly seen on the title screen as an island that has little to do with the actual levels within the game, which followed more a concept of alternate storylines... It was still a solid game, but not as a good as the original Wario Land.
The "Super Mario Land" subtitle was also dropped for the second Wario Land game, where Wario ultimately became more his own thing with transformations and other gimmicks.
Off to Koholint Island...
Now, the focus of this article so far was clearly on the "lands" in the Super Mario Land trilogy and this should give you a clear idea that I mainly played and enjoyed these three titles not for their Jump'n'Run gameplay, but for the exploration. Especially the islands of Super Mario Land 2 and Wario Land fascinated me to a point, where I kept drawing them in my notebooks at school.
Of course the exploration of those islands was limited by the Jump'n'Run level-based nature of Super Mario Land games. But it wouldn't take long until I discovered a game, which would allow me to explore an entire island from the bird's eye perspective in great detail – The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
So, in a way the Super Mario Land series is what ultimately brought me to Zelda, where still to this day I enjoy exploring the lands of Hyrule, Koholint, Termina and co.
All the sweeter a transition with the Mario easter eggs in Awakening...
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