Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

This was a good game. The story was original and so were many of the levels and bad guys. The game is not very hard at all though, so the lack of challenge kind of takes away the fun. The hardest part is beating Wario and that is the most fun. Not as fun as the original Super Mario Land, but it still gives some enjoyment.

I'm not saying I don't the first Super Mario Land, but out of the two SML games which actually star Mario (SML3 has you controlling Wario instead of Mario), I prefer SML2. In graphics, game play, and presentation, this game has its predecessor beat. No more having to strain your eyes to see Mario. This game is perhaps the least linear of all the Mario games I've played (I've never played the 3-D games). Mario travels from level to level via an over-world map, just like in SMB3 and SMW (although the style of this game's over-world more closely resembles the latter). The first Super Mario Land plays similarly to the first Super Mario Bros, while SML2 plays more like Mario World. Some stages even have multiple exits. You can also save your progress, which makes perfect sense considering that the old Game Boys were serious battery-guzzlers IMO. No more having to start from square one when your Game Boy's batteries wear out. The sound effects in this game seem more "Mario-ish" than those of the first Mario Land. Jumping, squishing Goombas, kicking shells, and throwing fireballs generate sounds that anyone will recognize if they've played the three NES Mario games. Long story short, this game rocks. Rest in peace, Gunpei Yokoi.

This Was Surprisingly Bad Because Not Only They Lack Peach, Daisy, Yoshi Or Other Characters, But The Music Is Garbage, The Graphics Are So CHEAP And LAZY To All The Mario Fans Hated It With The Burning Passion And Don't Even Get Me Started On The Final Battle With Wario, Why? Because There's No Bowser Boss Fight But I Thought He Was Going To Be In This One But No, Wario Takes His Place Instead And It Makes NO SENSE At All Of Mario History That Was The Most Terrible Game Of 1993 For The Nintendo Gameboy And It's Even Worse Than The First Game From 1989 And It Sucks So Badly And I Give This 0/10.

A few years back, I had a bit of nostalgic fun and played through some of the earlier entries in Nintendo's iconic and beloved 'Super Mario' franchise, intent on reliving childhood thrills. And I had a bit of an odd revelation regarding the first entry in the spin-off hand-held franchise "Super Mario Land"... That being that the original game basically just didn't hold up all that well. Don't get me wrong. It was solid enough and provided about twenty minutes of reasonably entertaining gameplay. But it didn't have all that much variety and suffered clunky hit detection, in addition to lacking some of the classic iconography that defined the series up until that point. It wasn't a bad game... but rather a troubled one.

But where that game fell short, it's sequel "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins" more than made up. And I'm happy to report that despite coming out well over twenty years ago, this is one Mario game that's well worth revisiting over and over again! It's well structured and well paced with improved graphics and gameplay, and also significantly truer to the franchise than its immediate predecessor. And in my humble opinion, it's the definitive Gameboy-era Mario.

While Mario is away, a new nemesis called Wario, a sort-of evil version of the heroic plumber, takes over the castle at the heart of the magical Mushroom Kingdom and seals it shut, making entry impossible. Taking a cue from the 16-bit 1990 release "Super Mario World", the game follows Mario as he travels around an over-world map to six different "levels", each comprised of several stages to conquer. And only be conquering the six areas and attaining six magical golden coins, one of which is concealed within each level, will Mario be able to enter the castle and face off against this new threat.

As I mentioned above, the game is very much an attempt at emulating the style and structure of the home-console release "Super Mario World." And I do think for the most part, it succeeds. While it was never going to be quite as big or quite as pretty a game, "Super Mario Land 2" does an admirable job at closely approximating the concepts first introduced in "World", and even expanding on them slightly. It has a great variety of locales to explore, including levels based around Space, the Halloween holiday, Water and even a giant mechanical clockwork version of Mario himself. And this helps the game retain a freshness that I found lacking in the previous title. It also has some nice fan- service and call-backs to previous games, helping it feel more in- line with the franchise at large. And I definitely appreciated the fact that the game has a save feature, because on top of all that- it's also quite a bit longer than the last game!

In terms of gameplay, this is classic Mario in every way, and it thankfully even fixes some of the issues with control and hit detection that plagued the first entry in the "Mario Land" series as well! Everything is tight and concise and well-programmed, and the game flows beautifully in virtually every stage. I also found that on the whole, the level design, while linear, is very well-accomplished and there are plenty of secrets to look for through the six levels that add a lot of replay-value. In addition, the game gets a major aesthetic face-lift in terms of graphics and sound. Despite being limited by the Gameboy's black-and-white screen, character and enemy sprites are larger and more detailed, and the backgrounds are a lot more lush this time, which is a big plus. I also really loved the music and sound effects, which hearken back a lot more to the original trilogy of games seen on the NES.

All-in-all, "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins" is just fantastic. It takes the classic formula and reworks it perfectly for an on-the- go experience, and improves over the first entry in virtually every capacity. While it might not be the best Mario game in terms of the franchise, this is easily the definitive Gameboy-era Mario, and it's up there with the best of the best. And so, I give it a perfect 10 out of 10! If you haven't played it, it's definitely one to check out!

When it comes to the Gameboy, It's far less powerful and less memory than the Nes or Snes, so instantly I saw a speed issue here where it feels twice as slow as a regular Mario game. However once you get used to that, it's not that bad of a new version of Super Mario World.

This time around Mario is not taking on King Kooper to rescue the princess, he's collecting 6 coins to enter Warios castle to defeat him. No Yoshi tho.

You take on a map of various zones and complete about 4 stages in each zone to face a boss and collect one of the 6 coins.

It's very short, I managed to complete the game in about an hour or so. It's not all that challenging, but it's not that bad.

This time around Mario can get the usual power ups, plus a bunny ears thing to fly that's a little different to the Cape or feather of Mario 3 and 4.

I found the music to be a bit annoying, I'll be surprised if it was Koji Kondo who scored this game. If not, it needed him.

Overall, had I owned this back in the day, it mightve been repayable having a limited choice of games owned, but by today's standards there's nothing really to urge me to play again. Tho a remastered version in 3D would be cool. Who knows, we might see an enhanced version of this one day? Perhaps a Gameboy version of the Mario Collection made into an All-Stars type of thing with modern graphics?