Super Mario Land | Cheerful Ghost

The Gaming Historian Takes A Look At The Mario Land Trilogy

I've only recently discovered The Gaming Historians channel and wanted to share one of his new videos covering the Super Mario Land trilogy on Gameboy. Starting with the offbeat Super Mario Land the Mario Land trilogy is unique and nothing Nintendo has quite replicated recently. I'd love a new take on these old games with the strange mechanics and new characters as Wario was first introduced in Mario Land Six Golden Coins and later featured as the protagonist in his own game.

"The Super Mario Land series was Nintendo's attempt at bringing the Super Mario franchise to the Game Boy. But it was also the first time Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto would not be involved.... Read All

Hyperkin is Releasing It's Own Version of The Classic Gameboy!

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Gizmodo is reporting from CES that Hyperkin is showing off prototype for an upcoming Gameboy it will be releasing. From the article:

"The Ultra Game Boy’s housing is made from aluminum, which has a wonderful heft when you pick it up. Your original Game Boy is probably covered in knicks and scratches, but it will take a lot of abuse for Hyperkin’s remake to start showing wear and tear. The Ultra Game Boy carries over the original’s volume and contrast dials, but the final version will include a third dial allowing you to adjust the portable console’s new backlit LCD display through the entire RGB spectrum. That backlight can also be turned off, if you want a truly... Read All

Super Mario Land Is One Of The Strangest Mario Games

jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Recently I went to the Portland Retro Games Expo & Northwest Classic Games Enthusiasts Retro Game Swap Meet. It was a pretty special time as this was the first full fledged video game event I took my son Finley to. He's seven months old and I had him attached to me in a baby carrier the whole time, but i'd like to think he was impressed with all the old retro games and systems. The swap meet was fun and I didn't have as much time as I wanted to due to heading in a bit late because earlier we were at the Portland Women's March. That said, I arrived in the events final hour which was enough time to check out each table and pickup a few games that i've wanted for... Read All Recently I went to the Portland Retro Games Expo & Northwest Classic Games Enthusiasts Retro Game Swap Meet. It was a pretty special time as this was the first full fledged video game event I took my son Finley to. He's seven months old and I had him attached to me in a baby carrier the whole time, but i'd like to think he was impressed with all the old retro games and systems. The swap meet was fun and I didn't have as much time as I wanted to due to heading in a bit late because earlier we were at the Portland Women's March. That said, I arrived in the events final hour which was enough time to check out each table and pickup a few games that i've wanted for some time.

I picked up NBA Jam on Sega, Super Mario Land on Gameboy and a box for New Super Mario Land DS to put my game pak inside so I can set it next to the other DS games I own.

Super Mario Land Is a Strange Mario Game

Super Mario Land was one of the launch titles when the Gameboy hit the market in 1989. I remember it fondly because my brother bought a Gameboy and Super Mario Land was one of the first games he had. If you are familiar with Mario games, Super Mario Land is very similar but contains some strange elements that haven't been repeated in modern Mario games. First off the traditional fire Mario super ability is replaced with a super ball variant. Mario shoots the superball and if it doesn't hit an enemy it bounces off walls until it hits an enemy or gives out. This allows you to collect coins in hard to reach areas and occasionally you can bounce a shot to hit a bad guy but most of the time it's just weird. I like that they tried something different and it's possible the super ball power was easier to program back then but I prefer the traditional fire flower power as it's easier to rely on and time the shots of.

Super Mario Land contains the same tight platforming of nearly any Mario game except, at times, I missed certain jumps by falling through a platform. It's rare but since i've never seen it in a Mario game, when I happened I was surprised. Again, I imagine this is due to the early nature of this Gameboy title and it's lack of horsepower even compared to the NES but it's something I noticed.

Super Mario Land keeps up the strangeness in that it also contains auto scrolling levels. You can control Mario in a Submarine and Airplane and beyond the levels being a bit easy they are also pretty fun. Auto-scrollers aren't something you see in a Mario game and having them here is so odd it feels like some kind of extra bonus game.

Even though Super Mario Land contains some gameplay elements not seen in any other Mario game the strangest part of all is the story written in the game manual.

"Once upon a time, there was a peaceful world called Sarasaland. In this world there were 4 kingdoms named Birabuto, Muda, Easton and Chai. One day, the skies of Sarasaland were suddenly covered by a huge black cloud. From a crack in this cloud, the unknown space monster Tatanga emerged to try to conquer Sarasaland. Tatanga hypnotized the people of all the kingdoms so that he could control them in any way he liked. In this way he took over Sarasaland. Now, he wants to marry Princess Daisy of Sarasaland and make her his queen. Mario came to know of these events, and he has started on a journey to the Chai Kingdom where Princess Daisy is held captive, in order to restore peace to Sarasaland. Can Mario defeat Tatanga, release people from his interstellar hypnosis, and rescue Princess Daisy? It's all up to you and Mario's skill. Go for it Mario!"

I picked up the Super Mario Land game manual at this years Portland Retro Game Expo and laughed as I read the games backstory. At the time I did wonder why Bowser and Princess Peach weren't in the game but I figured Mario went on other adventures and maybe this happened while Mario was on vacation? The story seems so arbitrary and whipped up it borders on parody but as someone that loves campy stuff, I also love it.

Super Mario Land is a really unique entry in the Mario-verse and one I don't mind coming back to. I think my most beloved Mario games are some of the strangest and i'd put Super Mario Land up there with Mario 2 as some of the ones I enjoy coming back to reliving over again.

Does Super Mario Land On Gameboy Hold Up?

When the Gameboy came out Super Mario Land was one of the more interesting launch titles. Being able to play a Mario game anywhere you wanted was an incredible prospect and Super Mario Land delivered. Even at the time I thought Super Mario Land was a bit basic but it was fun and I enjoyed playing it. Later Mario games brought more to the table and games like Metroid 2 and Link's Awakening showed that the Gameboy was capable of having an incredible library. GaminTank is a YouTuber I hadn't heard of before I saw this video but its well worth watching.

Cygnus Destroyer Reviews Gameboy Classic Super Mario Land

No one really talks about Super Mario Land anymore but I really enjoyed playing this classic on my Gameboy. When my brother got a Gameboy the first two games we had were Tetris and Super Mario Land so I spent much time playing them both. I did find the graphics of Super Mario Land a bit less than what I enjoyed in Super Mario Brothers but really liked the levels and gameplay. This game was pretty hard for me as a kid and I never actually completed it like I did the other Mario games.

That said Super Mario Land and the other Gameboy titles are really impressive considering the Gameboy had a 4 mhz CPU, 8k of system RAM and an 8k graphics chip.