Sûpâ Mario Rando

"Super Mario Land", the original entry in the "Mario Land" saga (which paved way for the more popular, and arguably much more fun "Wario Land" series) was one of Mario's first major adventures on Nintendo's hand-held "Gameboy" system. The game is very true to the nature of earlier titles, and at times, it almost feels like a slightly modified port of the original "Super Mario Bros." for the NES. You play as Mario (of course) who must save Princess Daisy (a different princess than "Peach" Toadstool, Daisy was later sort-of ret-conned into being Luigi's love interest after she was used in the live-action film) from various dastardly enemies.

The presentation is halfway decent. Characters are a bit too blocky, especially considering that only a few short years later, "Super Mario Land 2" presented a vastly improved style almost on par with "Super Mario World" for the Super Nintendo. Backgrounds are nice and fairly detailed though, and enemies are halfway decent looking. The music is nice and catchy, but there are no familiar Mario tunes! It was really irritating that none of the iconic themes were used, and in fact, some of the music is actually a digital cover of classical "Can-can" kind of music.

There isn't much story (Mario must save the princess, that's the whole story), but Mario has never been about the story, so I can forgive this.

I suppose there are two main reasons for the lower score, though, and they are very irritating during gameplay. The first reason is that the controls feel quite loose, and it's hard to get the platforming down good- I constantly find myself overshooting or undershooting jumps, or missing my targets by mere millimeters. It is especially frustrating when there are enemies around, as you will often try to jump on top of them (which kills them), only to accidentally jump in front of them and get killed by them instantly. It also doesn't help that the hit- detection is very glitch-y. You will often get killed by an enemy before they even touch you, or will die if you don't hit them perfectly, 100% dead-on- the other games in the series are nowhere near this nit- picky about it, here you will die a lot of times for almost no reason. More than once, I've landed on top of an enemy perfectly, and it kills me. I've also accidentally run into an enemy head-on, which should have killed me, yet it killed the enemy. Awful hit detection.

The other problem with the game is the bizarre difficulty. Level-to- level, the difficulty will ramp up or completely go away. It's a very uneven game. Also, the game does a lot of unfair things, like re- spawning you right in front of a pit when you die (which I guarantee will cause a lot of gamers to scream- they immediately come back to life only to fall down a pit because they weren't expecting it to be right there), or throwing a TON of fast-moving enemies at you when you don't have anywhere to go to avoid them. Be prepared for a lot of frustration!

This is a very average Mario game. Which, to be honest, means it's a very weak Mario game. (As they are generally near-perfect platform games) I gotta give this a disappointing but playable 6 out of 10. Don't expect much from this one.

Had I owned this back in the day, it mightve seemed more fun, but playing it today out of curiosity, it's not really much of a great entry in the Mario series.

The problem probably lies within it being created by the guy who designed the gameboy and the Metroid series. It just doesn't play or really look the way a Mario game should be. It has worse sprites than the NES here and you can really see and feel the difference between this and its Nintendo made sequel.

I've already mentioned the sprites don't look right. Even in larger mushroom form, the Mario brothers just look weird. Like small bodies and large heads. It is interesting tho that it's added a plane and submarine in certain levels, giving a new type of experience in a Mario game, however there are far better versions of that type of game out there.

Something also interesting is it introduces Daisy to rescue, instead of Princess Peach. The character then went on to appear in the Movie flop of 1993, leaving the impression for many fans that Daisy is Luigis girlfriend, tho I don't think that's ever been officially confirmed in the games series.

I found too many things rather annoying about this game, not just the sprites, but the mechanics of the game. Quite often it's annoying to position Mario/Luigi right to enter pipes, but worse is when trying to land on a platform and either slipping through the edge and dying or sliding off completely. Really annoying that.

It's a pretty short game too, I think it was only 4 worlds? 4 stages each? I'm not sure, but very short for a Mario game, even a Gameboy one.

Being 2023, I played a coloured version of the game, which did improve it a bit from the original black and white/green. However it still has all the cons and in my opinion one of the least favourable Mario games of them all.

I'd recommend Mario Land 2, but not this one. Not to any casual gamers anyway, if you're a Mario buff or just curious to play it, yeah, go for it. But if you've never played it, you're not missing out on a must-try experience here. There are much better Mario games out there actually created by the original Mario makers.

Super Mario Land was Nintendo's first attempt at bringing Mario to the handheld world, and for a Game Boy launch title, it's surprisingly ambitious. While it's far from perfect, it manages to carve out a unique identity, even with its limitations.

Chapter 1: Shrunk Down but Still Mario

The basics are familiar-run, jump, collect coins-but everything here feels just a little... off. Mario moves faster, jumps a bit differently, and the physics don't quite match the console versions. The art style is simplified due to the Game Boy's hardware, but it works well enough, and the soundtrack-especially the main theme-is catchy and memorable despite the bleeps and bloops.

Chapter 2: Offbeat Worlds and Weird Enemies

What really sets Super Mario Land apart is how different it feels. Instead of Bowser, you're fighting aliens and sphinxes. The settings go from Egypt to underwater to shooting sections in a submarine-and yes, that was unexpected in a Mario game. It's weird, but in a fun way. The inclusion of shoot-'em-up style levels was bold and helped the game feel fresh, even if short.

Chapter 3: Too Short, But Still Sweet

The biggest drawback is the length. You can beat Super Mario Land in under an hour, and there's not much reason to replay beyond nostalgia or score-chasing. It also lacks power-ups we now associate with Mario, like the Fire Flower or cape. But for what it is-a Game Boy launch game-it punches above its weight.

Final Thoughts

It's not the most refined Mario, but it's certainly one of the most unique. Super Mario Land is a charming, quirky little game that showed Mario could survive outside the living room-and that's a big deal.

7/10 - Short, strange, and kind of wonderful. An oddball handheld debut that still holds up in its own way.

Super Mario Bros. is one of the most famous video games of all time! The characters, the jumping, the power-ups, and the sure thrill of adventure makes this entire series a fun non-stop playing time! Below is a brief look how I think the game is!

Game Play: The game play is very good. There is really basic controls here and is easy to perform. Novice gamers should have a good time here!

Graphics: The graphics are wonderful especially for a Gameboy game back then. The backgrounds are really beautiful!

Difficulty: The game is easy but as it goes on you''s find out that it will become more difficult!

Music: The music is great! Just fantastic catchy tunes through out the game! In My opinion its some of the best music ever in a video game!

Sound: The sound is great. Nuff said!

Overall: I have always loved Super Mario Brothers! If you like excellent adventure games then I strongly recommend you play this game!

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Super Mario Land I remember from childhood but never got to play it until getting an copy myself.

While it is easy to get a little upset about it as you would be used to playing Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo Entertainment System with the controller being simple.

The Gameboy did it fairness to making the game feel like the NES edition.

The game graphics are not impressive and it Hurts the game as i know this is a gameboy game but come on they could have made Mario look like Mario and the enemies as well. The graphics are not as good as the game boy could have done better.

The sound is also very weak and don't give you the same vibe as the other games of Super Mario Bros. It is such a letdown.

The game play at least makes up for it. It felt like playing the game as it should be.

Overall Super Mario Land is not a bad game but it could be better.

I give Super Mario Land an 7 out of 10.