Super Mario Land
A portable Mario adventure with shooting stages and Princess Daisy.
Super Mario Land, a 1989 platformer from Nintendo, launched alongside the Game Boy as one of its first four games. It marked the Super Mario series' debut on a handheld and was the first mainline title without Shigeru Miyamoto's direct design. The game introduced Princess Daisy and the kingdom of Sarasaland, ultimately selling over 25 million copies worldwide.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Nintendo R&D1
- Publisher
- Nintendo
- Series
- Super Mario
- Platforms
- Game Boy
- Genre
- Platform
- Modes
- Single-player
- Director
- Satoru Okada
- Producer
- Gunpei Yokoi
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Super Mario Land is a side-scrolling platform game similar to the original Super Mario Bros. The player controls Mario, moving to the right through levels while jumping to avoid enemies and pitfalls; the screen scrolls only forward and cannot be revisited. The story involves Mario traveling to Sarasaland to rescue Princess Daisy from the alien Tatanga. Two of the twelve levels are forced-scrolling shooter stages where Mario pilots a submarine or airplane, firing projectiles at enemies and bosses. Levels end with a platforming challenge to reach an alternative exit above the regular one, leading to a bonus minigame styled after a Ghost Leg lottery that awards extra lives or a Superball Flower power-up. Unlike other Mario games, Super Mario Land is set in Sarasaland with line-art visuals, and features several differences: Koopa Troopa shells explode after a delay, Mario throws black bouncing Superballs instead of fireballs, 1-Up power-ups appear as hearts, and level-end flagpoles are replaced by platforming challenges. The game has twelve levels divided into four worlds of three levels each, with five unique bosses—one per world and a final boss, Tatanga. The first three bosses can be bypassed without destruction, but the final level requires defeating both bosses with projectiles to complete the game.
Development and release
Development of Super Mario Land began in the second half of 1988 and lasted six to nine months, handled by Nintendo R&D1. Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted a fun game featuring Mario to promote the Game Boy, and the task went to the team led by Gunpei Yokoi, who had created the Game & Watch series and worked on Donkey Kong. Yokoi served as producer, while Satoru Okada directed; both had previously developed Metroid and Kid Icarus and designed the Game Boy. Super Mario Land was planned as the Game Boy's pack-in title until Henk Rogers brought Tetris to Nintendo of America and convinced Minoru Arakawa that Tetris would reach a broader audience, leading to Tetris being bundled with the console instead. The game launched alongside the Game Boy in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America on August 1, 1989, and in Europe in September 1990. It was re-released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on June 6, 2011, with an increased size and an optional shades-of-green color palette, and on the Nintendo Classics service for Nintendo Switch on May 15, 2024.
Reception
Critics generally viewed Super Mario Land as a smaller, shorter version of Super Mario Bros., but were excited to have a portable Mario game. Paul Rand of Computer and Video Games called it an arcade machine in your pocket with remarkable graphics for their size. French magazine Player One said it adequately compromised where necessary for portability. Electronic Gaming Monthly's Steve Harris found it fantastic and very fun to play, though short; Ed Semrad and Donn Nauert declared it easily the best Game Boy cart of the time. Famitsu reviewers considered it the best of the first Game Boy games, though some found the graphics blurry and less appealing than Famicom Mario games due to monochrome. Tony Mott of Superplay said it proved the Game Boy had playability to match competitors, and Matt Regan of Mean Machines agreed. Mean Machines and The Games Machine noted many secrets to find. Player One complimented the music and called the game a masterpiece and the pinnacle of portable gaming. IGN's Lucas Thomas noted the protagonist, enemies, and overall game were shorter, and expressed concern about eyestrain in rereleases. Levi Buchanan thought the game made no compromises in size reduction. Complex's Gus Turner described the graphics as simple, and Official Nintendo Magazine said it was ridiculously short. Eurogamer reported it could be finished in under an hour. AllGame's Brett Alan Weiss found it easy to beat despite no save points, with graphics too small even for a Game Boy title, but gameplay fittingly super.
Legacy
Super Mario Land began a series of portable Mario games, with Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins adding a non-linear overworld and introducing the villain Wario, and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 starting the Wario franchise. The 2011 game Super Mario 3D Land for the Nintendo 3DS became Mario's first stereoscopic 3D game. The Superball Flower appears in Super Mario Maker 2 as an unlockable power-up usable only in the Super Mario Bros. style. The game is remembered for its miniaturized Super Mario elements and twists on series mainstays, though many of its new elements did not recur, making it a singular oddball according to IGN's Lucas Thomas. IGN's Marc Nix retrospectively called it the only uninspired Mario game, with funky voids of white and UFOs instead of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mean Machines was put off by the alien theme, easy difficulty, and dot matrix screen blur, and later said it was not a true Mario game and not really a classic. Glen Fox of Nintendo Life agreed that while an impressive achievement at the time, it did not age as well as other Mario games.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who designed Super Mario Land?
Super Mario Land was designed by Hirofumi Matsuoka.
Who composed the music for Super Mario Land?
The music for Super Mario Land was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka.
More in Platformers of the 1980s
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